PalmSource Licenses CIC's Jot for Graffiti 2
(Updated 1/14 2:35pm) Grafitti as you know it is about to change. Communication Intelligence Corporation (CIC) and PalmSource Inc. announced today a licensing agreement for CIC's Jot handwriting recognition software for the next generation of data input for the Palm OS. PalmSource will enhance Jot and rebrand it as Grafitti 2, powered by Jot.
Under this agreement, "Graffiti(R) 2 powered by Jot," will be embedded by PalmSource in current versions of its Palm OS platform provided to licensees. The new Graffiti 2 handwriting software supports an intuitive, more natural form of input, minimizing learning time for new users and easing the transition for experienced users.
The motivations for this dramatic change to the Palm OS are dual. Back in 1997 Xerox sued U.S. Robotics, which owned Palm Computing at the time and was later bought by 3Com, claiming that Graffiti infringed a patent Xerox received in 1997. Palm was later spun off from 3Com. In Dec 2001, Judge Michael Telesca declared that Xerox's patent is "valid and enforceable", and that Graffiti does infringe on it. Palm Inc has appealed the judgment and will continue to defend it's rights in court. It is very possible that this issue could remain tied up the US legal system for years to come. Even if the final descision is in Palm's favor, they are now fully committed to Grafitti II as the next generation input method.
Because of the lawsuit, PalmSource decided to explore their options and commissioned studies on alternative methods for PDA data input. They concluded that Jot was the superior choice over graffiti because it allows for a more natural and intuitive method of data input. The move is also designed to make learning data input on the palm os easier for new and inexperienced users and thus broaden the appeal of the Palm OS by making it easier to learn for the average user.
PalmSource will be enhancing Jot and has already made versions specific for Palm OS 4x and 5x available to licensees. Palm Soultions Group has announced that they will release products incorporating Grafitti II later this year on a upcoming device running Palm OS 5.2. Palm SG announced back in October that it had licensed Jot for the upcoming Tungsten W GSM smart-phone. PalmSource is also working on creating an online download preview application for Grafitti II, we will post info when it becomes available. Alternatively you can download or purchase the current version of Jot from CIC.
UPDATE: This week PalmSource informed licensees of the release of updated versions of the Palm OS 5 family: Palm OS* 5.2 for ARM; and the Palm OS 4 family: Palm OS* 4.1.2 for 68k, respectively. (NOT Palm OS 5.1.2 as we previously reported) As a part of these standard maintenance releases, PalmSource has included the new handwriting recognition engine Graffiti 2.
"Jot has established the kind of broad based consumer acceptance in the Palm community that made it a natural choice for us," said David Nagel, president and chief executive officer of PalmSource. "Graffiti 2 is a superior handwriting recognition system that will enhance the ease of use that Palm OS is known for. We expect this technology to appeal to a wide range of users who will be able to easily take notes and write memos on their Palm Powered(TM) devices."
Jot is a character-based recognizer that was developed by CIC after years of research in the field of pattern recognition. The product is ideally suited for portable computing because it offers a fast and highly accurate means of entering text on small devices. Jot recognizes both English and Roman-based European characters in a very natural way supporting broader market appeal for these products.
"Based upon the experience we gained over the past several years by providing Jot directly to the Palm OS developer and end user community we believe that Graffiti 2 powered by Jot will provide Palm OS users the most natural and intuitive experience possible." Stated Guido DiGregorio, CIC's chairman and chief executive officer.
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RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
George
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
http://www.cic.com/support/faq/Pos/Jot/refcard.html
Why doesn't Palm just include a mechanism where you can train the device to recognize whatever characters you want? This may be what it takes to force me to switch platforms.
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
>>I hope they keep the old graffiti in there too.
I love regular grafitti too, but they probably wont keep it. If the reason for change is the lawsuit, maybe they wont be allowed to keep it.
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
If the reason for the change is the lawsuit, then basically Palm is running on the assumption that since Jot is licensed, Xerox can now sue the Jot folks instead of them. Oh joy!
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. We're in space.
