On-line recognition of hand-generated symbols

With the growth of information processing systems incorporating large data bases, many situations arise in which the data to be entered is a human's analysis of a problem. Often it will be undesirable to require the user to learn to type, and this mode can be cumbersome for random two-dimensional entry on a form or drawing. Using an electronic tablet coupled to a display tube would make it convenient for the user to point to a correct answer or print it in a very natural way. This paper describes a new technique for converting these hand written symbols to code words which can subsequently be processed by a computer.