IMAGE INDEXING APPLIED TO TYPEWRITER FONT IDENTIFICATION

A method is described to extract an index from a binary character imag e for database storage and retrieval. The index is hierarchical in nat ure, and different parts can retrieve character image clusters of diff erent sizes. A hierarchy of Kohonen neural networks is used to generat e the clusters on which the indexing method is based. The application is the identification of the font from a sample of printed characters. This is particularly important for forensic document examiners who ma y have to match a document of unknown origin with the equipment that m ay have produced it. A computerised system is expected to considerably reduce the time required for each document search.