WO1997003411A1

WO1997003411A1 - Method for entering handwritten messages in selective call receivers

Info

Publication number: WO1997003411A1
Application number: PCT/US1996/007967
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Mehrdad Hoghooghi; Mark Terranova; John Lorne Campbell Seybold; Ronjon Nag; Gerald Thomas Panagrossi, Iii; Elton B. Sherwin
Original assignee: Motorola Inc.
Priority date: 1995-07-07
Filing date: 1996-05-30
Publication date: 1997-01-30
Also published as: CN1158174A; AR002768A1; AU6146696A; TW419916B

Abstract

A selective call receiver (100) that receives, decodes and stores selective call messages has a digitizer (104) that accepts handwritten characters and a recognition engine (622), coupled to the digitizer (104), that generates readable characters from the handwritten characters. A memory (604), coupled to the recognition engine (622), stores the readable characters, a decoder (626), coupled to the memory (604), associates the readable characters with the selective call messages, and a display (102), coupled to the memory (604) and the decoder (626), displays a message with the readable characters associated therewith.

Description

METHOD FOR ENTERING HANDWRITTEN MESSAGES

IN SELECTIVE CALL RECEIVERS

Field of the Invention

This invention relates in general to selective call receivers and more particularly to a method for entering handwritten messages in selective call receivers.

Background of the Invention

Selective call receivers are portable communication devices that primarily receive paging messages. An increasing number of selective call receivers, however, have acknowledgment capabilities that enable the selective call receivers to transmit acknowledgment signals in response to a received page or selective call message. The acknowledge- back response, for example, comprises a selected one of a plurality of messages that are presently stored in the memory of the selective call receiver. Also, the selective call receivers may have control buttons to enable the users to enter messages to be transmitted as acknowledge back response thereto.

A user who has to select one of a number of prestored (canned) messages in response to a received message has a limited number of responses because the selective call receiver can store only a limited number of messages. Additionally, providing the option for a user entered response via a key pad on a selective call receiver is awkward and cumbersome because selective call receivers are miniature devices that can have only a limited number of small keys or buttons that proves to be difficult to manipulate because of their small sizes.

Therefore, what is needed is a method for enabling a user of a selective call receiver to enter messages or annotations in the selective call receiver.

Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 is a front view of a selective call receiver in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a selective call receiver in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a front view of a selective call receiver in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a selective call receiver in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a selective call system in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an electrical block diagram of a microcomputer based controller suitable for use in a selective call receiver of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the selective call system and the selective call receiver of FIG. 5. FIG. 8 is a front view of a selective call receiver in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of the writing recognition process of the embodiment of FIG. 8.

Page 10 after the end of the sentence on line 18, please add the following beginning with a new paragraph:

FIG. 8 shows a fifth embodiment of the present invention. In this fifth embodiment of the present invention, a selective call receiver 800 has a digitizer 810 whereon messages received by selective call receiver, such as pages, are displayed, and characters, words or phrases are input to selective call receiver 800 and displayed. The characters, words or phrases input to the selective call receiver may be handwritten, or written characters, words or phrases entered in any manner other than by hand. For instance, written characters may be uploaded to selective call receiver 800 from a computer, or written without hands to accommodate handicapped individuals. Generally, a type of stylus is used to input characters, words or phrases to digitizer 810.

The writing capability of selective call receiver 800, in the fifth embodiment, is realized using a processor or central processing unit (CPU) and memory. Writing recognition software is stored within the memory of selective call receiver 800 and the stored samples or templates mentioned previously in the description of the preferred embodiment are also stored in the memory of selective call receiver 800. In the fifth embodiment, the writing recognition software can be either user dependent, where the user trains the recognition software to recognize the user's block characters, or user independent where the writing recognition software recognizes any type of user input, including block and cursive style writing. Whether user dependent or user independent software is used depends upon the intended use of the selective call receiver and the amount of memory available. In the fifth embodiment, selective call receiver 800 is user independent. Although a user dependent system is adequate for English language use, selective call receiver 800 is designed to accommodate Chinese character recognition which requires a user independent system.

