Using critical points in contours for segmentation of touching characters
V.A. Alexandrov · 2004
In this paper is presented a new method for segmentation of touching characters using critical points in their contours. The touching regions are determined based on distribution of the critical points along the contours. Critical points which are candidates for touching places are selected based on geometrical and structural information. Segmentation is completed by cutting the touching character objects at places defined by candidate critical points. Verification and correction of the selected candidates for cutting is performed by the recognition of the separated objects. Actually, this method represents a coupled segmentation-recognition process. The proposed here technique is tested on machine-printed characters but many of its ideas may be used for segmentation of handwritten characters too.