Devnagari Handwritten Numeral Recognition using Geometric Features and Statistical Combination Classifier

This paper presents a Devnagari Numerical recognition method based on statistical discriminant functions. 17 geometric features based on pixel connectivity, lines, line directions, holes, image area, perimeter, eccentricity, solidity, orientation etc. are used for representing the numerals. Five discriminant functions viz. Linear, Quadratic, Diaglinear, Diagquadratic and Mahalanobis distance are used for classification. 1500 handwritten numerals are used for training. Another 1500 handwritten numerals are used for testing. Experimental results show that Linear, Quadratic and Mahalanobis discriminant functions provide better results. Results of these three Discriminants are fed to a majority voting type Combination classifier. It is found that Combination classifier offers better results over individual classifiers.

Development of Comprehensive Devnagari Numeral and Character Database for Offline Handwritten Character Recognition

In handwritten character recognition, benchmark database plays an important role in evaluating the performance of various algorithms and the results obtained by various researchers. In Devnagari script, there is lack of such official benchmark. This paper focuses on the generation of offline benchmark database for Devnagari handwritten numerals and characters. The present work generated 5137 and 20305 isolated samples for numeral and character database, respectively, from 750 writers of all ages, sex, education, and profession. The offline sample images are stored in TIFF image format as it occupies less memory. Also, the data is presented in binary level so that memory requirement is further reduced. It will facilitate research on handwriting recognition of Devnagari script through free access to the researchers.