Jawi Character 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 some features, which are invariant to affine distortion, generated by the trace transform to discriminate between Jawi characters. The process consists of tracing an image with straight lines, in all possible orientations, along which certain functionals of the image function are calculated. For each combination of functionals we derive a function of orientation of the tracing lines that is known as an object signature. If the functionals used have some predefined properties, this signature can be used to characterise the character in an affine way. We demonstrate the usefulness of the derived signature and compare the result of character recognition with those obtained by using features based on affine moment invariants and angular radial transform.