Measurement of handwriting skills for Japanese calligraphy

A brush pen is one of traditional writing tools, and it is used to practice the writing characters in schools. Some basic skills are required for pupils and students in calligraphy. For example, they must keep speed of the brush pen while drawing strokes. There are difficulties for pupils and students to recognize their handwriting skills. Therefore, motion analysis of the handwriting is necessary to support them to master the handwriting ways. In this paper, we propose a measurement and visualization methods of handwriting skills. Pupils and students write characters by using a brush pen and a white paper. Strokes written by the brush pen can be inputted into a computer by using a CCD camera. The characters can be reconstructed and displayed on the computer display at the realistic rate. We propose a measurement and visualization method of handwriting skills, such as the line width, the speed and the path of the brush pen.