Effects on Learning Logographic Character Formation in Computer-Assisted Handwriting Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Chen-hui; Kuo, Chin-Hwa; Horng, Wen-Bing; Chen, Chun-Wen

2012-01-01

This paper reports on a study that investigates how different learning methods might affect the learning process of character handwriting among beginning college learners of Chinese, as measured by tests of recognition, approximate production, precise production, and awareness of conventional stroke sequence. Two methodologies were examined during…

Analysis of Handwriting based on Rhythm Perception

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Kazuya; Uchida, Masafumi; Nozawa, Akio

Humanity fluctuation was reported in some fields. In handwriting process, fluctuation appears on handwriting-velocity. In this report, we focused attention on human rhythm perception and analyzed fluctuation in handwriting process. As a result, 1/f noise related to rhythm perception and features may caused by Kahneman's capacity model were measured on handwriting process.

A FRACTAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE NORMALIZATION STEP FOR ONLINE HANDWRITING RECOGNITION

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vincent, N.; Dorizzi, B.

2004-01-01

n this paper is presented an example of the use of fractal approaches in the field of online handwriting processing. The adaptation of the box counting method to the computation of online handwriting fractal dimension is presented. The influence of different parameters is studied. This allows

On the development of a computer-based handwriting assessment tool to objectively quantify handwriting proficiency in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Falk, Tiago H; Tam, Cynthia; Schellnus, Heidi; Chau, Tom

2011-12-01

Standardized writing assessments such as the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA) can inform interventions for handwriting difficulties, which are prevalent among school-aged children. However, these tests usually involve the laborious task of subjectively rating the legibility of the written product, precluding their practical use in some clinical and educational settings. This study describes a portable computer-based handwriting assessment tool to objectively measure MHA quality scores and to detect handwriting difficulties in children. Several measures are proposed based on spatial, temporal, and grip force measurements obtained from a custom-built handwriting instrument. Thirty-five first and second grade students participated in the study, nine of whom exhibited handwriting difficulties. Students performed the MHA test and were subjectively scored based on speed and handwriting quality using five primitives: legibility, form, alignment, size, and space. Several spatial parameters are shown to correlate significantly (phandwriting legibility and speed, respectively. Using only size and space parameters, promising discrimination between proficient and non-proficient handwriting can be achieved. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Feature Set Evaluation for Offline Handwriting Recognition Systems: Application to the Recurrent Neural Network Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Chherawala, Youssouf; Roy, Partha Pratim; Cheriet, Mohamed

2016-12-01

The performance of handwriting recognition systems is dependent on the features extracted from the word image. A large body of features exists in the literature, but no method has yet been proposed to identify the most promising of these, other than a straightforward comparison based on the recognition rate. In this paper, we propose a framework for feature set evaluation based on a collaborative setting. We use a weighted vote combination of recurrent neural network (RNN) classifiers, each trained with a particular feature set. This combination is modeled in a probabilistic framework as a mixture model and two methods for weight estimation are described. The main contribution of this paper is to quantify the importance of feature sets through the combination weights, which reflect their strength and complementarity. We chose the RNN classifier because of its state-of-the-art performance. Also, we provide the first feature set benchmark for this classifier. We evaluated several feature sets on the IFN/ENIT and RIMES databases of Arabic and Latin script, respectively. The resulting combination model is competitive with state-of-the-art systems.

Effectiveness of a self-regulated remedial program for handwriting difficulties.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Waelvelde, Hilde; De Roubaix, Amy; Steppe, Lien; Troubleyn, Evy; De Mey, Barbara; Dewitte, Griet; Debrabant, Julie; Van de Velde, Dominique

2017-09-01

Handwriting difficulties may have pervasive effects on a child's school performance. I Can! is a remedial handwriting program with a focus on self-regulated learning and applying motor learning principles combined with a behavioural approach. It is developed for typically developing children with handwriting problems. The study aim was to evaluate the program's effectiveness. Thirty-one children aged 7-8 year participated in a cross-over study. Handwriting quality and speed were repeatedly assessed by means of the Systematic Screening of Handwriting Difficulties test. Difficulties addressed were fluency in letter formation, fluency in letter connections, letter height, regularity of letter height, space between words, and line path. Mixed model analysis revealed improved quality of writing and speed for all children but significantly more improvement in handwriting quality for the children participating in the program. Although writing speed improved over time, no additional effects of the program occurred. 'I Can!' is found to be an effective instructive program to ameliorate handwriting quality in typically developing children with handwriting difficulties. The program's success was by a therapy burst of only 7 weeks focusing on the child's self-regulated learning capacities, within an individualized education plan according to their needs and goals.

Machine printed text and handwriting identification in noisy document images.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Yefeng; Li, Huiping; Doermann, David

2004-03-01

In this paper, we address the problem of the identification of text in noisy document images. We are especially focused on segmenting and identifying between handwriting and machine printed text because: 1) Handwriting in a document often indicates corrections, additions, or other supplemental information that should be treated differently from the main content and 2) the segmentation and recognition techniques requested for machine printed and handwritten text are significantly different. A novel aspect of our approach is that we treat noise as a separate class and model noise based on selected features. Trained Fisher classifiers are used to identify machine printed text and handwriting from noise and we further exploit context to refine the classification. A Markov Random Field-based (MRF) approach is used to model the geometrical structure of the printed text, handwriting, and noise to rectify misclassifications. Experimental results show that our approach is robust and can significantly improve page segmentation in noisy document collections.

Age effects on sensory-processing abilities and their impact on handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

Engel-Yeger, Batya; Hus, Sari; Rosenblum, Sara

2012-12-01

Sensory-processing abilities are known to deteriorate in the elderly. As a result, daily activities such as handwriting may be impaired. Yet, knowledge about sensory-processing involvement in handwriting characteristics among older persons is limited. To examine how age influences sensory-processing abilities and the impact on handwriting as a daily performance. The study participants were 118 healthy, independently functioning adults divided into four age groups: 31-45, 46-60, 61-75 and 76+ years. All participants completed the Adolescent/ Adult Sensory Profile (AASP). Handwriting process was documented using the Computerized Handwriting Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET). Age significantly affects sensory processing and handwriting pressure as well as temporal and spatial measures. Both handwriting time and spatial organization of the written product were predicted by sensory seeking. When examining age contribution to the prediction of handwriting by sensory processing, sensory seeking showed a tendency for predicting handwriting pressure (p = .06), while sensory sensitivity significantly predicted handwriting velocity. Age appears to influence sensory-processing abilities and affect daily performance tasks, such as handwriting, for which sensitivity and seeking for sensations are essential. Awareness of clinicians to sensory-processing deficits among older adults and examining their impact on broader daily activities are essential to improve daily performance and quality of life.

User-interface aspects in recognizing connected-cursive handwriting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schomaker, L

1994-01-01

There are at least two major stumbling blocks for user acceptance of pen-based computers: the recognition performance is not good enough, especially on cursive handwriting; and the user interface technology has not reached a mature stage. The initial reaction of product reviewers and potential user

Invariant Handwriting Features Useful in Cursive-Script Recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Teulings, Hans-leo L; Schomaker, L R; Impedovo, S.

1994-01-01

A handwriting pattern is considered as a sequence of ballistic strokes. Replications of a pattern may be generated from a single, higher-level memory representation, acting as a motor program. Therefore, those stroke features which show the most invariant pattern are probably related to the

A Global Online Handwriting Recognition Approach Based on Frequent Patterns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Gmati

2018-06-01

Full Text Available In this article, the handwriting signals are represented based on geometric and spatio-temporal characteristics to increase the feature vectors relevance of each object. The main goal was to extract features in the form of a numeric vector based on the extraction of frequent patterns. We used two types of frequent motifs (closed frequent patterns and maximal frequent patterns that can represent handwritten characters pertinently. These common features patterns are generated from a raw data transformation method to achieve high relevance. A database of words consisting of two different letters was created. The proposed application gives promising results and highlights the advantages that frequent pattern extraction algorithms can achieve, as well as the central role played by the “minimum threshold” parameter in the overall description of the characters.

The use of handwriting examinations beyond the traditional court purpose.

Science.gov (United States)

Agius, Anna; Jones, Kylie; Epple, Rochelle; Morelato, Marie; Moret, Sébastien; Chadwick, Scott; Roux, Claude

2017-09-01

Traditionally, forensic science has predominantly focused its resources and objectives on addressing court related questions. However, this view restricts the contribution of forensic science to one function and results in lost opportunities as investigative and intelligence roles are often overlooked. A change of perspective and expansion of the contributions of forensic science is required to take advantage of the benefits of abductive and inductive thought processes throughout the investigative and intelligence functions. One forensic discipline that has the potential to broaden its traditional focus is handwriting examination. Typically used in investigations that are focused on both criminal and civil cases, the examination procedure and outcome are time consuming and subjective, requiring a detailed study of the features of the handwriting in question. Traditionally, the major handwriting features exploited are characteristics that are often considered individual (or at least highly polymorphic) and habitual. However, handwriting can be considered as an information vector in an intelligence framework. One such example is the recognition of key elements related to the author's native language. This paper discusses the traditional method generally used around the world and proposes a theoretical approach to expand the application of handwriting examination towards gaining additional information for intelligence purposes. This concept will be designed and tested in a future research project. Copyright © 2017 The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. All rights reserved.

Lexical orthography acquisition: Is handwriting better than spelling aloud?

Science.gov (United States)

Bosse, Marie-Line; Chaves, Nathalie; Valdois, Sylviane

2014-01-01

Lexical orthography acquisition is currently described as the building of links between the visual forms and the auditory forms of whole words. However, a growing body of data suggests that a motor component could further be involved in orthographic acquisition. A few studies support the idea that reading plus handwriting is a better lexical orthographic learning situation than reading alone. However, these studies did not explore which of the cognitive processes involved in handwriting enhanced lexical orthographic acquisition. Some findings suggest that the specific movements memorized when learning to write may participate in the establishment of orthographic representations in memory. The aim of the present study was to assess this hypothesis using handwriting and spelling aloud as two learning conditions. In two experiments, fifth graders were asked to read complex pseudo-words embedded in short sentences. Immediately after reading, participants had to recall the pseudo-words' spellings either by spelling them aloud or by handwriting them down. One week later, orthographic acquisition was tested using two post-tests: a pseudo-word production task (spelling by hand in Experiment 1 or spelling aloud in Experiment 2) and a pseudo-word recognition task. Results showed no significant difference in pseudo-word recognition between the two learning conditions. In the pseudo-word production task, orthography learning improved when the learning and post-test conditions were similar, thus showing a massive encoding-retrieval match effect in the two experiments. However, a mixed model analysis of the pseudo-word production results revealed a significant learning condition effect which remained after control of the encoding-retrieval match effect. This later finding suggests that orthography learning is more efficient when mediated by handwriting than by spelling aloud, whatever the post-test production task.

Lexical orthographic acquisition: Is handwriting better than spelling aloud?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Line eBosse

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Lexical orthography acquisition is currently described as the building of links between the visual forms and the auditory forms of whole words. However, a growing body of data suggests that a motor component could further be involved in orthographic acquisition. A few studies support the idea that reading plus handwriting is a better lexical orthographic learning situation than reading alone. However, these studies did not explore which of the cognitive processes involved in handwriting enhanced lexical orthographic acquisition. Some findings suggest that the specific movements memorized when learning to write may participate in the establishment of orthographic representations in memory. The aim of the present study was to assess this hypothesis using handwriting and spelling aloud as two learning conditions. In two experiments, fifth graders were asked to read complex pseudo-words embedded in short sentences. Immediately after reading, participants had to recall the pseudo-words’ spellings either by spelling them aloud or by handwriting them down. One week later, orthographic acquisition was tested using two post-tests: a pseudo-word production task (spelling by hand in Experiment 1 or spelling aloud in Experiment 2 and a pseudo-word recognition task. Results showed no significant difference in pseudo-word recognition between the two learning conditions. In the pseudo-word production task, orthography learning improved when the learning and post-test conditions were similar, thus showing a massive encoding-retrieval match effect in the two experiments. However, a mixed model analysis of the pseudo-word production results revealed a significant learning condition effect which remained after control of the encoding-retrieval match effect. This later finding suggests that orthography learning is more efficient when mediated by handwriting than by spelling aloud, whatever the post-test production task.

Visual improvement for bad handwriting based on Monte-Carlo method

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Cao; Xiao, Jianguo; Xu, Canhui; Jia, Wenhua

2014-03-01

A visual improvement algorithm based on Monte Carlo simulation is proposed in this paper, in order to enhance visual effects for bad handwriting. The whole improvement process is to use well designed typeface so as to optimize bad handwriting image. In this process, a series of linear operators for image transformation are defined for transforming typeface image to approach handwriting image. And specific parameters of linear operators are estimated by Monte Carlo method. Visual improvement experiments illustrate that the proposed algorithm can effectively enhance visual effect for handwriting image as well as maintain the original handwriting features, such as tilt, stroke order and drawing direction etc. The proposed visual improvement algorithm, in this paper, has a huge potential to be applied in tablet computer and Mobile Internet, in order to improve user experience on handwriting.

Online recognition of Chinese characters: the state-of-the-art.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Cheng-Lin; Jaeger, Stefan; Nakagawa, Masaki

2004-02-01

Online handwriting recognition is gaining renewed interest owing to the increase of pen computing applications and new pen input devices. The recognition of Chinese characters is different from western handwriting recognition and poses a special challenge. To provide an overview of the technical status and inspire future research, this paper reviews the advances in online Chinese character recognition (OLCCR), with emphasis on the research works from the 1990s. Compared to the research in the 1980s, the research efforts in the 1990s aimed to further relax the constraints of handwriting, namely, the adherence to standard stroke orders and stroke numbers and the restriction of recognition to isolated characters only. The target of recognition has shifted from regular script to fluent script in order to better meet the requirements of practical applications. The research works are reviewed in terms of pattern representation, character classification, learning/adaptation, and contextual processing. We compare important results and discuss possible directions of future research.

A Comparison of the Identifying Features of Imitated Handwriting and Elderly Handwriting

OpenAIRE

Jing Wang

2017-01-01

Imitated handwriting and elderly handwriting are two manifestation patterns of altered handwriting. Several similarities in features can be found in both, such as gentle movement and curved jitter. In practice, it is very easy to confuse the two patterns, leading to wrong decisions and difficulties in document examination. The key to solving these problems is to recognize the similarities and differences between imitated handwriting and elderly handwriting. This paper comprises four parts. Th...

