Re: [NTLK] Brought to you by the letter M

From: Gerstein, Sam (Sam.Gerstein_at_Streamserve.Com)
Date: Wed Jan 08 2003 - 09:50:50 EST


I have a detailed mental model that's supported by my experience ;)

Note that these are all empirical observations- they are consistently
reproducable.
1 Scratch-outs can proceed in either direction, and begin either up or down.
2 A scratch-out must have at least four segments (up down up down or down up
down up).
3 Scratch outs do not need to have sharp corners to be recognized (see also
B below).
4 The middle of the M being lower than the sides does not prevent it from
being recognized.
5 When scratching-out a single letter, the four segments must overlap almost
exactly.

These are reproducable by me, but I still classify them as theory-
A If you get more than one letter with the printed recognizer you're
probably lifting the pen.
B Scratch outs seem to need to have a certain minimum frequency, especially
noticable if you're trying to scratch out with a sine wave.
C When you write a four segment scratch-out-like line over a word (such as
"m" or "w"), the *number* of letters it overlaps is important! If it covers
just one or two, it will not be recognized as a scratch out. It must
overlap three or more letters. You can try this by setting your font really
big and writing a word with several wide letters and several narrow letters.
If you write an "m" over two of the wide letters, one of the will be
corrected to an "m", but if you write the same size "m" over the narrow
letters, where it will overlap at least three, the word will disappear.

Good recognition,
Sam

> -----Original Message-----
> From: victor_at_newtontalk.net [mailto:victor_at_newtontalk.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 8:41 AM
> To: newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net
> Subject: Re: [NTLK] Brought to you by the letter M
>
>
>
> For me, it's usually the other way around: I try to scratch
> out something
> really small (I like to use really small fonts, like
> Condensed Gothic) and
> end up getting an m or two placed wherever the caret happened to be.
>
> The trick is that a "scratch-out" has to have sharp corners
> at the top and
> bottom, and always proceed left to right. A lower-case m should have
> rounded corners, and an upper-case M should not have the
> middle part extend
> below half the length of the sides.
>
> I think.
>
> -Victor
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: good-dog_at_northshore.net
> Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 05:42:47 -0600
> Subject: [NTLK] Brought to you by the letter "M"
>
> Does anyone else have trouble when you're in the field where you can
> correct the letters one by one, and you try to replace some
> letter with
> an "M", and all it does is >POOF!< on you because the newt's
> reading it
> like a "scratch out"?
>
> Anyone found a way around this? Eventually I can get it to recognize
> an "M", but it takes a while.

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