Palm Kills Off Graffiti

Great... by einstein · 2003-01-13 07:53 · Score: 5, Funny

Now, after making my handwriting unreadable to anyone/anything but a Graffiti capable palm, the next generation devices won't be able to read what I write either. keyboards from here out, I guess.

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Re:Great... by jmb-d · 2003-01-13 08:11 · Score: 5, Funny

I was able to be productive using Graffiti almost immediately, as my writing was eerily similar to it already.

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slashdotted server already by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-13 07:53 · Score: 5, Informative

By the Brighthand News Team
January 13th, 2003
When you think Palm, you think Graffiti. But Palm's long-standing association with its home-grown character recognition software is about to take a dramatic turn. PalmSource, the operating system subsidiary of Palm, Inc., announced today that future versions of Palm OS will not contain Graffiti. Rather, they will incorporate a modified version of Communication Intelligence Corporation's Jot handwriting recognition software, something it's calling Graffiti 2 powered by Jot.

The impetus for the switch appears to be legal rather than technical. In April 1997, Xerox sued Palm, claiming that Graffiti was essentially derived from its patented Unistrokes technology. Unistrokes, or "Unistrokes for Computerized Interpretation of Handwriting", as it is referred to in Xerox's 1997 patent, is a system of text-entry using single-stroke symbols for computerized recognition of handwritten text. However, it appeared Palm dodged a legal bullet when, in June 2000, a federal judge dismissed the case. But in late 2001, Xerox won a reversal in the U.S. Court of Appeals and the lawsuit was back on, and it's been hanging over Palm's head ever since.

CIC's Jot recognition software has long been found on competing handhelds running on the Pocket PC platform. As with Graffiti, its alphabet is based on block characters. However, unlike Graffiti, some characters require two rather than one stroke. Therefore, Jot characters more closely resemble common block letters than Graffiti characters. According to Marlene Somsak, Palm's VP of Communications, this will reduce the learning curve. "For new Palm users, Graffiti 2 powered by Jot is more intuitive and natural than Graffiti," Ms. Somsak told Brighthand.

Hints to Graffiti's demise began to surface last year, when Palm OS licensee Handspring said it was dropping Graffiti in favor of integrated thumb-type keyboards for its Treo organizers. And Palm itself announced in November that, for the first time, it was bundling Communication Intelligence Corporation's Jot handwriting recognition software with its upcoming Tungsten W handheld.

According to Lee Williams, VP of Engineering for PalmSource, the move to Graffiti 2 will allow Palm Platform licensees the choice of foregoing the silk-screened "hard" Graffiti area, since Jot can accept input from anywhere on a device's touchscreen.

According to Mr. Williams, Graffiti 2 powered by Jot will be a modified version of the current version of Jot found on CIC's website. It will be included in future releases of the Palm operating system, including the upcoming Palm OS 4.1.2 and Palm OS 5.2, and will be included in the Palm Developer's Kit (PDK) as part of a unified API.

Re:slashdotted server already by Keith+Russell · 2003-01-13 08:40 · Score: 5, Informative

I think there was some hackery around the X character in Graffiti. If you invoke Graffiti Help, you'll see that the official way of drawing it is as you described. Two strokes, top-left to bottom-right, top-right to bottom-left. But scroll down in the help to the extended shift page. Look at the multiplication character's stroke. Top-right to bottom-left. But the preceding extended shift stroke is top-left to bottom-right. And the resulting character isn't a distinct multiplication symbol; it's a lower-case X! Sneaky, eh?

For the record, there is a single-stroke X gesture. Just keep the stylus down between the two strokes of the "official" X gesture. Think of it as a lower-case alpha, or a sideways shortcut gesture. Either way, I found it easier than the two-stroke X, which I always slopped into "lower-case I, [CR-LF]"

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Don't toss out those spray paint cans yet... by Robotech_Master · 2003-01-13 07:53 · Score: 5, Insightful

I expect that someone will come up with a hack or add-on application that mimics graffiti for future PalmOS machines, just the same way you can install alternate handwriting recognition systems for today's. So folks who're so well-trained in graffiti that it shows up in household notes they write probably won't have to worry too much about the Palm of the future.

