Suggested by the structure of the visual nervous system, a new algorithm is proposed for pattern recognition. This algorithm can be realized with a multilayered network consisting of neuron-like cells. The network, “neocognitron”, is self-organized by unsupervised learning, and acquires the ability to recognize stimulus patterns according to the differences in their shapes: Any patterns which we human beings judge to be alike are also judged to be of the same category by the neocognitron. The neocognitron recognizes stimulus patterns correctly without being affected by shifts in position or even by considerable distortions in shape of the stimulus patterns.

Neocognitron--A New Algorithm for Pattern Recognition Tolerant of Deformations and Shifts in Position

Online handwriting recognition is gaining renewed interest owing to the increase of pen computing applications and new pen input devices. The recognition of Chinese characters is different from western handwriting recognition and poses a special challenge. To provide an overview of the technical status and inspire future research, this paper reviews the advances in online Chinese character recognition (OLCCR), with emphasis on the research works from the 1990s. Compared to the research in the 1980s, the research efforts in the 1990s aimed to further relax the constraints of handwriting, namely, the adherence to standard stroke orders and stroke numbers and the restriction of recognition to isolated characters only. The target of recognition has shifted from regular script to fluent script in order to better meet the requirements of practical applications. The research works are reviewed in terms of pattern representation, character classification, learning/adaptation, and contextual processing. We compare important results and discuss possible directions of future research.

'Online recognition of Chinese characters: the state-of-the-art

http://www.nlpr.ia.ac.cn/2013papers/gjkw/gk27.pdf

Online and offline handwritten Chinese character recognition: Benchmarking on new databases

Online and offline handwritten Chinese character recognition: A comprehensive study and new benchmark

This paper presents a precise system for handwritten Chinese and Japanese character recognition. Before extracting directional element feature (DEF) from each character image, transformation based on partial inclination detection (TPID) is used to reduce undesired effects of degraded images. In the recognition process, city block distance with deviation (CBDD) and asymmetric Mahalanobis distance (AMD) are proposed for rough classification and fine classification. With this recognition system, the experimental result of the database ETL9B reaches to 99.42%.

http://www.it.is.tohoku.ac.jp/pdf-nopass/journal-papers/1999-IEEE-Kato.pdf

Thomas H. Hildebrandt

Papers

Optical recognition of handwritten Chinese characters: Advances since 1980