Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten Scripts

This paper presents a novel stroke-based data augmentation technique for enhancing the recognition accuracy of ancient handwritten scripts, focusing on Vattezhuthu characters. With the lack of large standardized datasets for such scripts, the proposed method generates realistic variations in stroke...

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Main Authors: M. P. Ayyoob, P. Muhamed Ilyas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10766496/
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author M. P. Ayyoob
P. Muhamed Ilyas
author_facet M. P. Ayyoob
P. Muhamed Ilyas
author_sort M. P. Ayyoob
collection DOAJ
description This paper presents a novel stroke-based data augmentation technique for enhancing the recognition accuracy of ancient handwritten scripts, focusing on Vattezhuthu characters. With the lack of large standardized datasets for such scripts, the proposed method generates realistic variations in stroke thickness, directionality, and structure to mimic natural handwriting differences. Unlike traditional geometric augmentation techniques, this approach offers fine-grained control over character modifications, resulting in a 7-10% accuracy improvement in recognition tasks. A comparative analysis demonstrates the superiority of the stroke-based method over other state-of-the-art augmentation techniques, such as GANs and Neural Style Transfer (NST), which may introduce artifacts or require extensive computational resources. The study concludes that stroke-based augmentation preserves the integrity of handwritten characters while providing sufficient diversity to enhance model performance. Future work will explore extending this method to other scripts, combining it with GANs, and incorporating adaptive augmentation strategies to further optimize recognition models.
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issn 2169-3536
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publishDate 2024-01-01
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spelling doaj-art-6aaa4378bffe45bc9c8e8c3c98f6c0f42024-12-18T00:02:25ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011218679418680210.1109/ACCESS.2024.350523810766496Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten ScriptsM. P. Ayyoob0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4678-8724P. Muhamed Ilyas1Department of Computer Science, Sullamussalam Science College Areekode, University of Calicut, Kerala, IndiaDepartment of Computer Science, Sullamussalam Science College Areekode, University of Calicut, Kerala, IndiaThis paper presents a novel stroke-based data augmentation technique for enhancing the recognition accuracy of ancient handwritten scripts, focusing on Vattezhuthu characters. With the lack of large standardized datasets for such scripts, the proposed method generates realistic variations in stroke thickness, directionality, and structure to mimic natural handwriting differences. Unlike traditional geometric augmentation techniques, this approach offers fine-grained control over character modifications, resulting in a 7-10% accuracy improvement in recognition tasks. A comparative analysis demonstrates the superiority of the stroke-based method over other state-of-the-art augmentation techniques, such as GANs and Neural Style Transfer (NST), which may introduce artifacts or require extensive computational resources. The study concludes that stroke-based augmentation preserves the integrity of handwritten characters while providing sufficient diversity to enhance model performance. Future work will explore extending this method to other scripts, combining it with GANs, and incorporating adaptive augmentation strategies to further optimize recognition models.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10766496/Data augmentationoptical character recognition (OCR)ancient handwritten scriptsstroke-based transformationhandwriting variability
spellingShingle M. P. Ayyoob
P. Muhamed Ilyas
Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten Scripts
IEEE Access
Data augmentation
optical character recognition (OCR)
ancient handwritten scripts
stroke-based transformation
handwriting variability
title Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten Scripts
title_full Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten Scripts
title_fullStr Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten Scripts
title_full_unstemmed Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten Scripts
title_short Stroke-Based Data Augmentation for Enhancing Optical Character Recognition of Ancient Handwritten Scripts
title_sort stroke based data augmentation for enhancing optical character recognition of ancient handwritten scripts
topic Data augmentation
optical character recognition (OCR)
ancient handwritten scripts
stroke-based transformation
handwriting variability
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10766496/
work_keys_str_mv AT mpayyoob strokebaseddataaugmentationforenhancingopticalcharacterrecognitionofancienthandwrittenscripts
AT pmuhamedilyas strokebaseddataaugmentationforenhancingopticalcharacterrecognitionofancienthandwrittenscripts