OTM Technologies and Advanced Recognition Technologies sign cooperative agreement

Herzliya, Israel and Atlanta, GA, September 11, 2001 – OTM Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company specializing in optical laser technology, and ART, Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc., a pioneer in embedded speech and handwriting recognition technologies for mobile devices, today announced a cooperative agreement. The agreement will enable the companies to demonstrate OTM Technologies' VPen, a comprehensive handwriting and graphical input solution for cellular handsets, PDAs, PCs and iTVs, using ART's simpliWrite software.

The VPen is a standalone interaction tool, designed to enable new data applications on existing data terminals (handsets, PDAs, PCs, iTVs). It works on any surface, integrating the functionalities of a PC mouse and a digital pen into a single portable device. The range of new applications made available with the VPen includes handwriting of emails, notes and SMS, point and click screen navigation, and selection in advanced graphical interfaces, for example activating location-based services. In addition, the VPen enables drawing graphical messages and continuous control for enhanced mobile gaming. Prototypes of the VPen are currently in evaluation by a variety of handsets and data terminal manufacturers worldwide.

Using ART's simpliWrite handwriting recognition software embedded in the VPen, natural handwriting is converted into digital text. Designed to provide fast and accurate input for the new generation of keyboard-less devices, the ART recognizer identifies the user's own natural writing. It performs character recognition of handwritten characters by using the vector map and mouse events created by the VPen core and translating them into digital text in real time. In addition to supporting all major Western European languages, and even allowing for concurrent multilingual use, ART recently introduced a recognition solution for Chinese handwriting.