Preliminary study towards the development of copying skill assessment on dyslexic children in Jawi handwriting

Science.gov (United States)

Rahim, Kartini Abdul; Kahar, Rosmila Abdul; Khalid, Halimi Mohd.; Salleh, Rohayu Mohd; Hashim, Rathiah

2015-05-01

Recognition of Arabic handwritten and its variants such as Farsi (Persian) and Urdu had been receiving considerable attention in recent years. Being contrast to Arabic handwritten, Jawi, as a second method of Malay handwritten, has not been studied yet, but if any, there were a few references on it. The recent transformation in Malaysian education, the Special Education is one of the priorities in the Malaysia Blueprint. One of the special needs quoted in Malaysia education is dyslexia. A dyslexic student is considered as student with learning disability. Concluding a student is truly dyslexia might be incorrect for they were only assessed through Roman alphabet, without considering assessment via Jawi handwriting. A study was conducted on dyslexic students attending a special class for dyslexia in Malay Language to determine whether they are also dyslexia in Jawi handwriting. The focus of the study is to test the copying skills in relation to word reading and writing in Malay Language with and without dyslexia through both characters. A total of 10 dyslexic children and 10 normal children were recruited. In conclusion for future study, dyslexic students have less difficulty in performing Jawi handwriting in Malay Language through statistical analysis.

Handwriting or Typewriting? The Influence of Pen- or Keyboard-Based Writing Training on Reading and Writing Performance in Preschool Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Kiefer, Markus; Schuler, Stefanie; Mayer, Carmen; Trumpp, Natalie M; Hille, Katrin; Sachse, Steffi

2015-01-01

Digital writing devices associated with the use of computers, tablet PCs, or mobile phones are increasingly replacing writing by hand. It is, however, controversially discussed how writing modes influence reading and writing performance in children at the start of literacy. On the one hand, the easiness of typing on digital devices may accelerate reading and writing in young children, who have less developed sensory-motor skills. On the other hand, the meaningful coupling between action and perception during handwriting, which establishes sensory-motor memory traces, could facilitate written language acquisition. In order to decide between these theoretical alternatives, for the present study, we developed an intense training program for preschool children attending the German kindergarten with 16 training sessions. Using closely matched letter learning games, eight letters of the German alphabet were trained either by handwriting with a pen on a sheet of paper or by typing on a computer keyboard. Letter recognition, naming, and writing performance as well as word reading and writing performance were assessed. Results did not indicate a superiority of typing training over handwriting training in any of these tasks. In contrast, handwriting training was superior to typing training in word writing, and, as a tendency, in word reading. The results of our study, therefore, support theories of action-perception coupling assuming a facilitatory influence of sensory-motor representations established during handwriting on reading and writing.

Image Segmentation of Historical Handwriting from Palm Leaf Manuscripts

Science.gov (United States)

Surinta, Olarik; Chamchong, Rapeeporn

Palm leaf manuscripts were one of the earliest forms of written media and were used in Southeast Asia to store early written knowledge about subjects such as medicine, Buddhist doctrine and astrology. Therefore, historical handwritten palm leaf manuscripts are important for people who like to learn about historical documents, because we can learn more experience from them. This paper presents an image segmentation of historical handwriting from palm leaf manuscripts. The process is composed of three steps: 1) background elimination to separate text and background by Otsu's algorithm 2) line segmentation and 3) character segmentation by histogram of image. The end result is the character's image. The results from this research may be applied to optical character recognition (OCR) in the future.

Handwriting development, competency, and intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Feder, Katya P; Majnemer, Annette

2007-04-01

Failure to attain handwriting competency during the school-age years often has far-reaching negative effects on both academic success and self-esteem. This complex occupational task has many underlying component skills that may interfere with handwriting performance. Fine motor control, bilateral and visual-motor integration, motor planning, in-hand manipulation, proprioception, visual perception, sustained attention, and sensory awareness of the fingers are some of the component skills identified. Poor handwriting may be related to intrinsic factors, which refer to the child's actual handwriting capabilities, or extrinsic factors which are related to environmental or biomechanical components, or both. It is important that handwriting performance be evaluated using a valid, reliable, standardized tool combined with informal classroom observation and teacher consultation. Studies of handwriting remediation suggest that intervention is effective. There is evidence to indicate that handwriting difficulties do not resolve without intervention and affect between 10 and 30% of school-aged children. Despite the widespread use of computers, legible handwriting remains an important life skill that deserves greater attention from educators and health practitioners.

Handwriting as an operant

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, F. A.; Waller, M. B.

1974-01-01

Description of a writing console which was used for monitoring handwriting behavior. The main feature of the console is a translucent Plexiglass paddle, pivoted on a thin bronze tube, with its top flat surface providing the writing surface. The console was used in experiments on two subjects under various schedules of monetary reinforcement for handwriting. The results suggest that handwriting is an effective approach to the analysis of human behavior.

Decision support framework for Parkinson's disease based on novel handwriting markers.

Science.gov (United States)

Drotár, Peter; Mekyska, Jiří; Rektorová, Irena; Masarová, Lucia; Smékal, Zdeněk; Faundez-Zanuy, Marcos

2015-05-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder which impairs motor skills, speech, and other functions such as behavior, mood, and cognitive processes. One of the most typical clinical hallmarks of PD is handwriting deterioration, usually the first manifestation of PD. The aim of this study is twofold: (a) to find a subset of handwriting features suitable for identifying subjects with PD and (b) to build a predictive model to efficiently diagnose PD. We collected handwriting samples from 37 medicated PD patients and 38 age- and sex-matched controls. The handwriting samples were collected during seven tasks such as writing a syllable, word, or sentence. Every sample was used to extract the handwriting measures. In addition to conventional kinematic and spatio-temporal handwriting measures, we also computed novel handwriting measures based on entropy, signal energy, and empirical mode decomposition of the handwriting signals. The selected features were fed to the support vector machine classifier with radial Gaussian kernel for automated diagnosis. The accuracy of the classification of PD was as high as 88.13%, with the highest values of sensitivity and specificity equal to 89.47% and 91.89%, respectively. Handwriting may be a valuable marker as a diagnostic and screening tool.

Handwriting or Typewriting? The Influence of Pen- or Keyboard-Based Writing Training on Reading and Writing Performance in Preschool Children

Science.gov (United States)

Kiefer, Markus; Schuler, Stefanie; Mayer, Carmen; Trumpp, Natalie M.; Hille, Katrin; Sachse, Steffi

2015-01-01

Digital writing devices associated with the use of computers, tablet PCs, or mobile phones are increasingly replacing writing by hand. It is, however, controversially discussed how writing modes influence reading and writing performance in children at the start of literacy. On the one hand, the easiness of typing on digital devices may accelerate reading and writing in young children, who have less developed sensory-motor skills. On the other hand, the meaningful coupling between action and perception during handwriting, which establishes sensory-motor memory traces, could facilitate written language acquisition. In order to decide between these theoretical alternatives, for the present study, we developed an intense training program for preschool children attending the German kindergarten with 16 training sessions. Using closely matched letter learning games, eight letters of the German alphabet were trained either by handwriting with a pen on a sheet of paper or by typing on a computer keyboard. Letter recognition, naming, and writing performance as well as word reading and writing performance were assessed. Results did not indicate a superiority of typing training over handwriting training in any of these tasks. In contrast, handwriting training was superior to typing training in word writing, and, as a tendency, in word reading. The results of our study, therefore, support theories of action-perception coupling assuming a facilitatory influence of sensory-motor representations established during handwriting on reading and writing. PMID:26770286

Quality of handwriting: Intervention based on the variation of finger force production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriano Percival Calvo

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Difficulties in the production of proficient handwriting can be detected early in childhood. From the control point of view, non-proficient handwriting can be explained by the difficulty in adequately activating motor synergies that give support to this motor skill. Therefore, imposing different demand on the control to the motor synergies of the fingers can generate improvement in the quality of handwriting. The goal of the present study was to verify the effects of an intervention program for children with handwriting difficulties, composed of manipulative and pre-calligraphic activities that stimulate finger motor synergies through different force production demands. Thirty-four children between 7 and 12 years of age participated in the present study. Handwriting quality was evaluated through the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment. Only the experimental group (n=18 was submitted to the intervention program developed throughout 27 sessions of 30 minutes each. The results indicate that the intervention program based on the variability of force production had a positive effect on the quality of handwriting,mainly in terms of the size of letters.

Using perturbed handwriting to support writer identification in the presence of severe data constraints

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jin; Cheng, Wen; Lopresti, Daniel

2011-01-01

Since real data is time-consuming and expensive to collect and label, researchers have proposed approaches using synthetic variations for the tasks of signature verification, speaker authentication, handwriting recognition, keyword spotting, etc. However, the limitation of real data is particularly critical in the field of writer identification in that in forensics, adversaries cannot be expected to provide sufficient data to train a classifier. Therefore, it is unrealistic to always assume sufficient real data to train classifiers extensively for writer identification. In addition, this field differs from many others in that we strive to preserve as much inter-writer variations, but model-perturbed handwriting might break such discriminability among writers. Building on work described in another paper where human subjects were involved in calibrating realistic-looking transformation, we then measured the effects of incorporating perturbed handwriting into the training dataset. Experimental results justified our hypothesis that with limited real data, model-perturbed handwriting improved the performance of writer identification. Particularly, if only one single sample for each writer was available, incorporating perturbed data achieved a 36x performance gain.

Encoding in the visual word form area: an fMRI adaptation study of words versus handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, Jason J S; Fox, Christopher J; Sekunova, Alla; Iaria, Giuseppe

2010-08-01

Written texts are not just words but complex multidimensional stimuli, including aspects such as case, font, and handwriting style, for example. Neuropsychological reports suggest that left fusiform lesions can impair the reading of text for word (lexical) content, being associated with alexia, whereas right-sided lesions may impair handwriting recognition. We used fMRI adaptation in 13 healthy participants to determine if repetition-suppression occurred for words but not handwriting in the left visual word form area (VWFA) and the reverse in the right fusiform gyrus. Contrary to these expectations, we found adaptation for handwriting but not for words in both the left VWFA and the right VWFA homologue. A trend to adaptation for words but not handwriting was seen only in the left middle temporal gyrus. An analysis of anterior and posterior subdivisions of the left VWFA also failed to show any adaptation for words. We conclude that the right and the left fusiform gyri show similar patterns of adaptation for handwriting, consistent with a predominantly perceptual contribution to text processing.

Recognition of online handwritten Gurmukhi characters based on ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Karun Verma

as the recognition of characters using rule based post-pro- cessing algorithm. ... ods in their work in order to recognize handwriting with pen-based devices. ..... Centernew is the average y-coordinate value of new stroke and denotes the center ...

The influence of spelling ability on handwriting production: children with and without dyslexia.

Science.gov (United States)

Sumner, Emma; Connelly, Vincent; Barnett, Anna L

2014-09-01

Current models of writing do not sufficiently address the complex relationship between the 2 transcription skills: spelling and handwriting. For children with dyslexia and beginning writers, it is conceivable that spelling ability will influence rate of handwriting production. Our aim in this study was to examine execution speed and temporal characteristics of handwriting when completing sentence-copying tasks that are free from composing demands and to determine the predictive value of spelling, pausing, and motor skill on handwriting production. Thirty-one children with dyslexia (Mage = 9 years 4 months) were compared with age-matched and spelling-ability matched children (Mage = 6 years 6 months). A digital writing tablet and Eye and Pen software were used to analyze handwriting. Children with dyslexia were able to execute handwriting at the same speed as the age-matched peers. However, they wrote less overall and paused more frequently while writing, especially within words. Combined spelling ability and within-word pausing accounted for over 76% of the variance in handwriting production of children with dyslexia, demonstrating that productivity relies on spelling capabilities. Motor skill did not significantly predict any additional variance in handwriting production. Reading ability predicted performance of the age-matched group, and pausing predicted performance for the spelling-ability group. The findings from the digital writing tablet highlight the interactive relationship between the transcription skills and how, if spelling is not fully automatized, it can constrain the rate of handwriting production. Practical implications are also addressed, emphasizing the need for more consideration to be given to what common handwriting tasks are assessing as a whole.

Handwriting in children with ADHD.

Science.gov (United States)

Langmaid, Rebecca A; Papadopoulos, Nicole; Johnson, Beth P; Phillips, James G; Rinehart, Nicole J

2014-08-01

Children with ADHD-combined type (ADHD-CT) display fine and gross motor problems, often expressed as handwriting difficulties. This study aimed to kinematically characterize the handwriting of children with ADHD using a cursive letter l's task. In all, 28 boys (7-12 years), 14 ADHD-CT and 14 typically developing (TD), without developmental coordination disorder (DCD) or comorbid autism, wrote a series of four cursive letter l's using a graphics tablet and stylus. Children with ADHD-CT had more inconsistent writing size than did TD controls. In addition, ADHD-CT symptom severity, specifically inattention, predicted poorer handwriting outcomes. In a sample of children with ADHD-CT who do not have DCD or autism, subtle handwriting differences were evident. It was concluded that handwriting might be impaired in children with ADHD in a manner dependent on symptom severity. This may reflect reports of underlying motor impairment in ADHD. © 2011 SAGE Publications.

Effectiveness of the Size Matters Handwriting Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Pfeiffer, Beth; Rai, Gillian; Murray, Tammy; Brusilovskiy, Eugene

2015-04-01

The purpose of the research was to study changes in handwriting legibility among kindergarten, first- and second-grade students in response to the Size Matters curricular-based handwriting program. A two-group pre-post-test design was implemented at two public schools with half of the classrooms assigned to receive the Size Matters program and the other continuing to receive standard instruction. All participants completed two standardized handwriting measures at pre-test and after 40 instructional sessions were completed with the classes receiving the handwriting program. Results identified significant changes in legibility in the handwriting intervention group for all three grades when compared with the standard instruction group. The results of this study support the use of a curricular-embedded handwriting program and provide the foundation for future research examining the impact of handwriting legibility on learning outcomes.

Dysfluent Handwriting in Schizophrenic Outpatients.

Science.gov (United States)

Gawda, Barbara

2016-04-01

Taking into account findings in the literature, the author aimed to test whether specific graphical characteristics of handwriting can distinguish patients diagnosed with schizophrenic disorders from healthy controls. Handwriting samples (one sample from each person) from 60 outpatients (29 women, 31 men; age M = 28.5, SD = 5.4) with paranoid schizophrenia were analyzed by three documents examiners and were compared to samples from 60 controls (30 men, 30 women, age M = 28.0, SD = 3.0) without psychiatric disorders. Document examiners assessed 32 graphical features potentially related to schizophrenia. The comparisons between groups revealed that only 7 out of 32 handwriting properties were significantly different in the handwriting of schizophrenic outpatients from controls: the calligraphic forms of letters, loops in ovals, lacking of dots, tremor, sinusoidal baseline, and irregularities size of lower zone. These findings are discussed in terms of motor disturbances in schizophrenia and in relation to the previous research on handwriting of other mental disorders. Similarities between the graphical patterns of handwriting of schizophrenic patients and those of other mental disorders and/or other mental states have been demonstrated. © The Author(s) 2016.

