Sending email and attending chat groups in Chinese should become easier thanks to Hong Kong internet service provider HKNet teaming up with Motorola's Lexicus division to bundle the US firm's Chinese handwriting recognition system, WisdomPen. HKNet and Motorola will join forces at the Computer '97 trade show to promote the new programme that entitles subscribers of one of the three available plans to a complimentary WisdomPen. HKNet general manager Charles Mok said it made the move because of the growing demand for using Chinese language on the Internet. Eighty per cent of newsgroups' content is in Chinese, according to Mr Mok. Featuring a digitising tablet and software, WisdomPen enables users to input Chinese characters into Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 applications as simply and naturally as writing the characters on a piece of paper. Rather than adding features to the product, the team of Chinese engineers who developed WisdomPen in Motorola's Californian laboratories focused on the recognition engine which not only recognises characters according to their stroke order but also according to their shape. According to Winnie Ho, marketing associate of Lexicus, since its launch last November, WisdomPen has captured a substantial part of the market in Hong Kong. Speech recognition is one of the features Motorola hopes to incorporate in the already powerful handwriting recognition. One reason for WisdomPen's success in the territory is its ability to deal with both simplified and traditional characters, including 'Hong Kong only' characters. Users can also write in traditional Chinese and have it automatically output in simplified Chinese. Mr Mok said this would enable HKNet to expand its scope of operations across the border and would serve the company's plans to offer more intranet and other services globally. The product retails at $1,380 but a special promotion at $998 will run during Computer '97.
