August 28, 2003
Writing practice too?
In the tradition of MathPractice, I wonder if there's room for a writing practice program? I put together a proof-of-concept app to see what it would feel like (see right). I only have four pictures and words hardcoded in the app right now so the program isn't really all that practical in its current form. To make it more valuable I'll have to make the content loadable--so there's more to do. But first I'll have my niece or maybe her friends try it out and see how well it can recognize their handwriting. Applications like this really get the brain churning.
The hardest part is finding the clipart. I don't have a collection of clipart I can use so I had to surf the net for free stuff. I should have tried images.google.com.
I really wanted to integrate in some tracing code I wrote awhile back, but I don't have time right now. I'd like the user to be able to trace the characters. Maybe next weekend I'll get a chance.
I'd also like to have a multi-language version. Pick your language, write the word or character and have your handwriting recognized. I wonder if the language pack can do this? I'll have to check.
Posted by Loren at August 28, 2003 11:31 AMLoren,
Tablet PC could be a Leap Pad on steroids. I saw you math tutor, this is even better. And if you write "dog" correctly, then the dog runs and barks.
I would recomment "Green Eggs and Ham" CD Rom, adapted by Living Books. This CD Rom transcends the original book by Dr. Suess to create something wonderful.
There are scores of "edutainment" software out there but there are zero children's educational software that takes advantage of the Tablet PC interface. Market is "nil", but the potential is great.
But at the same time, my 2 and 5 year old have adapted so easily to the mouse interface, although they did like the touchscreen interface on my toughbook (resistive digitizer). Perhaps I am the dinosaur.
Another thing, why doesn't "Gameboy" have educational children's games? Oh wait, I forgot, the market rules.
Nope, no Tablet PC, althought the M1300 looks swell. Got your blog from Tabletpcbuzz. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: kyokoo on August 28, 2003 12:24 PMLora found this cool site too that illustrates the tracing concept:
http://pbskids.org/lions/leona/abc_a.html.
As the father of a 3rd grader I hope you will also consider a version of these programs for the Pocket PC's. My thought is both me and my wife always have our Pocket PC's with us so our son could pratice while in the car or other places.
Also what hand write system is yours going to be based on? My son's school uses Denealian.
I should add my son's has to do 15 min. of math every night and he chooses to use your program.
Great Job!
Posted by: Corey McLaughlin on August 28, 2003 07:22 PMThat is IF the language pack would EVER get released! :P
Posted by: Marauderz on August 29, 2003 02:37 AMCorey: The Pocket PC idea is a good one although I'm leveraging the Tablet PC's inking capabilities and recognition engine. Interestingly, a couple people have mentioned that Palm has some similar programs--BeSmart is one of them.
Marauderz: :-)
Posted by: Loren on August 29, 2003 09:15 AMThat's a cool idea, but don't limit it to school-age children. This could be used for adults (english as a second language) as well as for foreign language--esp languages with a different script (Greek, Russian, Arabic, Chinese,...)
Posted by: chris on September 6, 2003 06:13 AMChris, very good points. Capabilities as your describe would truly illustrate what makes Tablet PCs stand out.
Posted by: Loren on September 6, 2003 12:21 PM