Google Handwrite • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Handwrite

#41

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:30 PM UTC

pragmatic wrote: post #21

Note: This doesn't seem to work on an Opera mobile browser. Seems to work ok in the default android browser.

[deleted]

Re: Google Handwrite

#42

Post by swombat » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:38 PM UTC

TechCrunch appears to be mostly unreadable on the iPad, thanks to their fancy template reloading/redirecting... Smart.

Re: Google Handwrite

#43

Post by jonknee » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:39 PM UTC

In case anyone is interested, I watched the network requests go by to see how it works. Google is doing the detection server side (no surprise there, but it was smooth enough that I had to check) and receives the drawing area (writing_area_width, writing_area_height), the "ink" which is an array of points and any already existing characters in the search field. The return data is the best guesses for the input. Curious that multiple options are returned, I'm not sure how those are used. Another AJAX request is made for Google Instant.

Re: Google Handwrite

#44

Post by abraham » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:44 PM UTC

agscala wrote: post #7

Basically google wants more data to improve their handwriting recognition for something else down the line. Smart move

Not for something down the line though, for the current Drive search indexing.

https://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ans... https://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ans...

Re: Google Handwrite

#45

Post by Splines » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:45 PM UTC

ramanujam wrote: post #15

Draw a heart and it'll spell it out. Nice!

It also handles diacritics too, which is handy.

Re: Google Handwrite

#46

Post by eavc » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:46 PM UTC

jenius wrote: post #4

Sometimes opening a keyboard and typing is just too efficient. Sometimes you need a technology that will slow your life down and make it more prone to errors. Google handwrite: why type when you can awkwardly scribble?

I can see handwriting on a small space being faster than typing on a small space if the technology for recognition were good enough.

Re: Google Handwrite

#47

Post by dredmorbius » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:51 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #42

TechCrunch appears to be mostly unreadable on the iPad, thanks to their fancy template reloading/redirecting... Smart.

Mostly unreadable on many platforms, along with their affiliate sites, especially with JS disabled.

Re: Google Handwrite

#48

Post by dredmorbius » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:53 PM UTC

As anyone who mastered PalmOS's grafitti can attest, sometimes writing on a PDA / smartphone is a lot more usable than typing, especially on a soft keyboard.

Input remains the weak point to many or most of these devices.

Re: Google Handwrite

#49

Post by wasd » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:01 PM UTC

I wasn't able to the setting pages on Chrome while I was signed in. Am I blind or was this a UI oversight?

Re: Google Handwrite

#50

Post by dannyr » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 10:21 PM UTC

mikek wrote: post #29

mikek wrote: post #25

I wonder if, like (800) GOOG-411, the primary reason Google is doing this is to gather data.

Why am I being downvoted for this?

I guess people think it's a snarky remark.

My guess is you read Steven Levy's book (or at least an excerpt).

I read it so I get what you're talking about.