Abstract: A handwriting apparatus has unit for acquiring first-handwriting data, storage unit for storing one-stroke-handwriting data and a first command as an instruction. The instruction corresponds to the one-stroke-handwriting data. When the first-handwriting data corresponds to the one stroke, a unit executes the first command when the corresponding first command is searched from the storage unit, a unit stores one-stroke-handwriting data and a second command as an instruction that corresponds to the one-stroke-handwriting data. The second command is different from the first command, and searches the storage unit for the second command corresponding to the one-stroke-handwriting data. There is a unit, when the corresponding second command is searched out from the storage unit, to execute the corresponding second command.

Abstract: Methods, devices and systems are described for transcribing text from artifacts to electronic files. A computer system is provided, wherein the computer system comprises a computer-readable storage device. An image of the artifact is received wherein text is present on the artifact. A first portion of the text is analyzed. Characters representing the first portion of the text are identified at a first confidence level equal to or greater than a threshold confidence level. The characters representing the first portion of the text are stored. A second portion of the text appearing on the artifact is analyzed. A plurality of candidates to represent the second portion of the text are identified at a second confidence level below the threshold confidence level. Finally, the plurality of candidates to a user for selection are presented.

Abstract: A computerized method of recognizing an input hand-drawn table formed by freeform line objects comprises transforming each freeform line object of the table into one of a vertical line segment and a horizontal line segment, generating a grid system based on the vertical and horizontal line segments and converting the generated grid system into a table object.

Abstract: A method and system for recognizing a character affected by a noise or an obstruction is disclosed. After receiving an image with characters, a character being affected by a noise or an obstruction is determined. Then, areas in the character where the noise or obstruction affected are precisely located. Templates representing every possible character in the image are updated by removing equivalent areas to the areas in the character being affected by the noise or obstruction. Then, the character is classified in a template among the updated templates by finding the template having the highest number of matching pixels with the character.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and device for implementing original handwriting trace, and an electronic device. The method comprises: continuously sampling handwriting trace in time order, and detecting location information and the actual stroke widths at the sampling points; for every two adjacent sampling points, determining the former point as the starting sampling point, determining the latter point as the ending sampling point, using a line connecting the two points as the center line of the stroke between the two sampling points, obtaining location information of and the corresponding longitudinal stroke width at each point on the center line, and determining, according to the location information of and the corresponding longitudinal stroke width at each point on the center line, the fill gray value of each pixel in the stroke; and filling, according to the fill gray values, the corresponding pixels, and displaying the pixels.

Abstract: An image combining apparatus includes a control section which acquires first position information identifying a figure on a first medium from an electronic pen by using the first medium where a pattern for the electronic pen to detect an electronic pen tip position is combined with a background of a image list, identifies an image from the position information by referring to information associating each image with a position on the first medium, further acquires second position information identifying a figure on a second medium from the electronic pen by using the second medium on which the pattern is formed, and identifies an image combining area from the first and second position information, and then associates the image combining area with the image; and an image processing section creating a combined image by combining the image combining area with the image associated with the image combining area.

Abstract: A handwriting recognition system is described that includes a language model with scoring to improve recognition accuracy, such as for words outside of a selected language model. The handwriting recognition system increases the accuracy of handwriting recognizers that perform segmentation of ink into atomic elements (segments) and then classify each ink segment separately. After segmentation, a shape classifier estimates the class (letter) probabilities for each segment of ink by producing a corresponding score. The system applies the language model scoring to the shape classification results and typically selects the class with the highest score as the recognition result. Because the language model is not too restrictive, it works well for recognizing any word, even those that would not be in a dictionary for the current language. Thus, the handwriting recognition system produces better recognition results and can often recognize words that dictionary-based language models would not recognize correctly.

