Handwriting Recognition – “Offline” Approach

There are many things we humans have in common. But there are other things that are very unique to every individual DNA, fingerprints, etc. Handwriting is one other such thing that is unique to every individual, which the recent studies on Handwriting analysis have already proved. Although arguable is this issue, that handwriting can be mimicked and forgery becoming a huge issue, there is certain level of individuality and uniqueness (like the way of holding the pen, the strokes used in the writing and the amount of pressure put on paper, to name a few) that cannot be mimicked or forged. As computerization is becoming more prominent these days, Handwriting Recognition is gaining importance in various fields eg. Authentication of signatures in banks, recognizing ZIP codes addresses on letters, forensic evidence, etc. Furthermore, letting a large scale computational systems do all the analysis and the authentication work in the bank and other agencies reduced much of the burden. But how would a computer recognize the handwriting of an individual? Owing to the fact that each individual has his own way of presenting his/her ideas on paper, there is a certain level of complexity involved in this subject. An overview of some methodologies and recognition algorithms, particularly off-line recognition methods are presented here.