Reproducing and Re-experiencing the Writing Process in Japanese Calligraphy

Abstract

Japanese calligraphy is the art of brush writing where a person writes Japanese characters with a Chinese brush against a sheet of paper. We have implemented a mechanism to capture the process of producing Japanese calligraphy using MERL's DiamondTouch (DT) table. We add a very thin metal wire along the length of the brush to carry an electric signal from the writer's body through the brush tuft and ink to the table. As the brush tuft is touches a sheet of paper placed on the surface of the DT table, the ink in the tuft carries the signal from the users to DT. We capture the movement of the brush tuft to produce the visual and auditory representations of the writing process and for later replay.