Abstract: In an aspect, a method includes the actions of displaying, at a touch-sensitive display, a plurality of characters that each represent a distinct consonant included in a language script; receiving, at the touch-sensitive display, a touch selection of a first character from the plurality of characters, the touch selection being received at a location on the touch-sensitive display at which the first character is displayed; and in response to receiving the touch selection: detecting a gesture input, selecting a vowel marker based at least in part on an association of the gesture input with one or more vowel markers; and displaying, at the touch-sensitive display, an updated representation of the first character based at least in part on the selected vowel marker. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for unlocking a mobile device using pattern recognition are provided. The apparatus includes a touch sensor unit sensing a predetermined pattern touch-input to a liquid crystal display (LCD) unit, a pattern recognition unit recognizing information about the input pattern sensed by the touch sensor unit, a pattern comparison unit comparing information about the input pattern recognized by the pattern recognition unit with information about a predetermined pattern set by a user, and a controller controlling supply of power to the LCD unit to enable the user to use the mobile device if the input pattern and the predetermined pattern are equal to each other as compared by the pattern comparison unit.

Abstract: Up and down directions of an image are to be precisely judged without a special equipment installed in an image pickup device. An object candidate detecting means detects object candidates from an input image and their angles in the input image. A similarity calculation means calculate the degree of similarity between each detected object candidate and each object stored in advance. An input image angle calculating means judges up and down directions of the input image based on the calculated similarity of each object candidate and the angle of the input image. The input image angle calculating means carries out weighting for the angle of each object candidate in the input image based on its similarity and calculates slant angles with respect to the up and down directions of the input image by using the weighted angles.

Abstract: A method and system for preprocessing an image, wherein the image includes a plurality of columns, or regions, of text is disclosed. A plurality of components associated with the text is determined. On determining the plurality of components, a line height and a column spacing is determined for the components. The components are then associated with a column based on the line height and the column spacing. A set of characteristic parameters are calculated for each column and the plurality of components of each column are merged based on the characteristic parameters to form sub-words and words. A first plurality of words and/or subwords is merged and processed as a first region and a second plurality of words and/or subwords is merged and processed as a second region wherein at least a portion of the second region vertically overlaps at least a portion of the first region.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus supports image processing in multiple languages via a user interface, a determining unit, a setting unit, and a character recognizing unit. The user interface sets an instruction from a user for various functions performed by the image processing apparatus. The user interface displays characters in a language. The determining unit automatically determines the language currently used for the characters displayed in the user interface of the various functions. The setting unit sets, in response to the determining unit automatically determining the language currently used for the characters displayed in the user interface, the determined language as a scanned document language for use in recognizing characters in a scanned document which is obtained by scanning a paper document. The character recognizing unit utilizes the scanned document language set by the setting unit to recognize characters in the scanned document and create text data.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for capturing a signature, and placing a representation of the captured signature in an appropriate field of a document. A camera or other appropriate sensor can capture an image of a signature provided by a user on a piece of paper. The signature can be digitized to create a representation that a device may use in a displayed document. To determine where to place the representation, a horizontal line of a document can be identified by selectively rendering portions of the document adjacent to an input position, and identifying one or more boundaries for a detected horizontal line. The representation can be scaled to fit in a detected field of the document.

Abstract: A method for searching for an input symbol string, includes receiving (B) an input symbol string, proceeding (C) in a trie data structure to a calculation point indicated by the next symbol, calculating (D) distances at the calculation point, selecting (E) repeatedly the next branch to follow (C) to the next calculation point to repeat the calculation (D). After the calculation (G), selecting the symbol string having the shortest distance to the input symbol string on the basis of the performed calculations. To minimize the number of calculations, not only the distances are calculated (D) at the calculation points, but also the smallest possible length difference corresponding to each distance, and on the basis of each distance and corresponding length difference a reference value is calculated, and the branch is selected (E) in such a manner that next the routine proceeds from the calculation point producing the lowest reference value.

Abstract: A mobile terminal including a wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other terminal; a display configured to display a first screen layer corresponding to one of a back screen of the mobile terminal and an execution screen of an application installed on the mobile terminal, and to display a second screen layer corresponding to a note function of the mobile terminal; and a controller configured to control the display to selectively display the second screen layer based on an input request for requesting the second screen layer, to receive a touch input on the first or second screen layers and to execute a function corresponding to the received touch input on the first or second screen layers.

