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The stroke recognition is both really cool and somewhat disorienting. Really cool because it works, and somewhat disorienting because if you're off a bit, it re

The stroke recognition is both really cool and somewhat disorienting. Really cool because it works, and somewhat disorienting because if you're off a bit, it repositions the stroke. In a fluent writer, each stroke follow from muscle memory, relative to the size and position of the previous stroke. Repositioning breaks the rhythm. I don't know, the positive reinforcement might work very well for a beginner. I would be more worried about the intermediate student and above.

nwinter 18y ago
Really? I'd guess that it's the advanced learners who can abstract characters better and don't need as accurate a writing style. We're thinking of not repositioning strokes, or maybe not even recognizing them, until each component is completed. Will improve recognition heuristics, give less hints, and be a natural way to indicate components. We have t build the decomposition system first, though. Might that solve the problem you describe?
- pradocchia 18y ago
  I was using a mouse. It would have been less jarring with a stylus. Also, I was trying to control my hand for standard form/楷书, rather than everyday cursive, so that didn't help either. Had I started learning with a tool like this, my placement would be much better, just because I would have tried very hard to minimize repositioning. Maybe. I'm still trying to think through the implications. You might try recognizing the strokes, but leaving them in the background in a lighter color? [big edit here] Maybe resize and reposition the model character around the input character as it is written, and then provide some sort of visual feedback at the end on the delta? eg, good proportions, but you are 25% too small and 30% off center. I'm trying to think of some way to a) preserve feedback while b) reinforcing the rhythmic quality of writing. Rhythm is a mnemonic aid. If you can find some way to reinforce it, that would be a huge boon to students. There's a rhythm to each stroke and a composite rhythm to each character. Combined with regular patterns like radicals and phonetic roots, rhythm is what allows you to memorize thousands of characters. To the point that sometimes you have to write a character to remember its stroke order. [/edit] Very cool site, though. I studied all through the 90s, and the pedagogy was just awful. If I knew then what I know now about language acquisition, I could have compressed my studies into 2 or 3 years, rather than 10. You should have an open field. Also: I'd love to see a system like this for 行书. The heuristics would probably be a lot more complicated, though, and the market much smaller.
  - nwinter 18y ago
    The Wacom definitely preserves the rhythm. I dread the thought of what it would take to do cursive instructionally. Thanks for the writing ideas. I think there's a lot more we can do with it.

nwinter 18y ago

Really? I'd guess that it's the advanced learners who can abstract characters better and don't need as accurate a writing style. We're thinking of not repositioning strokes, or maybe not even recognizing them, until each component is completed. Will improve recognition heuristics, give less hints, and be a natural way to indicate components. We have t build the decomposition system first, though. Might that solve the problem you describe?

pradocchia 18y ago
I was using a mouse. It would have been less jarring with a stylus. Also, I was trying to control my hand for standard form/楷书, rather than everyday cursive, so that didn't help either. Had I started learning with a tool like this, my placement would be much better, just because I would have tried very hard to minimize repositioning. Maybe. I'm still trying to think through the implications. You might try recognizing the strokes, but leaving them in the background in a lighter color? [big edit here] Maybe resize and reposition the model character around the input character as it is written, and then provide some sort of visual feedback at the end on the delta? eg, good proportions, but you are 25% too small and 30% off center. I'm trying to think of some way to a) preserve feedback while b) reinforcing the rhythmic quality of writing. Rhythm is a mnemonic aid. If you can find some way to reinforce it, that would be a huge boon to students. There's a rhythm to each stroke and a composite rhythm to each character. Combined with regular patterns like radicals and phonetic roots, rhythm is what allows you to memorize thousands of characters. To the point that sometimes you have to write a character to remember its stroke order. [/edit] Very cool site, though. I studied all through the 90s, and the pedagogy was just awful. If I knew then what I know now about language acquisition, I could have compressed my studies into 2 or 3 years, rather than 10. You should have an open field. Also: I'd love to see a system like this for 行书. The heuristics would probably be a lot more complicated, though, and the market much smaller.
- nwinter 18y ago
  The Wacom definitely preserves the rhythm. I dread the thought of what it would take to do cursive instructionally. Thanks for the writing ideas. I think there's a lot more we can do with it.