Training selective call receiver 800 to recognize the tens of thousands of different Chinese characters would be extremely time consuming and impractical. Therefore, selective call receiver 800 is designed to recognize characters without having samples taken for each character, word or phrase. A set of rules governing the input of characters, words or phrases may accompany selective call receiver 800 to reduce the size of the memory. For instance, directions on stroke order, character width and stroke direction and length would train a user of character input allowing the memory of selective call receiver 800 to be reduced. According to the fifth embodiment of the present invention, the writing recognition software is able to distinguish stroke separations. This means that a user does not need to indicate the end of a character or word by using defined stroke motions as described above with relation to the preferred embodiment. Further, an option window 820 is displayed on digitizer 810 allowing a user to select functions such as editing mode, send, or other functions useful to selective call receiver 800. Option window 820 may even replace the usual buttons 830 conventionally found on selective call receivers. In the fifth embodiment, the writing recognition software is run on the central processing unit of selective call receiver 800. The software and template characters and words are stored in the memory of selective call receiver 800. The writing recognition software is activated in any manner such as selecting the recognition option from the option window 820. The writing recognition software is capable of recognizing characters and words in real-time. Therefore, as the words or characters are entered (including numbers and punctuation markings), selective call receiver 800 will display the recognized word or characters in block format in close proximity to, and preferably immediately below the written characters or words as shown in FIG. 8 showing the template characters or words (840) displayed immediately below the written characters or words (850).

Characters, words or phrases input to digitizer 810 may be transmitted or used as commands to operate selective call receiver 800. Additionally, the characters, words or phrases may be stored in the memory of selective call receiver 800 for future use and/or reference.

Selective call receiver 800 transmits the messages shown in block letters (840) in FIG. 8 as paging messages. In addition, selective call receiver 800 may transmit information which defines the user input such as the cursive writing 850 of FIG. 8. In this manner, selective call receiver 800 not only processes the writing input to digitizer 810 to recognize it for transmission, commands, or storage, but then operates as a facsimile to transmit the actual written characters or words having a recognized message. A user may selectively turn off the recognition portion of the writing recognition software and operate selective call receiver as a portable facsimile machine, or in reverse, selectively turn off the facsimile portion.

FIG. 9 shows a flow diagram of the operation of selective call receiver 800 in its writing recognition mode. The writing recognition software is activated (910) either by user input through option window 820, or through other means such as gestures as mentioned above. The CPU running the writing recognition software computes written data (920) representing the written input or written characters or words input to the selective call receiver 800 (input through digitizer 810 or some other means) and compares the written data with a set or sets of template characters or words stored in the memory (930) to find the one or more characters which most closely represents the written character(s). A prioritized list is generated comprising those characters or words most closely resembling the written characters or words, where the highest prioritized character or word is the one determined by the recognition software to have the greatest possibility of being the written character or word. The CPU then outputs the most representative character(s) or word(s) (or highest prioritized character or word) to digitizer 810 for display (940). Not only does this allow the user to view the results of the recognition process, it also allows the user to edit the results (950). By displaying the template characters or words beneath the written characters or words, selective call receiver 800 allows a user to quickly compare the written character or word to the recognized character or word.

In this fifth embodiment, the CPU will output several characters or words in the prioritized list to digitizer 810, but only the most representative character is displayed without further user input. The user may selectively view the other characters in the list in an editing mode (960) selected through one of the options in option window 820 to select one of those other characters in the list to replace the highest prioritized character chosen by the writing recognition software and displayed on digitizer 810. The user may also choose to enter a different character by writing to the digitizer 810 if the CPU has not output the proper character within the list of selected characters.

Using the method and device of the fifth embodiment of the present invention, a user may write continuously to the digitizer without stopping after each character to indicate the end of the character or word, and the recognition software will recognize the separate characters and words.

Description of a Preferred Embodiment

Referring to FIG. 1, a front view of a selective call receiver in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. The selective call receiver 100 has a display (or screen) 102 which displays messages presented. A digitizer 104 is coupled to a front surface preferably below the display 102 for enabling a user to enter handwriting, gestures, commands or annotations ("handwritten characters") into the selective call receiver 100. In the preferred embodiment, the digitizer 104 has a digitized area (or space) 106 preferably sized to accommodate or receive only one handwritten character at a time. It is understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the digitized area 106 could extent, for example, to include the entire size of the display. The size of the digitized area 106 is therefore restricted by the size of the selective call receiver and the additional cost associated with having a larger digitized area 106. The user uses a stylus 108 to write, for example the handwritten characters such as letters and numbers, within the digitized space 106 provided on the digitizer 104. A stylus 108 can be any one of the well known electronic pens known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Using the stylus 108, each handwritten character is written in the same digitized area 106 and delaying, if necessary, a brief moment before writing the next handwritten character to allow the selective call receiver to retrieve each handwritten character. After the delay, the user continues to write each additional handwritten character in the same digitized area 106 until the message is generated, completed, entered or inputted. The handwritten characters are received and used to generate readable characters therefrom, the details will be discussed below.