Abstract: Provided herein is a method and apparatus for more effectively and accurately inputting a character string through a gesture input, and the apparatus for inputting a character string associated with an embodiment of the present invention may include a keypad for inputting a gesture generated by touch motion; a memory configured to store at least one of a gesture, character string information corresponding to the gesture, and a gesture input from the keypad; a controller configured to identify a character string corresponding to the gesture input from the keypad to extract a character string corresponding to the identified character string or including the identified character string among the character strings previously stored in the memory; and a display unit configured to display the extracted character string under a control of the controller.

Abstract: Determination of an underlying grid structure that facilitates layout of East Asian text is disclosed. The underlying grid structure includes both a size of character frames and a size of a text block frame. The East Asian text may be obtained from a scan of printed material that has the text formatted according to layout conventions established by the publisher. The text may be reformatted to appear on a display of an electronic device in a manner similar to the formatting in the original scanned document. Reformatting may include reflowing the text in order to fit a greater or lesser number of characters on a line. The reflowing may maintain character spacing from the original document and follow formatting rules against locating certain characters at the start or end of a line.

Abstract: Techniques for identifying documents sharing common underlying structures in a large collection of documents and processing the documents using the identified structures are disclosed. Images of the document collection are processed to detect occurrences of a predetermined set of image features that are common or similar among forms. The images are then indexed in an image index based on the detected image features. A graph of nodes is built. Nodes in the graph represent images and are connected to nodes representing similar document images by edges. Documents sharing common underlying structures are identified by gathering strongly inter-connected nodes in the graph. The identified documents are processed based at least in part on the resulting clusters.

Abstract: A wordspotting system and method are disclosed. The method includes receiving a keyword and, for each of a set of typographical fonts, synthesizing a word image based on the keyword. A keyword model is trained based on the synthesized word images and the respective weights for each of the set of typographical fonts. Using the trained keyword model, handwritten word images of a collection of handwritten word images which match the keyword are identified. The weights allow a large set of fonts to be considered, with the weights indicating the relative relevance of each font for modeling a set of handwritten word images.

Abstract: An input-handwriting automatic transformation system capable of automatically transforming handwriting input to a font most similar to the input handwriting, the system including a recognizing unit recognizing handwriting input via an input pad; an extracting unit extracting a font most similar to the input handwriting from fonts stored in a memory; and a transforming unit comparing the font extracted by the extracting unit and the input handwriting and automatically transforming the extracted font to be most similar to the input handwriting.

Abstract: An information recognition system includes: a display section displaying an image on a display surface at a predetermined display resolution; an image combining section combining a character entry guide with the image, the character entry guide assisting handwritten input to the display surface; an information detecting section detecting handwritten input information at a detection resolution which is higher than the display resolution, the handwritten input information input to the display surface according to the character entry guide; and a character recognizing section performing character recognition based on the information detected at the detection resolution.

Abstract: A system for recognizing handwriting. A handwritten character is captured as an image of black pixels and white pixels. The image is partitioned into segments, each of which having a pixel ratio of a total number of black pixels in the segment to a total number of black pixels in the image. A reference character has segments corresponding to the image segments. Each reference character segment has a value range of a pixel ratio of a total number of black pixels in the segment of the reference character to a total number of black pixels in the reference character. It is ascertained that the pixel ratio of more than a predetermined number of segments in the image are within the value range of the pixel ratio of the corresponding segments of the reference character, from which, the handwritten character is recognized as the reference character.

Abstract: A method of producing a personalized data file includes the steps of providing a message comprising at least one word to a person present at a site on a network and specifying a first data file, and producing a personalized data file by digitally combining the first data file and the message. The message is prepared by the person to whom the message was provided prior to being digitally combined with the first data file.

Abstract: A method and computer program product for recognizing handwriting. A handwritten character is captured as an image of black pixels and white pixels. The image is partitioned into segments, each of which having a pixel ratio of a total number of black pixels in the segment to a total number of black pixels in the image. A reference character has segments corresponding to the image segments. Each reference character segment has a value range of a pixel ratio of a total number of black pixels in the segment of the reference character to a total number of black pixels in the reference character. It is ascertained that the pixel ratio of more than a predetermined number of segments in the image are within the value range of the pixel ratio of the corresponding segments of the reference character, from which, the handwritten character is recognized as the reference character.