Effect of pencil grasp on the speed and legibility of handwriting in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwellnus, Heidi; Carnahan, Heather; Kushki, Azadeh; Polatajko, Helene; Missiuna, Cheryl; Chau, Tom

2012-01-01

Pencil grasps other than the dynamic tripod may be functional for handwriting. This study examined the impact of grasp on handwriting speed and legibility. We videotaped 120 typically developing fourth-grade students while they performed a writing task. We categorized the grasps they used and evaluated their writing for speed and legibility using a handwriting assessment. Using linear regression analysis, we examined the relationship between grasp and handwriting. We documented six categories of pencil grasp: four mature grasp patterns, one immature grasp pattern, and one alternating grasp pattern. Multiple linear regression results revealed no significant effect for mature grasp on either legibility or speed. Pencil grasp patterns did not influence handwriting speed or legibility in this sample of typically developing children. This finding adds to the mounting body of evidence that alternative grasps may be acceptable for fast and legible handwriting. Copyright © 2012 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Efficacy of an explicit handwriting program.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaiser, Marie-Laure; Albaret, Jean-Michel; Doudin, Pierre-André

2011-04-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an explicit handwriting program introduced during the first grade of elementary school. Grade 1 children (N=23) with an age range of 6.1 to 7.4 yr. (15 girls, 8 boys) were administered an additional handwriting program of two weekly sessions of 45 min. over six weeks. Another group of 19 Grade 1 children (11 girls, 8 boys) received only the regular handwriting program of one weekly session. The Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting was administered to measure the changes in quality and speed of handwriting. The children given the explicit program showed better quality and speed of handwriting than did the control group. Their handwriting was more regular, with fewer ambiguous letters and fewer incorrect relative heights.

The Influence of Instructional Variables and Task Constraints on Handwriting Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Fitzpatrick, Paula; Vander Hart, Nanho; Cortesa, Cathryn

2013-01-01

Handwriting is used throughout the school day and is important to demonstrate knowledge. This research evaluated how handwriting instructional practices and intrinsic and extrinsic factors in actual classroom settings impacted learning handwriting over the course of the school year. Findings indicated that extrinsic factors (educational…

The impact of Graves' disease and its treatment on handwriting characteristics.

Science.gov (United States)

Papi, Giampaolo; Botti, Cristina; Corsello, Salvatore Maria; Ciardullo, Anna Vittoria; Pontecorvi, Alfredo; Hegedüs, Laszlo

2014-08-01

Thyroid hormones are crucial for metabolism in all tissues in humans, including the nervous system and muscles, and could thus affect handwriting, which is the synthesis of complex and fine movements. Hyperthyroidism, characterized by symptoms such as tremor and weakness, could affect handwriting, although this has not been studied yet. The aim of this study was to evaluate handwriting characteristics before and after therapy for hyperthyroid Graves' disease (GD). Twenty-two patients (15 women, 7 men) with untreated GD (median age: 44 years; range: 20-70 years) were asked to write a "standard text" before and 12 months after being rendered euthyroid. The letters underwent a standardized detailed analysis by a handwriting expert, through inspection and stereoscopic microscope and magnifying glass. All patients demonstrated handwriting variations, perceptible even to direct observation. Graphological examination showed statistically significant changes after patients become euthyroid, in the following parameters: size of letters (4.5±1.1 vs. 5.9±1.3 mm; phandwriting in all patients. Following recovery from hyperthyroidism, a state of hypertrophic and contracted handwriting resulted in greater fluency and fluidity. Variations in handwriting should be included as signs/symptoms in GD.

The effect of fine motor skills on handwriting legibility in preschool age children.

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Sang-Min

2018-02-01

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the effect that fine motor skills have on handwriting legibility in children of preschool age. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects of this study were 52 children of normal growth and development. In order to ascertain handwriting legibility, a Korean alphabet writing assessment was used; to measure fine motor skills, fine motor precision and manual dexterity, sub-items of BOT-2 were measured. Furthermore, in order to measure in-hand manipulation skills, a Functional Dexterity Test was conducted. [Results] The results of the study showed a high level of correlation between fine motor skills and handwriting legibility. The study revealed that the accuracy of hand and in-hand manipulation skills is factors that have an effect on handwriting legibility. [Conclusion] Through the current research, occupational therapists can provide activities that aid the development of fine motor precision and in-hand manipulation skills for children during the instruction and treatment of handwriting to preschool age children, which helps to conduct better legibility in their handwriting.

ADAPTIVE CONTEXT PROCESSING IN ON-LINE HANDWRITTEN CHARACTER RECOGNITION

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Iwayama, N.; Ishigaki, K.

2004-01-01

We propose a new approach to context processing in on-line handwritten character recognition (OLCR). Based on the observation that writers often repeat the strings that they input, we take the approach of adaptive context processing. (ACP). In ACP, the strings input by a writer are automatically

Effective Beginning Handwriting Instruction: Multi-modal, Consistent Format for 2 Years, and Linked to Spelling and Composing.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Beverly; Abbott, Robert D; Berninger, Virginia W

2017-02-01

In Study 1, the treatment group ( N = 33 first graders, M = 6 years 10 months, 16 girls) received Slingerland multi-modal (auditory, visual, tactile, motor through hand, and motor through mouth) manuscript (unjoined) handwriting instruction embedded in systematic spelling, reading, and composing lessons; and the control group ( N =16 first graders, M = 7 years 1 month, 7 girls) received manuscript handwriting instruction not systematically related to the other literacy activities. ANOVA showed both groups improved on automatic alphabet writing from memory; but ANCOVA with the automatic alphabet writing task as covariate showed that the treatment group improved significantly more than control group from the second to ninth month of first grade on dictated spelling and recognition of word-specific spellings among phonological foils. In Study 2 new groups received either a second year of manuscript ( N = 29, M = 7 years 8 months, 16 girls) or introduction to cursive (joined) instruction in second grade ( N = 24, M = 8 years 0 months, 11 girls) embedded in the Slingerland literacy program. ANCOVA with automatic alphabet writing as covariate showed that those who received a second year of manuscript handwriting instruction improved more on sustained handwriting over 30, 60, and 90 seconds than those who had had only one year of manuscript instruction; both groups improved in spelling and composing from the second to ninth month of second grade. Results are discussed in reference to mastering one handwriting format before introducing another format at a higher grade level and always embedding handwriting instruction in writing and reading instruction aimed at all levels of language.

Effective Beginning Handwriting Instruction: Multi-modal, Consistent Format for 2 Years, and Linked to Spelling and Composing

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Beverly; Abbott, Robert D.; Berninger, Virginia W.

2016-01-01

In Study 1, the treatment group (N = 33 first graders, M = 6 years 10 months, 16 girls) received Slingerland multi-modal (auditory, visual, tactile, motor through hand, and motor through mouth) manuscript (unjoined) handwriting instruction embedded in systematic spelling, reading, and composing lessons; and the control group (N =16 first graders, M = 7 years 1 month, 7 girls) received manuscript handwriting instruction not systematically related to the other literacy activities. ANOVA showed both groups improved on automatic alphabet writing from memory; but ANCOVA with the automatic alphabet writing task as covariate showed that the treatment group improved significantly more than control group from the second to ninth month of first grade on dictated spelling and recognition of word-specific spellings among phonological foils. In Study 2 new groups received either a second year of manuscript (N = 29, M = 7 years 8 months, 16 girls) or introduction to cursive (joined) instruction in second grade (N = 24, M = 8 years 0 months, 11 girls) embedded in the Slingerland literacy program. ANCOVA with automatic alphabet writing as covariate showed that those who received a second year of manuscript handwriting instruction improved more on sustained handwriting over 30, 60, and 90 seconds than those who had had only one year of manuscript instruction; both groups improved in spelling and composing from the second to ninth month of second grade. Results are discussed in reference to mastering one handwriting format before introducing another format at a higher grade level and always embedding handwriting instruction in writing and reading instruction aimed at all levels of language. PMID:28190930

Teachers’ perspectives on handwriting and collaborative intervention for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Therese McNamee

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose - This study aims to investigate teacher perspectives on teaching handwriting to children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD and collaboration with occupational therapists. Design/methodology/approach - A descriptive design was applied. Purpose-designed surveys were distributed to teachers of children with ASD (aged 4-12 years in the Republic of Ireland. A response rate of 35 per cent (N = 75 was obtained, with 25 responses analysed using descriptive statistics of closed questions and content analysis of open-ended questions. Findings - Of 139 children with ASD, 80 (58 per cent were reported to have difficulties with handwriting. Teachers reported specific difficulties with pencil grasp, letter formation and task concept among the children with ASD. Fourteen (56 per cent, N = 25 respondents did not give handwriting as homework. Teachers valued occupational therapy advice, individualised programmes and ongoing consultation during implementation. Interest in occupational therapy education regarding handwriting was reported. Practical implications - Occupational therapy collaboration to address handwriting difficulties for children with ASD should include involvement in teacher education, coordination of teacher–parent collaboration and the need for involvement in early intervention provision within an emergent literacy framework. Originality/value - Handwriting development is challenging for children with ASD. There is limited information on teaching or teacher–occupational therapy collaborative practices to address handwriting difficulties of children with ASD.

The impact of graves' disease and its treatment on handwriting characteristics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Papi, Giampaolo; Botti, Cristina; Corsello, Salvatore Maria

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: Thyroid hormones are crucial for metabolism in all tissues in humans, including the nervous system and muscles, and could thus affect handwriting, which is the synthesis of complex and fine movements. Hyperthyroidism, characterized by symptoms such as tremor and weakness, could affect...... handwriting, although this has not been studied yet. The aim of this study was to evaluate handwriting characteristics before and after therapy for hyperthyroid Graves' disease (GD). METHODS: Twenty-two patients (15 women, 7 men) with untreated GD (median age: 44 years; range: 20-70 years) were asked to write...... a "standard text" before and 12 months after being rendered euthyroid. The letters underwent a standardized detailed analysis by a handwriting expert, through inspection and stereoscopic microscope and magnifying glass. RESULTS: All patients demonstrated handwriting variations, perceptible even to direct...

Handwriting in healthy people aged 65 years and over.

Science.gov (United States)

van Drempt, Nadege; McCluskey, Annie; Lannin, Natasha A

2011-08-01

Handwriting is an important activity that is commonly affected by neurological and orthopaedic conditions. Handwriting research has predominantly involved children. Little is known about handwriting behaviour in healthy older adults. This study aims to describe the handwriting practices of 30 unimpaired adults aged 65 years and over. In this cross-sectional observational study, data were collected from 30 older adults using a self-report questionnaire, digital pen recordings over three days and a handwriting log. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The mean age of participants was 75.1 years (standard deviation=6.9). Variations in handwriting were evident in letter size, slant and spacing. Participants wrote very little--a median of 18 words per occasion (interquartile range=10.5-26.9 words). Most handwriting involved self-generated text (85%), not copied or transcribed text. Participants stood while writing for 17% of handwriting occasions. The most common reasons for handwriting were note taking (23%) and puzzles (22%). Legibility may not depend exclusively on the handwriting script that a beginning writer is taught, but may be a result of other factors as the person ages. A comprehensive adult handwriting assessment and retraining programme should be relevant to older adults, including common handwriting activities, involving self-generated text and few words. © 2011 The Authors. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2011 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Statistical Pattern Recognition

CERN Document Server

Webb, Andrew R

2011-01-01

Statistical pattern recognition relates to the use of statistical techniques for analysing data measurements in order to extract information and make justified decisions.  It is a very active area of study and research, which has seen many advances in recent years. Applications such as data mining, web searching, multimedia data retrieval, face recognition, and cursive handwriting recognition, all require robust and efficient pattern recognition techniques. This third edition provides an introduction to statistical pattern theory and techniques, with material drawn from a wide range of fields,

Handwritten document age classification based on handwriting styles

Science.gov (United States)

Ramaiah, Chetan; Kumar, Gaurav; Govindaraju, Venu

2012-01-01

Handwriting styles are constantly changing over time. We approach the novel problem of estimating the approximate age of Historical Handwritten Documents using Handwriting styles. This system will have many applications in handwritten document processing engines where specialized processing techniques can be applied based on the estimated age of the document. We propose to learn a distribution over styles across centuries using Topic Models and to apply a classifier over weights learned in order to estimate the approximate age of the documents. We present a comparison of different distance metrics such as Euclidean Distance and Hellinger Distance within this application.

Classification and recognition of handwritten digits by using ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

The problem of handwriting recognition has been studied for decades and ... tially completed work of character recognition using mathematical morphology. ... There are ten digits in English language and each digit is differentiated from the ...

Historical Analyses of Disordered Handwriting

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Schiegg, Markus; Thorpe, Deborah

2016-01-01

Handwritten texts carry significant information, extending beyond the meaning of their words. Modern neurology, for example, benefits from the interpretation of the graphic features of writing and drawing for the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases and disorders. This article examines how handwriting analysis can be used, and has been used historically, as a methodological tool for the assessment of medical conditions and how this enhances our understanding of historical contexts of writing. We analyze handwritten material, writing tests and letters, from patients in an early 20th-century psychiatric hospital in southern Germany (Irsee/Kaufbeuren). In this institution, early psychiatrists assessed handwriting features, providing us novel insights into the earliest practices of psychiatric handwriting analysis, which can be connected to Berkenkotter’s research on medical admission records. We finally consider the degree to which historical handwriting bears semiotic potential to explain the psychological state and personality of a writer, and how future research in written communication should approach these sources. PMID:28408774

Reliability of the detailed assessment of speed of handwriting on Flemish children.

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Simons, Johan; Probst, Michel

2014-01-01

This study evaluates the reliability of the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting (DASH) in a Dutch-speaking sample of children. The sample included 650 boys and 513 girls (age range = 9-16 years). Handwriting speed measurements were obtained using the DASH. Interrater agreement, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency were calculated; gender and age effects were analyzed. Interrater agreement shows excellent reliability with intraclass correlation coefficients of at least 0.94. Test-retest correlations ranged from r = 0.65 to r = 0.81. The internal consistency measures, calculated with Cronbach's alpha, were between 0.88 and 0.94. Both gender and age have a significant effect on handwriting speed, with F (7.1144) = 17.43 (P handwriting speed of Dutch-speaking children. There is a tendency of girls to write faster than boys.

