Transcriber on PPC with Xscale

[Stephen Beesley]

Over the weekend I had the chance to play with my bosses Ipaq 5450 and was suprised at how much better the Handwriting recognition using Transcriber appeared to be compared to on my Jornada 568.

Now I use Transcriber as my main input method and get pretty good results most of the time. Nevertheless sometimes it just refuses to co-operate and I certainly find myself correcting things a lot more than I ever had to using HWR on my Newton. Using Transcriber on the 5450, however, was a completely different experience. I found that I could easily fill the screen with input without a pause and find that the software would do a pretty much completely accurate recognition.

After checking that the versions and settings are the same on my Jornada and the ipaq (even using the same stylus for fairness!) I always found the recognition better on the iPaq. The only thing I can put this down to is the increased processor grunt.

Have any other heavy Transcriber users noticed improved performance when moving up to faster processors? Or is it just my fevered imagination trying to provide me with yet another exuse (sorry I meant reason :D ) for upgrading?

[milkman dan]

I am pretty sure it isn't anything to do with the software, just better recognition software. I have yet to get used to the transcriber mind you, I have written maybe 1 page worth of words with a pen in the last four years in total (no joking) and the pen just feels wrong. I tap the on screen keyboard with my thumb becuase it feels more at home for me :D

[Kowalski]

i am a heavy transciber user. i rarely use on screen keyboard.
if you change the options especially recognization speed and accuracy, you can get excellent results. also be sure to deselect the character shapes you dont use. it helps transcriber alot

[Stephen Beesley]

i am a heavy transciber user. i rarely use on screen keyboard.
if you change the options especially recognization speed and accuracy, you can get excellent results. also be sure to deselect the character shapes you dont use. it helps transcriber alot

But that is the point. I am talking about a situation where the version of transcriber is the same on both machines (1.5(std)) the recogniser settings are the same and I am using the same stylus - the only difference is the that my Jornada has a 206 MHZ strong arm and the 5450 has a 400 MHZ xScale. So as far as I can see the only thing that could account for the far better performance is the greater processing grunt.

[dlangton]

Another possibility: the digitizer on your Jornada could be the problem. It may be wearing out, or need to be resealed, reseated. Heck, just getting a screen protector a little under the edge on my Jornada causes problems with recognition.

[joelevi]

Another possibility: the digitizer on your Jornada could be the problem. It may be wearing out, or need to be resealed, reseated. Heck, just getting a screen protector a little under the edge on my Jornada causes problems with recognition.

Digitizer aside (which may definatly be playing a part) I think the added processing power helps substantially.

To compare, back when I had a MessagePad 130, the HWR worked well, when I upgraded to an MP2100 the HWR worked remarkably well.

Contrast that with my HP iPaq h4155 and Transciber vs. Calligrapher 7.3:
Transcriber works pretty well (not quite Newton quality), Calligrapher 7.3 works very well (pretty much Newton 130 quality).

Of course, I attribute this to a smaller screen, smaller stylii, over-worked CPU (versus the Newton's ~161MHz which didn't have that much overhead), and the OS being specifically designed around HWR as the primary input method.

Of couse, those are just my thoughts. Acutal mileage may vary.

[Kowalski]

Well it seems that the proccessor power is making the difference.
because it is obvious that the transciber uses lots of system resources.
you are saying that even the settings are the same, so this proves my statement

[Veggie_Musician]

I do find transcriber works best if u dont hsve many programs running. If I do, theres many mistakes.

[Stephen Beesley]

Another possibility: the digitizer on your Jornada could be the problem. It may be wearing out, or need to be resealed, reseated. Heck, just getting a screen protector a little under the edge on my Jornada causes problems with recognition.

Digitizer aside (which may definatly be playing a part) I think the added processing power helps substantially.

To compare, back when I had a MessagePad 130, the HWR worked well, when I upgraded to an MP2100 the HWR worked remarkably well.

Contrast that with my HP iPaq h4155 and Transciber vs. Calligrapher 7.3:
Transcriber works pretty well (not quite Newton quality), Calligrapher 7.3 works very well (pretty much Newton 130 quality).

Of course, I attribute this to a smaller screen, smaller stylii, over-worked CPU (versus the Newton's ~161MHz which didn't have that much overhead), and the OS being specifically designed around HWR as the primary input method.

Of couse, those are just my thoughts. Acutal mileage may vary.

Just want to agree completely with your comments re Newton HWR Vs Transcriber/Calligrapher. Even though I have been pretty impressed by the results I have got on the iPaq 5450 with Transcriber, I got out my ol' Newton uMP2k last night and did a quick comparision - and there was none!

Newton HWR is still the best around - I think you are right in suggesting that this had a lot to do with the OS being designed around HWR and the lower system overheads. The second point probably backs up my feeling that on the iPaq, greater processor speed is helping to improve recogniser performance