The Eighth International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments
Offline Handwritten Numeral Recognition Based on
Principal Component Analysis
Wan Junli1 Huang Yuehua1
(1. China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002 China )
(2.Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 China )
Abstract: To overcome the difficulty of fusing statistical
feature and structural feature in the research on handwritten
numeral recognition, Principal Component Analysis is used
to reconstruct numeral model and estimate the numeral
reconstructive error based on the statistical information of
digit structural feature. At the same time, the height-width
ratio and Euler value of numeral is extracted. Recognition of
the digit character is completed through combining the
neural network and Bayes classifier respectively
corresponding to the three type features. The recognition rate
of this method is 90.73% on handwritten numeral database.
Keywords: Handwritten Numeral Recognition; Principal
Component; Feature Extracting; Combining Classifiers
1 Introduction
Handwritten numeral recognition is always the
research focus in the fields of image process and
pattern recognition. The numeral varieties in size
shapeslant and the writing style make the research
more hard[1]. There are two means to identify
different handwritten characters according to their
used traits, one is based on numerals structural
feature, and the other is based on their statistical
feature. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as an
effective feature extraction method, it can combine
structural and statistical features [2]. This article,
based on PCA, combined with of number
characters height-width ratio eigenvalue and Eular
eigenvalue, studies a new method to improve the
identifying rate of offline hand-writing numbers.
1-4244-1135-1/07/$25.00 2007 IEEE.
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ICEMI2007
Zhang Guohua1 Wan Cheng2
2 Handwritten Numeral Image
Preprocess
Handwritten numeral is one special graph
image. The graph is valuable to the recognition. So,
handwritten numeral image preprocess extract
graph from the image, namely converting image
into graph. Preprocess generally contains: bit
manipulation, numeral string segmentation,
character slant-correction and normalization and so
on [3,4]. The numeral stroke thickness is not
important. The significant feature for the
recognition is the stroke style and configuration in
graph. But the disparity of stroke thickness still can
affect the performance of the recognition system. So
the normalization of stroke thickness is usually used
in the handwritten numeral image preprocess. It
bases on Mathematical Morphology and can be
realized by first skeletonizing and then dilating
them.
3 Handwritten Numeral
Feature Extractions
The fundamental thinking of PCA is to seek the
optimal subspace, in which we can gain the
maximum variance of component when projecting
high dimension data x . At the same time, when
using the new component to reconstruct the original
data, we can gain the minimum mean-squared error.
The preprocessed handwritten numeral in this
paper is 1 h 16 image, convert it into
vector: x i >x 1 , x 2 , " , x 256 @T , i 0 ,1, " ,9 , Z i
i
denotes the class of sample, the mean m and
The Eighth International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments ICEMI2007

i
covariance matrix C are: 256
i

m i E xi ; ^ `
Ci E x i  m ^ i
x i
m i

T
` j
n
O j

D n i  256
i  1
d a
(1) i

j
O j
The
eigenvalue of covariance matrix 1

is O t " t O , the corresponding orthogonal

i
1
i
256
(2)
normalized eigenvector is U i >u 1 , u 2 , " , u 256 @ . The D n i  shows the loss degree of numeral
Eigenvector is the principal component of this class information, a is a fixed value and
numerical class, which describes the numeral a 0 ,1 .
i
structural information. The numeral x can be The numeral principal component feature cant
i
reconstructed completely in the feature space U , reflect the height-width ratio of every numeral class,
the feature vector of numeral is y x i  >[ 1 , " , [ 256 @T , so 1 usually confuses with other numerals. The
y x i  U i x i  m i  . handwritten numeral height-width ratio r before
T
namely
Taking 400 digits 0 from Yonsei University slant-correction is greatly influenced by character
(Korea) digit database and applying PCA, the slant angle, so it cant reflect the numeral class
information and it is necessary to extract statistical
feature sub-images recovered from the principal
information of numeral height-width ratio after
component is shown in Fig.1. The first two lines are
slant-correction. Let the numeral height and width
the feature sub-images corresponding to separately are h and w , the height-width
u ~ u , the third line corresponding ratio r h w .
1 8

to u ~ u . This figure shows that the first In the case of not knowing the concrete form
of r class-condition probability density, the
253 256

eight feature sub-images can effectively describe

nonparametric method based on window function
the structural information of digit 0 and the last can estimate all kinds of conditional probability
four are unmeaning. As eigenvalue shows the density using train set. Parzen window function is:
1 1
contribution of corresponding feature sub-image in M u  exp  u 2

2S 2
reconstructing numeral, it is allowed to decrease the
(3)
amount of principal components in the condition So the class-condition probability density of
that the remainders still can describe the class numeral Z i height-width ratio r is:
i
N
1
information of numeral. p r Z i  i M r  r j
i

N j 1
i
N
1 1 1
i exp  r  r j
i

2

N j 1 2S 2
(4)
The estimation result shows that most of
numerals height-width ratio is respectively different
except 6 and 9, especially digit 1 is obviously
different from others.
Fig.1. digit 0 feature sub-images The topological property of image can be used
As the eigenvalue of covariance matrix C i
to describe the shape of flat area, it can keep
show the contribution of corresponding principal invariable only if no rupture happens. The Euler
component in reconstructing digit i, the amount of value is a kind of topological measurement. Euler
numeral principal components n i can be value: eu c  h , c and h separately denote
confirmed according to the eigenvalue. It is: the num of objects and holes in image.