FIG. 2 illustrates a front view of the selective call receiver according to a second embodiment of present invention. In this second embodiment, the digitizer 204 similar to the digitizer 104 of FIG. 1 is positioned, located or formed into part of the display or screen 202 instead of being located below the display.

Referring to FIG. 3, a front view of the selective call receiver is shown according to a third embodiment of present invention. The selective call receiver 100 shows the digitizer 304 located below the display, the digitized area 106, however, is divided into four digitized spaces 306-312, each digitized space is sized to accommodate or receive one handwritten character. The digitizer area is divided into more than one digitized area as a convenience to the user. Alternatively, the digitized area can be divided into one-to-N number of areas. The digitized area is divided into more that one area as a convenience to the user. The user therefore writes a handwritten character in each of the four digitized spaces 306-312 provided before repeating the sequence, e.g., handwritten characters are written in each of the four spaces 306-312 of the digitizer 304 consecutively in the sequence beginning with digitized space 306 and ending with digitized space 312. This sequence is repeated consecutively until the entire message is entered. The digitizer spaces 306-312 are identified or marked as a convenience to the user to promote accuracy. Referring to FIG. 4, a front view of the selective call receiver is shown according to a forth embodiment of the present invention. In the forth embodiment, the selective call receiver 100 comprises a digitizer 404 similar to the digitizers 304 of FIG. 3, except that the digitizer 404 is positioned, located or formed into a part of the display or screen 402 as shown in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 5, an electrical block diagram of a selective call system in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. The selective call system 500 comprises a base site 530 which has a terminal/controller 532 coupled to an antenna tower 534 for receiving messages and transmitting selective call messages. The base site 530 transmits selective call messages to a selective call receiver 100 which comprises an antenna 502 for intercepting transmitted radio frequency (RF) signals which is coupled to the input of a receiver 504. The receiver 504 provides for reception of transmissions on a single reception frequency or reception on multiple reception frequencies in a manner well known to one of ordinary skill in the art. The receiver 504 receives and demodulates the transmitted signals, preferably frequency modulated data signals, providing at the output of the receiver a stream of binary data signals corresponding to the destination IDs transmitted from any particular destination location. The binary data signals are coupled into the input of a controller 506 which processes the signals, in a manner well known in the art. The received destination IDs are compared with the predetermined destination ID corresponding to the destination to which a subscriber or user has preselected. A code plug memory 514, coupled to the controller 506, includes a table of destination IDs, or addresses, which are stored in the memory 514. Selector switches 520 are provided to enable the selection of one or more destination addresses identifying destinations at which the subscriber wishes to be notified. A display 102 is used to display the destination information stored in the memory 514 for enabling the subscriber to readily select the destination at which an alert is desired, as will be described below. The controller 506 compares the received destination IDs with the predetermined destination address selected by the subscriber from the memory 514, and when a match is detected, the controller 506 generates an alert enable signal which is coupled to the input of a sensible alerting device, such as a tactile alerting device 518. The tactile alerting device 518 preferably provides a silent vibratory output alerting the subscriber that the destination selected is being approached.

When the selective call receiver 100 is used to provide both destination notification alerting and paging capability, the addresses assigned to the selective call receiver 100 for use in the selective call communication system are stored in memory 514. The controller 506 then controls the generation of the frequency to enable selectively receiving signals on a paging channel or the selective call system channel. A power switch 510 coupled to the controller 506 is used to control the supply of power to the receiver 504, thereby providing a battery saving function, as is well known in the art for use with selective call receivers. When the paging channel is selected, the received paging address signals are processed by the controller 506, and when a paging address signal is detected which corresponds to an assigned address of the selective call receiver 100, the controller 506 generates an alert enable signal which can be coupled to an audible alerting device 516, such as an audible transducer, to provide an audible alert, or can be coupled to the tactile alerting device 518 to provide a silent alert. Selection of either audible or silent alerting is provided by the selector switches 520 in a manner well known in the art. A transmitter (or ack-back transmitter) 512 is coupled to the controller 506 for transmitting acknowledgment response to a received selective call message. Alternatively, the selective call receiver has a transmitter which comprises an acoustic transmitter 526 or an Infra Red (IR) transmitter 526 for downloading a message (handwritting characters) associated with the readable characters to a communicating device, such as telephone or computer, that has a corresponding acoustic or IR receiver to receive the downloaded message. The user selects one of the stored response to be transmitted in response to the received selective call message or generate a response by selectively pressing the keys of the selector switches 520 to generate a message response. The user preferably uses the stylus 108 to write handwritten characters on the digitizer 104. The digitizer 104 has sensors 522 on the digitizer 104 for tracking a motion of the stylus 108 across a surface of or in close proximity of the sensors 522 of the digitizer 104. The handwritten characters generated on the digitizer 104 are used by the controller 506 to generate readable characters to generate a message, the details will be discussed in below.

