Segmentation-free recognizer based on enhanced four plane feature for realistic Chinese handwriting

Directional features are preferred in off-line Chinese character recognition due to their superior performance. This paper proposes an enhanced four plane feature (en-FPF) within a segmentation-free recognition framework. First, the directional planes are strengthened by replenishing salient pixels. Second, the method to count perpendicular strokes are renewed. In experiments of realistic Chinese handwriting recognition, the proposed enhancement yields desirable improvements of recognition rates, especially to punctuation marks and digits. Compared with four-orientation Gradient feature and Gabor feature, the superiority of en-FPF is also observed.