character recognition

[Yaeger, Larry]

There have been a number of published works on the use of neural networks for
handprinted character recognition.  All the work of this type that I recall
hearing or reading about has been based on either pixel maps or feature vectors
derived from pixel maps.  Segmentation was either provided appriori, or was a
separate step in the recognition process that did not utilize a connectionist
approach (and was usually the weakest link in the process).
 
Is there any published (or unpublished) work on a connectionist approach to
handprinted character recognition that utilizes stroke data -- time-sequences
of input-device position -- as direct input to the network (whether predicting
segmentation or having it supplied)?  Is there an existing database of such
stroke data (whether gathered for connectionist models or not)?
 
Thanks in advance for any information you might be able to pass on.  If there
is an outpouring of references on the subject I'll collect them and post to
this list.
 
- larryy at apple.com  [please use this address
                     regardless of what your mailer says]
 
P.S. Be careful not to reply to the entire list unless you intend to...