Abstract: A method and system utilizing both (x, y) coordinate (“spatial”) 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, e.g., upper case and lower case characters for certain alphabetic characters. The spatial stroke data then identifies the particular character. The pressure information can also be used to adjust any display attribute, such as character font size, font selection, color, italic, bold, underline, shadow, language, etc. The associated pressure information can also be used for recognizing a signature. In this case, a user is allowed to sign a name on the digitizer pad.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus that allows easy and reliable extraction of a hand-written image and allowing reliable execution of a desired process on image data based on the hand-written image is provided. For this purpose, during a mark adding process, a scanner unit and an image processing unit form YMCK data based on an original image; a specific area extracting unit extracts image data of a specific area from the YMCK data; a mark image adding unit combines image data of the specific area with the mark image data to form combined data; and a printer unit outputs a first image based on the combined data. During image processing of the specific area, the scanner unit forms RGB data based on the first image; the mark area extracting unit extracts image data of the mark area from the RGB data; the specific area image processing unit performs prescribed image processing on the image data of mark area; and the printer unit outputs a second image based on the YMCK data after the prescribed image processing.

Abstract: A method for automatically recognizing Arabic text includes digitizing a line of Arabic characters to form a two-dimensional array of pixels each associated with a pixel value, wherein the pixel value is expressed in a binary number, dividing the line of the Arabic characters into a plurality of line images, defining a plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images, wherein each of the plurality of cells comprises a group of adjacent pixels, serializing pixel values of pixels in each of the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images to form a binary cell number, forming a text feature vector according to binary cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images, and feeding the text feature vector into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize the line of Arabic characters.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a pattern recognition method includes calculating similarities of the input pattern with respect to respective categories, converting the calculated similarities of the input pattern with respect to the respective categories into first evaluation values based on a first table which indicates a relationship between similarities for respective categories and first evaluation values, calculating second evaluation values based on the calculated first evaluation values for the respective categories and prior probabilities for the respective categories stored in a second table indicating prior probabilities of the respective categories, and selecting a category corresponding to a maximum value of the calculated second evaluation values.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for applying a signature simplicity analysis for improving the accuracy of signature validation, the method including the steps of generating a plurality of synthetic fraudulent signatures for a person, encoding authentic signatures of the person using signature simplicity and validating the signatures using signature simplicity.

Abstract: The system and method as described herein can be advantageously used in a plurality of scenarios, two of which include field markup and data collection and collaborative review. The system and method handles the allocation of digital paper pattern background and the creation of required page definition files embedded into digital paper enabled PDFs. Optionally, action palettes can be automatically overlaid on the drawings as legend boxes to enable field personnel to select the operations they want to perform on the digital paper as they would on a computer interface. For instance letting users select the types of callouts and clouds to add to their markup. These drawings can be printed or plotted onto paper and sent to a work site for markup.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus is provided and includes: a memory that stores discrimination information and a setting value group associated with the discrimination information, the setting value group including a plurality of first setting values for carrying out processing and; a setting unit that sets second setting values needed for image processing, in which a portion of the first setting values in the setting value group associated with the discrimination information is set as at least a portion of the second setting values; and a processing unit that carries out image processing according to the second setting values.

Abstract: A method of inputting a series of characters into an electronic device comprising a display, the method comprising: detecting a first input associated with a first one of a plurality of discrete areas of the display for entering characters on the display; and recognizing the first input in the first one of the plurality of discrete areas as a first character input while a second one of the plurality of discrete areas is operable to detect a second input for recognition as a second character input, the recognition of the second character input occurring separately to the recognition of the first character input.

Abstract: In a pen-based computing system, multi-modal data is transferred between a paper domain and a digital domain. Data initially generated in the paper domain is captured by a smart pen and a digital file including the captured data is generated. For example, a computing system coupled to the smart pen generates a digital file including the captured data. A paper representation of the digital file is subsequently generated. The digital file can subsequently be modified by editing the paper representation of the digital file using the smart pen. Edits to the paper representation of the digital file are captured by the smart pen and converted to the digital domain where they are used to edit the content of the digital file.

