A New Deep Learning-Based Handwritten Character Recognition System on Mobile Computing Devices

Deep learning (DL) is a hot topic in current pattern recognition and machine learning. DL has unprecedented potential to solve many complex machine learning problems and is clearly attractive in the framework of mobile devices. The availability of powerful pattern recognition tools creates tremendous opportunities for next-generation smart applications. A convolutional neural network (CNN) enables data-driven learning and extraction of highly representative, hierarchical image features from appropriate training data. However, for some data sets, the CNN classification method needs adjustments in its structure and parameters. Mobile computing has certain requirements for running time and network weight of the neural network. In this paper, we first design an image processing module for a mobile device based on the characteristics of a CNN. Then, we describe how to use the mobile to collect data, process the data, and construct the data set. Finally, considering the computing environment and data characteristics of mobile devices, we propose a lightweight network structure for optical character recognition (OCR) on specific data sets. The proposed method using a CNN has been validated by comparison with the results of existing methods, used for optical character recognition.