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
Now I am no lawyer, but as I understand it, Xerox's patent was for a single stroke character recognition system. Jot, as I understand it, has a mixture of single stroke (L for example) and multiple stroke (T for example with a down stroke, and a cross bar stroke)characters, and therefore probably won't be covered by Xerox's patent. So I'd guess that PalmSource is probably thinking that CIC can't be sued under Xerox's patent.
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
Yes, Palm is modifying it, but if CIC is to be responsible for Grafitti II, how much could they actually modify it from what is available now. If they modify it too much, wouldn't they open themselves to another lawsuit from Xerox?
This is a victory for Microsoft.
The difference between the two is like night and day: Jot requires a lot more strokes, and because it's based on a particular style of handwriting (however common it may be) if your handwriting isn't "American" enough it's really hard to get accurate.
Unless they basically clone Graffiti (and that would cast them back into the hands of the lawyers), I'd be hard-pressed to stay with Palm in the future.
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
Why can't PalmSource simply either license the technology from Xerox or maybe just buy the patent from them?
What good is it to Xerox anyway, it seems to me that their only possible income from the patent is either from the lawsuit or a deal with Palm. I don't see it is in the interest of Xerox to watch Palm just walk away, the patent then becomes worthless.
Cheers!!
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
I'm looking at the ref cards and pretty much every character can be done with a single stroke (or Unistroke as I believe Xerox puts it). I don't see how this is any different than graffiti from a legal sense. Of course, if solely based on the single stroke mechanism, I think Xerox's patent is bogus anyhow.
Change for the sake of change, is bad...
Certainly this will not be an inexpensive move for a company that must really watch the purse strings.
Either Xerox won't let Palm continue using Graffiti, or Palm doesn't want to pay the tribute Xrx may be demanding.
Jot (and Graffiti 2) would have never been considered if Palm could keep Graffiti, so say good-bye.
While I found Graffiti easy to learn, it was difficult for me to write easily. Don't know why. I've also got a iPAQ, and while learning it's character set (or unlearning G)is slow, it's accuracy is *very* high.
I didn't want to spend the money for Jot years ago, but I guess that may change. By the time I get a Tungsten|T, it will probably have G2 inside.
And why would G2 "be the death of the Tungsten"? I'd have to think that Palm wouldn't let that happen.
And no matter how well one may have learnt it, an anlog input system won't help you spell any better.
______________________________
An armed society is a polite society.
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
It looks like Q and especially U and V are going to be a real pain. I've gotten very used to being able to make up for a scrawled, indistinguishable V by scribbling it backwards. Losing the one-stroke convenience of K and Y will be sad too.
Of course, I don't have any real reason to upgrade from my Vx either, so it's not like I'll be forced away from Graffiti anytime soon. :)
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
Yes and no.
Yes, the Xerox suit prompted Palm, Inc. to take a fresh look at Graffiti and the alternatives. But once we initiated that study in earnest, we decided Graffiti 2 was the better choice, especially as we, along with our licensees, work to grow this very early market substantially.
But the answer is ALSO "No." When you consider that the lawsuit is still pending, no resolution has occurred and Palm Inc. continues to vigorously defend itself in court. This case might possibly go on for months, even years.
So, without waiting for court resolution -- independent of court resolution -- PalmSource concluded that Graffiti 2 Powered by Jot is better than original Graffiti because of its natural, intuitive character entry.
-- SeaPUG: http://www.seapug.com --
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
Sorry, but I strongly believe that you are wrong. See my comments on Brighthand for the details. But, the nutshell of it is that Graffiti offers higher accuracy and speed once learned. Because we're talking about devices that are used day in and day out by the user, a short learning curve for long term speed/accuracy gains is well worth it. I agree that adding additional options for the user is always a good thing. But removing the unistroke Graffiti alphabet is a bad thing.
Scott
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
>Sorry, but I strongly believe that you are wrong. See my comments on Brighthand for the details. But, the nutshell of it is that Graffiti offers higher accuracy and speed once learned.
Give it up Don Quixote. If you want speed and accuracy, learn FITALY. Any benefits of Graffiti over Graffiti 2 (Jot) are marginal at best, and the benefits of Jot over Graffiti are huge. People new to the world of handhelds will finally be able to pick up a Palm OS device and use it immediately. No learning necessary.
