GLoBD: Geometric and Learned Logic
Algorithm for Straight or Curved
Handwriting Baseline Detection
Houcine Boubaker1, Aymen Chaabouni1,
Haikal El-Abed2, and Adel Alimi1
1Research Groups in Intelligent Machines
Laboratory, University of Sfax, Tunisia
2German
International Cooperation, German University College Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Abstract: This paper presents a developed geometric and
logic algorithm of on-line Arabic handwriting baseline detection. It consists
of two stages: the geometric first stage detects sets of nearly aligned points
candidates to support the baseline by considering the accordance between the
alignment of the trajectory points and their tangents directions. While the
logic second stage uses topologic conditions and rules specific to the Arabic
handwritten script in order to evaluate the relevance of each one of the three
most extended sets of points from the extracted groups to be recognized as a
baseline and then to correct the first stage detection result which is based
only on the size of the group of points. The system is also designed to be able
to extract the baseline of inclined and/or irregular aligned short handwritten
sentence thanks to the flexibility of the used method for the constitution of
sets of nearly aligned points. The iterative application of this last method in
a relatively short neighborhood window sliding on a long and curved handwritten
line script permits to extract its curved baseline.
Keywords: Online Arabic handwriting, baseline
detection, topologic conditions, baseline correction, curved baseline
extraction.
Received June 3, 2014; accepted December 21, 2015