The controller 506 of FIG. 5 can be implemented utilizing a microcomputer as shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is an electrical block diagram of a microcomputer based controller 506 suitable for use in the selective call receiver of FIG. 5. As shown, the microcomputer 506 is preferably of the family of MC68HC05 series microcomputers, such as manufactured by Motorola, Inc., which includes an on-board display driver 620. The microcomputer 506 includes an oscillator 618 which generates the timing signals utilized in the operation of the microcomputer 506. A crystal, or crystal oscillator (not shown) is coupled to the inputs of the oscillator 618 to provide a reference signal for establishing the microcomputer timing. A timer/counter 602 couples to the oscillator 618 and provides programmable timing functions which are utilized in controlling the operation of the receiver or the processor. A RAM (random access memory) 604 is utilized to store variables derived during processing, as well as to provide storage of handwritten messages which comprise a plurality of readable characters generated from the handwritten characters and other paging information which are received during operation as a selective call receiver 100. A ROM (read only memory) 606 stores the subroutines which control the operation of the receiver or the processor which will be discussed further. The ROM 606 also stores the plurality of prestored responses (canned responses) and the plurality of characters which are used to generated the readable characters from the handwritten characters. It will be appreciated that in many microcomputer implementations, the programmable-ROM (PROM) memory area can be provided either by a programmable read only memory (PROM) or an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory). The oscillator 618, timer/counter 602, RAM 604, and ROM 606 are coupled through an address/data/control bus 608 to a central processing unit (CPU) 610 which performs the instructions and controls the operations of the microcomputer 506. The demodulated data generated by the receiver is coupled into the microcomputer 506 through an input/output (I/O) port 612. The demodulated data is processed by the CPU 610 and when the received address is the same as that stored within the code-plug memory 514 which couples into the microcomputer through, for example an I/O port 614, the selective call message is received and stored in RAM 604. Recovery of the stored message, and selection of the predetermined destination address, is provided by the switches which are coupled to the I/O port 612. The microcomputer 506 then recovers the stored message and directs the information over the data bus 608 to the display driver 620 which processes the information and formats the information for presentation by the display (output display screen) 102 (FIG. 5) such as an LCD (liquid crystal display). When the selective call receiver 100 receives its address, the alert signal that is generated can be routed through the data bus 608 to an alert generator 616 that generates the alert enable signal which is coupled to the audible alert device that was described above. Alternatively, when the vibrator alert is selected, as described above, the microcomputer generates an alert enable signal which is coupled through data bus 608 to the I/O port 614 to enable generation of a vibratory, or silent alert.

The battery saver operation is controlled by the CPU 610. The battery saving signals are directed over the data bus 608 to the I/O port 612 which couples to the power switch 510 (FIG. 5). Power is periodically supplied to the receiver to enable decoding of the received selective call receiver address signals and the selective call messages which are directed to the selective call receiver 100. A recognition engine 622 that has a comparator 624 and a memory, a decoder 626 and a corrector 628 are used to generate readable characters from the handwritten characters entered on the digitizer 104 and a encoder 630 is used to encode the handwritten message in a paging message or response to be transmitted to the base site 530.

Referring to FIG. 7, a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the selective call system and selective call receiver according to FIG. 5. When the terminal/controller 532 of the base site 530 transmits a selective call message via the transmitter tower 534, the selective call receiver, during its power-on sequence, interrogate the paging signals to determine if its address is present, step 702. If not, the selective call receiver 100 checks if handwriting inputs are detected on the digitizer 104, step 706. If not, the selective call receiver 100 continues to interrogate the paging signals for its address until the battery saving sequence, step 702. If at step 702, the selective call receiver detects its address, the selective call receiver awaits the arrival of the selective call message which is received, decoded and stored, step 704. It is well known to those of ordinary skilled in that arts how paging messages are received, decoded and stored.

