An Interactive Mathematical Handwriting Recognizer for the Pocket PC
Bo Wan, Stephen M. Watt · 2002
Handwriting is the primary input method for hand-held computers because they are too small physically to have keyboards. To investigate the requirements for upcoming computer algebra systems on handheld computers, we designed and implemented an application for recognizing on-line handwritten mathematical expressions on the pocket PC. The objective was to translate handwriting mathematical expressions into corresponding presentation MathML, which can be understood by computer algebra systems. This application consists of three components: 1) a handwriting recognizer for recognizing individual mathematical symbols, 2) a structural analyzer for interpreting and maintaining the relationship between symbols of the expression, and 3) a generator for generating MathML code. Currently it is able to recognize simple expressions including polynomial equations, fractions, trigonometric functions, allowing nested structures. This application could serve as a bridge for mathematical users to interact with the computer algebra systems on hand-held computers.