README.Unistrokes

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This file describes a development version of a Unistrokes recognizer for

the Newton computer.





Description

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This program was written to test the feasibility of Unistroke recognition

on the current generation of Newton PDAs and to collect data on the

perfomance of the Newton in stroke collection and recognition.  It

has no other intended utility.  Read the Caveats section.



Unistrokes is a writing system developed at Xerox PARC specifically for 

stylus based computers.  For Postscript versions of the paper and lists

of strokes ftp to ftp.parc.xerox.com, look in /pub/unistrokes.





Screen Layout

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The screen layout of this program from top to bottom has the following

elements:



++ Title:

-- The name of the application "Unistrokes".



++ Recognized text:

-- A text field which accumulates characters recognized within the 

"Recognition rectangle".  If a stroke is detected but not recognized either 

a '*' or '#' will be placed (which one depends on internal details of recognizer).



++ Recognition rectangle:

-- The area in which to make a unistroke for recognition.  The unistroke

needs to be made entirely within this rectangle.



++ Shift button:

-- Tapping this button will cause the next character recognized to be capitalized.



++ "Analog Clock"



++ Info button:

-- Tapping this button displays a popup with "About" to bring up the splash

screen and "Text -> Notepad" to move recognized text into the notepad.



++ "Close box":

-- Closes application.



Caveats:

--------



* Not well tested.



* Truncates strokes taking longer than 1.5 seconds.  Sometimes will recognize

  them, but unlikely for complex strokes.



* Sometimes misses on quick strokes, especially small ones.  Try an 'X'

  with a small, quickly drawn loop - it sometimes sees a 'V'.



* Should be compiled with NTK 1.5.1, which might allow better algorithms

for handling quick strokes, but I haven't bought that yet.



* Only the author's strokes have been seen.



* Only tested on Newton MP 110.



* No doubt other problems exist.





Legal stuff

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This program is Copyright ) 1994, 1995 by James Thiele. It may be distributed

freely as long as the program is unmodified and is accompanied by this

README file.



Because there are too many lawyers in the world, I add the following

statement:



This program is made available without any claim that it is suitable for

any use.  The author's liability is limited to what was charged for it

which was nothing.  It works OK on my MessagePad 100 running the 1.3 OS,

but I am not making any other statements of other systems it could or

should run on.





Author

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You can let the author know what you think of this prgram by contacting him 

at:



James Thiele

jet@eskimo.com

http://www.eskimo.com/~jet/

JET1@aol.com (checked rarely)



8217 5th Ave NE, #303

Seattle, WA  98115



(Addresses valid as of 14 August 1995)