Chinese character input pad (stylus)

[xyz123abc]

My other thread was not approved, or hasn't been. I hope this one makes it through.

THere are some devices on ebay which say they can recognize chinese characters. You get a stick (stylus), strike the caracter as you would on paper and the device recognizes it and inputs it in the computer. You can picture it as a keyboard where you write instead of strike keys.

Now, have no idea how well they perform. They cost 30 dollars, they are chinese branded. Are they accurate at recognizing characters? Are they fast enough? I haven't found any reviews about them, so I came asking here for the first opinion.

TY, again, bye!

[prateeksha]

I bought a Besta dictionary from amazon.cn for 600 yuan and I haven't touched my paper dictionary ever since. It has the stylus input which works with a fair degree of accuracy. The simple characters are easy to be looked up. More complex characters with 15+ strokes need a little patience. I initially used to get very irritated with the input function as I would yet not have finished writing the character and the dictionary would already start looking it up. It comes with a little practice and a suitable change of dictionary settings. My dictionary had wait time set at 1 second and once I changed it to 2 seconds, I could look up characters with greater accuracy.

My dictionary supports 13 languages, has some situational dialogues with built-in audio, English-Chinese dictionary, English-English dictionary, supports mp3 [i listen to my 听力 lessons on it] and lots of 专业 vocabulary which can be downloaded from their website.

Great buy!

[xyz123abc]

I just Checked it on amazon. Looks like a great device. Around 350 dollars, depending on the model. And the reviews say they are pretty good, too

The device I am currently looking into is an input device only. Just for digitalizing your hand written characters onto the computer. That would serve two purposes: using a powerful dictionary in the computer and real chinese input that will allow me to practice writing in a real scenario (ni3hao3 chinese walls in facebook)

If you query "Chinese Handwriting" in amazon.com you will get the devices I am talking about..... I will read the reviews there now :o I didn't know amazon stocked some

EDIT:

The reviews about the tablets are positive, 96% accuracy is claimed by one of them. I will have to give them a try. Any further comments are welcome!!!

[roddy]

Look for Wacom tablets. If you're only doing Chinese input and not, eg, painting and such like, you don't need multi-touch input, just pen. Bear in mind that the actual character recognition is a software thing, not a hardware one, so make sure whatever you buy comes with what you need, or that you already have it or can download it. I think Wacom's downloads section may have what you need, if it isn't in a CD in the box.

I used to have a cheap (300RMB more or less) Wacom tablet for use with Skritter, Worked great. Can't remember the exact model, but it was one of the Bamboo range.

My other thread was not approved, or hasn't been. I hope this one makes it through

Admins have weekends too ;-) Queue is clear now, so everything's either been approved or deleted.

[muirm]

If you happen to have a Macbook or a Magic Trackpad (and recent enough OS), you can use the trackpad to draw Chinese characters using a built-in system input method (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4288).

There are also free websites (www.nciku.com) that support "drawn" character input. Depending on your needs, you might not need to buy a separate device.

[icebear]

If you happen to have a Macbook or a Magic Trackpad (and recent enough OS), you can use the trackpad to draw Chinese characters using a built-in system input method (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4288).

There are also free websites (www.nciku.com) that support "drawn" character input. Depending on your needs, you might not need to buy a separate device.

Just wanted to add that I used the following stylus and software (Inklet) which works to convert newer Mac trackpads into writing input devices. The experience when using Skritter was good - not amazing, but good enough to using for several tens of minutes each day and enjoy the exercise. Overall a good bargain if the Wacom is overkill for your needs. http://tenonedesign.com/inklet.php

[xyz123abc]

Hey, thanks for all the replies

I am not sure all those devices are the same. Are they? icebear, that link took me to a stylus. Can it be used with any computer, or just with tablets? (with touchscreens). From what I understood it was just the former...

roddy's recommendation is closer to what I have in my screen. The differences are that the one I want to buy CAN'T be used to draw. It is just a Chinese character recognition peripheral. It probably doesn't use computer side recognition. That would make it more friendly with old computers... I think. On the downside, if the accuracy is terrible, It will soon end up in the trash bin as it won't be possible to improve accuracy with software ;(

Ill give it a try. I would like to post an ebay link, but it is probably prohibited, isn't it.

Thanks again!

[icebear]

The link I provided is to Inklet, MacOS software that improves the using of the Mac trackpad (standard on any Mac laptop, or with some iMacs) with a stylus as a writing device. The stylus you see in the picture is the Pogo Sketch, which itself is a stylus that can be used with any capacitative touch interface (tablets, trackpads, smartphones, etc).

[roddy]

Ebay link is welcome.

[xyz123abc]

Thanks for the flag. Here you are:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/170709259301?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

^.^

They also sell that brand on amazon. These have a larger input areas

http://www.amazon.com/Qiancai-Chinese-Handwriting-Tablet-Windows/dp/B005CXIQQU

I bought one already from ebay. If everything goes as planned, I will receive it in a month >.< In that case, Ill post a review as soon as I can

[roddy]

Hmmmm. Not a brand I recognize and looks very cheap. Best of luck with it, but at that price I wouldn't expect too much. Maybe I'm just jealous as I paid significantly more for this one (at least I think that was the model).