Amharic Online Handwriting Recognition

Growth in the demand of touch screen devices such as smartphones, tablets and PDAs on global

market is influencing the way we interact with computers. because of their architectural design

these devices does not include attached keyboards as a text entry mechanism rather they use their

screen as input device and let the user touch the screen to operate them. This text entry is mostly

similar to the traditional way of text entry. For example works that are usually done like text

entry are done using virtual keyboards which have same functionality as the hardware keyboard.

Amharic is the second most popular Semitic language in Africa and it is the working language of

Ethiopia. Despite its popularity no valid and workable research is found that can simplify the text

entry and input system of this language.

In Spite of rapid technology advancements, text entry on handheld devices is still inconvenient

since there is a chance of missing buttons due to their small size specifically input mechanism for

Amharic language the use of a keyboard is awkward due to the number of alphabets present in

the language. Recently developers are making different keyboard applications but that doesn't

seem to solve the problem.

Using the touch screen capabilities of handhelds input method which is similar to handwriting is

the best way to replace the current text entry approach. most people learn writing by using a pen

and a pencil not a keyboard so writing on a touchscreen device like you write on a piece of paper

is the natural and easiest way for the users .users can stroke their hand on a given canvas and the

application reads what they write .

Online handwriting recognition (OHWR) is getting renewed interest as it provides data entry

mechanism that is similar to natural way of writing.

This project mainly focuses on using this technique to solve the problem mentioned above. The

online handwriting recognition project is not new idea .in recent years many researchers are

adopting this method for their language use.