Google is adding a Digital Ink Recognition API for both Android and iOS to allow developers to create apps where stylus and touch act as primary inputs.
In June, in the realm of machine learning, the company announced updates to its ML Kit’s APIs, which are built for tackling common challenges in the Vision and Natural Language domains. Now its adding the Digital Ink Recognition API into the same mix.
Digital Ink Recognition
The aim is for the Digital Ink Recognition API to enable recognising handwritten text on a digital surface in numerous languages.
Basically, it makes it possible to process writing on the screen – by stylus or finger – instead of typing on a virtual keyboard. Potentially, this lets users draw characters that are not available on their keyboard. The API can also transcribe handwritten notes and recognise hand‑drawn shapes and emoji, says Google.
Note that it works with the strokes the user draws on the screen. If you need to read text from images taken with the camera, Google says you should use the Text Recognition API instead.
User input
Mircea Trăichioiu, Google’s Software Engineer for Handwriting Recognition writes:
With the new Digital Ink Recognition API, developers can now use this technology in their apps as well, for everything from letting users input text and figures with a finger or stylus to transcribing handwritten notes to make them searchable; all in near real time and entirely on-device.
Digital Ink Recognition API runs on-device and does not require a network connection. However, you must download one or more models before you can use a recognizer. Models are downloaded on demand and are around 20MB in size. Refer to the model download documentation for more information.
Source: electronicsweekly