Abstract: A method and device is provided for recognizing characters in a handwritten input representing an input character string. A character sub-string preceding an unrecognized character in the input character string is determined. Handwriting recognition is used to provide one or more candidate characters for the unrecognized character. One of the one or more candidate characters is then selected. The candidate character selected, is the one which is most likely to be a correct recognition of the unrecognized character based on the determined character sub-string.

Abstract: A digital signature system includes an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) server and a portable terminal communicating with the EDI server. The portable terminal includes a touch-sensitive display, and a processing unit includes a receiving module configured for receiving a file from the EDI server, a signature mode control module configured for providing a signature file mode for users to select, a signature file creating module configured for recording signature input through the touch-sensitive display and creating a signature file to record the input signature if the signature file mode is selected, and a file combining module configured for combining the signature file and the file from the EDI server into a composite signature file. A related method is also provided.

Abstract: A method for automatically recognizing Arabic text includes digitizing a line of Arabic characters to form a two-dimensional array of pixels each associated with a pixel value, wherein the pixel value is expressed in a binary number, dividing the line of the Arabic characters into a plurality of line images, defining a plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images, wherein each of the plurality of cells comprises a group of adjacent pixels, serializing pixel values of pixels in each of the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images to form a binary cell number, forming a text feature vector according to binary cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images, and feeding the text feature vector into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize the line of Arabic characters.

Abstract: A system for modifying a classification scheme for classifying hand-written characters. The system includes a memory storing the classification scheme containing a plurality of user dependent allographs, each allograph representing a respective style of a respective letter; and a processor configured for: receiving data representing a handwritten character; selecting an allograph representing the handwritten character; modifying the allograph in accordance with the selection; and storing a modified classification scheme which includes the modified allograph.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for recognizing cursive and non-cursive handwriting. The invention comprises capturing a handwritten character as an image of pixels, partition the image into a plurality of segments each having a pixel ratio of the number of pixels in the segment divided by the total number of pixels in the image, and compare the pixel ratio for each segment to a value range associated with a corresponding segment of a reference character. The handwritten character is recognized as the reference character if more than a predetermined number of the segments in the image have the pixel ratios within the respective value ranges of the reference character.

Abstract: Techniques described herein may recognize handwritten characters that are written at least partially over the top of one another that are input to a computing device. The handwritten characters may be formed of one or more strokes. A user may write characters or parts of words over approximately the same area of graphical user interface (i.e., on top of each other) without having to wait for a timeout between character input and without having to select a button or provide another input indicating the character is complete before entering input for another character. Once a character is at least partially recognized, a graphical indication corresponding to the user input displayed on a screen may be altered. Such alterations may include fading or changing size or location of the graphical indication.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for determining whether text within an image includes unwanted data, utilizing a matrix. In operation, a matrix corresponding to an image is generated. Additionally, text within the image is identified utilizing the matrix. Furthermore, it is determined whether the text includes unwanted data.

Abstract: In a pen-based computing system, a microphone on the smart pen device records audio to produce audio data and a gesture capture system on the smart pen device records writing gestures to produce writing gesture data. Both the audio data and the writing gesture data include a time component. The audio data and writing gesture data are combined or synchronized according to their time components to create audio ink data. The audio ink data can be uploaded to a computer system attached to the smart pen device and displayed to a user through a user interface. The user makes a selection in the user interface to play the audio ink data, and the audio ink data is played back by animated the captured writing gestures and playing the recorded audio in synchronization.

Abstract: A handwriting compound system is provided. The system includes a handwriting recognition module that receives a proper number of letters from a user, detects a distance between phonemes/syllables, and shapes and locations of the phonemes/syllables, and recognizes the user's handwriting. The system also includes a point designating module, a reference point setting module and a handwriting transforming module. The point designating module designates a particular one of the subdivided positions in each phoneme recognized by the handwriting recognition module. The reference point setting module sets a reference point, serving as reference for the alteration of a phoneme/syllable, inside or outside the user's input phoneme/syllable recognized by the handwriting recognition module. The handwriting transforming module designates x and y coordinates of a first point with respect to the reference point.

