kanji

Calligraphy robot has a master's touch

Many people would probably say their handwriting has suffered the more they use computers to communicate. But imagine trying to exercise your rusty penmanship on letters that have not 1 or 2 strokes but 5, 10, 15, or more.

The Japanese often complain that sending e-mails and texts erodes their skills in writing the thousands of kanji, or Chinese characters, they learn in school. Some are maddeningly complex and, if rarely used, easy to forget.

But brush-painting kanji calligraphy is also a centuries-old art form. Keio University engineering professor Seiichiro Katsura has a way to help preserve it with his Motion Copy System robot. … Read more

The 404 654: Where Jeff is elbow deep in Poutine (podcast)

Mark Licea fills in for Jeff, who's on vacation in Montreal reenacting "The Hangover," so get ready for a hate-free show. On today's episode of The 404, we're chatting about the new Netflix app for the Apple iPhone, Sumo wrestlers using iPads, "character amnesia" hitting China, and the first of many expired movie reviews from yours truly in a new segment we're calling Yu Ain't Seen That?! First film to scratch off the bucket list: "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

It's been a long time coming, but you … Read more

Teach Mario how to write in Japanese

The way things are going, someone might eventually try to cram a supercomputer into a Nintendo DS. Just as we were discussing a project to develop a synthesizer for the handheld, a new product comes along to teach Japanese calligraphy on it.

Bimoji Training (translation: Beautiful Letter Training) is being touted as a game, but we know better: It'll probably be co-opted by educators because it emphasizes teacher feedback. We just hope that the touch screen's sensitivity is up to par, lest it be an exercise in frustration (remember Palm's Graffiti?)

No matter how it works, though, … Read more