Recomax backs pen as future base for Chinese recognition

Recomax Technology is betting the pen will be mightier than the voice as a Chinese character input system.

Recomax specialises in technologies for traditional Chinese handwriting recognition that allow users to input Chinese easily by writing on a special pad.

Voice recognition technology has been predicted by some to be the next trend for data input, but Recomax senior system analyst Alex Cheung believes it is unlikely to replace handwriting input system soon because of its relatively low accuracy.

'Unless you are in an extremely quiet environment, the software at this stage is still unable to differentiate the real pronunciation from the background noises,' he said. 'In the old days, keying in Chinese characters was a complicated process because users are required to memorise the codes. Now, with the system and the writing pad, users no longer have to learn keyboard-based input standards.' Earlier generations of Chinese handwriting input systems had limited functionality and a non user-friendly input device, which made them unpopular.

'But with technology advancement, it now has the capability to replace the mouse and the keyboard' for Chinese character input, Mr Cheung said.

He established Recomax in Hong Kong three years ago, after working for more than a decade in software research and development in Taiwan.