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The Eighth International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments ICEMI2007

For the handwritten numeral, character is a e i x  ^

min e j x  ,
j 0 ,", 9
` x Zi 
complete object, so eu is determined by the

amount of holes h . Usually, the Euler value of 1; According to the rule above, make use of
2; 3; 4; 5; 7 in handwritten numerals is 1, different amount principal components to classify
0; 6; 9 is 0 and 8 is -1. Howeverbecause 3000 samples from test set, the result is shown in
of the differences in handwritten numeral image bit Tab.1. From the table we can see that: the
manipulation and writing habit, the wrong stroke or recognition rate is 84.57% when only using the first
redundant holes always turns up, the numeral Euler three principal components to reconstruct, it shows
value usually deviates from the real state. The Euler that these three components can illustrate the
value eu should only be discrete integer. The numeral major class information; the recognition
class-condition probability P eu Zi  , i 0,",9 rate only increases a narrow range when the
can be estimated by the train set, it is: dimension grows from six to sixteen and with the
n eui accretion continuing, the rate begins to fall down,
P eu Z i  , eu  5 , " ,5 .
Ni this shows the most class information of numerals
(5) concentrates on the first dozens principal
i
N is the amount of numeral Z i in train set,
components; as the structure of 0 is simple and
i
n eu is the amount of samples whose Euler value is the information concentrates on the first several
eu in N . And
i
eu 5

P eu Z i  1 . Statistical
eu  5
analysis indicates that the numeral Euler value can
effectively differentiate 389.
4 Design of Classifier
i
The eigenvector matrix U
calculated by PCA is a standard orthogonal, so any
numeral x can be completely reconstructed in this
feature space. But when the amount of principal
components m < 256, namely each numeral class
Z i has fixed amount reconstruct vectors, the
reconstructive ability of these vectors is the
strongest for the numeral in their own class. So
when the reconstruct vectors is fixed in different
numeral spaces, the bias between numeral x and
reconstructed result x should be least in its own
feature space.
ones, its recognition rate falls down when
components amount increases .
The principal component feature of
handwritten numeral uses neural network classifier,
applying the numeral sample database to train and
test, the maximum recognition rate can reach 85.6%.
Although attempting different methods to combine
of numeral Zi 
the result of the separate-training neural network
classifiers, the recognition rate just increases a little.
Two patterns which is hard to classify in one feature
space maybe easy to classify in the other because
different features describe different aspects of
pattern. The class-condition probability density of
height-width ratio and class-condition probability of
Euler value can be easily estimated. The numeral
posterior probability can be calculated according to
the Bayes formula.
The posterior probability of test sample
height-width ratio r is:
Pr Zi PZi  pr >P Z r ," , P Z r @
T

PZi r 0 9
The reconstructive bias with fixed amount 9
principal components in the feature space U is i
PrZ PZ 
j 0
j j
m
i T
e i
x  x  u j x  m i
u i
j  m i


j 1 2 (8)
6 The posterior probability of test sample Euler
The classifying rule is : value eu is:
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PeuZi PZi  Tab.2. In the table, the recognition rate has already

PZi eu 9
risen above 90%. But the recognition rate of 7 is
PeuZ PZ 
j 0
j j
not as good as we think. In order to satisfy the
demand of high-belief in practical application, the
peu >PZ eu,", PZ eu@
0 9
T
(9)
recognition system can refuse to classify, when the
The output of combing classifiers is: numeral class attribute is ambiguous, it is
P Z 0 x P Z 0 r P Z 0 eu  (10) P Z i x  max P Z j x , P Z i x  t t x Z i 
j 0 ,", 9
C Combine p , p r , p eu  #
P Z 9 x P Z 9 r P Z 9 eu 

Classifying rule of combing classifiers is: t t >0 . 1,1@ is the refusing threshold. When the
cj max ^c i `, xZ j maximum value of posterior probability calculated
i 0 ," , 9
by classifiers P Z i x   t the refusing decision is
(11)
Using combining classifiers to classify 3000 adopted. The maximum recognition rate of the
samples from the test set, the result is shown in system can reach 97.64% by testing.

Tab.1. recognition result of the minimum reconstructive bias classer based on principal components
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 7KHDPRXQW            

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Tab.2. recognition result of combing classifiers

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FODVV          

 294 0 0 2 1 0 2 1 0 0

 0 273 15 0 0 7 3 2 0 0

 1 0 281 7 5 5 0 1 0 0

 1 0 2 280 1 8 0 0 8 0

 3 3 11 5 282 4 3 3 3 7

 4 3 7 16 10 262 6 4 4 8

 3 1 3 6 3 18 268 1 3 2

 1 0 51 7 1 1 0 235 0 4

 5 0 0 7 4 6 1 0 274 3

 1 1 8 6 2 3 0 3 3 273
The total amount of tested samples3000
The total amount correct classified2722 Recognition rate90.73%
The total amount wrong classified278 Error rate9.27%

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Author Biography
4 Conclusion Wan Junli: born in 1957. Professor, working in China Three
Gorges University, main research interest: weak signal
The handwritten numeral PCA feature detection and pattern recognition.
describes the statistical information of numeral
structural feature, and extracts its height-width ratio
and Euler value so as to cover its weakness of
describing the difference among some numerals.
Applying these three type features to the
handwritten numeral recognition, it has got
excellent experimental result. Its a promising
method to apply different style features in the
recognition system.

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