Predicting Handwriting Legibility in Taiwanese Elementary School Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Tzu-I; Howe, Tsu-Hsin; Chen, Hao-Ling; Wang, Tien-Ni

This study investigates handwriting characteristics and potential predictors of handwriting legibility among typically developing elementary school children in Taiwan. Predictors of handwriting legibility included visual-motor integration (VMI), visual perception (VP), eye-hand coordination (EHC), and biomechanical characteristics of handwriting. A total of 118 children were recruited from an elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan. A computerized program then assessed their handwriting legibility. The biomechanics of handwriting were assessed using a digitizing writing tablet. The children's VMI, VP, and EHC were assessed using the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration. Results indicated that predictive factors of handwriting legibility varied in different age groups. VMI predicted handwriting legibility for first-grade students, and EHC and stroke force predicted handwriting legibility for second-grade students. Kinematic factors such as stroke velocity were the only predictor for children in fifth and sixth grades. Copyright © 2016 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Handprints of the Mind: Decoding Personality Traits and Handwritings

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Gowda, Mahesh Ramanina; Harish, Nikitha; Aslam, Arun; Padmanabiah, Mangala; Magaji, Radhika

2015-01-01

Context: Handwriting analysis is a unique, specialized and emerging scientific process that has been carried out and applied for centuries now. However, its reliability and effectiveness as a method of assessing personality and behavior is not established and is still a debatable issue. The present paper aimed to examine the possibility of a correlation between clinical diagnosis and graphological analysis and to explore the key links between the underlying personality traits and its manifestations in handwriting among children. Aim: The aim was to study the possibility of a correlation between clinical diagnosis and graphological analysis. Objectives: To explore the key links between the underlying personality traits and its manifestations in handwriting among children. To study the possibility of using Graphotherapy as a remedial tool in aid of teaching/learning techniques and behavior modifications. Hypothesis: There are no significant and concrete differences between the psychodiagnostic assessment of personality through Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) and handwriting analysis. Materials and Methods: N = 60, age group = 8-12 years. Tools: CPQ - a 16 personality factor scale and a semi-structured proforma. Simple random sampling technique was used. Results: The P values for the study sample were found to be greater than 0.05 at 5% level of significance to all the 14 dimensions of personality hence going in line with the null hypothesis that states “there are no significant and concrete differences between the psychodiagnostic assessment of Personality through CPQ and handwriting analysis.” Graphologists were thoroughly trained to interpret on the same 14 dimensions of personality as that of CPQ, most samples were analyzed to have a lying loop, a trait, which might also be attributed to the difference found in Trait-H, further asserting the subjective limitations of most psychological tests. PMID:26702172

Handwriting difficulties in juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Haberfehlner, Helga; Visser, Bart; Daffertshofer, Andreas; van Rossum, Marion Aj; Roorda, Leo D; van der Leeden, Marike; Dekker, Joost; Hoeksma, Agnes F

2011-01-01

The aim of the present study was to describe handwriting difficulties of primary school children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and to investigate possible correlations with hand function and writing performance. In a cross-sectional approach, 15 children with JIA and reported handwriting difficulties were included together with 15 healthy matched controls. Impairments (signs of arthritis or tenosynovitis, reduced grip force and limited range of motion of the wrist (wrist-ROM)), activity limitations (reduced quality and speed of handwriting, pain during handwriting), and participation restrictions (perceived handwriting difficulties at school) were assessed and analysed. Although selected by the presence of handwriting difficulties, the majority of the JIA children (73%) had no active arthritis of the writing hand, and only minor hand impairments were found. Overall, the JIA children performed well during the short handwriting test, but the number of letters they wrote per minute decreased significantly during the 5-minute test, compared to the healthy controls. JIA patients had significantly higher pain scores on a 100 mm Visual Analogue Scale, compared to the healthy controls. The actual presence of arthritis, and limitation in grip force and wrist-ROM did not correlate with reported participation restrictions with regard to handwriting at school. The JIA children reported pain during handwriting, and inability to sustain handwriting for a longer period of time. The results of this pilot study show that JIA children with handwriting difficulties, experience their restrictions mainly through pain and the inability to sustain handwriting for a longer period of time. No correlations could be found with impairments.

A review of factors that influence adult handwriting performance.

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van Drempt, Nadege; McCluskey, Annie; Lannin, Natasha A

2011-10-01

Handwriting is an important activity for people of all ages. Handwriting is frequently affected after stroke and other neurological conditions. However, research on the handwriting of healthy adults is difficult to find. This review aims to advance the development of evidence-informed handwriting assessment and retraining. The aim of this paper was to review factors that influence the handwriting performance of unimpaired adults, some of which are amenable to intervention. Searches were conducted of eight electronic databases up to April 2009 and again in November 2010. Reference lists were also used to identify potential studies of interest. No limits were placed on study design.  Age: Younger adults write more legibly and faster than older adults. Gender: Women write faster and more legibly than men. Pengrip: Grips other than the traditional dynamic tripod are functional, producing legible text in an acceptable time. Pen pressure: Pressure varies with different letters, words, text size, speed and across a page of text. Error corrections and a mixed writing style occur in healthy adult handwriting. Research was inconclusive about the association between speed, pressure and upper limb movements on handwriting performance. Other factors able to predict adult handwriting legibility have been largely unexplored. A number of knowledge and research gaps about adult handwriting were identified, including the need for more contemporary normative data. © 2011 The Authors. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2011 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Handwriting Instruction in Elementary Schools: Revisited!

Science.gov (United States)

Asher, Asha; Estes, Joanne

2016-01-01

Handwriting is an essential literacy and communication skill developed through a variety of instructional methods in elementary school. This study explored the consistency in handwriting instruction across grade levels in a Midwest public school district 15 years after the school initially implemented a uniform handwriting program. Additionally,…

Probabilistic modeling of children's handwriting

Science.gov (United States)

Puri, Mukta; Srihari, Sargur N.; Hanson, Lisa

2013-12-01

There is little work done in the analysis of children's handwriting, which can be useful in developing automatic evaluation systems and in quantifying handwriting individuality. We consider the statistical analysis of children's handwriting in early grades. Samples of handwriting of children in Grades 2-4 who were taught the Zaner-Bloser style were considered. The commonly occurring word "and" written in cursive style as well as hand-print were extracted from extended writing. The samples were assigned feature values by human examiners using a truthing tool. The human examiners looked at how the children constructed letter formations in their writing, looking for similarities and differences from the instructions taught in the handwriting copy book. These similarities and differences were measured using a feature space distance measure. Results indicate that the handwriting develops towards more conformity with the class characteristics of the Zaner-Bloser copybook which, with practice, is the expected result. Bayesian networks were learnt from the data to enable answering various probabilistic queries, such as determining students who may continue to produce letter formations as taught during lessons in school and determining the students who will develop a different and/or variation of the those letter formations and the number of different types of letter formations.

A computerized multidimensional measurement of mental workload via handwriting analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Luria, Gil; Rosenblum, Sara

2012-06-01

The goal of this study was to test the effect of mental workload on handwriting behavior and to identify characteristics of low versus high mental workload in handwriting. We hypothesized differences between handwriting under three different load conditions and tried to establish a profile that integrated these indicators. Fifty-six participants wrote three numerical progressions of varying difficulty on a digitizer attached to a computer so that we could evaluate their handwriting behavior. Differences were found in temporal, spatial, and angular velocity handwriting measures, but no significant differences were found for pressure measures. Using data reduction, we identified three clusters of handwriting, two of which differentiated well according to the three mental workload conditions. We concluded that handwriting behavior is affected by mental workload and that each measure provides distinct information, so that they present a comprehensive indicator of mental workload.

A comparison of 1D and 2D LSTM architectures for the recognition of handwritten Arabic

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Yousefi, Mohammad Reza; Soheili, Mohammad Reza; Breuel, Thomas M.; Stricker, Didier

2015-01-01

In this paper, we present an Arabic handwriting recognition method based on recurrent neural network. We use the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) architecture, that have proven successful in different printed and handwritten OCR tasks. Applications of LSTM for handwriting recognition employ the two-dimensional architecture to deal with the variations in both vertical and horizontal axis. However, we show that using a simple pre-processing step that normalizes the position and baseline of letters, we can make use of 1D LSTM, which is faster in learning and convergence, and yet achieve superior performance. In a series of experiments on IFN/ENIT database for Arabic handwriting recognition, we demonstrate that our proposed pipeline can outperform 2D LSTM networks. Furthermore, we provide comparisons with 1D LSTM networks trained with manually crafted features to show that the automatically learned features in a globally trained 1D LSTM network with our normalization step can even outperform such systems.

The effects of shift work and time of day on fine motor control during handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

Hölzle, Patricia; Hermsdörfer, Joachim; Vetter, Céline

2014-01-01

Handwriting is an elaborate and highly automatised skill relying on fine motor control. In laboratory conditions handwriting kinematics are modulated by the time of day. This study investigated handwriting kinematics in a rotational shift system and assessed whether similar time of day fluctuations at the work place can be observed. Handwriting performance was measured in two tasks of different levels of complexity in 34 shift workers across morning (6:00-14:00), evening (14:00-22:00) and night shifts (22:00-6:00). Participants were tested during all three shifts in 2-h intervals with mobile testing devices. We calculated average velocity, script size and writing frequency to quantify handwriting kinematics and fluency. Average velocity and script size were significantly affected by the shift work schedule with the worst performance during morning shifts and the best performance during evening shifts. Our data are of high economic relevance as fine motor skills are indispensable for accurate and effective production at the work place. Handwriting is one of the most complex fine motor skills in humans, which is frequently performed in daily life. In this study, we tested handwriting repeatedly at the work place in a rotational shift system. We found slower handwriting velocity and reduced script size during morning shifts.

Handwriting performance in the absence of visual control in writer's cramp patients: Initial observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Losch Florian

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The present study was aimed at investigating the writing parameters of writer's cramp patients and control subjects during handwriting of a test sentence in the absence of visual control. Methods Eight right-handed patients with writer's cramp and eight healthy volunteers as age-matched control subjects participated in the study. The experimental task consisted in writing a test sentence repeatedly for fifty times on a pressure-sensitive digital board. The subject did not have visual control on his handwriting. The writing performance was stored on a PC and analyzed off-line. Results During handwriting all patients developed a typical dystonic limb posture and reported an increase in muscular tension along the experimental session. The patients were significantly slower than the controls, with lower mean vertical pressure of the pen tip on the paper and they could not reach the endmost letter of the sentence in the given time window. No other handwriting parameter differences were found between the two groups. Conclusion Our findings indicate that during writing in the absence of visual feedback writer's cramp patients are slower and could not reach the endmost letter of the test sentence, but their level of automatization is not impaired and writer's cramp handwriting parameters are similar to those of the controls except for even lower vertical pressure of the pen tip on the paper, which is probably due to a changed strategy in such experimental conditions.

Predicting Handwriting Difficulties through Spelling Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez, Cristina; Villarroel, Rebeca

2017-01-01

This study examined whether spelling tasks contribute to the prediction of the handwriting status of children with poor and good handwriting skills in a cross-sectional study with 276 Spanish children from Grades 1 and 3. The main hypothesis was that the spelling tasks would predict the handwriting status of the children, although this influence…

Handwriting Fluency and Visuospatial Generativity at Primary School

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Stievano, Paolo; Michetti, Silvia; McClintock, Shawn M.; Levi, Gabriel; Scalisi, Teresa Gloria

2016-01-01

Handwriting is a complex activity that involves continuous interaction between lowerlevel perceptual-motor and higher-level cognitive processes. All handwriting models describe involvement of executive functions (EF) in handwriting development. Particular EF domains associated with handwriting include maintenance of information in working memory,…

An Autonomous Learning System of Bengali Characters Using Web-Based Intelligent Handwriting Recognition

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Khatun, Nazma; Miwa, Jouji

2016-01-01

This research project was aimed to develop an intelligent Bengali handwriting education system to improve the literacy level in Bangladesh. Due to the socio-economical limitation, all of the population does not have the chance to go to school. Here, we developed a prototype of web-based (iPhone/smartphone or computer browser) intelligent…

Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? Comparing Preschoolers', Second Graders', and Adults' Writing Performance on a Tablet vs. Paper.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerth, Sabrina; Klassert, Annegret; Dolk, Thomas; Fliesser, Michael; Fischer, Martin H; Nottbusch, Guido; Festman, Julia

2016-01-01

Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of 10 years, children's handwriting movements require graphomotor and visual feedback as well as permanent control of movement execution during handwriting. Modifications in writing conditions, for instance the smoother writing surface of a tablet, might influence handwriting performance in general and in particular those of non-automatized beginning writers. In order to investigate how handwriting performance is affected by a difference in friction of the writing surface, we recruited three groups with varying levels of handwriting automaticity: 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders, and 25 adults. We administered three tasks measuring graphomotor abilities, visuomotor abilities, and handwriting performance (only second graders and adults). We evaluated two aspects of handwriting performance: the handwriting quality with a visual score and the handwriting dynamics using online handwriting measures [e.g., writing duration, writing velocity, strokes and number of inversions in velocity (NIV)]. In particular, NIVs which describe the number of velocity peaks during handwriting are directly related to the level of handwriting automaticity. In general, we found differences between writing on paper compared to the tablet. These differences were partly task-dependent. The comparison between tablet and paper revealed a faster writing velocity for all groups and all tasks on the tablet which indicates that all participants-even the experienced writers-were influenced by the lower friction of the tablet surface. Our results

Is handwriting performance affected by the writing surface? Comparing preschoolers’, second graders’ and adults’ writing performance on a tablet versus paper

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabrina Gerth

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of ten years, children’s handwriting movements require graphomotor and visual feedback as well as permanent control of movement execution during handwriting. Modifications in writing conditions, for instance the smoother writing surface of a tablet, might influence handwriting performance in general, and in particular those of non-automatized beginning writers.In order to investigate how handwriting performance is affected by a difference in friction of the writing surface, we recruited three groups with varying levels of handwriting automaticity: 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders and 25 adults. We administered three tasks measuring graphomotor abilities, visuomotor abilities and handwriting performance (only second graders and adults. We evaluated two aspects of handwriting performance: the handwriting quality with a visual score and the handwriting dynamics using online handwriting measures (e.g. writing duration, writing velocity, strokes and number of inversions in velocity (NIV. In particular, NIVs which describe the number of velocity peaks during handwriting, are directly related to the level of handwriting automaticity.In general, we found differences between writing on paper compared to the tablet. These differences were partly task-dependent. The comparison between tablet and paper revealed a faster writing velocity for all groups and all tasks on the tablet which indicates that all participants – even the experienced writers – were influenced by the lower friction of the

Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? Comparing Preschoolers', Second Graders', and Adults' Writing Performance on a Tablet vs. Paper

Science.gov (United States)

Gerth, Sabrina; Klassert, Annegret; Dolk, Thomas; Fliesser, Michael; Fischer, Martin H.; Nottbusch, Guido; Festman, Julia

