Handwritten Messaging Techniques for presenting handwritten messages on mobile devices with small displays

Since the market for short text messaging, picture messaging and mobile phone signals is increasing rapidly, Anoto AB has an interest in finding and promoting mobile applications which can profit from the simplicity of the digital pen. Displaying handwritten input as it was written is an interesting alternative to keying and sending text messages using the small keyboards of mobile phones. The objective has been to find solutions which will work on the mobile devices commonly available on the market, or projected to appear in the next one to three years. The thesis work covers the invention, design, prototyping and evaluation of several different viewing techniques for presenting handwriting on small displays. Of the evaluated viewing techniques, vertical scrolling of segmented handwritten text and animation of segmented handwritten text were found to be the two most suitable for handwritten messaging. The main reason for choosing these two viewing techniques was because they can be efficiently implemented for use with a large percentage of mobile devices available over the next one to three years. The two viewing techniques have been implemented for use with mobile devices supporting either WAP browsing or MMS. Vertical scrolling of segmented handwritten text was implemented as auto generated WML pages with new message indication based on SMS. Animation of segmented handwritten text was implemented using MMS messaging technology. The two implemented viewing techniques were found to present readable handwritten text at speeds between 100 and 150 words per minute. The handwritten words were each an average of 6 characters long, covering an area of approximately 1 cm 2 containing 500 pixels. A usability test showed that the users had a slight preference for the viewing technique vertical scrolling of segmented handwritten text when compared to animation of segmented handwritten text.