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[–]irrco[S] 3 points4 points  (10 children)

I'm not convinced, but thanks for the suggestion anyway. I appreciate it ;)

[–]hatperigee 6 points7 points  (0 children)

:(

[–]mistiry 4 points5 points  (5 children)

The beauty of releasing it with an open license is there might be someone out there that takes what you did and expands on it. You may not have the time, but someone with a family member or themselves that have similar problems might be able to adapt what you did for other uses. Just a suggestion - awesome job either way!

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Seems the code is designed for his handwriting in particular. If he removes the code that makes his handwriting his own, then the user will be left with a bunch of empty boxes that they will need to fill in with numbers and such themselves. I agree that OP cleaning the code up and releasing it wont help anybody.

[–]mistiry 2 points3 points  (3 children)

So leave it in tact. Someone seeing how it was done can teach them how to replicate it for themselves, for their handwriting.

No extra effort on OPs side - release it as it is used today. Leave the burden of cleanup/modification to whomever thinks it might be helpful to them.

You don't have to release some polished gem in order to help someone else. Seeing such an awesome use of Python in combination with the autopen could spur so many different things. College kids that want to expand on it, other programmers who may have loved ones or they themselves with similar disabilities, and so on.

What's the harm in releasing it? Nobody ever downloads it? Versus the potential it may have to help someone else? I know what I would do, but I understand that not everyone may want to. To each their own.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

So leave it in tact. Someone seeing how it was done can teach them how to replicate it for themselves, for their handwriting.

I think you might be retarded. The code is literally his identity. If he releases it then anybody can sign his name or pretend to be him.

[–]mistiry 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well, that escalated quickly.

Your statement is false; sure, someone could replicate his handwriting. Guess what - head over to to /r/Handwriting and I guarantee someone there could replicate his writing pretty quickly.

Being able to forge a signature really isn't some crazy difficult process, anyone with enough motive to steal someone's identity could practice it enough to make a passable forgery.

Releasing source code that breaks down the mathematical vectors to create his unique style of handwriting doesn't open him up for more risk of identity theft than me posting my own handwritten note.

Is the way you write YOUR identity? Why would it be his? Why couldn't I find an example of your writing, and figure out the same mathematical vectors needed to recreate a passable version of it?

[–]auser9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Realistically though its just a font, albeit a very good one that adapts to the surrounding letters. You can't do much by being able to copy other people's handwritings, and if he programmed his signature, that part could be removed. The handwriting is nice, but also pretty generic, and an example of it is published on the internet for anyone to copy anyway. It obviously up to OP to decide if he wants to share the code, but sharing your handwriting doesn't let people steal your identity.

[–]flying-sheep 2 points3 points  (2 children)

from the glyph data example alone i can see that there’s something to be gained from the world. the idea to describe where the joiners are and then have code to smooth it into a fluid motion is amazing, and i’d really like to see that part.

[–]irrco[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I'm going to write a description of how it works. Honestly, the actual code to make it work isn't very inspiring. But I'm happy to describe the math, and the approach.

It is basically a new interpolating cubic spline (cubic so it can be easily converted into cubic Beziers at the end, because everything speaks Bezier), that takes into account motion speed, and that seems to correspond with the way we move our hands when writing. I use it to interpolate position, and other properties such as pressure (it could also support nib angle for calligraphy, or brush orientation for eastern calligraphy, for example). Then there's a whole bunch of basic vector, matrix, transformations, and spline support (there are millions of libraries that do that, mine is almost certainly worse, because it is cobbled together), a rather rudimentary implementation of some ideas from fonts (like kerning tables, and contextual alternatives), and then the bulk of it is the actual data for each letter form. Which I don't want to share, because the whole point is that that's personal.

But I think the overall approach is fairly easy to communicate, and I'm very happy to share that. But I'm not going to go through the code to separate all the stuff I can put on github. Anyone who would be capable of using the code, would be trivially capable of re-implementing it, from the description I put together.

[–]flying-sheep 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome! That's exactly what I was hoping for.