Summary

Summary

The ink recognition services the Tablet PC Platform offers can provide some of the most compelling end-user functionality a Tablet PC based application has. Text and objects can be recognized, with the Strokes.ToString method and the InkCollector and InkOverlay classes Gesture event offering the most convenient level of access to recognition.

If more data or functionality is needed, a Recognizer instance must be obtained, and a recognizer context created from it. The recognizer context supplies recognition results either synchronously or asynchronously, and if the recognizer supports partial recognition it is recommended that the recognizer context be kept up-to-date with the ink strokes to be recognized in order to improve efficiency.

Recognition results are composed of alternates. These alternates consist of pathways through the recognizer s lattice of all possible results computed by the recognizer. Alternates can be split up by factors such as segmentation, line number, and confidence level. The top alternate of a recognition result can be modified by a user from a correction UI.

Programmers can improve recognition results by taking into account content hints such as factoids, word lists, and prefix and suffix text, and also by providing layout hints (such as a recognizer guide) to the end user.

As someone once said, We ve come a long way, baby! You have reached a milestone in learning about the Tablet PC Platform because all major areas have now been covered: the Tablet Input API, the Ink Data Management API, and the Ink Recognition API. We hope you ve gained enough knowledge to set out and write some great tablet applications of your own!

We re not done with learning about the Tablet PC Platform, however. The next chapter covers the ink controls, and if you re going to want any ink input in a dialog box or a Windows Forms application, that chapter is definitely for you.