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Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org

so long, farewell by greechneb · 2003-01-13 07:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

I never was really fond of graffiti, it was a pain to try to type in.

I finally learned, and got rather proficient at it. The breaking point was when I started to write on paper using graffiti. It was then I realized how dependant I was on it.

Re:so long, farewell by TrevorB · 2003-01-13 08:03 · Score: 5, Funny

I never was really fond of graffiti, it was a pain to try to type in.

If you were trying to type your graffiti instead of writing it... that miiiiight just have been part of the problem.... ;)

Actually, you could create a "graffiti" keyboard, with the graffiti symbols instead of letters. That could sorta be cool. ThinkGeek anyone? Nah, probably an infringement.

Hopefully it will be easier for non-geeks... by rickthewizkid · 2003-01-13 07:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

It seems to me that PocketPC attracts many people by the fact that it uses normal handwriting recognition instead of a "weird" Graffiti format. Most non-geek people are attracted by the fact that they do not need to learn a new way to write on this device.

I just hope that the "new" graffiti is easier on non-geeks...

RickTheWizKid
Stupid Muggle technology...

Consistency by Thatmushroom · 2003-01-13 07:56 · Score: 5, Funny

Ok, here we have people complaining about how grafitti is a bad thing, but in this thread there will be lots of people who really like grafitti. Am I the only one that's utterly confused?

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I LOVED Graffiti! by callipygian-showsyst · 2003-01-13 07:56 · Score: 5, Insightful

Palm's use of Graffiti was one of the most interesting marketing decisions ever made!

Apple thought it was so important to have real handwrighting recognition in the Newton, for example, that it was willing to adopt the technology before it was ready. Conventional wisdom said that ordinary users wouldn't want to learn a funny way of writing.

Boy was Conventional Wisdom wrong! It was FUN to learn grafitti. When I first got my Palm, I couldn't wait to learn it, so I can be "in the club" like everyone else. I ran their practice app, and got good at it within an hour.

Jot's probably not too different; maybe they can put in a "Graffity Compatibility mode" now that Palm's paying the royalties.

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Best Buy can have you arrested

Re:I LOVED Graffiti! by harlows_monkeys · 2003-01-13 08:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

You're kidding, right? Please tell me this is sarcasm
No, he is not kidding. What Palm did, and Apple didn't do, is find out what people actually wanted, rather than what people thought they wanted.
Apple listened to what people said they wanted, and went for zero training over accuracy. Palm figured out that accuracy was way more important to people, even though people said otherwise.
Palm was and is far superior to Newton and PocketPC in almost every way that is actually important to people. PocketPC has been able to somewhat overcome that by massive marketing. Apple didn't have to resources that Microsoft has to market past the fundamental flaw of not really understanding the customer, so Newton never took off.

Well, that's it for Palm. by rodgerd · 2003-01-13 07:56 · Score: 5, Insightful

There's nothing dumber for them to do. If you're going to make people think about a completely new user interface, they're going to think about migrating to PocketPC devices, as well.

goddanm iit! by frenetic3 · 2003-01-13 07:57 · Score: 5, Funny

wr:tng in graff1ti was so guick, 4ccurete and oonveniemt!

whot th3 fsck am i goin;;;;: to do nuw? :P

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"Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?"

Re:Why remove code? by pavera · 2003-01-13 08:00 · Score: 5, Interesting

Because they lost a patent infringement case,
they either have to pay lots of money or remove the feature entirely.
This is not by choice, they are being forced to do this.

I suspect that a public outcry is in the works... by $$$$$exyGal · 2003-01-13 08:01 · Score: 5, Interesting

I can only imagine people hording old palms, and riots ensuing. Remember when Coke II came out? Some dude stored a 1000 or so cases of coke in his garage, it was a media frenzy, and then finally, "Coca Cola Classic" was born.

I realize this is different because it is a legal switch rather than a "taste" switch. But that may give the public all the more reason to protest the change. Will people really give a darn? I wonder.

