Pencept, Inc. was one of a small number of pioneering companies in the 1980s developing and marketing technology known as

pen computing Pen computing refers to any computer user-interface using a pen or Stylus (computing), stylus and tablet, over input devices such as a keyboard or a mouse. Pen computing is also used to refer to the usage of mobile devices such as tablet computers ...

. Pencept was noted primarily for the robustness (for the time) of the handwriting and gesture recognition algorithms, and for an emphasis on developing novel

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

approaches for employing

gesture recognition Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. It is a subdiscipline of computer vision. Gestures can originate from any bodily motion or sta ...

and

handwriting recognition Handwriting recognition (HWR), also known as handwritten text recognition (HTR), is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other dev ...

that would work with existing applications hardware and software. Pencept employed a proprietary technology for on-line character recognition, based on a functional attribute model of human reading. Thus, unlike many other recognition algorithms employed for

, the recognition was generally user-independent and did not involve training to a user's particular writing style. Early products included the PenPad 200 handwriting-only

computer terminal A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal and ...

that was a direct replacement for the VT-100 and other standard ANSI 3.62 terminals, but with a

digitizing tablet A graphics tablet (also known as a digitizer, digital graphic tablet, pen tablet, drawing tablet, external drawing pad or digital art board) is a computer input device that enables a user to hand-draw images, animations and graphics, with a spec ...

and electronic pen and no keyboard. With the advent of the IBM

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

, later products, such as the PenPad 320 focused particularly graphics and CAD/CAM applications for the DOS operating system, as well as for data entry and data editing applications. The Pencept systems were featured in demonstrations at the 1983 and 1985 CHI conferences. A video showing parts of the 1985 demonstration at the CHI 85 conference is available from the Open-Video.org on-line collection.

References

{{reflist

External links

Annotated bibliography of references to handwriting recognition and pen computing

Notes on the History of Pen-based Computing (YouTube)
Computer companies established in 1980 Defunct computer companies of the United States

See also

References

External links