14 DAY TRIAL // Motorola announced that its finger writing technology has been selected to receive the 2006 Chicago Innovation Award. The innovative text-input method allows mobile phones users to write text messages and emails using their finger. A capacitive sensor placed beneath a device's regular keypad detects finger movements and translates them into text, using handwriting recognition and predictive text technologies.
Any language that uses graphical characters can benefit from this technology. Finger writing is currently available on smartphones in Chinese-speaking markets - mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan - where texting can be difficult in a language with over 13,000 characters. Future implementations may appear in countries such as India, the Middle East and other Asian countries.
"We're honored to be recognized as a leading innovator in the Chicago area," said Tom MacTavish, vice president, human interaction research, Motorola Labs. "At Motorola we're working to develop new technology platforms that will make user interaction with mobile devices smarter and more effective. The finger writing technology is a demonstration of Motorola's commitment to advancing the future of communications."
The finger writing technology has earned Motorola its third Chicago Innovation Award. The previous two awards won by Motorola were for its Canopy Wireless Broadband solution and MOTO RAZR v3 mobile phone.