When a handwriting input is detected on the digitizer 104, step 706, the handwriting input can be captured by the digitizer 104 using a variety of technologies. For example, the position of the stylus (or pen) 108 can be detected at a rapid rate (for example, approximately 100 times per second) and stored as a sequence of (x,y) coordinates. The (x,y) coordinates are interpreted to determine the input to the digitizer 104. The digitizer 104, for example, comprises a sensor to be used with a stylus 108 which tracks the motion of the stylus 108 across the digitizer 104, for example the stylus locally compresses points on the digitizing surface of the digitizer 104 upon contact thereto to induce a current or a voltage. Alternatively, a charged stylus (or pen) 108 on or within close proximity of a surface of the digitizer 104 covered with a material of known resistivity cause the generation a signal which is measured at the edges of the surface of the digitizer 104; or by using a stylus or pen 108 that emits Radio Frequency (RF) energy on a digitizer surface that detects the proximity of the RF energy.

The digitizer 104, for example, can show the motion of the stylus 108 for visual feedback using, for example, a laminated digitizing surface to give the impression of ink being left behind as the stylus 108 is moved across the digitizing surface, or alternatively, displaying simply the results of the handwriting recognition operation. For entering handwritten characters, the user uses the stylus 108 for writing or generating (entering) the handwritten characters or commands in the digitized space 106 or digitized spaces 206-212 by tracing a handwritten character on the digitizer 104. The controller 506 tracks the motion of the stylus across the digitizer and retrieves the handwritten character or traced image which is passed to the recognition engine 622, step 708. The recognition engine 622 has for example a handwriting recognition algorithm which is used to identify the sequence of points captured by the digitizing component as a readable character or command that can be interpreted by the central processing unit (CPU) 610 of the controller 506. Alternatively, the user can enter (or generate) handwritten characters (message) as desired by using the stylus 108 to write the message on the digitizer 104, step 730. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a trainable system is used, in which the user first enters several examples of each character to be recognized for training the system to recognize the user's handwriting. The samples are stored and passed through the recognition engine 622 which compares the input via the comparator 624 to generate samples which correspond to readable characters or commands. Once the samples are stored, the system uses the comparator 624 to compare new inputs with the stored samples to determine which character was traced or written on the digitizer 104, step 710. A trainable system allows high recognition accuracy to be achieved for a particular user. Alternatively, the entered samples, when retrieved, are compared against stored templates, e.g., readable characters. A third alternative method includes retrieving the entered handwritten characters which are processed by a neural network or other statistical mechanism to identify the output class to which it belongs.

The controller 506 determines when a end-of-message is retrieved, which for example could comprises a predefined stroke (command) entered by the user to signify the end-of message, step 712. The user can enter other gestures or strokes to generate digitizing components that can be used to control the device in a number of ways. The gestures can either be predefined, or trained as described above, to cause the selective call receiver to perform desired actions. For example, the user could enter the first few characters of a name stored in a directory memory, then write a circle to instruct the controller 506 to retrieve the address from memory and transmit a page to that person. Another command gesture for example includes training the selective call receiver to perform a specific task when the user taps in a particular location on the digitizing surface of the digitizer 104. This allows the possibility of presenting more information to the user about available choices, freeing them from having to remember which buttons to press. Once the end-of message is received, the handwritten message entered via the digitizer is stored, step 714. The handwritten message is then presented on the display 102 to enable the user to view and to correct the message, step 716. By selecting, for example by highlighting, a character or a word of the message, step 718, the user can correct that character or word by enabling the corrector 628 which activates the digitizer 104 to accept other entered (accepting additional handwritten characters or replacement commands) characters, commands, or words on the digitizer (replacement character), step 720, which is to replace the highlighted character or word, step 722. Therefore, the user is able to correct any error in the entered message once the corrector 628 is activated. The message is then stored in its final form as readable characters forming a handwritten message or command, step 724. The step of correcting the message is achieved by steps 716-724. The selective call receiver 100 uses the encoder 630 to encode the stored message with an address to compose an ack-back response or paging signal, step 726 which is transmitted in response to the receipt of a page (selective call message), step 728. The message can also be stored as profile information to associate with other subscriber information of the paging system. For example, the handwritten message can include a paging subscriber's address and name which can be stored. This name and address can be retrieved and used with other entered message to compose a paging message which is transmitted from the selective call receiver 100 instead of using a telephone or an alpha-entry device to send page. In this way, a selective call receiver is able to receive handwritten messages or commands from a user who uses a stylus to enter the handwritten message on a digitizer. Once the message is entered, the message is displayed and corrected by the user. The corrected message is used to transmit pages from the selective call receiver, or to compose a message by encoding the handwritten message with an address and transmitted as an acknowledge-back response to a selective call message that was received previously. Handwritten characters or gestures can be entered to be used as commands (handwritten commands) to instruct the selective call receiver to perform predefined task.

