Chinese Characters as Sketch Diagrams Using a Geometric-Based Approach

Knowledge of over a thousand Chinese characters is necessary to effectively communicate in written Chinese and Japanese, so writing patterns such as stroke order and direction are heavily emphasized to students for efficient memorization. Pedagogical methods for Chinese characters can greatly benefit from sketch diagramming tools, since they can automate the task of critiquing students' writing technique. Falling cost and greater advances made in pen-based computing device even allow language programs to afford deploying these systems for augmenting their existing curriculum. While current vision-based techniques for sketching Chinese characters could be adopted for their high visual recognition rates, they do not directly support technique recognition and are unable to provide feedback for critiquing technique. A geometric-based approach can accomplish this task, though visual recognition rates have largely been untested. For our paper, we analyze the feasibility of a geometricapproach in visual recognition, as well as discuss its feasibility for use in a learning tool for teaching