A novel method for online data acquisition of cursive handwriting is described. A video camera is used to record the handwriting of a user. From the acquired sequence of images, the movement of the tip of the pen is reconstructed. A prototype of the system has been implemented and tested. In one series of tests, the performance of the system was visually assessed. In another series of experiments, the system was combined with an existing online handwriting recognizer. Good results have been obtained in both sets of experiments.