2016-01-01

Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of 10 years, children's handwriting movements require graphomotor and visual feedback as well as permanent control of movement execution during handwriting. Modifications in writing conditions, for instance the smoother writing surface of a tablet, might influence handwriting performance in general and in particular those of non-automatized beginning writers. In order to investigate how handwriting performance is affected by a difference in friction of the writing surface, we recruited three groups with varying levels of handwriting automaticity: 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders, and 25 adults. We administered three tasks measuring graphomotor abilities, visuomotor abilities, and handwriting performance (only second graders and adults). We evaluated two aspects of handwriting performance: the handwriting quality with a visual score and the handwriting dynamics using online handwriting measures [e.g., writing duration, writing velocity, strokes and number of inversions in velocity (NIV)]. In particular, NIVs which describe the number of velocity peaks during handwriting are directly related to the level of handwriting automaticity. In general, we found differences between writing on paper compared to the tablet. These differences were partly task-dependent. The comparison between tablet and paper revealed a faster writing velocity for all groups and all tasks on the tablet which indicates that all participants—even the experienced writers—were influenced by the lower friction of the tablet surface. Our

Basic and supplementary sensory feedback in handwriting

Science.gov (United States)

Danna, Jérémy; Velay, Jean-Luc

2015-01-01

The mastering of handwriting is so essential in our society that it is important to try to find new methods for facilitating its learning and rehabilitation. The ability to control the graphic movements clearly impacts on the quality of the writing. This control allows both the programming of letter formation before movement execution and the online adjustments during execution, thanks to diverse sensory feedback (FB). New technologies improve existing techniques or enable new methods to supply the writer with real-time computer-assisted FB. The possibilities are numerous and various. Therefore, two main questions arise: (1) What aspect of the movement is concerned and (2) How can we best inform the writer to help them correct their handwriting? In a first step, we report studies on FB naturally used by the writer. The purpose is to determine which information is carried by each sensory modality, how it is used in handwriting control and how this control changes with practice and learning. In a second step, we report studies on supplementary FB provided to the writer to help them to better control and learn how to write. We suggest that, depending on their contents, certain sensory modalities will be more appropriate than others to assist handwriting motor control. We emphasize particularly the relevance of auditory modality as online supplementary FB on handwriting movements. Using real-time supplementary FB to assist in the handwriting process is probably destined for a brilliant future with the growing availability and rapid development of tablets. PMID:25750633

Nonlinear and non-Gaussian Bayesian based handwriting beautification

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Shi, Cao; Xiao, Jianguo; Xu, Canhui; Jia, Wenhua

2013-03-01

A framework is proposed in this paper to effectively and efficiently beautify handwriting by means of a novel nonlinear and non-Gaussian Bayesian algorithm. In the proposed framework, format and size of handwriting image are firstly normalized, and then typeface in computer system is applied to optimize vision effect of handwriting. The Bayesian statistics is exploited to characterize the handwriting beautification process as a Bayesian dynamic model. The model parameters to translate, rotate and scale typeface in computer system are controlled by state equation, and the matching optimization between handwriting and transformed typeface is employed by measurement equation. Finally, the new typeface, which is transformed from the original one and gains the best nonlinear and non-Gaussian optimization, is the beautification result of handwriting. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed framework provides a creative handwriting beautification methodology to improve visual acceptance.

Fluctuation analysis of proficient and dysgraphic handwriting in children

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenblum, S.; Roman, H. E.

2009-03-01

We analyze handwriting records from several school children with the aim of characterizing the fluctuating behavior of the writing speed. It will be concluded that remarkable differences exist between proficient and dysgraphic handwritings which were unknown so far. It is shown that in the case of proficient handwriting, the variations in handwriting speed are strongly autocorrelated within times corresponding to the completion of a single character or letter, while become uncorrelated at longer times. In the case of dysgraphia, such correlations persist on longer time scales and the autocorrelation function seems to display algebraic time decay, indicating the presence of strong anomalies in the handwriting process. Applications of the results in educational/clinical programs are envisaged.

Standardized Handwriting to Assess Bradykinesia, Micrographia and Tremor in Parkinson's Disease

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smits, Esther J.; Tolonen, Antti J.; Cluitmans, Luc; van Gils, Mark; Conway, Bernard A.; Zietsma, Rutger C.; Leenders, Klaus L.; Maurits, Natasha M.

2014-01-01

Objective: To assess whether standardized handwriting can provide quantitative measures to distinguish patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease from age- and gender-matched healthy control participants. Design: Exploratory study. Pen tip trajectories were recorded during circle, spiral and line

The Effect of a Computerized Visual Perception and Visual-Motor Integration Training Program on Improving Chinese Handwriting of Children with Handwriting Difficulties

Science.gov (United States)

Poon, K. W.; Li-Tsang, C. W .P.; Weiss, T. P. L.; Rosenblum, S.

2010-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the effect of a computerized visual perception and visual-motor integration training program to enhance Chinese handwriting performance among children with learning difficulties, particularly those with handwriting problems. Participants were 26 primary-one children who were assessed by educational psychologists and…

Handwriting performance of preterm children at school age: a literature review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julie Souza de Medeiros Rocha

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Introduction: At school age, handwriting is on of the most important tasks among the fine motor activities. Good handwriting performance contributes to the child´s school performance. As prematurity impacts on motor development, it may influence handwriting. Objective: To review the specific literature and investigate whether there are differences in handwriting performance at school age between children born preterm and full term. Method: A search was performed in the Capes electronic database, in English and Portuguese, comprising the time period between January 2000 and June 2012. Articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria; the sample, objectives, instruments utilized and outcomes were analyzed. Results: Six articles were included in the study. Data analysis indicates that children born prematurely present poorer handwriting performance and a handicap in the underlying handwriting mechanisms when compared with full term infants. Conclusion: Preterm children without obvious neurological impairment are at increased risk for problems in handwriting development at school age. The small number of recent studies on this topic indicates a need for further research, as well as the development of standardized resources for the motor and handwriting assessment of Brazilian children.

Circadian rhythms in handwriting kinematics and legibility.

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Jasper, Isabelle; Gordijn, Marijke; Häussler, Andreas; Hermsdörfer, Joachim

2011-08-01

The aim of the present study was to analyze the circadian rhythmicity in handwriting kinematics and legibility and to compare the performance between Dutch and German writers. Two subject groups underwent a 40 h sleep deprivation protocol under Constant Routine conditions either in Groningen (10 Dutch subjects) or in Berlin (9 German subjects). Both groups wrote every 3h a test sentence of similar structure in their native language. Kinematic handwriting performance was assessed with a digitizing tablet and evaluated by writing speed, writing fluency, and script size. Writing speed (frequency of strokes and average velocity) revealed a clear circadian rhythm, with a parallel decline during night and a minimum around 3:00 h in the morning for both groups. Script size and movement fluency did not vary with time of day in neither group. Legibility of handwriting was evaluated by intra-individually ranking handwriting specimens of the 13 sessions by 10 German and 10 Dutch raters. Whereas legibility ratings of the German handwriting specimens deteriorated during night in parallel with slower writing speed, legibility of the Dutch handwriting deteriorated not until the next morning. In conclusion, the circadian rhythm of handwriting kinematics seems to be independent of script language at least among the two tested western countries. Moreover, handwriting legibility is also subject to a circadian rhythm which, however, seems to be influenced by variations in the assessment protocol. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of Early Handwriting: Visual-Motor Control during Letter Copying

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Maldarelli, Jennifer E.; Kahrs, Björn A.; Hunt, Sarah C.; Lockman, Jeffrey J.

2015-01-01

Despite the importance of handwriting for school readiness and early academic progress, prior research on the development of handwriting has focused primarily on the product rather than the process by which young children write letters. In contrast, in the present work, early handwriting is viewed as involving a suite of perceptual, motor, and…

Effectiveness of a co-taught handwriting program for first grade students.

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Case-Smith, Jane; Holland, Terri; White, Susan

2014-02-01

Our study examined the effects of Write Start, a classroom-embedded handwriting/writing program on handwriting and writing fluency for first grade students, co-taught by occupational therapists and teachers. Two first grade classrooms received the Write Start and two received standard handwriting instruction. This co-taught program included specific feedback during handwriting practice, small group activities, student self-evaluation, and peer supports. The students were evaluated on handwriting legibility, fluency, and written expression at baseline, immediately after the program, and 6 months later. When performance was compared between the two groups, the students in the Write Start program improved significantly more in legibility (d = .57) and fluency (d = .75) than students who received standard instruction. Gains in handwriting speed (d = .18), average legibility (d = .26), and written expression (d = .25) did not differ significantly between the two groups. A co-taught, inclusive handwriting/writing program can promote first grade students' achievement of lower case legibility and writing fluency.

Perceptual reasoning predicts handwriting impairments in adolescents with autism

Science.gov (United States)

Fuentes, Christina T.; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Bastian, Amy J.

2010-01-01

Background: We have previously shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have specific handwriting deficits consisting of poor form, and that these deficits are predicted by their motor abilities. It is not known whether the same handwriting impairments persist into adolescence and whether they remain linked to motor deficits. Methods: A case-control study of handwriting samples from adolescents with and without ASD was performed using the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment. Samples were scored on an individual letter basis in 5 categories: legibility, form, alignment, size, and spacing. Subjects were also administered an intelligence test and the Physical and Neurological Examination for Subtle (Motor) Signs (PANESS). Results: We found that adolescents with ASD, like children, show overall worse performance on a handwriting task than do age- and intelligence-matched controls. Also comparable to children, adolescents with ASD showed motor impairments relative to controls. However, adolescents with ASD differ from children in that Perceptual Reasoning Indices were significantly predictive of handwriting performance whereas measures of motor skills were not. Conclusions: Like children with ASD, adolescents with ASD have poor handwriting quality relative to controls. Despite still demonstrating motor impairments, in adolescents perceptual reasoning is the main predictor of handwriting performance, perhaps reflecting subjects' varied abilities to learn strategies to compensate for their motor impairments. GLOSSARY ASD = autism spectrum disorder; DSM-IV = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition; PANESS = Physical and Neurological Examination for Subtle (Motor) Signs; PRI = Perceptual Reasoning Index; WASI = Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence; WISC = Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV. PMID:21079184

FIR signature verification system characterizing dynamics of handwriting features

Science.gov (United States)

Thumwarin, Pitak; Pernwong, Jitawat; Matsuura, Takenobu

2013-12-01

This paper proposes an online signature verification method based on the finite impulse response (FIR) system characterizing time-frequency characteristics of dynamic handwriting features. First, the barycenter determined from both the center point of signature and two adjacent pen-point positions in the signing process, instead of one pen-point position, is used to reduce the fluctuation of handwriting motion. In this paper, among the available dynamic handwriting features, motion pressure and area pressure are employed to investigate handwriting behavior. Thus, the stable dynamic handwriting features can be described by the relation of the time-frequency characteristics of the dynamic handwriting features. In this study, the aforesaid relation can be represented by the FIR system with the wavelet coefficients of the dynamic handwriting features as both input and output of the system. The impulse response of the FIR system is used as the individual feature for a particular signature. In short, the signature can be verified by evaluating the difference between the impulse responses of the FIR systems for a reference signature and the signature to be verified. The signature verification experiments in this paper were conducted using the SUBCORPUS MCYT-100 signature database consisting of 5,000 signatures from 100 signers. The proposed method yielded equal error rate (EER) of 3.21% on skilled forgeries.

Handwriting assessment of Franco-Quebec primary school-age students

Science.gov (United States)

Couture, Mélanie; Morin, Marie-France; Coallier, Mélissa; Lavigne, Audrey; Archambault, Patricia; Bolduc, Émilie; Chartier, Émilie; Liard, Karolane; Jasmin, Emmanuelle

2016-12-01

Reasons for referring school-age children to occupational therapy mainly relate to handwriting problems. However, there are no validated tools or reference values for assessing handwriting in francophone children in Canada. This study aimed to adapt and validate the writing tasks described in an English Canadian handwriting assessment protocol and to develop reference values for handwriting speed for francophone children. Three writing tasks from the Handwriting Assessment Protocol-2nd Edition (near-point and far-point copying and dictation) were adapted for Québec French children and administered to 141 Grade 1 ( n = 73) and Grade 2 ( n = 68) students. Reference values for handwriting speed were obtained for near point and far point copying tasks. This adapted protocol and these reference values for speed will improve occupational therapy handwriting assessments for the target population.

Automatically measuring the effect of strategy drawing features on pupils' handwriting and gender

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Tabatabaey-Mashadi, Narges; Sudirman, Rubita; Guest, Richard M.; Khalid, Puspa Inayat

2013-12-01

Children's dynamic drawing strategies have been recently recognized as indicators of handwriting ability. However the influence of each feature in predicting handwriting is unknown due to lack of a measuring system. An automated measuring algorithm suitable for psychological assessment and non-subjective scoring is presented here. Using the weight vector and classification rate of a machine learning algorithm, an overall feature's effect is calculated which is comparable in different groupings. In this study thirteen previously detected drawing strategy features are measured for their influence on handwriting and gender. Features are extracted from drawing a triangle, Beery VMI and Bender Gestalt tangent patterns. Samples are related to 203 pupils (77 below average writers, and 101 female). The results show that the number of strokes in drawing the triangle pattern plays a major role in both groupings; however Left Tendency flag feature is affected by children's handwriting about 2.5 times greater than their gender. Experiments indicate that different forms of a feature sometimes show different influences.

Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? Comparing Preschoolers', Second Graders', and Adults' Writing Performance on a Tablet vs. Paper

OpenAIRE

Gerth, Sabrina; Klassert, Annegret; Dolk, Thomas; Fliesser, Michael; Fischer, Martin H.; Nottbusch, Guido; Festman, Julia

2016-01-01

Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of 10 years, children's handwriting m...

Handwriting Automaticity: The Search for Performance Thresholds

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Medwell, Jane; Wray, David

2014-01-01

Evidence is accumulating that handwriting has an important role in written composition. In particular, handwriting automaticity appears to relate to success in composition. This relationship has been little explored in British contexts and we currently have little idea of what threshold performance levels might be. In this paper, we report on two…

The impact of handwriting difficulties on compositional quality in children with developmental coordination disorder

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Anna L; Wilmut, Kate; Plumb, Mandy S

2016-01-01

Introduction There is substantial evidence to support the relationship between transcription skills (handwriting and spelling) and compositional quality. For children with developmental coordination disorder, handwriting can be particularly challenging. While recent research has aimed to investigate their handwriting difficulties in more detail, the impact of transcription on their compositional quality has not previously been examined. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine compositional quality in children with developmental coordination disorder and to ascertain whether their transcription skills influence writing quality. Method Twenty-eight children with developmental coordination disorder participated in the study, with 28 typically developing age and gender matched controls. The children completed the ‘free-writing’ task from the detailed assessment of speed of handwriting tool, which was evaluated for compositional quality using the Wechsler objective language dimensions. Results The children with developmental coordination disorder performed significantly below their typically developing peers on five of the six Wechsler objective language dimensions items. They also had a higher percentage of misspelled words. Regression analyses indicated that the number of words produced per minute and the percentage of misspelled words explained 55% of the variance for compositional quality. Conclusion The handwriting difficulties so commonly reported in children with developmental coordination disorder have wider repercussions for the quality of written composition. PMID:27807392

Kinesthetic sensitivity and related measures of hand sensitivity in children with nonproficient handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

Brink, Anne O'Leary; Jacobs, Anne Burleigh

2011-01-01

This study compared measures of hand sensitivity and handwriting quality in children aged 10 to 12 years identified by their teachers as having nonproficient or proficient handwriting. We hypothesized that children with nonproficient handwriting have decreased kinesthetic sensitivity of the hands and digits. Sixteen subjects without documented motor or cognitive concerns were tested for kinesthetic sensitivity, discriminate tactile awareness, diadochokinesia, stereognosis, and graphesthesia. Eight children were considered to have nonproficient handwriting; 8 had proficient handwriting. Nonparametric Mann-Whitney U tests were used to identify differences between groups on sensory tests. The 2 groups showed a statistically significant difference in handwriting legibility (P = .018). No significant difference was found on tests of kinesthetic sensitivity or other measures of sensation. Children presenting with handwriting difficulty as the only complaint have similar sensitivity in hands and digits as those with proficient handwriting. Failure to detect differences may result from a small sample size.

