The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. 

Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: 

Document Title: Individuality of Handwriting 

Author(s): Sargur N. Srihari ; Sung-Hyuk Cha ; Hina Arora ; 

Sangjik Lee 

Document No.: 190133 

Date Received: 10/10/2001 

Award Number: 1999-IJ-CX-K010 

This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. 

To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federallyfunded grant final report available electronically in addition to

traditional paper copies.

 

Opinions or points of view expressed are those 

of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect 

the official position or policies of the U.S. 

Department of Justice.
Sargur N. Srihari, Sung-Hyuk Cha, Hiria Arora and Sangjik Lee 

Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR) 

University at Buffalo, State University of New York 

Buffalo, New York 

U. S. A. 

June 29, 2001 

Contact: Sargur N. Srihari 

CEDAR 

520 Lee Entrance, Suite 202 

Amherst, NY, 14228-2567 

Tel: (716) 645-6164 Ext. 113 

Email: srihariQcedar.buffalo.edu 

Fax: (716) 645-6176 

ELb0703770VUS 

'This work was funded by the National Institute of Justice grant 1999-IJ-CX-K010. 

This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has

not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

Justice.
Individuality of Handwriting 

Abstract 

Motivated by several rulings in United States courts concerning expert testimony in 

general and handwriting testimony in particular, we undertook a study to objectively 

validate the hypothesis that handwriting is individualistic. Handwriting samples of one 

thousand five hundred individuals, representative of the US population with respect to 

gender, age, ethnic groups, etc., were obtained. Analyzing differences in handwriting 

was done by using computer algorithms for extracting features from scanned images of 

handwriting. Attributes characteristic of the handwriting were obtained, e.g., line sep 

aration, slant, character shapes, etc. These attributes, which are a subset of attributes 

used by expert document examiners, were used to quantitatively establish individuality by using machine learning approaches. Using global attributes of handwriting 

and very few characters in the writing, the ability to determine the writer with a high 

degree of confidence was established. The work is a step towards providing scientific 

support for admitting handwriting evidence in court. The mathematical approach and 

the resulting software also have the promise of aiding the expert document examiner. 

0 Key Words: forensic science, document analysis, feature extraction, handwriting identification, handwriting individuality 

1 Introduction 

The analysis of handwritten documents from the viewpoint of determining the writer has 

great bearing on the criminal justice system. Numerous cases over the years have dealt with 

evidence provided by handwritten documents such as wills and ransom notes. Handwriting 

has long been considered individualistic, as evidenced by the importance of signatures in 

documents. However, the individuality of writing in handwritten notes and documents has 

not been established with scientific rigor, and therefore its admissability as forensic evidence 

can be questioned. 

a Writer individuality rests on the hypothesis that each individual has consistent handwriting which is distinct from the handwriting of another individual. However, this hypothesis 

1 

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0 has not been subjected to rigorous scrutiny with the accompanying experimentation, testing, 

and peer review. Our objective was to make a contribution towards this scientific validation. 

The task involved setting up a methodology for validating the hypothesis that everybody writes differently. The study is built upon recent advances in developing machine 

learning algorithms for recognizing handwriting from scanned paper documents; software for 

recognizing handwritten documents has many applications, such as sorting mail with handwritten addresses. The task of handwriting recognition focuses on interpreting the message 

conveyed-such as determining the town in a postal address-which is done by averaging 

out the variation in the handwriting of different individuals. On the other hand, the task of 

establishing individuality focuses on determining those very differences. What the two tasks 

have in common is that they both involve processing images of handwriting and extracting 

features. 

e 1.1 Legal Motivation 

Our study was motivated by several rulings in United States courts that pertain to the presentation of scientific testimony in general and handwritten document examination testimony 

in particular. Six such rulings and their summaries are as follows: 

1. Frye v. United States [l], decided 1923: Expert opinion based on a scientific technique 

is inadmissible unless the technique is generally accepted as reliable in the relevant 

scientific community. 

2. Daubert, et al. v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals [2], decided June 28, 1993: To admit expert opinion based on scientific technique in court, the technique needs to be 

established based on testing, peer review, error rates and acceptability. Daubert is considered to be a landmark ruling in that it requires the judge to perform a gate-keeping 

function before scientific testimony is admitted. 

2 

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3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

U.S. v. Starzecpyzel [3], decided April 3, 1995: (1) Forensic document examination 

expertise is outside the scope of Daubert, which established reliability standards for 

scientific expert testimony; (2) forensic document examination testimony is admissible 

as nonscientific or skilled testimony; (3) possible prejudice deriving from possible perception by jurors that forensic testimony met scientific standards of reliability did not 

require exclusion of testimony. 

General Electric Co., et al. v. Joiner et al. [4], decided December 15, 1997: Expert 

testimony that is both relevant and reliable must be admitted, and testimony that is 

irrelevant or unreliable must be excluded. Further, a weight-of-evidence methodology, 

where evidence other than expert testimony is admitted, is acceptable. 

Kumho Tire Co., Ltd, et al. v. Carmichael et al. [5], decided March 23, 1999: The 

reliability standard (does the application of the principle produce consistent results?) 

applies equally well to scientific, technical and other specialized knowledge. 

United States v. Paul [6], decided May 13, 1999: Handwriting analysis qualifies as 

expert testimony and is therefore admissible under the Daubert guidelines. It further 

states that if the witness qualifies as an expert on handwriting analysis, such testimony could assist the jury. Furthermore, the ability of the jury to perform the same 

visual comparisons as the expert “cuts against the danger of undue prejudice from the 

mystique attached to expert.” 

These high court rulings point to the need for a scientific study: (i) to validate the hypothesis 

that handwriting is individualistic, and (ii) to validate procedures used in establishing writer 

identity by experimentation and statistical analysis to establish error rates. Our study is an 

effort to establish the individuality of handwriting. The approach taken utilizes automated 

techniques derived from those used by experts. a 

3 

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0 1.2 Overview of Study 

There are two variabilities of concern while comparing handwriting: the variability of the 

handwriting of the same individual and the variability of the handwriting from one idividual 

to another. These two variabilities are seen when several individuals are asked to write the 

same word many times (Fig. 1). Intuitively, the within-writer variation (the variation within 

a person's handwriting samples) is less than the between-writer variation (the variation 

between the handwriting samples of two different people). The goal of this study was to 

establish this intuitive observation in an objective manner. 

Figure 1: Variability in handwriting: Samples provided by eight writers (boxed), each of 

whom wrote the same word thrice. 

The study consisted of three phases: data collection, feature extraction, and individuality 

validation. In the data collection phase, representative samples of handwriting were collected. 

