Filed under: OS, Video, Found Footage
Found Footage: Visual comparison of InkWell to Vista's handwriting recognition
The above video is a visual comparison of OS X's InkWell to Microsoft's handwriting recognition built into Vista. By using a Silverlight application he's able to send the pen strokes from a Mac to a remote Windows server. So he basically tries to write the same thing with each system.The author of the video seems to prefer Vista's offering, especially when writing in cursive, but grants that others may feel differently. He's also summarized his impressions. In any case, it's interesting to see the two systems side by side. Have any of you used both systems? Do you think this is a fair test? If you install Silverlight you can do the demo yourself here.
[via jkOnTheRun]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hawkman said 8:16PM on 9-10-2007
Obviously it's very subjective - for the pen strokes for instance, he's not using the same conditions ("write anywhere" is on for the Mac test, which seems to create separate canvases for writing on, but it's a fixed canvas for the Windows test). Also - what's up with his handwriting?! I bet I could get better results on both systems. :-)
It would make sense if the Windows recognition is better, really, as it's important in shipping Microsoft products, whereas there's no shipping device requiring this functionality in Mac OS X.
Reply
Reg Muffet said 8:35PM on 9-10-2007
Both systems seem a bit of a wash to me.
Clearly this is a chief reason the Tablet PC concept has a very narrow focus - using checkbox programs in vertical markets.
Text input via handwriting is difficult enough even sitting down with a good quality Wacom, let alone perched on a Starbucks table on a frictionless screen (writing feels better on paper because of the friction).
QWERTY keyboards will be with us for some time to come, and even though it's mostly a myth it was invented to slow typists down (it was actually to stop the hammers of frequently chorded letters crossmingling on mechanical typewriters and proved the most efficient layout of the day amongst numerous competitors) very few people are slower on a keyboard than writing longhand.
Reply
Brian K said 9:34PM on 9-10-2007
WHY WOULD YOU WRITE WORDS OUT OF ORDER?!
This guy is an idiot.
Reply
LorenHeiny said 9:58PM on 9-10-2007
@3, having a recognizer that is able to recognize strokes "out of order" is quite powerful. I didn't show it here, but it enables you to make corrections by overwriting letters out of order. That's quite useful when you're writing fast and need to make a quick edit. Example: You're currently handwriting the second of two words and then you realize that you didn't cross a letter T in the first word. If stroke order is used primarily then the recognizer will probably see the correction stroke as something that belongs to the second word or even a separate third word. Using spatial relationships can avoid this misrecognition.
Similarly, a recognizer that can handle spatial relationships is quite useful when processing blocks of handwritten text such as bullet lists or even mutli-stroke shapes.
Maybe I should put together a demo that compares more complex handwriting samples.
Reply
Bryan Law said 10:04PM on 9-10-2007
I think they both were fairly decent. I wouldn't really say one was better than the other. I, personally, think that a good ol' qwerty keyboard is the best way to interface with a computer :D
Reply
Joseph said 10:10PM on 9-10-2007
Well let me say this!
I built an iTablet a while ago and have been using a PC Tablet now for years
So I think I have some experience
Is it a fair comparison
Not really
The Input Panel in Vista really is very good
Pen input is integrated into to the OS
inkWell has always been somewhat of on after thought for Apple
inkWell does work and you can use a pen as input for most of your doings
I had used it for a number of years and it does work! (I didn't write any novels but did all of my correspondence with it)
So from my experience
I still would rather use OS X with inkWell rather than Vista
Reply
Joe said 8:13AM on 9-11-2007
This would really interesting if it were a 3-way comparison, Inkwell, Vista and the 10-year-old Messagepad (Newton). I've used both Inkwell and Newton, and I've tried out the handwriting in Vista. Vista is definitely better than Inkwell, but in my opinion the Newton was better than both.
It's important to note that what we have in Mac OS X is *not* the same as what was in Newton. Inkwell specifically does not support cursive, as can be seen in this demo, but the Newton really excelled at recognizing cursive especially after it had learned your writing (I'm not sure that Inkwell can learn).
Reply
Will said 11:20AM on 9-11-2007
I have a wacom graphire, and I use it for ink once in a while when I don't feel like typing. The handwriting recognition sucks. Random letters get capitalized, words have spaces in the middle sometimes, and most of my a's come up as x's. Also, it's a royal pain to delete a long word with the tablet unless you're working in the ink pad, because the delete gesture can only do one character at a time.
I've used newtons and had better luck, which is amusing because everyone says they died because of terrible handwriting recognition.
Reply
Luke Moloney said 8:51PM on 9-11-2007
Pretty fair comparison, maybe even a little to nice on OS X. I have used a Vista Tablet before, it works very well, much better then Mac OS X (with a tablet) but then again, it was the same laptop that reminded me why I converted to Mac.
If we get an Apple Tablet, something I want, then they better fix it up the software first.
Reply
Ty Dibble said 11:10PM on 9-11-2007
Thanks for the great work! Very helpful to see how they work.
Reply
Ty Dibble said 11:10PM on 9-11-2007
Thanks for the great work! Very helpful to see how they work.
Reply