News

New Interactive Ink Technology Unveiled for Developers

• By David Ramel
• August 8, 2016

Digital ink, an emerging technology exemplified in the new Windows Ink featured in Windows 10, is getting a new take from a company called MyScript.

"Developed by MyScript Labs, Interactive Ink is a new form of digital ink technology allowing ink editing via simple gestures and providing device reflow flexibility," the company announced recently. "Interactive Ink relies on real-time predictive handwriting recognition, driven by artificial intelligence and neural network architectures. With the release of Interactive Ink, MyScript’s application developer toolkit (ATK) will now provide this technology integrated into MyScript’s recognition product offerings for use by software developers and OEMs."

According to its Web site, Interactive Ink actually improves upon digital ink, where "your content is little more than a static set of strokes on your screen." The improvements come in the form of input/result cleanness, flexible editing, dynamic space management, OS portability and its "machine-understandable and fully exploitable" properties.

"Interactive Ink allows users to more intuitively interact with their digital devices to create content, without the need for a keyboard, and then share that content in digital form," the company said in a news release. "It allows users to write in block or cursive input, and predictively interpret and convert to digital text. Solving math calculations and recognizing advanced handwritten mathematical equations that include symbols is now easy. Hand-drawn charts, maps and diagrams are easily transformed into digital shapes that are editable, searchable and storable. Interactive Ink transcends touch interfaces to allow users to create and capture their thoughts simply by writing."

Developers interested in helping users do those things can get their hands on the Interactive Ink toolkit via the MyScript developer portal.

Interactive Ink pricing ranges from free for a starter pack (not for commercial use) to $479 for a 1,000-license offering for medium-sized businesses, with custom pricing available for levels beyond that.

MyScript also offers Cloud Development Kits through its developer portal, along with a means to request native access (offline mode) to its SDK.