The feature extraction phase was to obtain handwriting attributes that would enable the 0 writing style of one writer to be discriminated from the writing style of another writer. The 

This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has

not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

Justice.
validation phase was to associate a statistical confidence level with a measure of individuality. e 

The study pertains to natural handwriting and not to forgery or disguised handwriting. 

Examination of handwritten documents for forensic analysis is different from recognition of 

content, eg, reading a postal address, or in attempting to assess personality (also known as 

graphology). 

I 

2 Handwriting Samples 

Our objective was to obtain a set of handwriting samples that would capture variations in 

handwriting between and within writers. This meant we that we would need handwriting 

samples from multiple writers, as well as multiple samples from each writer. The handwriting samples ol' the sample population should have the following properties (loosely based 

on [7]): (i) they are sufficient in number to exhibit normal writing habits and to portray 

the consistency with which particular habits are executed, and (ii) for comparison purposes, 

they should have similarity in texts, in writing circumstances and in writing purposes. 

a 

Several factors may influence handwriting style, e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, handedness, 

the system of handwriting learned, subject matter (content), writing protocol (written from 

memory, dictated, or copied out), writing instrument (pen and paper), changes in the handwriting of an individual over time, etc. For instance, we decided that document content 

would be such that it would capture as many features as possible. Only some of these factors were considered in the experimental design. The other factors will have to be part of a 

different study. However, the same experimental methodology can be used to determine the 

influence factors not considered. 

There were two design aspects to the collection of handwriting samples: content of the 

0 handwriting sample and determining the writer population. 

5 

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2.1 Source Document 

abed ~ efgh ijk Im nopq r s t uvwxyz 

‘Init 17 4 1 16 12 9 4 2 12 2 16 2 1 5 8 14 11 8 13 1 

Mid 33 2 8 6 59 4 5 20 32 1 3 14 3 35 36 4 1 30 19 25 I8 7 5 2 2 2- 

Ter 5212120335103527511121517212181 

A source document in English, which was to be copied by each writer, was designed for the 

purpose of this study (Fig. 2(a)). It is concise (156 words) and complete in that it captures all 

characters (alphabets and numerals) and certain character combinations of interest. In the 

source document, each alphabet occurs in the beginning of a word as a capital and a small 

letter and as a small letter in the middle and end of a word (a total of 104 combinations). 

The number of occurrences in each position of interest in the source text is shown in Table 1. 

In addition, the source document also contains punctuation, all ten numerals, distinctive 

letter and numeral combinations (ff, tt, 00, 00), and a general document structure that 

allows extracting macro-document attributes such as word and line spacing, line skew, etc. 

Forensic literature refers to many such documents, including the London Letter and the 

Dear Sam Letter [8]. We set out to capture each letter of the alphabet as capital letters 

and as small letters in the initial, middle, and terminal positions of a word. This creates a 

total of 104 possibilities (cells) for each of the 26 letters in the alphabet. A measure of how 

“complete” the source text is is given by the expression: (104-Number of empty ceZZs)/l04. 

0 

While our source text scores 99% on this measure, the London Letter scores only 76%. 

Each participant (writer) was required to copy-out the source document three times in 

his/her most natural handwriting, using plain, unruled sheets, and a medium black ballpoint 

pen provided by us. 

handwriting from one writing occasion to the next 

The repetition was to determine, for each writer, the variation of 

Table 1: Positional frequency of occurrence of letters in the source text. 

6 

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Nov 10,1999 

Jim Elder 

829 Loop Street, Apt 300 

Allentown, New York 14707 

To 

Dr. Bob Grant 

602 Queensberry Parkway 

Omar, West Virginia 25638 

We were referred to you by Xena Cohen at the University Medical 

Center. This is regarding my friend, Kate Zack. 

It all started around six months ago while attending the "Rubeq" 

Jazz Concert. Organizing such an event is no picnic, and as 

President of the Alumni Association, a co-sponsor of the event, 

Kate was overworked. But she enjoyed her job, and did what was 

required of her with great zeal and enthusiasm. 

However, the extra hours affected her health; halfway through the 

show she passed out. We rushed her to the hospital, and several 

questions, x-rays and blood tests later, were told it was just 

exhaustion. 

Kate's been in very bad health since. Could you kindly take a look 

at the results and give us your opinion? 

Jim 

Thank you! 

(4 

.- 

J i., 

Figure 2: Handwriting Exemplar: (a) source document to be copied by writers, and (b) a 

digitally scanned handwritten sample provided by writer. 

7 

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0 2.2 writer Population 

We decided to make the writer population as representative of the U.S. population as possible. Statistical issues in determining the writer population are: the number of samples 

needed to make statistically valid conclusions and the population distribution needed to 

make conclusions that apply to the US population, which are issues in the design of experiments [9]. 

2.2.1 Randomness 

If the samples are random, then every individual in the US should have an equal chance 

of participating in the study. We attempted to make our sample population as random as 

possible. Sample handwriting was obtained by contacting participants in person, by mail, 

by advertising the study with the use of flyers and internet newsgroups, and by manning 

a university booth. For geographic diversity, we obtained samples by contacting schools in 

three states (Alaska, Arizona, and New York) and communities in three states (Florida, New 

York, and Texas) through churches and other organizations. 

2.2.2 Sample Size 

The sample population should be large enough to enable drawing inferences about the entire 

population through the observed sample population. The issue of large enough is related to 

sampling error, the error that results from taking one sample instead of examining the whole 

population, i.e., how close is an estimate of a quantity based on the sample population to 

the true value for the entire population? 

Public opinion polls that use simple random sampling specify using a sample size of about 

1100, which allows for a 95% confidence interval, with a margin of error of 0.03 [lo]. Higher 

precision levels would entail a larger number of samples. Our database has a sample size of 

8 

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about 1500, and our results are therefore subject to such a margin of error. 

2.2.3 Representativeness 

The sample population should be representative of the US population. For instance, since 

the US population consists of an (approximately) equal number of males and females, it 

would Ibe unwise to perform the study on a sample population consisting of only males and 

expect the conclusions of the study to apply to the entire US population consisting of males 

and females (especially in the absence of any scientific evidence that proves or disproves 

the association between handwriting and gender). The sample was made representative by 

means of a stratified sample with proportional allocation [9]. 

We divided the population into a pre-determined number of subpopulations, or strata. 

The strata do not overlap, and they constitute the whole population so that each sampling 

unit belongs to exactly one stratum. We drew independent probability samples from each 

stratum, and we then pooled the information to obtain overall population estimates. The 

stratification was based on US census information (1996 projections). 