--naked

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Mandatory Reference by johnalex · 2003-01-13 08:01 · Score: 5, Interesting

OK, someone had to say it, so I will:

Graffiti never held a candle to the Newton's handwriting recognition. I know; I used both.

The Newton recognized my handwriting, something that my wife rarely does. I use Graffiti on my Handspring Visor now, but I really miss my Newton. Well, actually, it was the taxpayers' Newton, since testing it was part of my campus job.

Just the same, I have to wonder if the legal eagles haven't killed another good product with their new emphasis on IP issues. Graffiti wasn't the best, but it was good enough for what I have to do.

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JA
http://www.johnalex.org/

Wouldn't this be patenting the alphabet? by Viewsonic · 2003-01-13 08:03 · Score: 5, Insightful

I mean, it doesn't matter HOW you write the text, im sure some people write in uni-strokes as it is with a pen and paper without even knowing what it is.. How could Xerox patent a writing STYLE? Can I patent the way I make a capital P? Absurd!

Re:Wouldn't this be patenting the alphabet? by gwernol · 2003-01-13 08:27 · Score: 5, Informative

I mean, it doesn't matter HOW you write the text, im sure some people write in uni-strokes as it is with a pen and paper without even knowing what it is.. How could Xerox patent a writing STYLE? Can I patent the way I make a capital P? Absurd!

RTFPA (patent application). The patent is for "A machine implemented method for interpreting handwritten text..." in other words it is the method for reading uni-strokes that is patented, not the Unistrokes themselves:

The patent

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Sailing over the event horizon

How do I "Jot"? by Plutor · 2003-01-13 08:03 · Score: 5, Informative

Check out CIC's web site for information on JOT, as well as a listing of the symbols.

Obligatory Newton joke... by dillon_rinker · 2003-01-13 08:10 · Score: 5, Funny

Q: How many Newtons does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Faux! There to eat lemons, axe gravy soup!

LOTR based Graffiti by Shadow+Wrought · 2003-01-13 08:12 · Score: 5, Funny

Why not go with a Rune based system for the LOTR fan base?

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Xerox patent on UNISTROKES? by steveha · 2003-01-13 08:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

If I understood the article, Xerox has a patent on the very idea of a recognition system that uses just one stroke per character.

This sounds to me like another bogus patent. If something is very easy to re-invent independently, it shouldn't be patentable. I thought patents were supposed to be non-obvious.

Hmmm. We want to recognize letters. Our big problem is that it's hard to tell which stroke belongs to which character. Hey... many characters are only one stroke; why not make a simplified alphabet so they ALL are only one stroke?

I mean, it's a little bit more complicated than using XOR to draw a cursor, but not that much.

P.S. Xerox may score a few bucks from this, but that is all they can manage. Palm doesn't really need Graffiti anymore.

When the PalmPilot first came out, it really did need Graffiti; handwriting recognition on an 8 MHz CPU with a tiny amount of RAM needs all the help it can get. Now, with much more computing power in the latest Palm devices, a trainable system that adapts to the user's writing is probably the right thing.

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slow and non-standard by g4dget · 2003-01-13 08:13 · Score: 5, Informative

Graffiti combined the worst features of custom strokes and regular writing: like custom strokes, it required training, and like regular writing, it was comparatively slow. In addition, it required most people to look at the handheld.

Palm should have used something like Jot from the start, or they should have copied Xerox's Unistrokes better.

Here is some Unistrokes performance data showing it to be the fastest of the bunch. There are papers comparing Graffiti and Unistrokes directly, and, again, Unistrokes comes out way ahead.

Jot Usability? by webword · 2003-01-13 08:21 · Score: 5, Informative

I know that Graffiti had very reasonable usability: "After one minute studying the Graffiti reference chart, about 86% accuracy is attainable. Following five minutes of practice, accuracy improves to about 97%. Without further practice, users demonstrate total retention after a one-week lapse, with accuracy holding at around 97%."

