Nick Winter was watching a friend play video games in a Beijing apartment when the idea came to him: Could the technology that translated jabs of a digital stylus into on-screen movements help students learn to write and recognize Chinese characters?
As a mathematics, computer-science, and East Asian-studies major at Oberlin College, he knew firsthand the laborious task of memorizing hundreds of basic Chinese characters. A computer program that incorporated both handwriting recognition and self-testing, he thought, might help students, especially those just starting out.