RE: Change is Bad I fear Change
The only gap apparent at this point is if a 3rd party developer will provide a Graffiti 1 solution once the new Palm OS builds begin appearing on new devices. I love graffiti and I'm sorry to see that Graffiti 2 won't support Graffiti 1. However, after trying Jot, I think I can make the transition pretty easily. However, for hard core users a 3rd party solution could really save the day. :-)
Michael T. Ashby
Director
InterPUG
http://www.interpug.com
Graffiti II on older devices
RE: Graffiti II on older devices
RE: Graffiti II on older devices
RE: Graffiti II on older devices
But if you couldn't update your OS, why would you even ask?
RE: Graffiti II on older devices
1) Graffiti 2 will not support the Graffiti 1 characters
2) The Graffiti 2 system will also include support for a new unified "virtual Graffiti" API
3) Graffiti 2 also includes optional support for full-screen writing, at the licensee's discretion
Here is the link: http://www.infosync.no/news/2002/n/2884.html
Try Jot and you will see why it is TEN times better
I have been using Jot eversince I got my first Palm (Palm Vx).
It is so much more natural. you can write letters anyway you want, Jot will recognize it.
I would recommend both Jot and Textplus to speed up your input.
RE: Try Jot and you will see why it is TEN times better
RE: Try Jot and you will see why it is TEN times better
I'm glad you wrote that. It's a major thing driving the negative feedback you hear about losing graffiti. People realizing they might have to un-learn something.
Having natural handwriting recognition on a PDA is the direction ALL pdas will need to be at to attract any new users.
Jeff Kirvin mentioned it in a column a while back, before, when hardware was the limiting factor, graffiti made sense. Now, with processors being able to handle it, there's really no need for it.
Just add the option to use it for old schoolers. That's a good thing about PPC: multiple input methods.
RE: Try Jot and you will see why it is TEN times better
Personnaly I have three style of handwriting !
1/ for letters, read by human
2/ for me, understand by me, only
3/ for white paper, readable far by a group of person
I can add graffiti, that I have learnt in twenty minutes...
Graffiti is (was?) optimized for human<->palm, writing while walking, or any other place than my desk !
Me too, I tried Jot for some months. "Great !"... One day, I started again graffiti, and I undestood why Graffiti was really better, if you decide to UNLEARNT that there is o n l y o n e t r u e h a n d w r i t i n g...
RE: Try Jot and you will see why it is TEN times better
I agree, and it would be nice to have 'natural' recognition. I tried Jot again last night... every few months I'll decide to wing it and try another shot... but it took me ten minutes to write a two sentence email. If it's natural, it must be natural for someone else and not me! This is assuming that natural means writing as if you were writing on paper and not a PDA.
It's probably just me, but I have spent several days trying to get acquainted with Jot, and I'm still learning. It's not a case of accidentally using the Graffiti strokes instead of the Jot strokes. I'll go back and watch the animations just to make sure, then try it again... seems to require much more precision to get right. Jot is good if it’s easier for the individual, and breaking out of the silkscreen box is a good thing regardless of which one you prefer.
What will be a negative, is the elimination of choice due to a company claiming infringement on a character set that is not even the same as Graffiti. The courts need to make a decision here: Either all character recognition infringes the patent due to the input method, or only those which copy the character set.
If the later decision is made (again), we are all safe to choose. If the first decision is made, then we are all in trouble.
Does this mean death of Tungsten T?
RE: Does this mean death of Tungsten T?
I tried Jot at lunch. It takes some getting used to, but I see how this would be better for beginners. I can't say that I want to see this as the only option on future machines.
_____
Fammy
RE: Does this mean death of Tungsten T?
RE: Does this mean death of Tungsten T?
Not the Tungsten T per se, but the form factor...
Short version: if Graffiti II makes the Graffiti area virtual (and is included in the next devices from Palm SG), then the TT's successor will look very different from the TT.
A new design?
http://link.freepichosting.com/image.cgi/17254/0.jpg
Yeah, it's an m505, so the Calc would of course be the Fav button, but whaddya think?
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Change is Bad I fear Change