New Handwriting System from Lexicus Motorola Simplifies Interactive TV
DALLAS — May 8, 1995 — Lexicus, a division of Motorola, demonstrated at Cable '95 today a simplified way for consumers to control tomorrow's complex interactive TV systems with simple pen-driven handwriting recognition technology. By reducing the complexity of interactive TV use, the Lexicus system could greatly ease consumer acceptance of this technology when it is widely deployed in coming years.
''Lexicus may have achieved an important breakthrough here. I think interactive TV applications will work only if the user's interaction with the system is as easy — and nearly as unconscious — as picking up the phone and dialing a number or jotting down a note on a post-it,'' said Mike McGuire, an analyst at Dataquest.
Using a simple pen-and-tablet interface linked to the TV set-top box, Lexicus executives showed how viewers could answer questions during a prototype interactive TV quiz show. The Lexicus TV interface recognizes either print or cursive handwriting — or a combination of the two — and functions well despite occasional misspellings and the sloppiness common to natural handwriting. Based on Lexicus Motorola's patented neural network technology, the system is ''writer independent'' — i.e., it recognizes any user's handwriting style — and requires absolutely no training to use.
''The implications of this system go far beyond game show use,'' noted Lexicus Motorola's General Manager, Ronjon Nag. ''Now, instead of having to scroll through the endless menu schemes of current interactive TV systems, viewers can simply write in what they want — John Wayne for a list of John Wayne movies, for example, or Land's End and swimsuits to see what sort of beachwear the catalog firm is offering home shopping viewers.''
Also demonstrated at Cable '95 was Professor Longhand(TM), an interactive TV application that helps students improve their cursive handwriting skills. The program is one of several educational applications for interactive television that Lexicus Motorola has designed to teach language and writing skills.
The Lexicus TV interface is one of the exciting new technologies developed by Lexicus Motorola that enable ordinary consumers to control today's increasingly complex technologies with the simple communications tools they've used since childhood, such as writing and speech. The company believes such ''natural interfaces'' will prove critical to the mass market acceptance and success of new digital products and services.
Said Elton B. Sherwin, Lexicus Motorola's Director of Marketing (and formerly the manager of IBM's speech recognition strategy): ''History shows that new technologies tend to be adopted widely in society only when people can use them with the skills and tools already at their disposal. Our handwriting recognition technology, unlike some others, does not require people to learn a new alphabet, or write as slowly as a first grader. Our systems are designed for real-world use by real people.''
Earlier this year, the company released its Lexicus Longhand(TM) handwriting recognition software for the Windows for Pen operating system. Like the Lexicus interactive TV interface demonstrated at Cable '95 today, Lexicus Longhand(TM) is based on neural network technology, a mathematical modeling and pattern recognition technique that mimics the behavior of the human brain, and translates any user's natural handwriting into typed text.
Aimed initially at developers of application software for medical, sales and other specialized fields, Lexicus Longhand(TM) will be released to the general public later this year.
Founded in 1922 by some of the world's leading scholars and researchers in the field of ''natural interfaces,'' Lexicus was acquired by Motorola in 1993. The company develops and markets a range of products for computing and communications markets around the world.
For more information on Lexicus or its products, please contact Ralph Silver at Ralph Silver Associates in San Francisco at (415) 563-4159.
CONTACT:
Ralph Silver Associates, San Francisco
Ralph Silver, 415/563-4159