Method and apparatus for using pressure information for improved computer controlled handwriting recognition data entry and user authentication

Abstract

A method and system utilizing both coordinate stroke data and associated pressure information for improved handwriting recognition. The method and system can also be applied to all types of handwriting-based data entry applications and also to user authentication. The digitizer pad used in the computer system gives both spatial information and associated pressure data when a stroke is being drawn thereon, e.g., by a stylus. Pressure information can be used to differentiate between different character sets and can also be used to adjust any display attribute, such as character font size, font selection, color, italic, bold, underline, shadow, language, etc.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of presenting attribute selection for an object in an application resident on a portable computer, said method comprising the steps of:
 accessing spatial stroke data and pressure data captured by a digitizer of said portable computer;   storing said spatial stroke data and pressure data into a computer memory;   determining an object attribute according to said pressure data; and   presenting a representation of said object attribute on a display screen of said portable computer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said object attribute is a character set attribute. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said object attribute is a visual attribute. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2  wherein said object attribute is a character size. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2  wherein said object attribute is a character font. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3  wherein said object attribute is a stroke width.