Script Characters Research Articles

Using Mnemonics to Facilitate Learning of Japanese Script Characters

Extra tutorial sessions on the use of pictorial mnemonics to facilitate memorization of Japanese hiragana and katakana script characters, as well as vocabulary words and kanji characters, were offered to university first year undergraduate students taking a beginners’ Japanese language course. 27 students, most of whom were experiencing some difficulties with the course, volunteered to attend. Although the improvement in actual marks that the students evidenced subsequent to attending the sessions did not prove to be statistically significant, a significant improvement in pass rate was found. Furthermore, the students rated the sessions highly in terms of their helpfulness, and the majority indicated that they believed the sessions helped their performance in the course assessments. It is concluded that mnemonic strategies can effectively be employed in facilitating retention of the script of a foreign, non-alphabetic language within a real educational setting. 初心者対象の日本語コースを取っている大学１年生に、日本語のひらがなとカタカナ、及び語彙と漢字の記憶を促進するため、絵を用いた連想法を使った追加授業が提出された。２７名（そのうちのほとんどは、コースにおいて何らかの困難に直面している）が自主的に追加授業に出席した。追加授業出席後、学生の実際の小テストの点の向上には有意差は認められなかったものの、合格率の向上においては有意差は確認された。さらに、追加授業に出席した学生は授業が役立ったと高く評価し、大多数が追加授業がコースの成績の成果に貢献したと思うと述べた。本論は、実際の教育現場で英語のアルファベットを用いない外国語の文字を教える際、連想法を効果的に使用することができると結論づけた。

Indian script character recognition: a survey

Intensive research has been done on optical character recognition (OCR) and a large number of articles have been published on this topic during the last few decades. Many commercial OCR systems are now available in the market. But most of these systems work for Roman, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic characters. There are no sufficient number of work on Indian language character recognition although there are 12 major scripts in India. In this paper, we present a review of the OCR work done on Indian language scripts. The review is organized into 5 sections. Sections 1 and 2 cover introduction and properties on Indian scripts. In Section 3, we discuss different methodologies in OCR development as well as research work done on Indian scripts recognition. In Section 4, we discuss the scope of future work and further steps needed for Indian script OCR development. In Section 5 we conclude the paper.

Literary dialects in China and Slovakia: imagining unitary nationality with multiple orthographies

Pan-Slavic language planners in Slovakia, the language policy of the first Czechoslovak republic, and one of the many Chinese attempts to latinize Chinese suggest that patriotic language planners sometimes posit a single national language divided into literary dialects. In this situation, the suggested orthography of the national language has geographically-restricted characters and symbols, used only by speakers of certain dialects of the national language. This situation is unstable, and in all cases the proposed multidialectical orthographies failed: Chinese retains a pan-dialectical character script and unitary Chinese nationality, and a particularist Slovak language and nationality have both been consolidated. These outcomes suggest a relationship between nation-building and the codification of particularist orthographies, and that the power of the word dialect to encompass different varieties into one language does not extend to written language.

THE LOST SCRIPT OF THE BAGAM

This article presents new and important information on the Bagam script, an autochthonous writing system from Cameroon which has now fallen into extinction. Details of the script were first reported in the 3tournal of the African Societthe former title of African Affairs almost eighty years ago. The original contribution on the script, however, was not published in its entirety. As a result, scholars interested in the Bagam script over the last seventy-five years have known little about the writing, including details of the script's characters, as these signs although submitted for publication were never published. The article relates important information on the history of the Bagam script: the record of its so-called 'discovery' in 1917, the suppression of its characters by the editor of the 3'AS, its subsequent feature in scholarly writing as a 'lost' script, and the author's own account of his investigation to locate information on the script. Most importantly, this article in African Affairs will, for the first time, reveal in print the Bagam script characters, adding a final chapter to the story of the Bagam script which commenced in the annals of the 3'AS almost eighty years ago. Africa and the art and science of zvrWiting AFRICA IS NOT ONLY the Cradle of Mankind, it is the Cradle of Writing'. Over 5,000 years ago in Egypt, Africans developed their system of hieroglyphic writing, the world's earliest known script. Scholars have traditionally asserted that the earliest writing system emerged at the end of the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia and that the 'idea' of writing was borrowed in Egypt around 3100 BC at the onset of the First Egyptian Dynasty. New evidence uncovered by archeologists in Egypt, however, has revealed that Africans employed their advanced hieroglyphic system, which was capable of expressing complex ideas and abstract concepts (and notably place names), at least 150 years earlier than the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, around 3250 BC. The less developed system of notation, employed in Mesopotamia for purposes of accounting, consisted of pictographs for commodities and numerals. The evidence supporting this important new information was uncovered by Gunter Dreyer of the German Archaeological Institute, at Abydos, in a palace tomb known as U-j. Dreyer and his expedition found 150 labels written in hieroglyphs and carved into ivory or bone, possibly at one time Dr Konrad Tuchscherer lectures in Anthropology at Tufts University and is a Research Fellow in African Studies at Boston University, African Studies Center, 270 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, USA. The author welcomes any communication on the subject of the Bagam script or other African scripts. Correspondence should be sent to the above address. 55 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.147 on Wed, 20 Apr 2016 06:46:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Non-Roman-Based Character Scripts and the WWW

