Mi-Co User Day '05 a Hit with Pioneers and Implementers of Digital Ink and Mobile Data Capture Applications

When the last presentation on digital ink was finished, the last discussion regarding mobile data capture was winding down, and as attendees made their way to the airport or local office, they knew that they had spent two days with pioneers in the world of digital ink.

Visionary attendees included those representing virtually every segment of the digital ink and mobile data capture market place: experts in digital ink and handwriting recognition technology, software and hardware veterans in Tablet PCs and Digital Pens; service organizations that have implemented highly successful mobile data capture applications and organizations that are on their second, third or fourth digital ink applications.

"This year’s event demonstrated the strides taken by organizations in implementing data capture and forms automation processes using the latest in digital ink and handwriting recognition technology," said Jim Clary, CEO of Mi-Co, "The gathering represented a who’s who of industry leaders and you, the pioneers, have driven this market to the edge of explosion."

On the day of the conference, Dr. Manuel Torres-Anjel of the National Cancer Institute called the meeting to order. Dr. Torres noted that this public activity was his last before retiring from the NCI after a distinguished career.

Jim Clary, CEO of Mi-Co and Barrett Joyner, Sr. VP provided an overview of the company and officially launched Mi-Forms 5—the 5 star release. This release not only provides enhancements and new features to the Mi-Forms, but also provides a complete and robust mobile data capture development environment built on Microsoft’s .NET framework. .

"Mi-Co is committed to providing our customers with unparalleled functionality in data capture technology allowing quick and easy implementation of form-based applications," said Mi-CO CEO James Clary. "Version 5 brings a wealth of new features in Mi-Forms from form design through information communication and allows ink-enablement of applications in ways that were not previously possible."

"We are extremely excited about Mi-Forms 5," stated Scott McLaughlin of Optiform, "because the use of the industry standard Visual Basic .NET as a scripting language in Version 5 allows developers the ability to leverage their skill set to extend and customize their Mi-Forms interfaces. There are incredible benefits in all the tasks that users conduct in mobile data capture."

Forms Design:

A major enhancement in Version 5 involves the use of Microsoft’s .NET framework and a syntax-highlighting VB.NET script editor. This provides a powerful enterprise form design and development environment. In addition, Mi-Co’s commitment to XML continues with an XML schema-based design capability as well as general enhancements to Mi-Forms Designer’s user interface.

Data capture:

The biggest enhancement in Version 5 data capture involves the host of new capabilities in Mi-Forms Client that allows digital ink capture and use in a variety of new ways. Mi-Co has added full support for

• Keyboard/mouse entry
• Binary attachments to form data
• Dynamic reloading of pick lists using script code
• Image annotations that allow importing and ink annotations directly on digital images
• Improved date/time handling
• Improved support for audio annotations, barcode scanners and GPS receivers.

Data verification:

The reduction of input errors and enhancements to the data verification capabilities in Version 5 include the support of dictionary word lists in conjunction with Mi-Forms state of the art character recognition. Version 5 also includes custom lexica support and 17 standard lexica to fine-tune constrained text and freeform recognition, explicit control over legal character sets for each constrained text box, and improved freeform recognition.

Any validation rule required by an enterprise process can be written in VB.NET Mi-Forms script code.

Information communication and integration:

Version 5 features a rich object model and is built on Microsoft .NET technology for easy integration with enterprise applications, including web browser applications. Solution developers may use the Mi-Forms object model to write datapaths in any .NET language to meet their solution requirements.

Platform Support

Mi-Forms Version 5 client software is in production on the Pocket PC, on the Tablet PC, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, and on desktop PCs running Windows 2000 and Windows XP. In addition, the Logitech io2 Pen is supported for data capture and ink recognition on a Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows XP Tablet Edition PC. Mi-Forms on Demand Server version 5 supports HP Digital Pen and Paper, Logitech io2 Bluetooth Pens and Nokia Digital Pens.
Mi-Forms Version 5 server software is in production on Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0.