On-line handwriting character recognition method with directional features and direction-change features

We propose a new on-line recognition method to recognize handwritten cursive-style characters correctly. Our method simultaneously uses both directional features, otherwise known as off-line features, and direction-change features, which we designed as on-line features. These features are expressed in the divided meshes of the character area. The directional features express the directions between character´s coordinates within the meshes. The direction-change features express where in the mesh and in which direction each direction of the character´s coordinates change, and express where the circular parts of the character are in the mesh. These features express both written strokes in the pen-down state and unwritten imaginary strokes in the pen-up state. Our method recognizes an inputted character by comparing the inputted character´s features and the features of standard characters. The recognition rate was improved by our method with directional features and direction-change features as opposed to the traditional method with only directional features. Moreover, the recognition rate was also improved by considering imaginary strokes in the pen-up state