Handbook Of Character Recognition And Document Image Analysis

Optical character recognition and document image analysis have become very important areas with a fast growing number of researchers in the field. This comprehensive handbook with contributions by eminent experts, presents both the theoretical and practical aspects at an introductory level wherever possible.

"Much of pattern recognition theory and practice, including methods such as Support Vector Machines, has emerged in an attempt to solve the character recognition problem. This book is written by very well-known academics who have worked in the field for many years and have made significant and lasting contributions. The book will no doubt be of value to students and practitioners." -Sargur N. Srihari, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Director, Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR), University at Buffalo, The State University of New York "The disciplines of optical character recognition and document image analysis have a history of more than forty years. In the last decade, the importance and popularity of these areas have grown enormously. Surprisingly, however, the field is not well covered by any textbook. This book has been written by prominent leaders in the field. It includes all important topics in optical character recognition and document analysis, and is written in a very coherent and comprehensive style. This book satisfies an urgent need. It is a volume the community has been awaiting for a long time, and I can enthusiastically recommend it to everybody working in the area." -Horst Bunke, Professor, Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics (IAM), University of Bern, Switzerland In Character Recognition Systems, the authors provide practitioners and students with the fundamental principles and state-of-the-art computational methods of reading printed texts and handwritten materials. The information presented is analogous to the stages of a computer recognition system, helping readers master the theory and latest methodologies used in character recognition in a meaningful way. This book covers: * Perspectives on the history, applications, and evolution of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) * The most widely used pre-processing techniques, as well as methods for extracting character contours and skeletons * Evaluating extracted features, both structural and statistical * Modern classification methods that are successful in character recognition, including statistical methods, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), structural methods, and multi-classifier methods * An overview of word and string recognition methods and techniques * Case studies that illustrate practical applications, with descriptions of the methods and theories behind the experimental results Each chapter contains major steps and tricks to handle the tasks described at-hand. Researchers and graduate students in computer science and engineering will find this book useful for designing a concrete system in OCR technology, while practitioners will rely on it as a valuable resource for the latest advances and modern technologies that aren't covered elsewhere in a single book.

The Handbook of Document Image Processing and Recognition is a comprehensive resource on the latest methods and techniques in document image processing and recognition. Each chapter provides a clear overview of the topic followed by the state of the art of techniques used – including elements of comparison between them – along with supporting references to archival publications, for those interested in delving deeper into topics addressed. Rather than favor a particular approach, the text enables the reader to make an informed decision for their specific problems.

Interest in the automatic processing and analysis of document images has been rapidly increasing during the past few years. This book addresses the different subfields of document image analysis, including preprocessing and segmentation, form processing, handwriting recognition, line drawing and map processing, and contextual processing. Contents:Preface (H Bunke et al.)A New Parallel Thinning Algorithm (Y Y Zhang & P S P Wang)Background Structure in Document Images (H S Baird)Analysis of Form Images (D Wang & S N Srihari)Model-Based Analysis and Understanding of Check Forms (T M Ha & H Bunke)Document Structures: A Survey (Y Y Tang & C Y Suen)Automatic Input of Logic Diagrams by Recognizing Loop-Symbols and Rectilinear Connections (S H Kim & J H Kim)Syntactic Analysis of Technical Drawing Dimensions (S Collin & D Colnet)Recognition of Elevation Value in Topographic Maps by Multi-Angled Parallelism (H Yamada et al.)Character Recognition by Signature Approximation (N Papamarkos et al.)An Adaptive Modular Neural Network with Application to Unconstrained Character Recognition (L Mui et al.)A Model-Based Split-and-Merge Method for Character String Recognition (H Nishida & S Mori)A Robust Stroke Extraction Method for Handwritten Chinese Characters (H-D Chang & J-F Wang)Handprinted Chinese Character Recognition Using Probability Distribution Feature (T F Li & S S Yu)An Algorithm for Matching OCR-Generated Text Strings (S V Rice et al.) Readership: Computer scientists. keywords:

The Handbook of Document Image Processing and Recognition is a comprehensive resource on the latest methods and techniques in document image processing and recognition. Each chapter provides a clear overview of the topic followed by the state of the art of techniques used – including elements of comparison between them – along with supporting references to archival publications, for those interested in delving deeper into topics addressed. Rather than favor a particular approach, the text enables the reader to make an informed decision for their specific problems.

The very significant advances in computer vision and pattern recognition and their applications in the last few years reflect the strong and growing interest in the field as well as the many opportunities and challenges it offers. The second edition of this handbook represents both the latest progress and updated knowledge in this dynamic field. The applications and technological issues are particularly emphasized in this edition to reflect the wide applicability of the field in many practical problems. To keep the book in a single volume, it is not possible to retain all chapters of the first edition. However, the chapters of both editions are well written for permanent reference.

Document image analysis is the automatic computer interpretation of images of printed and handwritten documents, including text, drawings, maps, music scores, etc. Research in this field supports a rapidly growing international industry. This is the first book to offer a broad selection of state-of-the-art research papers, including authoritative critical surveys of the literature, and parallel studies of the architectureof complete high-performance printed-document reading systems. A unique feature is the extended section on music notation, an ideal vehicle for international sharing of basic research. Also, the collection includes important new work on line drawings, handwriting, character and symbol recognition, and basic methodological issues. The IAPR 1990 Workshop on Syntactic and Structural Pattern Recognition is summarized,including the reports of its expert working groups, whose debates provide a fascinating perspective on the field. The book is an excellent text for a first-year graduate seminar in document image analysis,and is likely to remain a standard reference in the field for years.