Proportional allocation was used when taking a stratified sample to ensure that the 

sample reflects the population with respect to the stratification variable, and the sample is a 

miniature version of the population. In proportional allocation, so called because the number 

of sampled units in each stratum is proportional to the size of the stratum, the probability of 

selection is the same for all strata. Thus, the probability that an individual will be selected 

to be in the sample is the same as in a simple random sample without stratification, but 

many of the bad samples that could occur otherwise cannot be selected in a stratified sample 

with proportional allocation. The sample size again turns out to be about 1000 for a 95% 

confidence interval, with a margin of error of 0.03. 

A survey designed as above would allow drawing conclusions only about the general US 0 

9 

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0 population, and not any subgroup in particular. In order to draw any conclusions about the 

subgroups, we would need to use allocation for specified precision within data. This would 

entail having 1000 in each cell of the cross-classification. 

From the census data, we obtained population distributions pertaining to gender, age, 

ethnicity, level of education, and country of origin; we also obtained a distribution for handedness from [ll]. Based on this information, a proportional allocation was performed for 

a sample populatio;; of 1000 across these strata. Among these variables, ORIY gender, age, 

and ethnicity can be considered as strata (by definition). Due to the limited amount of 

census data on other combinations, we were unable to stratify across handedness and level 

of education. 

Each writer was asked to provide the following writer data, enabling us to study the 

various relationships: gender (male, female), age (under 15 years, 15 through 24 years, 25 

through 44 years, 45 through 64 years, 65 through 84 years, 85 years and older), handedness (left, right), highest level of education (high school graduate, bachelors degree and 

higher), country of primary education (if US, which state), ethnicity (hispanic, white, black, 

Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Eskimo/Aleut) , and country of birth (US, foreign). 

The details (actual/target) of the distribution for a sample size of 1568 writers are given 

in Table 2. The strata are sometimes under-represented (actual < target) or over-represented 

(actual > target). Parameters considered in addition to strata shown in Table 2 are handedness and country of origin - Male: handedness (right, left): 382/429, 61/61,and country 

of origin (US, foreign): 373/451, 71/39; Female: handedness (right, left): 1028/461, 95/49, 

and country of origin (US, foreign): 1026/469, 98/41. 

There may be other relevant strata that could have been considered, such as the system 

of writing learned (e.g., the Palmer method), country in which writing was learned, etc. We 

a were constrained by the limited information we have on these distributions. Moreover, a 

10 

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Table 2: Writer population distribution in handwriting database (actual and target): male 

population size: 444/490, female population size: 1124/510. The population was stratified 

Ethnicity White White Black Black API API 

\ Gender Female Male Female Male Female Male 

AIEA AIEA Hispanic Hispanic 

Female Male Female Male 

Age \Total 

12-14 

The numbers may not add to 1568 because a few subjects did not provide the relevant information. 

8721371 3331359 103164 36/56 38/16 31/14 1915 415 91/54 40156 

49/17 25/16 214 214 111 211 Of0 010 2214 1614 

perfect sample (a scaled-down version of the population which mirrors every characteristic 

of the whole population) cannot exist for complicated populations. Even if it did exist, we 

would not know it was a perfect sample without measuring the whole population. 

3 Handwriting Attributes (Features) 

Our approach to studying the handwriting of different individuals was to scan the samples 

into a computer and then automatically obtain handwriting attributes for further study. 

3.1 Scanning and Image Segmentation 

Each handwritten document was scanned and converted into a digitized image using a desktop black-and-white scanner. The resolution of scanning was 300 dots per inch, and the 

resulting images were stored as grey-scale images of discrete pixels (each pixel value can 

vary from 0 to 255, where 0 is pure black, and 255 is pure white). After all handwritten 

documents were digitally scanned, the grey-scale image was converted to a pure black and 

white (or binary) image by using a binarization algorithm. The method of binarization 

determines a threshold grey-scale value such that any value higher than the threshold is 

deemed to be white and any value lower is deemed to be black. 0 

11 

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0 Paragraph and line images were acquired from each document image by segmentation. 

Word images were segmented from the line image, and each character image was segmented 

from the word image. We used a commercial image manipulating tool (Photoshop) to manually extract line, word, and character images. Examples of extracted paragraph, line, word, 

and character images are shown in Fig. 3. 

Segmentation of the eight characters of the word “referred” are illustrated in Fig. 4. 

These eight characters were used as sample allographs in some of the tests conducted for 

individuality. 

Figure 3: Examples of three levels of segmentation: (a) paragraph (address block), (b) line 

level, (c) word, and (d) character. Each distinct line, word, or character is assigned a distinct 

shade/color. 

3.2 Types of Features 

Features are quantitative measurements that can be obtained from a handwriting sample in 

order to obtain a meaningful characterization of the writing style. 

These measurements can be obtained from the entire document or from each paragraph, 

word, or even a single character. In pattern classification terminology, measurements, or 

attributes, are called featvres. In order to quantify the process of matching documents, each 

12 

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1 .. 

c 

Figure 4: Segmented word and character images: snippets of words and characters extracted 

from the handwritten word referred. The shapes of these eight characters were used to 

determine the writer. 

sample is mapped onto a set of features that correspond to it, called a feature vector. For example, if measurements, fi, f2, ..., fd, are obtained from a sample, then these measurements 

form a column vector [fit f2, ..., fdIt, which is a data point in d-dimensional space [12]; note 

that superscript t indicates vector transposition. 

0 

We distinguish between two types of features: document examiners features and computational features. Document examiners features are the handwriting attributes that are 

commonly used by the forensic document examination community. These features are manually extracted from the handwriting using tools such as rulers, templates, etc. Computational 

features are features that have known software/hardware techniques for their extraction. The 

two types of features have some correspondence. 

3.2.1 Document Examiners Features 

Features used by forensic analysts can be broadly classified into two categories: those that 

pertain to individual characteristics, and those that pertain to class characteristics [7]. Individual characteristics are defined as those discriminating elements that serve to differentiate 

e 

13 

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0 between members within any or all groups. The slant of an individual’s handwriting, whether 

a person writes upright, with a left slant, or a right slant, is an example of individual characteristic. Class characteristics are defined as those aspects, elements, or qualities of writing 

that situate a person within a group of writers, or that give a written communication a group 

identity. For example, Hispanic writers have a tendency to ornateness in the formation of 

capital letters. I 

Document examiners make use of a host of qualitative and quantitative features that pertain to both individual and class characteristics while examining handwriting samples. These 

features have been compiled into twenty-one discriminating elements of handwriting [7]. A 

discriminating element is defined as (‘a relatively discrete element of writing or lettering 

that varies observably or measurably with its author and may, thereby, contribute reliably 

to distinguishing between the inscriptions of different persons, or to evidencing the sameness in those of common authors.” The 21 features are: arrangement; class of allograph; 

connections; design of allographs (alphabets) and their construction; dimensions (vertical 

and horizontal); slant or slope; spacings, intraword and interword; abbreviations; baseline 

alignment; initial and terminal strokes; punctuation (presence, style, and location); embel- 

@ 

lishments; legibility or writing quality; line continuity; line quality; pen control; writing 

movement (arched, angular, interminable) ; natural variations or consistency; persistency; 

lateral expansion; and word proportions. 

3.2.2 Computational Features 

Computational features are those that can be determined algorithmically, e.g., by software 

operating on a scanned image of the handwriting. Computational features remove subjectivity from the process of feature extraction. While it could be argued that all document 

examiner features could eventually be computational features-when the correct algorithms 

have been defined-the fact remains that most of the document examiner features are not 

14 

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yet computable. 

While some document examiner features like legibility and writing quality may be too 

subjective to be implemented, several of the other features are computable based on existing techniques for handwriting recognition [ 13, 141. Handwriting recognition differs from 

handwriting identification in that they are two opposite processes. The objective of handwriting recognition is to filter out individual variability from handwriting and recognize the 

message. The objective of handwriting identification is to capture the essence of the individuality, while essentially ignoring the content of the message. The two share many aspects 

of automated processing, such as determining lines, strokes, etc. For instance, handwriting 

recognition procedures routinely compute baseline angle and slant so that a correction can 

be applied prior to recognition [15]. 

Computational features can be divided into macro- and micro-features, depending on 

whether they pertain globally to the entire handwritten sample, eg., darkness, or are extracted locally, e.g., contour variations. Macro-features can be extracted at the document 

level (entire handwritten manuscript) or at the paragraph, line, word, and character levels. 

We used a set of eleven macro-features which are loosely related to the document examiner 

discriminating elements (Fig. 5). 

Micro-features are computed at the allograph, or character shape, level. They are analogous to the allograph-discriminating elements among document examiner features. The 

features that we used are those used in recognizing handwriting scanned from paper documents (called off-line recognition), which differ from those used in devices such as hand-held 

PDAs (called on-line recognition). Features corresponding to gradient, structural and concavity (GSC) attributes, which are used in automatic character recognition for interpreting 

handwritten postal addresses [16, 171, were used as micro-features. 

15 

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1. Entropy of grey values 

2. Gray-level threshold i 3. Number of black pixels 

Measures of 

Pen Pressure 

4. Number of interior contours 

5. Number of exterior contours 

Measures of 

Writing Movement 

6. Number of vertical slope components 

7. Number of horizontal slop components 

8. Number of negative slope components 

9. Number of positive slope components 

Measures of 

Stroke Formation 

Slant ( IO. Slant 

Word Proportion ( 1 1. Height 

Figure 5: Eleven macro-features and their relationship to document examiners features. 

3.3 Feature Extraction 

3.3.1 Macro-Features 

The macro-features can also be grouped into three broad categories: darkness features, 

contour features (connectivity and slope features), and averaged line-level features. Darkness 

features, such as entropy of grey-level values, grey-level threshold, and number of black 

pixels, are indicative of the pen pressure. The number of interior and exterior contours are 

indicative of writing movement. The number of horizontal, vertical, negative, and positive 

slope components are indicative of stroke formation. Brief descriptions of algorithms for 

computing the eleven macro-features follows (see [ 101 for greater detail). 

I. Measures of Pen Pressure ~ -~ 

1. Grey-level distribution (measured by its entropy): Entropy is an informationtheoretic measure of disorder. The grey-scale histogram (frequency plot of the 

grey-values) of the scanned image is normalized and regarded as a probabil16 

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ity distribution. The entropy of the probability distribution is calculated as 

- Cipi logpi, where pi is the probability of the ith grey value in the image. This 

gives an indication of the variation of grey-levels in the image. For example, an 

image where each grey-level is equally likely will have a very high entropy. 

2. Grey-level threshold value: The scanned grey-scale image is converted into a pure 

black-and-white, or binary, image by using a thresholding algorithm. It maps the 

grey-levei pixel values in the image that are below a particular threshold to pure 

black (foreground) and those above the threshold to pure white (background). 

The threshold value (the grey-scale value that partitions the foreground and background of the grey-level image) is determined using a grey-level histogram [18]. 

The value of the threshold is indicative of the pen-pressure, with higher values 

indicating lighter pressure. 

1 

3. Number of black pixels: This is a count of the number of foreground pixels in the 

thresholded image. The number of black pixels is indicative of the pen-pressure, 

thickness of strokes, and the size of writing. 

11. Measures of Writina Movement 

The thresholded black-and-white images are processed to determine the connected 

components in the imageeach connected component can be thought of as a “blob.” 

The outlines of the blobs, or contours, are stored and manipulated. A binary image 

of a line of text from the handwritten source document and the corresponding contour 

image are shown in Fig. 6. The outlines, or contours, are stored as chaincodes [19, 201. 

A chaincode is a series of integers in the range 0 - 7, each of which represents a 

direction of slope of the contour, e.g., 0 represents east, 1 represents north-east, 2 

represents north, 3 represents north-west, etc. The chaincodes of the numeral “6” are 

in Fig. 7. 

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Figure 6: Extraction of contours of handwriting: (a) thresholded image of a line of handwritten text and (b) corresponding contour image. 

Exterior contour of 6: 

066776676677766667667666766676766677 

666766676666666566555543544343332343 

323232232232132212211101070707077712 

32232223223222322323223542232322210 

Interior contour of 6: 

555656666757667667706777067070011112 

11223232223233333235343443 

Figure 7: Chaincode and feature representation: digitized numeral 6, and the chaincode 

a 

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Two sets of features are extracted from the contour image as follows: 

4-5. Contour connectivity features: The number of interior and exterior contours is 

extracted from the chaincode representation of the image. The average number 

of interior and exterior contours can be used as a measure of writing movement: 

highly cursive handwriting, for example, would have a greater number of interior 

contours and fewer exterior contours, while script-like writing would have a very 

large number of exterior contours. Examples of contour connectivity features 

for two samples from the database are shown in Fig. 8. Note that while the 

figure shows the connectivity features extracted for a line, these features can be 

calculated for the entire document, paragraph, line, word, or character . 

111. Meaames of Stroke Formation 

6-9. Contour slope features: Vertical, negative, positive, horizontal slope components 

are indicative of the nature of stroke formation. Flattish writing would have a 

greater number of horizontal slope components, while handwriting with a distinctive negative slope would have a large number of negative slope components. 

Contour slope features for two samples from the database are shown in Fig. 9, 

which shows the connectivity features extracted for the block of text. 

Figure 8: Macro-feature-connectivity: (a) number of exterior contours = 17, number of 

interior contours = 49, and (b) number of exterior contours = 34, number of interior contours 

= 7. 

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Figure 9: Macro-featurecontour slope: number of horizontal (nh), positive (np), vertical 

(n,), and negative (n,) slope components features. Illustration with two samples: (a) nh = 

0.06, nv = 0.15, zn = 0.68, np = 0.11 (b) nh = 0.04, n, = 0.14, n, = 0.72, np = 0.10. 

IV. Slant and Proportion 

The last two macro-features, slant and height, are extracted at the line level (and 

averaged over the entire document, if necessary): 

10. Slant: Vertical and near-vertical lines are extracted from the chaincode. Global 

slant angle is the average of all the angles of these lines, weighted by their length 

in the vertical direction since the longer lines give more accurate angle than the 

shorter ones. 

11. Height: The height is calculated (for each line in the document) by considering 

the distance between contiguous maxima and minima in the upper contour of the 

chaincode. It is then averaged over the entire document. 

Feature vectors composed of the eleven macro-features for three writers W1, W2, and 

W3 with corresponding samples Wl1, WI2, W13, W21, W22, W23, and W31, W32, W33 in are 

shown in Table 3. W, is male, 65-84, right-handed, college-educated, white, US-educated; 

writer W2 (sample 1 is shown in Fig. 2 (b)) is female, 25-44, right-handed, college-educated, 

API, foreign-educated; and writer W3 is female, 45-64, left-handed, college-educated, white, 

US-educated. For instance, sample bVll had raw values as follows: entropy = 0.5, threshold e = 195, # of black pixels = 184,000, # of exterior contours = 15, # of interior contours = 

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14, # of horizontal slope components = 0.31, # of negative slope components = 0.13, # of a 

vertical slope components = 0.28, # of positive slope components = 0.28, slant = 8.8, and 

height = 25. 

The variation of features (stratified across gender, age, and ethnicity) for approximately 

300 writers (3 samples each) is shown in Fig. 10 by mapping the normalized feature values to 

a color scale of eleven values. The white population has greater representation (two columns) 

than other ethnic groups (one column each) as an indication of a greater percentage of white 

people in the database (since it was based on proportional allocation). As indicated by the 

color map, there is consistency within different samples of a writer and considerable variation 

between samples of different writers. 

Table 3: Sample macro-features extracted from samdes of three writers. 

iq-T-3- F41F5) F6 mp3- 

0.13 0.28 

0.13 0.27 

0.12 0.26 

0.12 0.43 

0.12 0.43 

0.12 0.42 

0.10 0.29 t 0.09 0.28 

0.10 0.29 

-- 

0.26 

27 

25 

29 

3.3.2 Paragraph- and Word-Level Features 

Sub-images corresponding to paragraphs, words, and characters were extracted semi-automatically, 

and then the features were computed from the sub-images automatically. The feature sets 

were slightly modified for paragraphs and words as follows: 

I. Macro-Features: Paragraph-Level 

a Paragraph-level features were extracted from the destination address block that ap 

pears in the source text. Macro features 3 through 11 were extracted at the paragraph 

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Uhib Black Hispanic API AIEA 

25-44 

45-64 

12-24 

25-44 

d 

x 

Figure 10: Handwriting feature map for 500 writers, each writer having three samples: (a) 

color scale for representing normalized feature values: 0 is on top, and 1 is at the bottom of 

the scale, and (b) feature map, where each horizontal bar represents eleven macro-features 

extracted from a single sample. There are three bars per writer corresponding to three exemplars. The color image can be seen at "http://www.cedar.buffalo.edu/NIJ/colormapl.gif." 

22 

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Table 4: Features extracted from handwritten document at three levels of coarseness: word, 

paragraph, and document. 

I Macro Features \ Levels 1 Word 1 Paragraph I Document 1 

level. Two new features were extracted: height to width ratio (aspect ratio) and indentation (margin width). 

11. Macro-Features: Word-Level 

Macro features 3 through 11 were extracted at the word level if the content of the words 

being compared is the same. Three new features are extracted: upper zone ratio, lower 

zone ratio, and length. The word-level features were extracted for the word referred in 

the source text. 

The relationship between the feature sets at the word, paragraph, and document levels is 

shown in Table 4. 

3.3.3 Micro-Features 

The micro-features consist of 512 binary (0 or 1 value) features corresponding to gradient (192 

bits), structural (192 bits), and concavity (128 bits) features. Examples of micro-features of 

characters are shown in Fig. 11. The first gradient feature generator computes the gradient 

of the image by convolving it with a 3 x 3 Sobel operator [21, 221. The direction of the 

gradient at every edge is quantized to 12 directions. The structural feature generator takes 

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0 the gradient map and looks in a neighborhood for certain combinations of gradient values. 

These combinations are used to compute 8 distinct features which represent lines (strokes) 

and corners in the image. The concavity feature generator uses an eight point star operator 

to find coarse concavities in four directions, holes, and large scale strokes. The image feature 

maps are normalized with a 4 x 4 grid and a feature vector is generated. These features were 

used at the character level in our study. 

Gradient : 000000000000 100000000001 100001 10000000000 00000 10 000000001 10 

(192bits) 0111000001100001100000111100001011000011000000000011000000000000 

0000100000110000100011000011001110001110010000111000010000110000 

Structural : 0000000000000000001000000000001100000001000101000000000000000000 

(192bits) 0011110000001001010000001000000000000011100000000001000000000100 

0000000001 1011001 1001 1011 11000001 10000000000001 10000000000110000 

Concavity : 0110010011111111000000001111111001100100110110010000000001111100 

(128bits) 00 1 10 1 1 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000~00 

(b) 

Figure 11: Micro-features of the numeral 6: (a) gradient map, showing the directions of the 

image gradient at each pixel, and (b) gradient, structural, and concavity features (512 bits). 

24 

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4 Validation 

200 

198 

The validation task is to use the handwriting samples and the features extracted from the 

samples to statistically validate the hypothesis that handwriting is individualistic. One 

possible approach to doing this is as follows. Each handwriting sample may be viewed as 

a point in a multi-dimensional feature space. If, in feature space, all the samples of writer 

I 

0 w1 

xw2 

AW3 - 

xx 

Wl are close together and all the samples of writer W2 are close together but samples of Wl 

and W2 are far apart, then we can say that WI and W2 write differently and that samples 

of W, and W2 belong to two different classes or clusters [12, 231. This is illustrated for the 

three-writer data in Table 3 using the two-dimensional feature space, consisting of features 

Fl and F2 in Fig. 12. In order to validate individuality among n writers, we would have to 

194 

2 

'"t A 1 

i 186 0 

Figure 12: Handwriting samples of three writers in two-dimensional feature space. 

determine whether the samples form n distinct clusters, where samples of the same writer 

belong to the same cluster and samples of different writers belong to different clusters. A 

measure of distinctness of the clusters would be a measure of confidence of the individuality 

hypothesis. 

