Title: A networked virtual environment for teaching handwritten characters through shared haptisation

Authors: Hiroaki Nishino, Akira Yamaguchi, Tsuneo Kagawa, Kouichi Utsumiya

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Intelligent Systems, Oita University, 700 Dannoharu, Oita 870-1192, Japan. ' Information Network Solutions Division, NEC Networks and System Integration Corporation, 1-39-9 Higashi Shinagawa, Tokyo 140-0002, Japan. ' Department of Computer Science and Intelligent Systems, Oita University, 700 Dannoharu, Oita 870-1192, Japan. ' Department of Computer Science and Intelligent Systems, Oita University, 700 Dannoharu, Oita 870-1192, Japan

Abstract: We present an approach to construct a networked online education system among physically separated participants targeted at teaching handwritten characters. The proposed system provides a haptic channel to intuitively learn remote instructor|s fine motor skills through the sense of touch. The instructor|s handwriting motions are sent to the learner|s system and replayed via the learner|s haptic device. The learner can intuitively acquire the instructor|s writing skill through the haptic interactions. Additionally, the instructor can check the learner|s writing exercise and give him or her some advices to improve the writing ability. We also describe experiments to quantitatively analyse how the haptic interactions improve the learning quality.

Keywords: haptic interfaces; teaching handwritten characters; networked virtual reality; computer graphics; intuitive learning; motor skills; sense of touch; e-learning; online learning; electronic learning; handwriting motions; haptic devices; writing ability; learning quality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIDM.2009.025410

International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining, 2009 Vol.4 No.1, pp.38 - 61

Published online: 21 May 2009 *

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