Describe an application of pattern recognition in your life.

I use a PalmPilot which recognized Graffiti, a stylized handwriting.
The features it recognizes are pen strokes to recognize letter
boundaries, and within each stroke, it recognizes one of rougly a
dozen patterns with various orientations.  This combination of
orientation and stroke features allow for a decision of what character
has been drawn with high accuracy.

If I were trying to solve the same problem, I would start by
identifying features of where the stylus moves relative to the initial
placement and when and how the stylus changes direction.  For example
an A would be a stroke which moves up and to the right, then changes
direction to down and to the right.  Beyond this, I am wary to
speculate without actually seeing what sort of strokes have distinct
features, but I can speculate based on the implementation in the Pilot
that it is dominated by large loops and sharp turns.