Appeal No. 1998-1386 Page 4
Application No. 08/269,156
receiving the data provided by a user, the data having a
beginning part and an end part that define therebetween a
complete amount of handwritten information to be processed;
assembling portions of the data into a sequence of
packages; and
determining for the sequence of packages a probable
result set of characters represented by the sequence, the
determining step occurring before the end part of the data is
received and comprising the steps of simultaneously
considering information pertaining to the character shapes
represented by the packages and information pertaining to the
literal context of the characters represented by the packages;
wherein the determining step includes searching for the
result set of characters from among a plurality of character
candidates using a first search technique; and
wherein the first of two search techniques
comprises the steps of:
developing for each package at least one path
representing a string of character candidates, each
path having a respective beginning and a respective
end; and
generating for each path a first cost value that
reflects the probability that the path includes the
result set of characters, the first cost value being
based upon information pertaining to the character
shapes represented by the packages and information
pertaining to the literal context of the characters
represented by the packages and
wherein the second of the two search techniques assigns a
second cost value to a considered path based upon the literal
context of the considered path, and wherein the second search
technique conducts a reverse search towards the respective
beginning of at least some of the paths developed by the first
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