A Competence Model of Handwriting

Abstract

It is proposed that handwriting production is fundamentally an oscillatory process arising from two orthogonal joints. Letter shapes emerge from an oscillation train by a process of constrained modulation. The choice of underlying oscillation and modulations limits the diversity of letter shapes and gives rise to a common writing style. The model was tested by synthetic production of human-like cursive script with a mechanical arm under computer control. In this simulation the vertical joint acts as the driving joint, the horizontal joint as the shaping joint. Various force constraints on the oscillations and modulations are proposed.