Abstract: A method of compressing a sequence of strokes input at an input device of a processing system is provided in which each stroke input at the input device is represented as a series of digital words representing x and y co-ordinates, and a co-ordinate is expressed as an offset from a preceding co-ordinate by combining a residual error value and an estimate calculated from the previous m co-ordinates using the formula: a ~ n = ? i = 1 m ? c i ? ? n - i where ci are coefficients selected to model characteristics of the input strokes, and ? represents either an x or a y co-ordinate.

Abstract: A word spotting system includes a semi-continuous hidden Markov model configured to model a handwritten word of interest. A writing segments extractor is configured to extract writing segments generally comprising images of handwritten character strings from a received document image. A word model adaptation processor is configured to adjust a shared pool of Gaussians of the semi-continuous hidden Markov model respective to the extracted writing segments. A modeler is configured to model extracted writing segments using the semi-continuous hidden Markov model with the adjusted shared pool of Gaussians to identify whether each modeled writing segment matches the handwritten word of interest.

Abstract: Embodiments include an apparatus, device, method, and computer program product. In an embodiment, a device includes a handheld writing device that includes a writing element, and a writing detector module operable to generate information indicative of a handwriting movement of the writing element. The device also includes a context detector module operable to generate information indicative of a content portion of a document proximate to the handwriting movement of the writing element.

Abstract: A wordspotting system and method are disclosed for processing candidate word images extracted from handwritten documents. In response to a user inputting a selected query string, such as a word to be searched in one or more of the handwritten documents, the system automatically generates at least one computer-generated image based on the query string in a selected font or fonts. A model is trained on the computer-generated image(s) and is thereafter used in the scoring the candidate handwritten word images. The candidate or candidates with the highest scores and/or documents containing them can be presented to the user, tagged, or otherwise processed differently from other candidate word images/documents.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve handwriting recognition operations. Handwritten input is received in training mode and run through several base recognizers to generate several alternate lists. The alternate lists are unioned together into a combined alternate list. If the correct result is in the combined list, each correct/incorrect alternate pair is used to generate training patterns. The weights associated with the alternate pairs are stored. At runtime, the combined alternate list is generated just as training time. The trained comparator-net can be used to compare any two alternates in the combined list. A template matching base recognizer is used with one or more neural network base recognizers to improve recognition operations. The system provides comparator-net and reorder-net processes trained on print and cursive data, and ones that have been trained on cursive-only data. The respective comparator-net and reorder-net processes are used accordingly.

Abstract: A measurement apparatus (100), which measures the relative position and orientation of an image-capturing apparatus (50) capturing images of one or more measurement objects (10) with respect to the measurement object, acquires a captured image using the image-capturing apparatus (50). Moreover, the respective geometric features present in a 3D model of the measurement object (10) are projected onto the captured image based on the position and orientation of the image-capturing apparatus (50), thereby obtaining projection geometric features. Projection geometric features to be used in calculation of the position and orientation are then selected from the resultant projection geometric features based on distances between the projection geometric features in the captured image.

Abstract: The device includes: bearing element (55) for the lens (100); element (53) for acquiring a global image (90) of the drill hole (110) of the lens (100) in a lighting direction (D51, A52), or image acquisition direction (A53); element (54) for processing the image when the lens is carried by the carrier element (55). The processing element (54) designed for determining, from the global image of the drill hole (110) the position of center (C1) of the opening of the drill hole (110) that gives onto one of the faces (98) of the lens (100) and/or the transverse dimension of the opening of the drill hole (110) that corresponds to the desired transverse dimension (D).

Abstract: Described is a technology that provides an integrated platform for users to use different kinds of digital ink (e.g., handwritten characters, sketched shapes, handwritten formulas) when interacting with computer programs. The platform interprets the user's digital ink input and outputs one or more associated items into an application program. The output items can be customized for different application programs. In one aspect, the platform includes an ink panel having different operating modes for receiving digital ink, and a recognition service that recognizes different types of digital ink. The recognition service may include a unified recognizer that recognizes different types of digital ink, e.g., characters and shapes. Another recognizer may be included such as an equation recognizer. If the recognition result is text while in a non-text mode, the text may be used in a keyword search to locate items; otherwise, the recognition result may be used without keyword searching.