Apple Introduces Handwriting Recognition for iPhone

In typical Apple manner, the Cupertino-based giant has "quietly" added handwriting recognition for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) into the latest version of the iPhone Firmware 2.0 beta, sources inform. Users select Chinese input and draw characters on the screen with their fingers. The handwriting recognition function helps users write better and faster by displaying four possibilities on the right side of the screen. No support for English yet.

Wretch.cc shows screenshots of the new feature available with version 2.0 of the iPhone software due out in June, "and MacRumors has been able to independently verify that this does exist in the latest iPhone firmware beta available to registered iPhone developers," the website notes. "There is no support for English at this time," the same report reveals.

If this helps explain why you're suddenly hearing about a handwriting recognition function soon to become available on your iPhone, Apple has recently announced it is hiring a Handwriting Recognition Engineer for recognition technology that may even extend "beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone." What do you know, it did.

Here's what the company's website revealed at the time of the announcement: "The Handwriting Recognition team is seeking an engineer who will be responsible for advancing Apple's handwriting recognition technology for Mac OS X. The ideal candidate will be an expert in the area of pattern recognition, with an excellent understanding of handwriting recognition issues. The person will also assume primary responsibility for maintaining and enhancing existing code and tools. The recognition technology you create may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone."

Requirements say you need to be an expert in the area of pattern recognition, to have a strong design and analytical skills, to be a strong coder with experience in C or C++, to have the ability to work on several concurrent projects and to be able to show a track record of innovation and excellence on previous assignments.

Being well versed in the area of handwriting recognition should provide you with an advantage over other possible candidates for the job, as would also do the knowledge of and experience with hidden Markov model and neural net algorithms.

So if you're all of the above and then some, Apple would surely like a call from you.