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FreePad: a novel handwriting-based text input for pen and touch interfaces

The last decade has seen tremendous growth in mobile devices such as Pocket PCs, mobile phones, Tablet PCs and notebooks. Most of these devices enable interaction through a stylus or touch interface, powered by handwriting recognition (HWR) capability. In this paper, we propose a novel input method that addresses some of the issues that arise due to the constraints posed by these devices in accepting handwriting input. For instance, many of the devices have a small writing area making "continuous" input difficult if not impossible, and the process of handwriting input demands significant user attention. The proposed solution is inspired by touch-typing, and appreciably reduces user's effort in the interaction, and it is especially suited for very small writing areas. The approach has been demonstrated using a prototype system that recognizes handwritten English words, and its accuracy has been evaluated using a standard dataset of handwritten words. A preliminary user study has also been carried out to understand user acceptance of the proposed technique.