Determining Points on Handwritten Mathematical Symbols

In a variety of applications, such as handwritten mathematics and diagram labelling, it is common to have symbols of many different sizes in use and for the writing not to follow simple baselines. In order to understand the scale and relative positioning of individual characters, it is necessary to identify the location of certain expected features. These are typically identified by particular points in the symbols, for example, the baseline of a lower case "p" would be identified by the lowest part of the bowl, ignoring the descender. We investigate how to find these special points automatically so they may be used in a number of problems, such as improving two-dimensional mathematical recognition and in handwriting neatening, while preserving the original style.