We describe a method of recognizing handwritten digits by fitting generative models that are built from deformable B-splines with Gaussian "ink generators" spaced along the length of the spline. The splines are adjusted using a novel elastic matching procedure based on the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm that maximizes the likelihood of the model generating the data. This approach has many advantages. (1) After identifying the model most likely to have generated the data, the system not only produces a classification of the digit but also a rich description of the instantiation parameters which can yield information such as the writing style. (2) During the process of explaining the image, generative models can perform recognition driven segmentation. (3) The method involves a relatively small number of parameters and hence training is relatively easy and fast. (4) Unlike many other recognition schemes it does not rely on some form of pre-normalization of input images, but can ...

This paper presents a multi-staged technique for locating the courtesy amount block on bank checks. In the case of a check processing system, many of the proposed methods are not acceptable, due to the the presence of many fonts and text sizes, as well as the short length of many text strings. This paper will describe particular methods chosen to implement a Courtesy Amount Block Locator (CABL). First, the connected components in the image are identified. Next, strings are constructed on the basis of proximity and horizontal alignment of characters. Finally a set of rules and heuristics are applied to these strings to choose the correct one. The chosen string is only reported if it passes a verification test, which includes an attempt to recognize the currency sign. Keywords: check analysis and processing, block detection, courtesy amount recognition, image processing, heuristics rules, segmentation 1 Introduction Trillions of dollars change hands each year in the form of handwritten ...

Abstract-We describe a method of recognizing handwritten digits by fitting generative models that are built from deformable B-splines with Gaussian "ink generators " spaced along the length of the spline. The splines are adjusted using a novel elastic matching procedure based on the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm that maximizes the likelihood of the model generating the data. This approach has many advantages. 1) After identifying the model most likely to have generated the data, the system not only produces a classification of the digit but also a rich description of the instantiation parameters which can yield information such as the writing style. 2) During the process of explaining the image, generative models can perform recognition driven segmentation. 3) The method involves a relatively small number of parameters and hence training is relatively easy and fast. 4) Unlike many other recognition schemes, it does not rely on some form of pre-normalization of input images, but can handle arbitrary scalings, translations and a limited degree of image rotation. We have demonstrated our method of fitting models to images does not get trapped in poor local minima. The main disadvantage of the method is it requires much more computation than more standard OCR techniques. Index Terms-Deformable model, elastic net, optical character recognition, generative model, probabilistic model, mixture model 1

Automated Postal Address Recognition is an important task in a number of application areas.