Nov. 5, 2011 - Google Research has demonstrated a new way to read handwriting using artificial intelligence called InkSight The system is capable of extracting digital text directly from images of handwritten text without any intermediary devices.
Traditional handwritten text recognition techniques rely heavily on optical character recognition (OCR), but this approach tends to perform poorly when dealing with handwritten text on complex backgrounds, in ambiguous or low-light conditions.InkSight takes a different line of thinking, and by mimicking the process by which humans learn to read, theThat is, learning the appearance and meaning of whole words by constantly rewriting the textThis requires researchers to train AI models to recognize and mimic human handwriting styles. This requires researchers to train AI models to recognize and mimic human handwriting styles.
InkSight performs better when dealing with complex scenarios, such as recognizing handwritten text more accurately when the photo is dimly lit, the text is partially obscured, or the background is distracting. The researchers found thatHumans are able to read InkSight-generated text tracings with an accuracy of up to 87%, two-thirds of these tracings turned out to be virtually indistinguishable from real handwriting.
The InkSight has huge potential for people who like to write by hand. Imagine simply taking a photo of your handwritten notes and instantly converting them into searchable digital text. For those with scribbles, InkSight can turn illegible handwriting into clear, accurate printed text.
From a broader perspective, this technology is important for deciphering and converting centuries-old handwritten texts into digital form. Even for less digitized languages, InkSight can help preserve the handwriting heritage and provide additional resources for digital training in these languages.
Googleisn't the only company working on handwriting recognition AI tools. Amazon's Kindle Scribe e-reader also features the ability to convert handwritten notes into readable text. In addition, digital note-taking apps such as Goodnotes have also introduced handwriting recognition and editing features that convert handwritten text into editable digital text.