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An Answer to “Who Needs a Stylus?” on Handwriting Recognition on Mobile Devices

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E-Business and Telecommunications (ICETE 2011)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 314))

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Abstract

”Who needs a stylus?” asked the late Steve Jobs during his introduction of the iPhone. Interestingly, just at this time, Apple had made a patent application in handwriting and input recognition via pen, and Google and Nokia followed. So, “who needs a stylus then?” According to our experience in projects with mobile devices in the “real-world” we noticed that handwriting is still an issue, e.g. in the medical domain. Medical professionals are very accustomed to use a pen, whereas touch devices are rather used by non-medical professionals and definitely preferred by elderly people. During our projects on mobile devices, we noticed that both handwriting and touch has certain advantages and disadvantages, but that both are of equal importance. So to concretely answer “Who needs a stylus?” we can answer: Medical professionals for example. And this is definitely a large group of users.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Documentation, Research Unit HCI4MED, Medical University Graz, A-8036, Graz, Austria

    Andreas Holzinger & Gig Searle

  2. Softnet Austria, A-8010, Graz, Austria

    Bernhard Peischl

  3. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, SI-2000, Maribor, Slovenia

    Matjaz Debevc

Authors
  1. Andreas Holzinger
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  2. Gig Searle
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  3. Bernhard Peischl
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  4. Matjaz Debevc
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Monmouth University, 07764, West Long Branch, NJ, U.S.A.

    Mohammad S. Obaidat

  2. University of Seville, C/S. Fernando, 4, C.P. 41004, Sevilla, Spain

    José L. Sevillano

  3. Departament of Systems and Informatics, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal – INSTICC, Rua do Vale de Chaves - Estefanilha, 2910-761, Setúbal, Portugal

    Joaquim Filipe

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Holzinger, A., Searle, G., Peischl, B., Debevc, M. (2012). An Answer to “Who Needs a Stylus?” on Handwriting Recognition on Mobile Devices. In: Obaidat, M.S., Sevillano, J.L., Filipe, J. (eds) E-Business and Telecommunications. ICETE 2011. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 314. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35755-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35755-8_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-35754-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35755-8

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