Creating beautiful Japanese calligraphy is an art that requires years of practice to master, but what if a robot could mimic the exact hand movements of the artist, churning out masterpieces like a photocopy machine? That's the idea behind the Motion Copy System, developed by researchers at Keio University in Tokyo.

First the artist creates a work using a special split brush, which records even the tiniest movements with total accuracy as a digital file. Then the resulting file can be distributed digitally, and reproduced by anyone with a similar robot.

Robots that copy human motion are nothing new, but the key difference here is how the Motion Copy System is able to record and reproduce the precise amount of force being applied to the brush at any moment. This affects the thickness of the line — a key feature used to communicate the artist's intentions in Japanese calligraphy.

Whether the Motion Copy System will put lots of Japanese calligraphers out of work is yet to be determined, but it should be noted that a similar argument was made by musicians when Edison introduced the phonograph.

Check out the video where project leader professor Seiichiro Katsura demonstrates how the system works.

Via DigInfo TV