Sanyo Pen-Based Prototype Runs UNIX

Sanyo Electric Co. in Japan is testing the waters with an 80386-based stylus system running under UNIX. The Sanyo system accepts handwritten input of Japanese characters at an average speed of two characters/second, correcting and re-displaying the characters in the process.

The current prototype can recognize over 2000 Kata Kana, Kanji, and alphanumeric characters. Commercial products based on the prototype aren’t expected for at least a couple of years.

Note that Sanyo demonstrated at Fall Comdex ’91 a 386SX system with 5 Mbyte of RAM, 40 Mbyte hard disk, one 3.5-inch floppy, and a PCMCIA slot. This system is slated for availability in third-quarter, 1992, for about $4000.