Interactive instructional apparatus and method
First Claim
1. An apparatus for providing instruction in stroke forming skills, comprising:
- display means for displaying an exemplary stroke to a user;
input means having a stroke-drawing surface for providing a digital data output representative of a stroke drawn by a user upon said stroke-drawing surface in response to said displayed exemplary stroke;
mode selecting means for selecting one of a plurality of instruction modes including at least one instruction mode in which a succession of exemplary strokes defining a character are presented on a stroke-by-stroke basis to said user on said display means for emulation by said user on said stroke-drawing surface;
memory means for storing digital representations of at least one exemplary stroke for display on said display means and for storing digital data provided by said input means representative of each stroke drawn on said stroke-drawing surface in response to each displayed exemplary stroke; and
stored-program controlled processor means for controlling said memory means and said display means in accordance with a mode selected by said mode selecting means to display each said exemplary stroke and for comparing digital data representative of each displayed exemplary stroke and each corresponding stroke drawn on said stroke-drawing surface and quantifying the deviation between the digital data representative of each exemplary stroke and the corresponding drawn stroke and for providing an indication to the user of the deviation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive writing skills instructional apparatus includes a display device, such as an LCD panel, for displaying single or multi-stroke characters and an input digitizer for accepting user-entered characters that are representative of the displayed character. A program controller microprocessor grades the user-entered stroke or strokes by scanning the digitized representation of the user-entered stroke for extreme points, dividing the user-entered stroked into segments and then analyzing each segment in terms of the position of its start and end extreme points, segment orientations, curvature, relative position, direction drawn, and size. Deduction points are then assigned for deviations from the ideal value to yield a `grade`. The user is provided with a indication of performance including both audio and visual indications as a function of the performance grade.
103 Citations
34 Claims
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1. An apparatus for providing instruction in stroke forming skills, comprising:
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display means for displaying an exemplary stroke to a user; input means having a stroke-drawing surface for providing a digital data output representative of a stroke drawn by a user upon said stroke-drawing surface in response to said displayed exemplary stroke; mode selecting means for selecting one of a plurality of instruction modes including at least one instruction mode in which a succession of exemplary strokes defining a character are presented on a stroke-by-stroke basis to said user on said display means for emulation by said user on said stroke-drawing surface; memory means for storing digital representations of at least one exemplary stroke for display on said display means and for storing digital data provided by said input means representative of each stroke drawn on said stroke-drawing surface in response to each displayed exemplary stroke; and stored-program controlled processor means for controlling said memory means and said display means in accordance with a mode selected by said mode selecting means to display each said exemplary stroke and for comparing digital data representative of each displayed exemplary stroke and each corresponding stroke drawn on said stroke-drawing surface and quantifying the deviation between the digital data representative of each exemplary stroke and the corresponding drawn stroke and for providing an indication to the user of the deviation. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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2. The apparatus for providing instruction in stroke-forming skills of claim 2, further comprising:
sound generator means for providing an indication to the user of the deviation.
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12. An apparatus for providing instruction in stroke-forming skills, comprising:
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display means for displaying an exemplary stroke to a user; input means having a stroke-drawing surface for providing a digital data output representative of a stroke drawn by a user upon said stroke-drawing surface in response to said displayed exemplary stroke; mode selecting means for selecting one of a plurality of instruction modes including at least one instruction mode in which a succession of exemplary strokes defining a character are presented on a stroke-by-stroke basis to said user on said display means for emulation by said user on said stroke-drawing surface; memory means for storing digital representations of at least one exemplary stroke for display on said display means and for storing digital data provided by said input means representative of each stroke drawn on said stroke drawing surface in response to said displayed exemplary stroke; and stored-program controlled processor means for controlling said memory means and said display means in accordance with a mode selected by said mode selecting means to display each said exemplary stroke and for analyzing digital data of each corresponding stroke drawn on said stroke-drawing surface to identity segments constituting each drawn stroke and quantifying the deviation between the digital data representative of the segments constituting each drawn stroke and digital data representative of segments that constitute the corresponding exemplary stroke. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of providing instruction in stroke-forming skills, comprising the steps of:
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selecting one of a plurality of instruction modes including at least one instruction mode in which a succession of exemplary strokes defining a character are presented on a stroke-by-stroke basis to a user on a display device for emulation by the user; displaying an exemplary stroke on said display device; inputting a stroke on an input device in response to said displayed exemplary stroke; digitizing the input stroke to obtain a set of digital data representative of the input stroke; comparing the digital data representative of the input stroke to digital values representative of the displayed exemplary stroke to obtain a representation of the deviation between the displayed exemplary and input strokes; deducting the deviation value from an ideal value to obtain a grade representative of the inputted stroke; and providing an indication of the obtained grade. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification