Offline Signature Verification by Combining Graph Edit Distance and Triplet Networks

Biometric authentication by means of handwritten signatures is a challenging pattern recognition task, which aims to infer a writer model from only a handful of genuine signatures. In order to make it more difficult for a forger to attack the verification system, a promising strategy is to combine different writer models. In this work, we propose to complement a recent structural approach to offline signature verification based on graph edit distance with a statistical approach based on metric learning with deep neural networks. On the MCYT and GPDS benchmark datasets, we demonstrate that combining the structural and statistical models leads to significant improvements in performance, profiting from their complementary properties

A novel graph database for handwritten word images

For several decades graphs act as a powerful and flexible representation formalism in pattern recognition and related fields. For instance, graphs have been employed for specific tasks in image and video analysis, bioinformatics, or network analysis. Yet, graphs are only rarely used when it comes to handwriting recognition. One possible reason for this observation might be the increased complexity of many algorithmic procedures that take graphs, rather than feature vectors, as their input. However, with the rise of efficient graph kernels and fast approximative graph matching algorithms, graph-based handwriting representation could become a versatile alternative to traditional methods. This paper aims at making a seminal step towards promoting graphs in the field of handwriting recognition. In particular, we introduce a set of six different graph formalisms that can be employed to represent handwritten word images. The different graph representations for words, are analysed in a classification experiment (using a distance based classifier). The results of this word classifier provide a benchmark for further investigations.Joint IAPR International Workshops on Statistical Techniques in Pattern Recognition (SPR) and Structural and Syntactic Pattern Recognition (SSPR). S+SSPR 2016: Structural, Syntactic, and Statistical Pattern Recognition pp. 553-563.http://link.springer.combookseries/5582017-11-05hj2017Informatic

Investing in Managerial Honesty

Corporate fraud and managerial deception have been pervasive and value-destroying in recent decades. This column analyses whether investors form views about a CEO’s honesty based on his or her previous actions, and how this affects investment decisions. A CEO who has resisted, at personal cost, engaging in earnings management is perceived as being more committed to honesty, which appeals to pro­-social investors. Pro-self investors, on the other hand, value honesty when it comes to information regarding investment returns