Handwritten Character Recognition Using Elastic Matching Based On Class-Dependent Deformation Model

For handwritten character recognition, a new elastic image matching (EM) technique based on a class-dependent deformation model is proposed. In the deformation model, any deformation of a class is described by a linear combination of eigen-deformations, which are intrinsic deformation directions of the class. The eigen-deformations can be estimated statistically from the actual deformations of handwritten characters. Experimental results show that the proposed technique can attain higher recognition rates than conventional EM techniques based on class-independent deformation models. The results also show the superiority of the proposed technique over those conventional EM techniques in computational efficiency

A stochastic algorithm for feature selection in pattern recognition

Abstract We introduce a new model adressing feature selection from a large dictionary of variables that can be computed from a signal or an image. Features are extracted according to an efficiency criterion, on the basis of specified classification or recognition tasks. This is done by estimating a probability distribution P on the complete dictionary, which distributes its mass over the more efficient, or informative, components. We implement a stochastic gradient descent algorithm, using the probability as a state variable and optimizing a multitask goodness of fit criterion for classifiers based on variable randomly chosen according to P. We then generate classifiers from the optimal distribution of weights learned on the training set. The method is first tested on several pattern recognition problems including face detection, handwritten digit recognition, spam classification and micro-array analysis. We then compare our approach with other step-wise algorithms like random forests or recursive feature elimination