Validating the use of the evaluation tool of children's handwriting-manuscript to identify handwriting difficulties and detect change in school-age children.

Science.gov (United States)

Brossard-Racine, Marie; Mazer, Barbara; Julien, Marilyse; Majnemer, Annette

2012-01-01

In this study we sought to validate the discriminant ability of the Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting-Manuscript in identifying children in Grades 2-3 with handwriting difficulties and to determine the percentage of change in handwriting scores that is consistently detected by occupational therapists. Thirty-four therapists judged and compared 35 pairs of handwriting samples. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to determine (1) the optimal cutoff values for word and letter legibility scores that identify children with handwriting difficulties who should be seen in rehabilitation and (2) the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in handwriting scores. Cutoff scores of 75.0% for total word legibility and 76.0% for total letter legibility were found to provide excellent levels of accuracy. A difference of 10.0%-12.5% for total word legibility and 6.0%-7.0% for total letter legibility were found as the MCID. Study findings enable therapists to quantitatively support clinical judgment when evaluating handwriting. Copyright © 2012 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Functional handwriting performance in school-age children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Duval-White, Cherie J; Jirikowic, Tracy; Rios, Dianne; Deitz, Jean; Olson, Heather Carmichael

2013-01-01

Handwriting is a critical skill for school success. Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) often present with fine motor and visual-motor impairments that can affect handwriting performance, yet handwriting skills have not been systematically investigated in this clinical group. This study aimed to comprehensively describe handwriting skills in 20 school-age children with FASD. Children were tested with the Process Assessment of the Learner, 2nd Edition (PAL-II), and the Visuomotor Precision subtest of NEPSY, a developmental neuropsychological assessment. Participants performed below average on PAL-II measures of handwriting legibility and speed and on NEPSY visual-motor precision tasks. In contrast, PAL-II measures of sensorimotor skills were broadly within the average range. Results provide evidence of functional handwriting challenges for children with FASD and suggest diminished visual-motor skills and increased difficulty as task complexity increases. Future research is needed to further describe the prevalence and nature of handwriting challenges in this population. Copyright © 2013 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Handwriting Instruction: An Analysis of Perspectives from Three Elementary Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Sharp, Laurie; Brown, Tiffany

2015-01-01

Handwriting is an essential skill for learners, but advancements with technology have greatly altered perceptions towards handwriting and handwriting instruction. This study sought to determine the current state of handwriting through an exploratory analysis of the teaching experiences of three practicing elementary teachers with varying…

Switching among graphic patterns is governed by oscillatory coordination dynamics: Implications for understanding handwriting.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pier-Giorgio eZanone

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Revisiting an original idea by Hollerbach (1981, previous work has established that the production of graphic shapes, assumed to be the blueprint for handwriting, is governed by the dynamics of orthogonal non-linear coupled oscillators. Such dynamics determines few stable coordination patterns, giving rise to a limited set of preferred graphic shapes, namely, four lines and four ellipsoids independent of orientation. The present study investigates the rules of switching among such graphic coordination patterns. Seven participants were required to voluntarily switch within twelve pairs of shapes presented on a graphic tablet. In line with previous theoretical and experimental work on bimanual coordination, results corroborated our hypothesis that the relative stability of the produced coordination patterns determines the time needed for switching: the transition to a more stable pattern was shorter, and inversely. Moreover, switching between patterns with the same orientation but different eccentricities was faster than with a change in orientation. Nonetheless, the switching time covaried strictly with the change in relative phase effected by the transition between two shapes, whether this implied a change in eccentricity or in orientation. These findings suggest a new operational definition of what the (motor units or strokes of handwriting are and shed a novel light on how co-articulation and recruitment of degrees of freedom may occur in graphic skills. They also yield some leads for understanding the acquisition and the neural underpinnings of handwriting.

Understanding handwriting difficulties: A comparison of children with and without motor impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Prunty, Mellissa; Barnett, Anna L

The nature of handwriting difficulties have been explored in children with specific developmental disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of handwriting difficulties in children with dysgraphia, a less studied group who have significant handwriting difficulties in the absence of motor control or cognitive difficulties. The performance of a dysgraphia group aged 8-14 years was compared to a group with Developmental Coordination Disorder and to typically developing (TD) controls. Participants completed two handwriting tasks on a digitizing writing tablet. The amount and accuracy of the handwriting product was measured, plus various temporal and spatial features of the writing process. There were no significant differences in performance between the two groups with handwriting difficulties but both performed more poorly than the TD group. Individual differences in the type and severity of handwriting impairments suggest the need for a range of classroom assessments to tailor intervention appropriately.

Focus of attention and automaticity in handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

MacMahon, Clare; Charness, Neil

2014-04-01

This study investigated the nature of automaticity in everyday tasks by testing handwriting performance under single and dual-task conditions. Item familiarity and hand dominance were also manipulated to understand both cognitive and motor components of the task. In line with previous literature, performance was superior in an extraneous focus of attention condition compared to two different skill focus conditions. This effect was found only when writing with the dominant hand. In addition, performance was superior for high familiarity compared to low familiarity items. These findings indicate that motor and cognitive familiarity are related to the degree of automaticity of motor skills and can be manipulated to produce different performance outcomes. The findings also imply that the progression of skill acquisition from novel to novice to expert levels can be traced using different dual-task conditions. The separation of motor and cognitive familiarity is a new approach in the handwriting domain, and provides insight into the nature of attentional demands during performance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

SURVEY OF BIOMETRIC SYSTEMS USING IRIS RECOGNITION

OpenAIRE

S.PON SANGEETHA; DR.M.KARNAN

2014-01-01

The security plays an important role in any type of organization in today’s life. Iris recognition is one of the leading automatic biometric systems in the area of security which is used to identify the individual person. Biometric systems include fingerprints, facial features, voice recognition, hand geometry, handwriting, the eye retina and the most secured one presented in this paper, the iris recognition. Biometric systems has become very famous in security systems because it is not possi...

Evaluation of handwriting kinematics and pressure for differential diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Drotár, Peter; Mekyska, Jiří; Rektorová, Irena; Masarová, Lucia; Smékal, Zdeněk; Faundez-Zanuy, Marcos

2016-02-01

We present the PaHaW Parkinson's disease handwriting database, consisting of handwriting samples from Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and healthy controls. Our goal is to show that kinematic features and pressure features in handwriting can be used for the differential diagnosis of PD. The database contains records from 37 PD patients and 38 healthy controls performing eight different handwriting tasks. The tasks include drawing an Archimedean spiral, repetitively writing orthographically simple syllables and words, and writing of a sentence. In addition to the conventional kinematic features related to the dynamics of handwriting, we investigated new pressure features based on the pressure exerted on the writing surface. To discriminate between PD patients and healthy subjects, three different classifiers were compared: K-nearest neighbors (K-NN), ensemble AdaBoost classifier, and support vector machines (SVM). For predicting PD based on kinematic and pressure features of handwriting, the best performing model was SVM with classification accuracy of Pacc=81.3% (sensitivity Psen=87.4% and specificity of Pspe=80.9%). When evaluated separately, pressure features proved to be relevant for PD diagnosis, yielding Pacc=82.5% compared to Pacc=75.4% using kinematic features. Experimental results showed that an analysis of kinematic and pressure features during handwriting can help assess subtle characteristics of handwriting and discriminate between PD patients and healthy controls. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Post-editing through Speech Recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mesa-Lao, Bartolomé

(i.e. typing, handwriting and speaking) to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the translation process. However, further studies need to be conducted to build up new knowledge about the way in which state-of-the-art speech recognition software can be applied to the post-editing process...

Changes in Handwriting due to Alzheimer’s Disease a Case Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

İsmail Birincioğlu

2016-08-01

In this study, the reason that the experts delivered opposing opinions on the identification of a document handwritten by a person with AD after being referred to court was investigated. Based on the judicial file, the document examiners did not have the opportunity to evaluate all factors affecting the handwriting or signature of the individual, and an adequate number of handwriting and signature examples were not collected for comparison. Consequently, the examiners reached differing opinions. Thus, the above-mentioned factors are necessary to derive a satisfactory and accurate opinion regarding the identification of handwriting or signature. Keywords: Forensic sciences, handwriting, signature, Alzheimer’s Disease.

LOCAL LINE BINARY PATTERN FOR FEATURE EXTRACTION ON PALM VEIN RECOGNITION

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Jayanti Yusmah Sari

2015-08-01

Full Text Available In recent years, palm vein recognition has been studied to overcome problems in conventional systems in biometrics technology (finger print, face, and iris. Those problems in biometrics includes convenience and performance. However, due to the clarity of the palm vein image, the veins could not be segmented properly. To overcome this problem, we propose a palm vein recognition system using Local Line Binary Pattern (LLBP method that can extract robust features from the palm vein images that has unclear veins. LLBP is an advanced method of Local Binary Pattern (LBP, a texture descriptor based on the gray level comparison of a neighborhood of pixels. There are four major steps in this paper, Region of Interest (ROI detection, image preprocessing, features extraction using LLBP method, and matching using Fuzzy k-NN classifier. The proposed method was applied on the CASIA Multi-Spectral Image Database. Experimental results showed that the proposed method using LLBP has a good performance with recognition accuracy of 97.3%. In the future, experiments will be conducted to observe which parameter that could affect processing time and recognition accuracy of LLBP is needed

Chinese handwriting performance in preterm children in grade 2

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Shao-Hsia; Hong, Rong-Bin

2018-01-01

Background First graders born prematurely perform poorly on handwriting speed and legibility. However, whether there are specific legibility factors in which preterm children demonstrate difficulty remains unknown. In addition, handwriting performance beyond the first grade and the influence of sex on handwriting performance in preterm children are still unclear. We aimed to investigate the influence of prematurity and sex on multiple dimensions of handwriting in grade two and to identify the contributors to performance. Methods Sixty-three preterm (34 boys and 29 girls) and 67 full-term (27 boys and 40 girls) peers in grade two were included. Class teachers were asked to complete the Chinese Handwriting Evaluation Form. A subgroup of 39 preterm children received assessments on intelligence, visual perception, tactile and kinesthetic sensation, and fine motor skills. Their inattention behavior was rated using a maternal self-report with a behavioral scale. Results Boys born prematurely exhibited poorer performance in the speed dimension than full-term boys (p = 0.008), whereas there was comparable performance in the two groups of girls (p = 0.221). In the dimensions related to legibility, preterm boys (32.4%) had a higher percentage of children with difficulty in the construction dimension than the other groups (preterm girls: 6.9%, full-term boys: 7.4%, full-term girls: 5.0%). However, no group difference was found in the dimensions of accuracy and directionality. Of the sensory-perceptual-motor factors, attention was the most significant predictor of accuracy in performance (p = 0.046) and speed dimensions (p = 0.001) in preterm children. Conclusions Boys appear to be vulnerable to the adverse impacts of preterm birth in terms of performance in the dimensions of speed and construction in grade two. Based on the significant contribution of attention to handwriting performance in preterm children, assessment and intervention in the area of attention is strongly

Examining First Grade Teachers' Handwriting Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Arslan, Derya

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the first grade teachers' practices of handwriting instructions in terms of teaching, evaluation and handwriting difficulties. From qualitative research patterns, phenomenology was used. The study was applied to the 54 First grade teachers who work at central Burdur and Burdur county centre primary education…

Handwriting-Based Model for Identification of Developmental Disorders among North Indian Children

Science.gov (United States)

Dhall, Jasmine Kaur

2016-01-01

Handwriting execution is based on the cognitive, kinesthetic, motor skills, and manual co-ordination skills of an individual. The deterioration in handwriting quality is a common implication of neurological disorders. Difficulty and degradation in handwriting has been attributed to the sensory motor deficits prevalent in developmental disorders.…

Experts Fear Handwriting Will become a Lost Art

Science.gov (United States)

Zubrzycki, Jaclyn

2012-01-01

Educators and experts say students still need to learn penmanship, even in a digital age. Handwriting still has a place in the digital age, its proponents say, and they hoped that what they billed as a "summit" on the subject at a conference would spotlight their case for the enduring value of handwriting in the learning process. The Washington…

Curriculum-Based Handwriting Programs: A Systematic Review With Effect Sizes

Science.gov (United States)

Engel, Courtney; Lillie, Kristin; Zurawski, Sarah; Travers, Brittany G.

2018-01-01

Challenges with handwriting can have a negative impact on academic performance, and these challenges are commonly addressed by occupational therapy practitioners in school settings. This systematic review examined the efficacy of curriculum-based interventions to address children’s handwriting difficulties in the classroom (preschool to second grade). We reviewed and computed effect sizes for 13 studies (11 Level II, 2 Level III) identified through a comprehensive database search. The evidence shows that curriculum-based handwriting interventions resulted in small- to medium-sized improvements in legibility, a commonly reported challenge in this age group. The evidence for whether these interventions improved speed is mixed, and the evidence for whether they improved fluency is insufficient. No clear support was found for one handwriting program over another. These results suggest that curriculum-based interventions can lead to improvements in handwriting legibility, but Level I research is needed to validate the efficacy of these curricula. PMID:29689170

Does handwriting on a tablet screen affect students' graphomotor execution? A comparison between Grades Two and Nine.

Science.gov (United States)

Alamargot, Denis; Morin, Marie-France

2015-12-01

We sought to ascertain how handwriting with a plastic-tipped pen on the screen of a digital tablet affects graphomotor execution in students, compared with handwriting on paper with a ballpoint pen. We predicted that the modification to propriokinesthetic feedback induced by the screen/plastic tip combination would differently disturb younger and older students, who rely on perceptual feedback either to form letters (former) or to adjust movement execution (latter). Twenty-eight students from Grades Two and Nine were asked to handwrite the alphabet and their names and surnames under the two conditions. Kinematics were recorded using the tablet, controlled by Eye and Pen software. Results showed that handwriting on the tablet surface with a plastic-tipped pen primarily affected pen pauses in the second graders and pen movements in the ninth graders, suggesting a disturbance in segment trajectory calculation in the younger participants and reduced control of muscular adjustment in the older children. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

SKread predicts handwriting performance in patients with low vision.

