A review of neural networks in handwritten character recognition
Ruoxin Li · Applied and Computational Engineering · 2024
Handwritten character recognition has been a significant research focus in the fields of pattern recognition and artificial intelligence over the past decade. With the advent of neural networks, particularly deep learning models, the accuracy and efficiency of offline handwritten character recognition have dramatically improved. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent developments in applying neural networks to handwritten character recognition. The literature review covers studies conducted between 2016 and 2023, providing insights into the methodologies, data processing techniques, and evaluation metrics used. The review spans various neural network architectures, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), and hybrid models. It categorizes and compares their performance across multiple benchmark datasets, highlighting specific improvements in recognition accuracy and efficiency. Furthermore, the review discusses the challenges faced in large-scale datasets, such as the diversity of handwriting styles and computational cost constraints. Notably, CNNs have shown outstanding performance, but the integration of advanced techniques like transfer learning and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) is explored as a potential avenue to enhance future recognition systems.