Therefore, the user is not limited to prestored (canned) messages or to manipulating keys which are too small to lend themselves to easy entry of information in a selective call receiver because by combining a digitizer and a handwriting recognition system with a selective call receiver, the user has the option and ability to enter information, messages, and commands conveniently and easily in a selective call receiver.

In summary, there is provided a selective call receiver that receives, decodes and stores selective call messages. The selective call receiver comprises a digitizer that accepts handwritten characters; the digitizer comprises sensors for tracking a motion of a stylus across the digitizer for generating the handwritten characters. A recognition engine, coupled to the digitizer, generates readable characters from the handwritten characters. The recognition engine further comprises a memory that stores a plurality of characters and a comparator for comparing the handwritten characters with the plurality of characters in the memory for generating the readable characters. The selective call receiver further comprises a decoder, coupled to the memory, that associates the readable characters with the selective call messages, a display, coupled to the memory, displays a message with the readable characters associated therewith; an encoder encodes the readable characters to form a paging message and a transmitter, coupled to the encoder, transmits the paging message in response to a selective call message being received.

Claims

1. A selective call receiver for receiving, decoding and storing selective call messages, comprising: a digitizer for accepting handwritten characters; a recognition engine, coupled to the digitizer, for generating readable characters from the handwritten characters; a memory, coupled to the recognition engine, for storing the readable characters; a decoder, coupled to the memory, for associating the readable characters with the selective call messages; and a display, coupled to the memory and the decoder, for displaying a message with the readable characters associated therewith.

2. The selective call receiver according to claim 1 wherein the digitizer comprises sensors for tracking a motion of a stylus across the digitizer.

3. The selective call receiver according to claim 1 wherein the recognition engine comprising: a memory for storing a plurality of characters; and a comparator for comparing the handwritten characters with the plurality of characters in the memory for generating the readable characters.

4. The selective call receiver according to claim 1 further comprising: an encoder for encoding the readable characters to form a paging message; and a transmitter, coupled to the encoder, for transmitting the paging message in response to a selective call message being received.

5. The selective call receiver according to claim 5 wherein the transmitter comprises an acoustic or infra red transmitter for downloading the readable characters to communication device.

6. In a selective call receiver for receiving, decoding and storing selective call messages, a method comprising the steps of:

(a) entering handwritten characters;

(b) processing the handwritten characters with a recognition engine;

(c) generating, in response to the step of processing, readable characters from the handwritten characters;

(d) storing the readable characters;

(e) generating a profile for associating the selective call messages with the readable characters; and

(f) displaying the selective call messages and the readable characters associated therewith.

7. In a selective call receiver for receiving, decoding and storing selective call messages, a method comprising the steps of:

(a) entering a handwritten command;

(b) processing the handwritten command with a recognition engine; and

(c) executing, in response to the step of processing, the handwritten command on the selective call receiver.

8. A selective call receiver for receiving, decoding and storing selective call messages, comprising: a digitizer for accepting handwritten characters, the digitizer comprises sensors for tracking a motion of a stylus across the digitizer for generating the handwritten characters; a recognition engine, coupled to the digitizer, for generating readable characters from the handwritten characters, the recognition engine having a memory, coupled to the recognition engine, for storing a plurality of characters, and a comparator for comparing the handwritten characters with the plurality of characters in the memory for generating the readable characters; a decoder, coupled to the memory, for associating the readable characters with the selective call messages; a display, coupled to the memory, for displaying a message with the readable characters associated therewith; an encoder for encoding the readable characters to form a paging message; and a transmitter, coupled to the encoder, for transmitting the paging message in response to a selective call message being received.

9. A method comprising: computing written data representing written characters or words input to a selective call receiver; comparing the written data with at least one set of template characters or words to find one or more of the at least one set of template characters or words most closely resembling the written characters or words; and displaying at least one of the one or more of the at least one set of template characters or words most closely resembling the written characters or words.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the step of displaying the at least one of the one or more of the template characters or words on the digitizer comprises displaying the at least one of the one or more of the template characters or words in close proximity to the written characters or words on the digitizer.