Science.gov (United States)

Downes, Ken; Walker, Laura L; Fletcher, Donald C

2015-06-01

To assess whether performance on the Smith-Kettlewell Reading (SKread) test is a reliable predictor of handwriting performance in patients with low vision. Cross-sectional study. Sixty-six patients at their initial low-vision rehabilitation evaluation. The patients completed all components of a routine low-vision appointment including logMAR acuity, performed the SKread test, and performed a handwriting task. Patients were timed while performing each task and their accuracy was recorded. The handwriting task was performed by having patients write 5 5-letter words into sets of boxes where each letter is separated by a box. The boxes were 15 × 15 mm, and accuracy was scored with 50 points possible from 25 letters: 1 point for each letter within the confines of a box and 1 point if the letter was legible. Correlation analysis was then performed. Median age of participants was 84 (range 54-97) years. Fifty-seven patients (86%) had age-related macular degeneration or some other maculopathy, whereas 9 patients (14%) had visual impairment from media opacity or neurologic impairment. Median Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study acuity was 20/133 (range 20/22 to 20/1000), and median logMAR acuity was 0.82 (range 0.04-1.70). SKread errors per block correlated with logMAR acuity (r = 0.6), and SKread time per block correlated with logMAR acuity (r = 0.51). SKread errors per block correlated with handwriting task time/accuracy ratio (r = 0.61). SKread time per block correlated with handwriting task time/accuracy ratio (r = 0.7). LogMAR acuity score correlated with handwriting task time/accuracy ratio (r = 0.42). All p values were handwriting performance in patients with low vision better than logMAR acuity. Copyright © 2015 Canadian Ophthalmological Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

HANDWRITING AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITY OF EACH NATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martina Fasnerová

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The article presents the fundamental element of the identity of each nation, which appears to be handwriting. The basic structure of Czech handwriting is explained. The written form is presented as a part of literacy, or more precisely reading literacy. The article refers to the differences of joined-up linear handwriting, according to which handwriting is taught in the Czech Republic.

Assessing handwriting intervention effectiveness in elementary school students: a two-group controlled study.

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Howe, Tsu-Hsin; Roston, Karen Laurie; Sheu, Ching-Fan; Hinojosa, Jim

2013-01-01

This study examined the effectiveness of two approaches used in elementary schools to improve children's handwriting. Participants were 72 New York City public school students from the first and second grades. A nonequivalent pretest-posttest group design was used in which students engaged in handwriting activities using two approaches: intensive handwriting practice and visual-perceptual-motor activities. Handwriting speed, legibility, and visual-motor skills were examined after a 12-wk Handwriting Club using multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that students in the intensive handwriting practice group demonstrated significant improvements in handwriting legibility compared with students in the visual-perceptual-motor activity group. No significant effects in handwriting speed and visual-motor skills were found between the students in intensive handwriting practice group and the students in visual-perceptual-motor activities group. The Handwriting Club model is a natural intervention that fits easily into existing school curriculums and can be an effective short-term intervention (response to intervention Tier II). Copyright © 2013 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Inter-relationships between objective handwriting features and executive control among children with developmental dysgraphia.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenblum, Sara

2018-01-01

To describe handwriting and executive control features and their inter-relationships among children with developmental dysgraphia, in comparison to controls. Participants included 64 children, aged 10-12 years, 32 with dysgraphia based on the Handwriting Proficiency Screening Questionnaire (HPSQ) and 32 matched controls. Children copied a paragraph onto paper affixed to a digitizer that supplied handwriting process objective measures (Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET). Their written product was evaluated by the Hebrew Handwriting Evaluation (HHE). Parents completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) questionnaire about their child's executive control abilities. Significant group differences were found for handwriting performance measures (HHE and ComPET) and executive control domains (BRIEF). Based on one discriminate function, including handwriting performance and executive control measures, 98.4% of the participants were correctly classified into groups. Significant correlations were found in each group between working memory and legibility as well as for other executive domains and handwriting measures. Furthermore, twenty percent of the variability of the mean pressure applied towards the writing surface among children with was explained by their 'emotional control' (BRIEF). The results strongly suggest consideration of executive control domains to obtain better insight into handwriting impairment characteristics among children with dysgraphia to improve their identification, evaluation and the intervention process.

The Links between Handwriting and Composing for Y6 Children

Science.gov (United States)

Medwell, Jane; Strand, Steve; Wray, David

2009-01-01

Although handwriting is often considered a matter of presentation, a substantial body of international research suggests that the role of handwriting in children's composing has been neglected. Automaticity in handwriting is now seen as of key importance in composing but this proposition is relatively untested in the UK and the assumption has been…

Comprehension of handwriting development: Pen-grip kinetics in handwriting tasks and its relation to fine motor skills among school-age children.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Yu-Chen; Chao, Yen-Li; Wu, Shyi-Kuen; Lin, Ho-Hsio; Hsu, Chieh-Hsiang; Hsu, Hsiao-Man; Kuo, Li-Chieh

2017-10-01

Numerous tools have been developed to evaluate handwriting performances by analysing written products. However, few studies have directly investigated kinetic performances of digits when holding a pen. This study thus attempts to investigate pen-grip kinetics during writing tasks of school-age children and explore the relationship between the kinetic factors and fine motor skills. This study recruited 181 children aged from 5 to 12 years old and investigated the effects of age on handwriting kinetics and the relationship between these and fine motor skills. The forces applied from the digits and pen-tip were measured during writing tasks via a force acquisition pen, and the children's fine motor performances were also evaluated. The results indicate that peak force and average force might not be direct indicators of handwriting performance for normally developing children at this age. Younger children showed larger force variation and lower adjustment frequency during writing, which might indicate they had poorer force control than the older children. Force control when handling a pen is significantly correlated with fine motor performance, especially in relation to the manual dexterity. A novel system is proposed for analysing school-age children's force control while handwriting. We observed the development of force control in relation to pen grip among the children with different ages in this study. The findings suggested that manipulation skill may be crucial when children are establishing their handwriting capabilities. © 2017 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Handwriting and Common Core State Standards: Teacher, Occupational Therapist, and Administrator Perceptions From New York State Public Schools.

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Collette, Debra; Anson, Kylie; Halabi, Nora; Schlierman, April; Suriner, Allison

Handwriting is the cornerstone of written performance and communication for school-age children. This mixed-methods study explored the impact of Common Core State Standards on handwriting instruction and its effects on perceptions regarding children's written responses in elementary school. Using surveys and interviews of elementary teachers, occupational therapists, and administrators in New York State public schools, we sought to understand current trends in handwriting instruction, changes in time spent on handwriting instruction in the classroom, supports offered to students who did not meet expectations for handwriting, and the impact of Common Core on children's written expression. Themes emerged revealing decreased handwriting instruction time and inconsistent use of handwriting instructional programs in the classroom after implementation of Common Core. Handwriting should be considered as a greater component in the foundational standards in Common Core. Occupational therapy services can support handwriting instruction implementation. Copyright © 2017 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Size variability of handwriting in healthy Korean older adults.

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Yoon, Ji Hye; Kim, Hyanghee; Kim, Jungwan; Park, Eunjeong; Kim, Soo Ryon

2014-04-01

The aim of the present study was to delineate how age-related deterioration affects the handwriting of healthy elderly (HE) subjects. A total of 235 HE (54 males, 181 females) aged 57-91 years participated as subjects in the study. In order to compare the area of handwriting, we divided the participants into two groups: (i) aged 57-74 years; and (ii) aged 75-91 years. The writing stimulus was a four-syllabic word with one-to-one grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence. The size of each syllable in the target word was measured using a software program. Alignment of the word to baseline was assessed using a multiple-choice checklist. As compared with handwriting by the younger group, the older group showed greater variability in the size of the written syllables within the word (P = 0.023). The handwriting was characterized by unequal size among syllables and non-perpendicular alignment, which could be explained by several factors. First, the variability might have resulted from irregular fine movement motor control in older adults. Second, the deterioration of visual feedback and visuomotor integration in normal aging might have affected handwriting performance. In conclusion, variability of handwriting can be sensitive in predicting the aging process. © 2013 Japan Geriatrics Society.

Statistical pattern recognition for automatic writer identification and verification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bulacu, Marius Lucian

2007-01-01

The thesis addresses the problem of automatic person identification using scanned images of handwriting.Identifying the author of a handwritten sample using automatic image-based methods is an interesting pattern recognition problem with direct applicability in the forensic and historic document

Effects of a kinesthetic cursive handwriting intervention for grade 4-6 students.

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Roberts, Gwenyth I; Siever, Jodi E; Mair, Judith A

2010-01-01

We studied whether Grade 4-6 students who participated in a kinesthetic writing intervention improved in legibility, speed, and personal satisfaction with cursive handwriting. Small groups of students with handwriting difficulties were seen weekly for 7 wk using a kinesthetic writing system. A repeated measures design was used to evaluate change in global legibility, individual letter formation, specific features of handwriting, and personal satisfaction. Analysis revealed (1) a significant increase in ratings of global legibility (p kinesthetic handwriting intervention may be effective in improving the skills of students with handwriting challenges.

Handwriting generates variable visual input to facilitate symbol learning

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Julia X.; James, Karin H.

2015-01-01

Recent research has demonstrated that handwriting practice facilitates letter categorization in young children. The present experiments investigated why handwriting practice facilitates visual categorization by comparing two hypotheses: That handwriting exerts its facilitative effect because of the visual-motor production of forms, resulting in a direct link between motor and perceptual systems, or because handwriting produces variable visual instances of a named category in the environment that then changes neural systems. We addressed these issues by measuring performance of 5 year-old children on a categorization task involving novel, Greek symbols across 6 different types of learning conditions: three involving visual-motor practice (copying typed symbols independently, tracing typed symbols, tracing handwritten symbols) and three involving visual-auditory practice (seeing and saying typed symbols of a single typed font, of variable typed fonts, and of handwritten examples). We could therefore compare visual-motor production with visual perception both of variable and similar forms. Comparisons across the six conditions (N=72) demonstrated that all conditions that involved studying highly variable instances of a symbol facilitated symbol categorization relative to conditions where similar instances of a symbol were learned, regardless of visual-motor production. Therefore, learning perceptually variable instances of a category enhanced performance, suggesting that handwriting facilitates symbol understanding by virtue of its environmental output: supporting the notion of developmental change though brain-body-environment interactions. PMID:26726913

Inter-relationships between objective handwriting features and executive control among children with developmental dysgraphia

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Objective To describe handwriting and executive control features and their inter-relationships among children with developmental dysgraphia, in comparison to controls. Method Participants included 64 children, aged 10–12 years, 32 with dysgraphia based on the Handwriting Proficiency Screening Questionnaire (HPSQ) and 32 matched controls. Children copied a paragraph onto paper affixed to a digitizer that supplied handwriting process objective measures (Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET). Their written product was evaluated by the Hebrew Handwriting Evaluation (HHE). Parents completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) questionnaire about their child's executive control abilities. Results Significant group differences were found for handwriting performance measures (HHE and ComPET) and executive control domains (BRIEF). Based on one discriminate function, including handwriting performance and executive control measures, 98.4% of the participants were correctly classified into groups. Significant correlations were found in each group between working memory and legibility as well as for other executive domains and handwriting measures. Furthermore, twenty percent of the variability of the mean pressure applied towards the writing surface among children with was explained by their 'emotional control' (BRIEF). Conclusion The results strongly suggest consideration of executive control domains to obtain better insight into handwriting impairment characteristics among children with dysgraphia to improve their identification, evaluation and the intervention process. PMID:29689111

Dyslexic children fail to comply with the rhythmic constraints of handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

Pagliarini, Elena; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Toneatto, Carlo; Granocchio, Elisa; Riva, Federica; Sarti, Daniela; Molteni, Bruna; Stucchi, Natale

2015-08-01

In this study, we sought to demonstrate that deficits in a specific motor activity, handwriting, are associated to Developmental Dyslexia. The linguistic and writing performance of children with Developmental Dyslexia, with and without handwriting problems (dysgraphia), were compared to that of children with Typical Development. The quantitative kinematic variables of handwriting were collected by means of a digitizing tablet. The results showed that all children with Developmental Dyslexia wrote more slowly than those with Typical Development. Contrary to typically developing children, they also varied more in the time taken to write the individual letters of a word and failed to comply with the principles of isochrony and homothety. Moreover, a series of correlations was found among reading, language measures and writing measures suggesting that the two abilities may be linked. We propose that the link between handwriting and reading/language deficits is mediated by rhythm, as both reading (which is grounded on language) and handwriting are ruled by principles of rhythmic organization. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advances in oriental document analysis and recognition techniques

CERN Document Server

Lee, Seong-Whan

1999-01-01

In recent years, rapid progress has been made in computer processing of oriental languages, and the research developments in this area have resulted in tremendous changes in handwriting processing, printed oriental character recognition, document analysis and recognition, automatic input methodologies for oriental languages, etc. Advances in computer processing of oriental languages can also be seen in multimedia computing and the World Wide Web. Many of the results in those domains are presented in this book.

Missing value imputation: with application to handwriting data

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zhen; Srihari, Sargur N.

2015-01-01

Missing values make pattern analysis difficult, particularly with limited available data. In longitudinal research, missing values accumulate, thereby aggravating the problem. Here we consider how to deal with temporal data with missing values in handwriting analysis. In the task of studying development of individuality of handwriting, we encountered the fact that feature values are missing for several individuals at several time instances. Six algorithms, i.e., random imputation, mean imputation, most likely independent value imputation, and three methods based on Bayesian network (static Bayesian network, parameter EM, and structural EM), are compared with children's handwriting data. We evaluate the accuracy and robustness of the algorithms under different ratios of missing data and missing values, and useful conclusions are given. Specifically, static Bayesian network is used for our data which contain around 5% missing data to provide adequate accuracy and low computational cost.

Where Does Handwriting Fit in? Strategies to Support Academic Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Cahill, Susan M.

