Segmentation-based recognition of handwritten touching pairs of digits using structural features

In this paper, we propose a segmentation-based recognition method of handwritten touching pairs of digits using structural features of contour. Four kinds of candidate break points are obtained from contour and six touching types are defined based on an analysis of the ligature and the characteristics of candidate break points. The final break points of touching pairs of digits are deduced by verifying candidate segment combinations. The main advantages of this method are that reliable segment combinations are used in the multiple hypothesis recognition, and segmentation error of traditional segmentation-based recognition method are reduced by verifying segment combinations. To evaluate the proposed method, we have experimented with 3500 touching pairs of digits of the NIST SD19 database. An encouraging recognition rate of 92.5% has been obtained. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.