title: Individuality of handwritten Arabic numerals in local population.
abstract: This paper reports the statistical study of writing habits for Arabic Numerals of 187 subjects in Hong Kong. A classification system of writing habits for Arabic numerals based on assigned codes of characteristic features such as slant, writing direction, relative position of strokes, angularity of turnings, shape of initial and ending strokes, etc. was developed. A set of characteristic codes representing the profile of writing habits pertaining to Arabic numerals was assigned to each writer. Apart from the distribution of characteristic features, statistical analysis of the assigned codes demonstrated homogeneity of individual hand-writing patterns. It has been shown that irrespective of the structural simplicity of Arabic numerals, no two individuals exhibited the same set of characteristic codes. The findings support the hypothesis of individuality in handwriting.
authors.affiliation: Questioned Documents Section, Government Laboratory, Ho Man Tin Government Laboratory, 88 Chung Hau Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. ckli@govtlab.gov.hk
authors.forename: Chi-Keung
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Nai-Leung
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Poon
authors.forename: Wing-Kam
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: Chi-Ting
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D044707:Forensic Sciences / Q000379:methods; D006236:Handwriting; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results