Patent ID: 7515752

Claim:
A computer implementing a method of enhancing a sketch drawn by a user in an electrical document on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of: collecting stroke data from one or more strokes of a sketch as a user draws the sketch, the sketch including one or more non-linguistic-character shapes, the stroke data including time-based information and features of each stroke; handling the strokes based on the time-based information; analysing the strokes based on the strokes handled based on the time-based information, wherein the analysing step comprises the steps of: comparing the features of one or more strokes with data of known shapes stored in a data store and identifying any known shapes; and analysing any unknown strokes that are not identified as a known shape by determining any high-curvature point on each unknown stroke, segmenting the unknown stroke at the high-curvature point; and determining if each segment of the unknown stroke is linear or curved; and enhancing the sketch based on results of the analysis, wherein the enhancing step comprising the steps of: replacing the identified known shapes in place of relevant strokes; enhancing each segment of the unknown stroke as a line when it is determined linear; and enhancing each segment of the unknown stroke as a curve when it is determined curved.