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Stylus and Handwriting Recognition Coming to Android Tablets

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As most Tablet PC users know, a proper stylus and handwriting recognition are invaluable. A proper inking experience has been lacking on the latest generation of tablet devices, including the iPad. That might change in the near future as N-Trig is partnering with HTC (see the HTC Flyer) and others to provide an inking experience similar to what’s found on some Tablet PCs.

Our friend Joanna Stern from Engadget filmed a demo of an NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype with an N-Trig digitizer built in. As you can see in the video, the scheme looks a lot like Windows own handwriting setup. Some apps will be optimized for handwriting, while others will require a pop up that resembles Windows’ TIP when you tap on a text-entry field.

Of course, a stylus and digitizer aren’t much good without proper apps. Adobe Journal is an app that lets users sketch and draw objects. PicSay Pro is an app that lets you write on photos and insert cartoon-like dialogue bubbles. Vision Objects looks to be the most useful of the bunch and is the one in the video that looks like a yellow note pad.

Again….where’s Microsoft?

18 Comments

18 Comments

  1. Bigmouth

    02/16/2011 at 6:28 pm

    What about using the stylus in apps that already allow you to draw using capacitive styluses and fingers? Will that be possible? Also, is Adobe working on an android version of Acrobat that allows you to mark up pdfs?

    • jan

      07/24/2012 at 1:43 pm

      Acrobat can do that now! it save the pdf with the writing all over it

  2. Bigmouth

    02/16/2011 at 6:28 pm

    What about using the stylus in apps that already allow you to draw using capacitive styluses and fingers? Will that be possible? Also, is Adobe working on an android version of Acrobat that allows you to mark up pdfs?

  3. Henrique Saraiva

    02/16/2011 at 6:36 pm

    This is very dangerous, Microsoft. Sure, you still have OneNote, but what will happen when Android gets a good version of Evernote?
    Can’t wait to see what the future holds, be it Kno or Android.

  4. quillaja

    02/16/2011 at 8:22 pm

    This is without a doubt the most exciting news I’ve seen on GBM for a few years. Please stay on top of this story!

  5. Tatej

    02/16/2011 at 9:39 pm

    If this turns out to be true, I will buy the first 7 inch or larger android tablet that allows me to ink.

  6. Tatej

    02/16/2011 at 9:39 pm

    If this turns out to be true, I will buy the first 7 inch or larger android tablet that allows me to ink.

  7. Dennisvjames

    02/18/2011 at 2:09 am

    None of this looks decent. Honestly I don’t care about handwriting recognition using OneNote. Windows 7 does a fair job of rendering…but show me someone who gets seven straight words converted correctly at speed and I’ll show you someone who practices hours a day :-).

    • Shashank

      04/19/2011 at 8:16 am

      I have been using a TabletPC (Windows XP with SP3) for over 3 years now and the hand-writing recognizer works beautifully on it. I get almost 100% accuracy in recognition even when I write at a high speed and I never had to train it for my hand-writing. I am really glad that stylus input is coming into main-stream android devices, like HTC Flyer, and as a software developer I have great hopes that hand-writing will be one of the best forms of input.

  8. xyzmo

    02/18/2011 at 8:22 pm

    We at https://www.xyzmo.com are now bringing our digital signature solution to the Android platform (as well as to iPad and Windows Mobile). The only hurdle left today for capturing signatures with a smartphone or tablet is the fact that signing with a finger on a smartphone definitely changes the signature graph. (Long fingernails make it even more challenging.) The quality of the captured signature is much better using a traditional signature pad with a pen. Even in scenarios where sales agents use their own smartphone to capture the customer’s signature, made possible by equipping these sales agents with special pens, those pens do not have sufficient quality, as you correctly pointed out.

    If HTC and others were to provide an inking experience on Android similar to tablet PCs then this could greatly enhance the user experience!

  9. VuLN

    02/21/2011 at 2:52 am

    Oh thanks, i appriciate that!

  10. Anonymous

    02/28/2011 at 7:51 pm

    This tablet looks really cool. I really like that it changes your hand writing to the stock font. Since it is using Android it will go great with DISH Remote Access. That is the reason I want to get a tablet is so I can use this app and my Sling Adapter on it. I work at DISH and have been using DRA since it came out. With DRA and my Sling Adapter I can stream live content anywhere I have a 3g or WiFi connection. If you travel a lot this app is a must have.

  11. Faizan

    04/09/2011 at 2:15 am

    I wish HP TM2T can have android operating system in it as well.

  12. Sidharth

    06/24/2011 at 5:36 am

    The HTC Flyer supports a stylus and is now selling in the market…. !

  13. Kongwu000

    08/25/2011 at 2:13 am

    I have bought a HTC flyer and a stylus pen, but do you know of any application for handwriting recognition for the flyer?

    thanks

    • Danisemenise

      09/13/2011 at 4:11 pm

      Hey..any luck with your app hunting for the HTC? interested to know your experience with the flyer interms of the stylus usage and notes taking….thanks…

  14. Joey Nuggetz

    10/18/2011 at 5:57 am

    This looks pretty useless unless the screen supports different levels of sensitivity. Unless that’s handled thru the stylus somehow?

  15. AppJunky

    05/09/2012 at 1:15 pm

    Still waiting for this to be done properly so I can put my new stylus to use that I bought from https://www.stylusshop.us :)

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