Using hierarchical shape models to spot keywords in cursive handwriting data

Different instances of a handwritten word consist of the same basic features (humps, cusps, crossings, etc.) arranged in a deformable spatial pattern. Thus, keywords in cursive text can be detected by looking for the appropriate features in the "correct" spatial configuration. A keyword can be modeled hierarchically as a set of word fragments, each of which consists of lower-level features. To allow flexibility, the spatial configuration of keypoints within a fragment is modeled using a Dryden-Mardia (DM) probability density over the shape of the configuration. In a writer-dependent test on a transcription of the Declaration of Independence (similar to 1300 words, similar to 7500 characters), the method detected all eleven instances of the keyword "government" with only four false positives.