Non-Roman-Based Character Scripts and the WWW

Coarse classification of on-line Chinese characters via structure feature-based method

In this paper, we will propose a structure feature-based coarse classification mechanism to classify the on-line handwritten Chinese characters. The main purpose of coarse classification is to classify on-line Chinese characters into one of the six structure types and divide them into separated parts accordingly, if they can be divided. Our proposed coarse classification mechanism can be used to classify the following three writing style categories: square writing characters, partial connected characters, and script characters. Two structure classification methods for coarse classification are proposed in this paper. One is the line segment order method, and another is the projection method. Fourteen databases of 5400 frequently used Chinese characters are tested in our experiment. The average classification rates of square writing characters, partial connected characters, and full connected characters are 96.7%, 92.8%, and 91.7%, respectively. The experimental results reveal the feasibility and promise of our proposed approach.

Script recognition

This paper describes an approach for word-based on-line and off-line recognition of handwritten cursive script composed of English lower-case letters. The system uses simple and easily extractable features such as the direction of movement and curvature and the relative locations of regions where these suffer discontinuities.Our approach was evolved based on our concept of ‘shape vectors’ introduced earlier. We visualise script characters as having shapes which are composed of comparatively straight segments alternating with regions of relatively high curvature. We derive the shape vectors from each script character essentially by identifying regions of least curvature and approximating these by straight lines. That these shape vectors carry adequate information about the identity of the character is established by showing that the original character can be faithfully reconstructed from the shape vectors.We thus use slopes of the shape vectors and relative locations of points of maximum curvature (both highly quantised) as parameters for recognition. The system extracts parameters for individual characters from single specimens written in isolation and uses these to construct feature matrices for words in the vocabulary. These are used for matching with the feature matrices of test words during the recognition phase.The advantage of the system is that it does not require elaborate training. Recognition scores are in the neighbourhood of 94% for vocabulary sizes of 200 words. The approach has been extended for off-line information as well and performs quite well even in this case.

Shape vectors: An efficient parametric representation for the synthesis and recognition of hand script characters

Earlier work by the author has established: (i) that cursive script can be synthesised out of individual characters by using polynomial merging functions which satisfy boundary conditions of continuity of the displacement functionsx(t) andy(t) for each character and their first and second derivatives; and (ii) that the procedure lends itself to a Bezier curve based formulation. This was done since cursive writing avoids discontinuities (of shape) between individual characters as well as discontinuities in pen movement.We show here that even individual characters can be synthesised out of more primitive elements by using the same merging functions. We choose directed straight lines which we call shape vectors as basic elements for this. Script characters generally have shapes which are essentially straight segments alternating with ‘bends’ or regions of relatively high curvature. For a character withn bends, we need onlyn + 1 shape vectors. Thus, each script character needs only three to seven shape vectors, depending on its complexity.The “character generation” shape vectors are derived from the original character by means of a simple procedure that identifies comparatively straight regions in it. These are then approximated to straight lines by linear regression and positioned to be tangential to the original curve. The synthesised version of this character is obtained by ‘merging’ or concatenating these vectors. The close fit between the original and resynthesised characters demonstrates that the shape vectors adequately characterise their identities and shapes. Data reduction ratios in the range of 15 to 25 are thus possible. This method thus shows good promise as a possible basis for script character recognition, and a recognition scheme based on it has yielded an accuracy of 94% for a vocabulary size of 67 words.

Cluster network for recognition of handwritten, cursive script characters

A neural net structure was developed to recognize isolated cursive script characters. Characters were composed of features suggested by an established model of handwriting. The model assumes that handwritten characters are formed from a limited number of primitive hand motions characterized by the X-Y oscillations in the vertical ( Y) and horizontal ( X) directions. Consistent with this model, representation for handwritten characters contain features that are invariant under rotation, translation, changes in size and/or style. Besides their applicability to categorization of handwritten characters, these features are also assumed to control neural “motor” activities during writing. The initial application of a single backward error propagation network to handwritten script recognition resulted in slow learning and was limited to approximately 50% correct classification. Changing the architecture to a cluster of smaller networks and adding some simple heuristics improved performance dramatically. In its current form, the approach yields recognition up to 80% for our test data.

