Offline handwritten Jawi recognition using the trace transform

The Trace transform, a generalization of the Radon transform, allows one to construct image features that are invariant to a chosen group of image transformations. In this paper, we use features that are known as object signatures, which are invariant to affine distortion, generated by the trace transform to discriminate between offline handwritten Jawi sub words. The process consists of tracing an image with straight lines, along which certain functionals of the image function are calculated, in all possible orientations. For each combination of functionals we derive the object signature which is a function of orientation of the tracing lines. In this paper, we demonstrate the usefulness of the derived signature and compare the result of the recognition with those obtained by using features based on affine moment invariants and angular radial transforms.