title: A Set of Handwriting Features for Use in Automated Writer Identification.
abstract: A writer's biometric identity can be characterized through the distribution of physical feature measurements ("writer's profile"); a graph-based system that facilitates the quantification of these features is described. To accomplish this quantification, handwriting is segmented into basic graphical forms ("graphemes"), which are "skeletonized" to yield the graphical topology of the handwritten segment. The graph-based matching algorithm compares the graphemes first by their graphical topology and then by their geometric features. Graphs derived from known writers can be compared against graphs extracted from unknown writings. The process is computationally intensive and relies heavily upon statistical pattern recognition algorithms. This article focuses on the quantification of these physical features and the construction of the associated pattern recognition methods for using the features to discriminate among writers. The graph-based system described in this article has been implemented in a highly accurate and approximately language-independent biometric recognition system of writers of cursive documents.
authors.affiliation: George Mason University, Document Forensics Laboratory, Volgenau School of Engineering, Nguyen Engineering Building, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, 22030, VA.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: George Mason University, Document Forensics Laboratory, Volgenau School of Engineering, Nguyen Engineering Building, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, 22030, VA.
authors.forename: Robert Bradley
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.affiliation: George Mason University, Document Forensics Laboratory, Volgenau School of Engineering, Nguyen Engineering Building, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, 22030, VA.
authors.forename: Donald T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Gantz
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, South Dakota State University, AME Building, Box 2225, Brookings, SD, 57006, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.affiliation: Sciometrics LLC, The Gannon Technologies Group, 14150 Parkeast Circle, Suite 140, Chantilly, VA, 20151.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Walch
authors.affiliation: Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory Division, Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit, Quantico, VA, 22135.
authors.forename: JoAnn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buscaglia
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012984:Software; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: automated biometric; document examination; forensic science; handwriting; writer identification; writing biometric