2009-01-01

In today's environment of high-stakes testing, handwriting is a skill that is often overlooked in order to focus on other areas of the curriculum. However, research indicates that handwriting is tied to academic achievement, especially composition and literacy skills. This article provides strategies that can be used to support students with…

Hyperspectral imaging technology for revealing the original handwritings covered by the same inks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuanyuan Lian

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This manuscript presents a preliminary investigation on the applicability of hyperspectral imaging technology for nondestructive and rapid analysis to reveal covered original handwritings. The hyperspectral imager Nuance-Macro was used to collect the reflected light signature of inks from the overlapping parts. The software Nuance1p46 was used to analyze the reflected light signature of inks which shows the covered original handwritings. Different types of black/blue ballpoint pen inks and black/blue gel pen inks were chosen for sample preparation. From the hyperspectral images examined, the covered original handwritings of application were revealed in 90.5%, 69.1%, 49.5%, and 78.6% of the cases. Further, the correlation between the revealing effect and spectral characteristics of the reflected light of inks at the overlapping parts was interpreted through theoretical analysis and experimental verification. The results indicated that when the spectral characteristics of the reflected light of inks at the overlapping parts were the same or very similar to that of the ink that was used to cover the original handwriting, the original handwriting could not be shown. On the contrary, when the spectral characteristics of the reflected light of inks at the overlapping parts were different to that of the ink that was used to cover the original handwriting, the original handwriting was revealed.

The Influence of Lying Body Position on Handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

Dziedzic, Tomasz

2016-01-01

Although the problem of handwriting variability due to lying body position has practical significance, particularly for last will cases, it has not been sufficiently studied. The presented experiment aimed to recognize how such posture may influence handwriting features. Samples of text and signatures were collected from 50 healthy individuals, aged 23-58, produced in three postures: typical sitting position (SP) and two different lying positions (LP1 & LP2). Using the SP sample of each individual as a specimen, eleven characteristics in LP1 and LP2 samples were evaluated as similar or different. Nine other features were measured with a specialized software, and their conformity was tested with Student's t-test. Although none of the characteristics differed significantly in most cases, variation occurred in pen pressure, margins, baselines, and heights of letters. Additionally, a series of blind tests revealed that lying position of the individuals did not hinder the possibility to identify their writings. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

New baseline correction algorithm for text-line recognition with bidirectional recurrent neural networks

Science.gov (United States)

Morillot, Olivier; Likforman-Sulem, Laurence; Grosicki, Emmanuèle

2013-04-01

Many preprocessing techniques have been proposed for isolated word recognition. However, recently, recognition systems have dealt with text blocks and their compound text lines. In this paper, we propose a new preprocessing approach to efficiently correct baseline skew and fluctuations. Our approach is based on a sliding window within which the vertical position of the baseline is estimated. Segmentation of text lines into subparts is, thus, avoided. Experiments conducted on a large publicly available database (Rimes), with a BLSTM (bidirectional long short-term memory) recurrent neural network recognition system, show that our baseline correction approach highly improves performance.

Neuronal variability during handwriting: lognormal distribution.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valery I Rupasov

Full Text Available We examined time-dependent statistical properties of electromyographic (EMG signals recorded from intrinsic hand muscles during handwriting. Our analysis showed that trial-to-trial neuronal variability of EMG signals is well described by the lognormal distribution clearly distinguished from the Gaussian (normal distribution. This finding indicates that EMG formation cannot be described by a conventional model where the signal is normally distributed because it is composed by summation of many random sources. We found that the variability of temporal parameters of handwriting--handwriting duration and response time--is also well described by a lognormal distribution. Although, the exact mechanism of lognormal statistics remains an open question, the results obtained should significantly impact experimental research, theoretical modeling and bioengineering applications of motor networks. In particular, our results suggest that accounting for lognormal distribution of EMGs can improve biomimetic systems that strive to reproduce EMG signals in artificial actuators.

Hand Strength, Handwriting, and Functional Skills in Children With Autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Alaniz, Michele L; Galit, Eleanor; Necesito, Corina Isabel; Rosario, Emily R

2015-01-01

To establish hand strength development trends in children with autism and to investigate correlations between grip and pinch strength, components of handwriting, and functional activities in children with and without autism. Fifty-one children were divided into two groups: typically developing children and children on the autism spectrum. Each child completed testing for pinch and grip strength, handwriting legibility, pencil control, and independence in functional activities. The children with autism followed the same strength development trends as the typically developing children. Grip strength correlated with pencil control in both groups and with handwriting legibility in the typically developing children but not in the children with autism. Grip and pinch strength correlated with independence with functional activities in both groups. This study provides evidence that grip and pinch strength are important components in developing pencil control, handwriting legibility, and independence with functional fine motor tasks. Copyright © 2015 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Comparison of Cursive Handwriting Instruction Programs among Students without Identified Problems

Science.gov (United States)

Shimel, Kristin; Candler, Catherine; Neville-Smith, Marsha

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of cursive handwriting programs in improving letter legibility and form in third-grade students without identified handwriting problems. Four months into the school year, cursive handwriting was assessed for a sample of convenience of 50 third-grade students. Subsequently, students received…

Illegible handwriting and other prescription errors on prescriptions at ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

H. Brits

Background: It is generally accepted that doctors have illegible handwriting. The writer usually ... the text.2 The following quote stresses the problem with illegible ... to determine which group of health care workers (HCWs) could read the ...

Handwriting generates variable visual output to facilitate symbol learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Julia X; James, Karin H

2016-03-01

Recent research has demonstrated that handwriting practice facilitates letter categorization in young children. The present experiments investigated why handwriting practice facilitates visual categorization by comparing 2 hypotheses: that handwriting exerts its facilitative effect because of the visual-motor production of forms, resulting in a direct link between motor and perceptual systems, or because handwriting produces variable visual instances of a named category in the environment that then changes neural systems. We addressed these issues by measuring performance of 5-year-old children on a categorization task involving novel, Greek symbols across 6 different types of learning conditions: 3 involving visual-motor practice (copying typed symbols independently, tracing typed symbols, tracing handwritten symbols) and 3 involving visual-auditory practice (seeing and saying typed symbols of a single typed font, of variable typed fonts, and of handwritten examples). We could therefore compare visual-motor production with visual perception both of variable and similar forms. Comparisons across the 6 conditions (N = 72) demonstrated that all conditions that involved studying highly variable instances of a symbol facilitated symbol categorization relative to conditions where similar instances of a symbol were learned, regardless of visual-motor production. Therefore, learning perceptually variable instances of a category enhanced performance, suggesting that handwriting facilitates symbol understanding by virtue of its environmental output: supporting the notion of developmental change though brain-body-environment interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The handwriting performance of children with NF1.

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Gilboa, Yafit; Josman, Naomi; Fattal-Valevski, Aviva; Toledano-Alhadef, Hagit; Rosenblum, Sara

2010-01-01

The objective of this study was to analyze the process and product of handwriting among children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) in comparison to those of Typically Developing (TD) children. Children with NF1 are at risk for some cognitive deficits, a wide range of deficits in perceptual skills and, motor and visual-motor integration skills which may interfere with handwriting competency, which is an essential ingredient for success at school. Participants were 30 NF1 children and 30 age and gender matched TD children, between the ages 8 and 16.08. The handwriting performance of children with NF1 was evaluated with the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI), for copying text and free style writing tasks, using: (1) Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET) to assess mechanical aspects of the writing process. (2) The Hebrew Handwriting Evaluation (HHE) to examine product legibility. (3) The Six-Trait Writing Model to judge the quality of the written product. Significant differences between the NF1 children and the control group were found in the process and product measures. Significant correlations were found between the VMI, the ComPET, the HHE and the Six-Trait Writing Model variables for both groups. We suggest a possible relationship between executive dysfunction and poor performance in handwriting.

National characteristics and variation in Arabic handwriting.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Hadhrami, Ahmed A N; Allen, Mike; Moffatt, Colin; Jones, Allison E

2015-02-01

From each of four Arabic countries; Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and Oman, 150 participants produced handwriting samples which were examined to assess whether national characteristics were discernible. Ten characters, which have different configurations depending upon their position in the word, along with one short word, were classified into distinguishable forms, and these forms recorded for each handwriting sample. Tests of independence showed that character forms used were not independent of country (phandwriting samples that underwent 'blind' classification. When the countries were combined into two regions, North Africa and Middle East, the grouping was more marked. Thus, there appears to be some scope for narrowing down the nationality, and particularly the wider geographical region of an author based upon the character forms they use in Arabic handwriting. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

"Let Me Hear Your Handwriting!" Evaluating the Movement Fluency from Its Sonification.

Science.gov (United States)

Danna, Jérémy; Paz-Villagrán, Vietminh; Gondre, Charles; Aramaki, Mitsuko; Kronland-Martinet, Richard; Ystad, Sølvi; Velay, Jean-Luc

2015-01-01

The quality of handwriting is evaluated from the visual inspection of its legibility and not from the movement that generates the trace. Although handwriting is achieved in silence, adding sounds to handwriting movement might help towards its perception, provided that these sounds are meaningful. This study evaluated the ability to judge handwriting quality from the auditory perception of the underlying sonified movement, without seeing the written trace. In a first experiment, samples of a word written by children with dysgraphia, proficient children writers, and proficient adult writers were collected with a graphic tablet. Then, the pen velocity, the fluency, and the axial pen pressure were sonified in order to create forty-five audio files. In a second experiment, these files were presented to 48 adult listeners who had to mark the underlying unseen handwriting. In order to evaluate the relevance of the sonification strategy, two experimental conditions were compared. In a first 'implicit' condition, the listeners made their judgment without any knowledge of the mapping between the sounds and the handwriting variables. In a second 'explicit' condition, they knew what the sonified variables corresponded to and the evaluation criteria. Results showed that, under the implicit condition, two thirds of the listeners marked the three groups of writers differently. In the explicit condition, all listeners marked the dysgraphic handwriting lower than that of the two other groups. In a third experiment, the scores given from the auditory evaluation were compared to the scores given by 16 other adults from the visual evaluation of the trace. Results revealed that auditory evaluation was more relevant than the visual evaluation for evaluating a dysgraphic handwriting. Handwriting sonification might therefore be a relevant tool allowing a therapist to complete the visual assessment of the written trace by an auditory control of the handwriting movement quality.

Electrooculography-based continuous eye-writing recognition system for efficient assistive communication systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Fuming; Shinozaki, Takahiro

2018-01-01

Human-computer interface systems whose input is based on eye movements can serve as a means of communication for patients with locked-in syndrome. Eye-writing is one such system; users can input characters by moving their eyes to follow the lines of the strokes corresponding to characters. Although this input method makes it easy for patients to get started because of their familiarity with handwriting, existing eye-writing systems suffer from slow input rates because they require a pause between input characters to simplify the automatic recognition process. In this paper, we propose a continuous eye-writing recognition system that achieves a rapid input rate because it accepts characters eye-written continuously, with no pauses. For recognition purposes, the proposed system first detects eye movements using electrooculography (EOG), and then a hidden Markov model (HMM) is applied to model the EOG signals and recognize the eye-written characters. Additionally, this paper investigates an EOG adaptation that uses a deep neural network (DNN)-based HMM. Experiments with six participants showed an average input speed of 27.9 character/min using Japanese Katakana as the input target characters. A Katakana character-recognition error rate of only 5.0% was achieved using 13.8 minutes of adaptation data.

Graphomotor skills in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD): Handwriting and learning a new letter.

Science.gov (United States)

Huau, Andréa; Velay, Jean-Luc; Jover, Marianne

2015-08-01

The aim of the present study was to analyze handwriting difficulties in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and investigate the hypothesis that a deficit in procedural learning could help to explain them. The experimental set-up was designed to compare the performances of children with DCD with those of a non-DCD group on tasks that rely on motor learning in different ways, namely handwriting and learning a new letter. Ten children with DCD and 10 non-DCD children, aged 8-10 years, were asked to perform handwriting tasks (letter/word/sentence; normal/fast), and a learning task (new letter) on a graphic tablet. The BHK concise assessment scale for children's handwriting was used to evaluate their handwriting quality. Results showed that both the handwriting and learning tasks differentiated between the groups. Furthermore, when speed or length constraints were added, handwriting was more impaired in children with DCD than in non-DCD children. Greater intra-individual variability was observed in the group of children with DCD, arguing in favor of a deficit in motor pattern stabilization. The results of this study could support both the hypothesis of a deficit in procedural learning and the hypothesis of neuromotor noise in DCD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Handwriting and pre-frailty in the Lausanne cohort 65+ (Lc65+) study.

Science.gov (United States)

Camicioli, Richard; Mizrahi, Seymour; Spagnoli, Jacques; Büla, Christophe; Demonet, Jean-François; Vingerhoets, François; von Gunten, Armin; Santos-Eggimann, Brigitte

2015-01-01

Frailty is detected by weight loss, weakness, slow walking velocity, reduced physical activity or poor endurance/exhaustion. Handwriting has not been examined in the context of frailty, despite its functional importance. Our goal was to examine quantitative handwriting measures in people meeting 0, 1, and 2 or more (2+) frailty criteria. We also examined if handwriting parameters were associated with gait performance, weakness, poor endurance/exhaustion and cognitive impairment. From the population-based Lc65+, 72 subjects meeting 2+ frailty criteria with complete handwriting samples were identified. Gender-matched controls meeting 1 criterion or no criteria were identified. Cognitive impairment was defined by a Mini-Mental State Examination score of 25 or less or the lowest 20th percentile of Trail Making Test Part B. Handwriting was recorded using a writing tablet and measures of velocity, pauses, and pressure were extracted. Subjects with 2+ criteria were older, had more health problems and need for assistance but had higher education. No handwriting parameter differed between frailty groups (age and education adjusted). Writing velocity was not significantly slower among participants from the slowest 20th percentile of gait velocity but writing pressure was significantly lower among those from the lowest 20th percentile of grip strength. Poor endurance/exhaustion was not associated with handwriting measures. Low cognitive performance was related to longer pauses. Handwriting parameters might be associated with specific aspects of the frailty phenotype, but not reliably with global definitions of frailty at its earliest stages among subjects able to perform handwriting tests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Utility and recognition of lines and linear patterns on electronic displays depicting aeronautical charting information

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

This report describes a study conducted to explore the utility and recognition of lines and linear patterns on electronic displays depicting aeronautical charting information. The study gathered data from a large number of pilots who conduct all type...

UNCONSTRAINED HANDWRITING RECOGNITION : LANGUAGE MODELS, PERPLEXITY, AND SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marti, U-V.; Bunke, H.

2004-01-01

In this paper we present a number of language models and their behavior in the recognition of unconstrained handwritten English sentences. We use the perplexity to compare the different models and their prediction power, and relate it to the performance of a recognition system under different

The Influence of Chinese Character Handwriting Diagnosis and Remedial Instruction System on Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language

Science.gov (United States)

Hsiao, Hsien-Sheng; Chang, Cheng-Sian; Chen, Chiao-Jia; Wu, Chia-Hou; Lin, Chien-Yu

2015-01-01

This study designed and developed a Chinese character handwriting diagnosis and remedial instruction (CHDRI) system to improve Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners' ability to write Chinese characters. The CFL learners were given two tests based on the CHDRI system. One test focused on Chinese character handwriting to diagnose the CFL…

Handwriting difficulties in juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a pilot study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haberfehlner, Helga; Visser, