Nintendo Licenses Handwriting Recognition Software

Officials from Nintendo have announced a licensing deal with technology company Zi Corporation to use the company’s Decuma handwriting recognition software in unspecified titles for the Nintendo DS. The Decuma product portfolio is comprised of three handwriting recognition software products: Decuma Alphabetic, for English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and other Western languages; Decuma Chinese for Simplified and Traditional Chinese; and Decuma Japanese, which supports Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. There has been no indication from Nintendo on how they will use the various Decuma products, although the technology has obvious applications for communication programs such as Pictochat, and also for the publisher’s “Touch! Generations” products such as the Brain Training games and the recently announced Eigo Zuke English language training software. "As the leading provider of handheld video game systems in the world, Nintendo has a reputation for adopting innovative technologies that improve the user's experience with its products," said Milos Djokovic, chief technical officer and chief operating officer, Zi Corporation. "With Decuma, Nintendo DS users will experience natural handwriting recognition previously only available to PDA and smartphone users. Zi continues to bring its multi-modal input products to leading mobile phones, gaming platforms and smartphones across the globe."