High Performance Unconstrained Word Recognition System Combining HMMs and Markov Random Fields
George Saon, Abdel Belaı̈d · International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence · 1997
In this paper we present a system for the recognition of handwritten words on literal check amounts which advantageously combine HMMs and Markov random fields (MRFs). It operates at pixel level, in a holistic manner, on height normalized word images which are viewed as random field realizations. The HMM analyzes the image along the horizontal writing direction, in a specific state observation probability given by the column product of causal MRF-like pixel conditional probabilities. Aspects concerning definition, training and recognition via this type of model are developed throughout the paper. We report a 90.08% average word recognition rate on 2378 words and a 79.52% amount rate on 579 amounts of the SRTP* French postal check database (7031 words, 1779 amounts, different scriptors).