The Nintendo DS is looking to poise itself as a more serious means of communication. Zi Corporation has announced
today that it is licensing its Decuma Handwriting Recognition technology to Nintendo and its game developers for use
with its Nintendo DS. Decuma, according to its product page,
is "modeled closely to actual writing with pen and paper." The goal of Decuma is to allow users to write as they would
normally, and the software will recognize and convert it to text.
A tool like this is a great complement to Nintendo's Wi-Fi service, as it would allow for quick chatting amongst
online players without the need for a wireless headset - and with the technology licensed to Nintendo's developers,
there is no
excuse for this feature to be excluded from an online game. Hopefully we will see this in upcoming DS online
games.
[Thanks, vrf, JamesO,
and Jonathan Dolby]
