Is there a viable handwriting recognition library / program?
java, machine-learning, ocr, r
Solution
To begin with, as far as i know there are no native opensource Java OCR SDKs. There are Java APIs which wrap calls for native interfaces, tesjeract (http://code.google.com/p/tesjeract/) or Tess4J (http://tess4j.sf.net/).
Next, you need to specify whether you look for handwritten or handprinted text. If you need handwriting text recognition - i don't beleive you'll be able to solve your tasks because of the reasons stated in other answers.
However, if you need ICR (that stands for intelligent character recognition) for handprinted text (rather clear letters used in surveys, forms, etc.) there could be a solution. While I beleive that tesseract (despite being considered the best among opensource engines) won't do the job for you here, you can look for more accurate SDKs.
Maybe this question would help: Handwritten scanned Doc to .txt File?
Problem
I'm looking to process a bunch of scanned response postcards that have handwritten contact information on them (ie Name, Address, Phone, Email, etc). I'm curious if there is a viable open-source library or piece of software to do this (ideally Java or R). In looking around a lot of the information is from 2009 or early and isn't very encouraging. The language is English. Any suggestions? EDIT: I've looked at the OCRopus page but the latest version is from May 2009. Anyone have any experience with this or is there a more recent version?