Automatic Generation and Recognition of Telugu Script Characters

This paper deals with the computer generation of characters of various fonts and sizes for the Telugu alphabet. It also deals with the problem of automatic recognition of Telugu printed scripts. Telugu and many other Indian languages scripts have the problem of combined character formation that makes a few hundred shapes to be generated or recognized, although the number of vowel and consonant characters in isolation does not exceed hundred. In this paper, 23 basic and 24 primitive shapes are carefully chosen which when properly concatenated can generate the whole character vocabulary. To generate these shapes, curve drawing based on Bezier and Spline techniques are used. A new font is proposed where the characters are concatenation of straight lines. A grammar to generate the combined characters is also proposed. Next, the recognition of characters is done by shape matching using directed curve tracing method. A concept of T-tuple is introduced for the tracing problem that act on the skeleton of the character to recognize initially the basics and primitives and then combine the information to recognize the characters.

A New Approach to Indian Script Character Generation for CRT

Indian scripts are far more complex as compared to the Roman script. This complexity arises due to the large number of codes required to represent different unique character shapes and also due to the need to account for the large variations in the character width. All the LSI CRT controllers which are used in the CRT display for modern PCs have been designed for Roman script and are unsuited for the display of Indian scripts. Therefore mostly the bit mod graphics for the display of Indian script text on CRT screen has been used for acceptable quality for character display.A novel method for code generation and display of Indian script text on a monochrome CRT is presented. Dedicated hardware using two commercially available CRT controllers in parallel along with a suitable control logic to take care of variable width of character, has been designed. End result is achieved with the help of suitable software to accept the key input, process it for actual code generation and to maintain the integrity of the display to avoid distortion due to variable width Indian script characters. This compromise between hardware and software makes it possible to enter Indian script text as in normal computer.

Effects of Be on impact strength of Al-Si alloys containing Fe

Effects of solution treatment and addition of a small amount of Be on the impact strength and structure of Al-Si alloys containing Fe were examined by means of impact tests.The results obtained were summarized as follows.(1) The impact strength of Al-11% Si alloys was linearly decreased with increasing Fe content in the range beyond 0.13% Fe. After solution treatment at 500°C, the strength was markedly improved when Fe content was smaller, and the effect diappeared at about 1.5% of the content.(2) The impact strength of Al-11% Si alloys tended to be decreased with the addition of Be, both for as cast and heat treated (at 500%C) alloys.After Al-13% Si alloys containing Fe, to which Be had been added, was heat treated, the strength was markedly varied according to Fe content. It was kept nearly constant up to 1.02 or 1.32% of Fe by the addition of 0.2 or 0.5% Be, respectively.(3) Acicular crystallites were observed in Al-Si alloys, which had lower impact strength with decreasing Fe content. However, the shape of crystallites was converted into roundish patterns of Chinese script character type.

XIX.—Account of some “Roundells” or Fruit Trenchers of the time of James the First. In a Letter from John Yonge Akerman, Esq., Secretary, to the Viscount Mahon, President

Having examined and transcribed the verses on the nine Roundels forwarded to your Lordship by Colonel Sykes for exhibition to the Society of Antiquaries (Plate XVIII.), I beg to submit the result. These examples of long since obsolete objects are, in more respects than one, of some interest to the English antiquary, but they are especially so from their bearing very well executed and characteristic figures of persons in various grades of life in the costume of the early part of the seventeenth century. They doubtless originally comprised a set of twelve pieces. One side is covered with a black ground, the other being left entirely bare, as usual. On the former are verses in two concentric circles, inscribed in the script character of the time in gilt letters. The figures inclosed within these circles are also gilt, but besides the slight gilt circle which surrounds them, there is another, a broad band of white. The numerals, which on some are Roman and on others Arabic, are also in white, as is also the ground upon which the figures stand. It is not improbable that these letters, numerals, &c. were inserted at some subsequent period, for they are deficient in neatness, and do not accord with the rest of the design. The verses, though in one or two instances faulty in metre,—a fact which we may, I think, fairly attribute to successive mechanical copies, like the paintings on our modern tea-boards,—are by no means deficient in point and smartness. Each figure represented, disclaims the faults and vices commonly laid to the charge of persons of their several conditions, and this in language far superior to that which is generally found on existing examples of these objects.