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The task of determining the presence of distinct clusters can be approached by using 

the probability of correctly classifying samples of unknown writership as the criterion of 

clustering. In the identification model, given a handwriting sample 5 whose writer is unknown 

and samples of handwriting of n known writers, we would like to identify the writer of z 

among the n writers. 

In 8 the verification model, given two handwriting samples Zl and 22 and samples of 

handwriting of n writers, we would like to determine whether x1 and x2 were written by 

the same person or by two different people among the n writers. Both models involve 

classification, with the identification model leading to an n-class problem (or a polychotomy 

of the feature space) and the verification model leading to a 2-class problem (or a dichotomy 

of the feature space) (see Fig. 13). 

Handwriting , Writer 1 

-_I / ISample I model 1: =- Writern 

Handwriting 

Sample 1 

Handwritin 

Sample 2 

Verification Same Writer 

model Different Writers 

(b) 

Figure 13: Two models for establishing the individuality of handwriting: (a) the identification model, and (b) the verification model. 

Each of these models can be regarded as tasks in machine learning [24]. Handwriting 

samples are used to learn the discrimination task. Once the task is learnt, a set of samples 

is used to test the model for its accuracy. Both models will provide a probability of correct 

classification which we can use as a measure of confidence of the individuality hypothesis. 

The question arises as to which model is better. The identification model has the advan- a 

tage of being able to identify the writer directly. However, it is dependent on knowing all 

26 

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the writers in advance. The result with n writers does not generalize with n + 1 writers. On a 

the other hand, the verification model provides results that have statistical inferability. The 

two different classification approaches would provide a measure of cross-checking our results. 

Both models involve a method of measuring similarity, or nearness, or distance, between 

two samples. For macro-features, the distance between a pair of documents with feature 

vectors A = [al, a2, . , ad]t and B = [bl, b2, . . , bd]' is defined by the Euclidean distance 

,/(E! t=l (ai - bi)2),- where d is the number of attributes. For micro-features, the distance 

between two characters represented by binary feature vectors A and B is calculated as: 

ift B d(A, B) = A'B + -. 2 

4.1 Identification Model 

Writer identification is the task of determining the writer when there are n candidates. This 

classification task has to be learnt from a set of handwriting samples provided by each of the 

candidates. Given a test sample of an unknown writer, the task is to determine whether it 

was written by any of the n writers and, if so, to identify the writer. The writer identification 

procedure uses the features extracted from the test image and from the labeled prototype 

images to determine the writer of the test document. 

4.1.1 Learning Algorithm 

The identification model can be regarded as an n-class classification problem where writership 

of the samples is established based on their proximity to one another. We used the simplest 

learning algorithm based on storing all the samples. Classification is achieved by finding the 

closest match. This is known as the nearest neighbor rule [12], where the unknown input 

vector is classified by finding the most similar template in the prototype, or learning, set. 

The prototype set consisted of all the documents written by each of n writers, except for a 

a 

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0 test document that is left out from the set. So the reference set has (3 x n) - 1 documents 

\I I 

F8 F9 F10 

0.45 0.25 0.52 

0.43 0.25 0.53 

0.40 0.23 0.56 

0.76 0.24 0.49 

0.75 0.24 0.49 

0.74 0.22 0.51 

0.46 0.17 0.67 

0.44 0.14 0.69 

0.46 0.17 0.62 

in it. The test document is assigned the class of the document nearest to it among the 

prototypes. 

F11 

0.23 

0.23 

0.19 

0.32 

0.32 

0.32 

0.26 

0.23 

0.30 

To evaluate identification accuracy, the following experiments were set up. A number of 

n writers was randomly selected from 1,000 writers; then one document written by one of n 

Writer 

writers,was selected as a query document, and the rest of (3 x n) - 1 documents was used 

as a reference set. -This Zeawe-one-method was performed 1,000 times for each n, and the 

accuracy is the number of correctly classfied queries divided by 1,000. 

Sample F 1 F 2 F 3 

WI,~ 0.20 0.45 0.13 

This procedure was applied with macro-features shown in Table 3 converted into normalized form obtained from the raw data by scaling the minimum and maximum values of each 

feature to 0 and 1, which are shown in Table 5. 

Wl 

w2 

w3 

W1,2 0.19 0.46 0.13 

W1,3 0.19 0.46 0.13 

W2,1 0.23 0.50 0.16 

W2,2 0.22 0.48 0.15 

W2,3 0.22 0.48 0.15 

W3,1 0.47 0.38 0.37 

W3,2 0.46 0.34 0.36 

W3,3 0.50 0.38 0.39 

4.1.2 Identification Accuracy 

- 

F4 

0.28 

0.28 

0.30 

0.43 

0.43 

0.43 

0.08 

0.15 

0.15 

- 

- 

- 

- 

F5 

0.30 

0.37 

0.33 

0.60 

0.67 

0.57 

0.50 

0.70 

0.70 

- 

- 

- 

Identification accuracy was measured against the number of writers considered in three 

separate sets of experiments using macro-features, micro-features, and their combinations. 

Mucro-features: Parameterizing against document, paragraph, and word levels (Fig. 14, 

we observed that: (i) the larger the portion of the document image we consider, the higher 

the accuracy, and (ii) performance decreases as the number of writers increase. 

a 

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a Micro-features: Accuracy also improves with the number of characters considered, as 

shown in Fig. 15. Using character-level features of all 8 characters of the word referred (see 

Fig. 4), the correct writer was identified in 99% of the cases when all possible pairs of writers 

were considered. When there are five possible writers, the writer of the test document is 

correctly assigned with a 98% probability. We can expect the accuracy to improve when we 

consider: (i) more words in the document, and (ii) more discriminatory features. 

Combination: The micro-features are better than document-level features in that higher 

accuracy was obtained when more writers are considered. Combining the two sets of features 

yields a higher accuracy than either set alone. We combined them as follows. The macrofeatures were used as a filter which reduces the number of writers from 1,000 to 100. Microfeatures were then used to identify the writer among the 100 choices. The results of this 

process is the right-most column in Fig. 15. 

4.2 Verification Model 

Writer verification is the task of determining whether two samples X and Y were written 

by the same writer or by two different writers. This is a 2-class categorization problem that 

requires a dichotomy of the feature space (Fig. 16). 

We use the fact that the within-writer distance (the distance between two samples written 

by the same writer) will be less than the between-writer distance (the distance between two 

samples written by two different writers). Hence, instead of considering features, we consider 

distances, thereby transforming the n-class problem in d-dimensional feature space to a 2- 

class problem of same or different writers in multi-dimensional distance space. 

