CHARACTER SEGMENTATION IN HANDWRITTEN WORDS - AN OVERVIEW

This paper is the second part of a review series on the character segm entation techniques. In this paper, we present an overview on the most important techniques used in segmenting characters from handwritten w ords. It is well-recognized that it is difficult to segment individual characters from handwritten words without the support from recogniton and context analysis. One common characteristic of all the existing h andwritten word recogniton algorithms is that the character segmentati on process is closely coupled with the recognition process. This revie w consists of three major portions, handprinted word segmentation, han dwritten numeral segmentation and cursive word segmentation. Every alg orithm discussed in the paper is accompanied with a flow chart to give a clear grasp of the algorithm. One section summarizes the terms and measurements commonly used in handwritten character segmentation. The bibliography contains a comprehensive list of work in handwritten char acter segmentation and recognition.