Patent Document ID: 5544260
Application ID: 08274074

Base Claim:
1. A method of training a handwriting recognition system to recognize handwritten characters of a particular user, comprising: (a) storing electrical representations of a plurality of prototype characters in a memory; (b) entering a string of user-generated handwritten characters on an electronic digitizing tablet; (c) generating an electrical representation of the string of handwritten characters; (d) comparing the electrical representation of the user generated string of characters with the representations of the prototype characters stored in memory; (e) displaying on the digitizing tablet, for each user generated handwritten character, a corresponding character, the corresponding character being a prototype character whose electrical representation most closely resembles the electrical representation of the particular user-generated handwritten character; (f) entering on the digitizing tablet, for each incorrectly recognized user-input character, a user-generated handwritten correction character; (g) comparing an electrical representation of the user generated handwritten correction character with the representations of the prototype characters stored in memory, excluding the electrical representation of the incorrectly returned character; (h) displaying on the digitizing tablet, for each correction character, a corresponding correction character, the corresponding correction character of a particular user-generated handwritten correction character being a prototype character whose electrical representation most closely resembles the electrical representation of the particular user-generated handwritten correction character; (i) repeating steps (f) through (h) if the corresponding correction character does not match the user generated correction character; (j) comparing the electrical representation of the misrecognized user generated handwritten character and the user generated correction character and determining whether they resemble one another within a predetermined threshold and: if so, retraining the system to recognize the misrecognized user generated character and the user generated correction character as the corresponding correction character; if not, retraining the system to recognize the user generated correction character as the corresponding correction character.

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Claim 3:
3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the user generated handwritten characters is mapped to its corresponding character, and wherein an electrical representation of the mapping is stored in system memory.