A Radial Neural Convolutional Layer for Multi-oriented Character Recognition

The recognition of fully multi-oriented handwritten characters is a challenging problem. Contrary to univariate signals where the shift invariance property in the Fourier transform can be used, multivariate signals like images require special care to extract rotation invariant features. Several strategies to solve such classification tasks are possible. The proposed method considers input features obtained by the Radon transform or Polar transform. A convolutional neural network is then used for extracting higher level features. This classifier includes in addition the Fast Fourier Transform for extracting shift invariant features at the neural network level. The Radon transform and the convolutional layers process the image at the pixel level while the Fourier transform and the upper layers of the neural network process rotation invariant features. The classifier is evaluated on multi-oriented handwritten digits based on the MNIST database (Arabic digits) and on the ISI database (Bangla digits). The average recognition rate for multi-oriented characters is 93.10% for the Arabic digits and 77.01% for the Bangla digits. This neural architecture highlights the interest of the radial convolutional layer for the recognition of multi-oriented shapes.