When there are n writers contributing three documents each, the number of within-class 

3 n distances is n ( ), and the number of between-class distances is ( ) - 3 - 3. Assume 2 2 

three writers, {Wl, W,, W3}, and that each writer provides three samples. If we extract two 

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No. of 

oo writers 

100 

90 

80 

?i 8 70 

3 60 

v) 

U 

bd 

o 40 

0 

2 30 d 

c) 

0 2 20 

10 

0 

100 

90 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

word P"agraPh document 

Size of Document Content 

Figure 14: Writer identification accuracy using macro-features: shown as a function of the 

size of document content (document, paragraph, and word). The word level corresponds to 

two words (Cohen and referred); the paragraph level corresponds to the address block (see 3 

(a)), which consists of 11 words; the document level corresponds to the entire document 

image (see 2 (b)), which consists of 156 words. 

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No. of 

+ 

Feature Distance 

extraction computatlon 

b 

100 

90 

80 

[&.. . ., &] Same or 

Writer? 

b Classifier + Different 

B 

70 

60' 

4 

u ' 50 

u 

k 

8 40 

10 

0 

Nambcr of characters 

10 chars & 

Macro 

100 

90 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

Figure 15: Writer identification accuracy using micro-features: shown as a function of the 

number of allograph shapes considered. (The number of writers is 975). The characters were: 

r, e, f, e, r, r, e, d, b, h in increasing groupings considered (1 to 10). The last column shows 

the result of combining the micro-features of ten characters together with the macro-features 

of the entire document. 

Figure 16: Verification model: feature vectors for each sample are computed as [xl, ..., xd] and 

[yl, ..., yd]. Their distances along each feature, [&I, -..6d], are used by a classifier to determine 

whether the distance vector is classified as within- or between-writer. a 

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features from each sample, then each sample is a point in two-dimensional feature space 

(Fig. 17(a)). We then find the distance between each pair of samples, thereby transforming 

3 3 the 3 x 3 = 9 points in feature space to 3 - ( ) = 9 within-writer distances and ( ) - 2 2 

3 . 3 = 27 between-writer distances in feature distance space (Fig. 17(b)). The number 

Figure 17: The dichotomy model: transformation from feature domain to feature-distance 

domain. (a) Feature space: two features are extracted from each of the three samples of 

handwriting provided by three writers. Handwriting samples of each writer cluster together. 

(b) Distance space: the distance between the feature vectors is mapped onto feature-distance 

vectors in the feature-distance space. Within-writer and between-writer distances cluster 

together. 

of between-writer distances increases combinatorially with n, the number of writers. With 

n = 1000, there are 3000 within-writer distances and 4,495,500 between-writer distances. 

We represented these distances as points in a &dimensional distance-space, where each 

dimension represented the distance along a feature. 

To generalize, let zij denote the feature vector of the jth handwriting sample of the ith 

writer. Distances between samples of the same class are given by wi(j,k) = b(zij,zik) and 

the distances between samples of different classes given by bil(j, k) = 6(zij, zlk), i # I, where 

6, the distance between feature vectors of two handwriting samples X = [zl,. . . , zd] and 

Y = [yl,. . . , yd], is given by the distance vector b(X, Y) = [Izl - yll, Iz2 - y21,. . . , Izd - ydl]. 

32 

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At micro-feature level, the distance between two documents is computed quite differently. Assume that each document is represented by a set of k characters (q, --- , ck). 

For each character, the GSC feature generator extracts a 512-dimensional binary feature 

vector. Using the similarity measure given in eqn. (l), the distance is computed for each 

pair of k characters. Hence, the distance vector between sets of k characters is given by 

qx, y,) = [4% 7 YCJ, * 7 4% , YcJMost statistical experiments require the assumption that observed data be statistically 

independent. Distance data points are not statistically independent, since knowing two 

distances for a given person, the third distance is bounded by the triangle inequality for 

metrics. A solution is to choose randomly a smaller sample from a large sample. We partition 

3000 within writer distance data into disjoint subsets of 500. Similarly, we randomly select 

several subsets of 500 in size from the between writer distance data set. These subsets are 

used in training, validating and testing purposes. 

The accuracy of performing the dichotomy by using a given set of features can be measured by the probability of misclassification: type-I error is defined as probability of misclassifying two handwriting samples as written by two different writers when they actually 

were written by the same writer; type-11 error is defined as probability of misclassifying two 

handwriting samples as written by the same writer when they actually were written by two 

different writers. Our goal was to minimize the misclassification error. Type-I and type-I1 

errors for the within- and between-writer distributions are illustrated in Fig. 18. 

4.2.1 Learning Algorithm 

There are several methods available for statistical classification. When the number of classes 

is few, which is true in the verification model since there are only two classes, a machinelearning technique that is accurate and yet easy to implement is based on artificial neural 

networks (ANNs). We used an ANN to classify the between- and within-writer distances 

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Figure 18: Error probabilities in distance space: type-I and type-I1 errors for within- and 

between-writer distributions with only one measured feature. 

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while minimizing misclassification errors. ANNs have several desirable properties: (i) they e 

are a sound statistical procedure [23], (ii) they are a practical software implementation of 

the Bayesian (optimal) procedure [25], (iii) they make no presumptions about the nature of 

the data (unlike other classifiers), and (iv) they let us tap into the full multivariate nature 

of the data and enable us to use a non-linear discrimination criterion. 

il 

IY = activation 

0 01.0 58 

Figure 19: Artificial neural network used to classify within- and between-writer distances: (a) 

Fully connected, feed-forward, back-propagation, 8-5-1 neural network. The feature distance 

vector is presented at the input layer. The neural network then classifies it as a within- or 

between-writer distance. A 1 at the output implies different writers, and a 0 implies the 

same writer. The sigmoid function on each unit is defined by the activation (a) and bias 

(e) values. (b) Weights on edges connecting input units to hidden units and (c) weights on 

edges connecting hidden units to output unit. 

We used a 3-layered (Fig. 19) network: an input layer with eight units, a hidden layer 

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with five units, and one output unit that would output a 1 if the distance presented to the 

input layer is a within-writer distance, and a 0 if the distance presented is a between-writer 

distance. 

4.2.2 Verification Accuracy 

Verification accuracy was determined with varying amounts of information available in the 

handwritten samples. The results, corresponding to the macro-features of the entire document, a paragraph (address block) and a word (referred), are shown in Fig. 20. Micro-feature 

results 

testing 

the 

word P-h document 

Size oZDocmnent content 

Figure 20: Verification analysis using macro-features: Performance at word (referred), paragraph (address block), and document levels. 

