Eleven months ago, I discovered a little-known program called Microsoft Math (read old post here). This was the first decent attempt that I’d seen at handwriting recognition for math. I’m guessing that Microsoft Math was the testing ground for a new feature that will be released with Microsoft’s Windows 7 – handwriting recognition for math (see Gizmodo post for more Windows 7 spoilers). You can see similarity in the screenshots of the Microsoft Math interface and the image that has been posted for Windows 7.
Here’s Windows 7 Math Handwriting Recognition.
Here’s the older Microsoft Math Interface.
While handwriting recognition is certainly fantastic news for us math folks, it still does not solve the problem of getting cheap tablet technology into the hands of students. Without that, handwriting recognition for math will only be useful for those of us who have been blessed with Tablet PCs or peripheral tablets.
