Structure-based web access method for ancient Chinese characters

Abstract

How to preserve and make use of ancient Chinese characters is not only a mission to contemporary scientists but is also a technical challenge. This paper proposes a feasible solution to enable character collection, management, and access on the Internet. Its advantage lies in a unified representation for encoded and uncoded characters that provide a visual convenient and efficient retrieval method that does not require new users to have any prior knowledge about ancient Chinese characters. We also design a system suitable for describing the relationships between ancient Chinese characters and contemporary ones. As the implementation result, a website is established for public access to ancient Chinese characters. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.