(i) Document Level: In order to ensure independence in the data and to avoid testing on the 

training data, we divided the writers up into 4 groups of 250 each. Within- and betweenwriter distances were then computed within these groups. We used one group for training, 

one for validation, and one each for two test sets. 

a 

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We trained the ANN using 750 within-writer distances and 750 between-writer distances 0 

(of 250 individuals). We then tested it on two separate (previously unseen) test sets each 

with 750 within-writer distances and 750 between-writer distances. The training set classified 

95% of the data correctly (with type-I error = 6.3% and type-I1 error = 3.8%). The two 

test sets classified 96% (with type-I error = 4.5% and type-I1 error = 3.6%) and 94% (with 

type-I error = 7.5% and type-I1 error = 4.4%) of the data correctly. 

(ii) Paragraph Level: IJsing macro-features for the address block, we trained the ANN using 

711 within-writer distances and 71 1 between-writer distances (of 237 individuals). We then 

tested it on two separate (previously unseen) test sets each with 711 within-writer distances 

and 711 between-writer distances. The training set classified 90% of the data correctly (with 

type-I error = 11.8% and type-I1 error = 7.5%). The two test sets classified 89% (with type-I 

error = 14.2% and type-I1 error = 7.6%) and 87% (with type-I error = 16.9% and type-I1 

error = 9.6%) of the data correctly. 0 

(iii) Word Level: Using macro-features for the word referred, we trained the ANN using 834 

within-author distances and 836 between-writer distances. We then tested it on two separate 

(previously unseen) test sets each with 834 within-writer distances and 836 between-writer 

distances. The training set classified 82.3% of the data correctly (with type-I error = 18% 

and type-I1 error = 17.3%). The two test sets classified 83.1% (with type-I error = 14.5% 

and type-I1 error = 19.3%) and 82.7% (with type-I error = 14.4% and type-I1 error = 20.2%) 

of the data correctly. 

(iv) Character Level: Based on micro-features of 10 characters r, e, f, e, r, r, e, d, b, h, we 

trained the ANN using 723 within-author distances and 723 between-writer distances (of 964 

individuals). We then tested it on two separate (previously unseen) test sets each with 723 

within-writer distances and 723 between-writer distances. The training set classified 91.2% 

of the data correctly (with type-I error = 9.8% and type-I1 error = 7.7%). The two test 

37 

This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has

not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

Justice.
@ sets classified 91.1% (with type-I error = 12.4% and type-I1 error = 5.3%) and 91.8% (with 

type-I error = 10.0% and type-I1 error = 6.5%) of the data correctly. The same experiments , 

98 98 

97 97 

96 96 

95 95 

94 94 

93 

92 

-t 91 91 

g9j 

L92 8 

90 90 

89 89 

88 88 

87 87 

86 86 

Combine 

10 thars BL 6 7 8 9 10 

Number of chamcters Macro 

Figure 21 : Verification analysis using micro-features: Performance at the character level ( r, 

e, 1. e, r, r, e, d, b, h). The right-most column shows performance combining the microfeatures of the characters with the macro-features of the entire document. 

with different number of characters were performed and as shown in Fig. 21, we observe that 

the higher accuracy is achieved with the higher number of characters we consider. 

4.3 Comparison of the Two Models 

Validation of individuality was done using two different approaches, both based on classificatory models: (i) the approach of identifying the writer from a set of possible writers, and (ii) 

the approach of determining whether two documents were written by the same writer. Writer 

identification accuracy was close to 98% for two writers. In the verification approach, the 

features were mapped onto the feature distance domain, and the individuality problem was 

tackled as a 2-class problem of classifying within- and between-author distances. Verification 

accuracy was about 95%. 

38 

This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has

not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

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The verification model h s a slightly lower accuracy, as can be expected due to its m P- 0 

ping into a space of distances before performing classification. It was seen that performance 

deteriorated with a decrease in document content for both models. The verification model 

cannot be parameterized corresponding to the number of writers considered, unlike the identification model. However, repeated application of the verification model, considering one 

writer at a time, will yield a method of identification. Such a use of the verification model 

will have a reject option built in. 

The principal advantage of the verification model over the identification model is its 

statistical generality. The identification model is easy to set up for establishing individuality 

as long as a substantial number of instances for every class is observable. When the number 

of classes is too large, e.g., the US population, most parametric or non-parametric multiple 

classification techniques are of no use to validate the individuality of classes, and the problem 

is seemingly insurmountable. a 

In the verification model, one need not observe all classes, yet it allows for inferential 

classification of patterns. It is a method for measuring the reliability classification about the 

entire set of classes based on samples obtained from a small sample of classes. 

5 Summary and Conclusion 

A study was conducted for the purpose of establishing the individuality of handwriting. 

The work was motivated by US high court rulings that require expert testimony be backed 

by scientific methodology. Since handwriting had not been subjected to such a study, we 

decided to undertake this endeavor. 

A database was built representing the handwriting of 1500 individuals from the general 

US population. The sample population was made representative of the US population by 

stratification and proportional allocation. The population was stratified across different 

a 

39 

This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has

not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

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genders, age groups and ethnicities. Each individual provided three handwritten samples, 

produced by copying-out a source document which was designed to capture many attributes 

of the English language: document structure; positional variations of alphabets, numerals, 

and punctuation; and interesting alphabet and numeral combinations. Computer software 

was used to extract features from digitally scanned images of handwriting. Features were 

extracted at a global level of the document, from the entire document, from a paragraph 

of the'document, and from a word of the document. Finer features were extracted at the 

character level from each sample. 

Validation of individuality was done using a machine-learning approach where some Samples are used to learn writer characteristics, and other samples are used to test the learnt 

models. Based on a few macro-features that capture global attributes from a handwritten 

document and micro-features at the character level from a few characters, we were able to 

establish with a 98% confidence that the writer can be identified. Taking an approach that 

the results are statistically inferable over the entire population of the US, we were able to 

validate the individuality hypothesis with a 95% confidence. By considering finer features, 

we should be able to make this conclusion with a near-100% confidence. 

a 

An assumption here is that we have a representative sample of handwriting. For instance, 

it would not be possible to establish the individuality of handwriting based on a single stroke 

of handwriting. 

Our work has employed handwriting features similar to, but not exactly the same as, 

those used by document analysts in the field. However, the objective analysis that was 

done should provide the basis for the conclusion of individuality when the human analyst is 

measuring the finer features by hand. 

There are many important extensions of the work that could be done. Some of these are 

@ to study the handwriting of similarly trained individuals, to study temporal variations of 

40 

This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has

not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

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handwriting over periods of time, etc. 

Acknowledgments 

This work was funded by National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant 1999-IJ-CX-K010. We are 

grateful to Dr. Richard Rau who introduced us to the domain of forensic science and provided 

guidance. We would like to thank Eugenia Smith for assistance in collecting handwriting 

samples and Kristen Pfaff for editorial assistance. 

I 

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author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

Justice.
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not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

Justice.
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43 

This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has

not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the

author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of

Justice.