How does the usability of Jot compare? Any ideas? Personally, if I am entering text, I like to use a thumb keyboard (e.g., Blackberry). One more thing, I guess that Jot 2.0 is available as shareware. It gets good ratings, but I haven't seen any "real" usability research.

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Re:Computers Teaching UI to Humans = Bad by SuiteSisterMary · 2003-01-13 08:24 · Score: 5, Funny

"The only 'intuitive interface' is the nipple. EVERYTHING else is learned."

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Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.

Re:What about PocketPC's? by watchful.babbler · 2003-01-13 08:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

Assuming I understand your question, the reason is because Graffiti and Jot share many common "swooshes" when writing letters, though not symbols. But that is self-evident.

By reading the Federal Circuit opinion that reversed the district court's summary judgment, it seems that the key issue that prevents Jot from infringing is that it "does not allow for 'definitive recognition' of symbols immediately upon pen lift by the user." Certain letters and symbols in Jot -- 'T,' 'X,' the question mark, and so on -- require multiple strokes to create the character. The actual shapes of the characters are not part of the patent, so there's no problem with Jot and Xerox's Unistroke sharing swooshes.

This leads one to wonder why the Graffiti 'X' doesn't allow Graffiti to escape infringement -- the appellate court opinion quotes the district court as citing accented characters in this sense, but not Graffiti's two-stroke 'X.' If I had to make a wild guess, I'd assume this was proffered by Palm in district court and refuted by Xerox on the grounds that the first slash in the 'X' is actually the stroke to enter extended mode, and thus the 'X' is still technically a unistroke character. If Palm had simply reversed the direction of the strokes so that the first stroke wasn't extended mode, then they might have been immunized. Of such tiny errors are great patent cases decided.

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"Freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more."

I wouldn't worry too much... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-13 09:00 · Score: 5, Informative

It should remain a very simply process of installing a 3rd party piece of software to add Grafiti support, similar to what users of the Handspring Treo do now.

Why don't they fight it? by LenE · 2003-01-13 09:26 · Score: 5, Interesting

Unistrokes, or "Unistrokes for Computerized Interpretation of Handwriting", as it is referred to in Xerox's 1997 patent, is a system of text-entry using single-stroke symbols for computerized recognition of handwritten text.

Palm using Graffiti goes way back to the early nineties. One would think that they would have no problem proving prior art.

-- Len

thanks for the link. by twitter · 2003-01-13 09:37 · Score: 5, Interesting

I prefer the US government site to view stuff like this.

The patent you point to does not look like something that graphiti would infringe on because graphiti is not rotationaly independent and graphiti uses a seperate area for numerals. Suppose this and other reasons are why the case was tossed out?

In any case, the patent itself is broad and very late. The referenced material dates back to 1982 and we can be sure that there was plenty of prior art. Yes, this is essentially patenting all styles of handwriting that might be easy for a computer to read. The same things make hadwriting easy for people to read as well. The is why most alphabets are mostly rotationally independent and involve as few strokes as possible. If Palm was ugly enough to keep others from using graphiti type systems, they deserve the same treatment, but it all goes to show how silly patents have become.

I'm going to miss graphiti as the replacements, short of a keyboard, just don't work. As Xerox managed to NOT file until 1997, it will be a decade before others may use this without paying Xerox a fee. I hope Xerox will be reasonable, ten years from now voice recognition will be good enough on portable devices and graphiti will be worthless.

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Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

Fitaly Tap Keyboard Better Anyway by Sounder40 · 2003-01-13 10:33 · Score: 5, Informative

Although I used Graffiti for years, I could never get much past 15 to 20 words a minute. Within a week of using the Fitaly Stamp, a sticker that overlays the Graffiti area, I was routinely doing 30 to 35 wpm. And the best part was the low error rate that I saw with Graffiti. Their site has several testimonials of speeds over 80 wpm.

The advantage is that the keyboard is designed to lessen pen (stylus) movement based on common words. It is highly customizable and supports international characters. shifting, special characters, etc.

I like it and it works for me. I won't miss Graffiti at all. Worth a look if you're interested in alternatives.

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A clever person solves a problem, A wise person avoids it. -Einstein

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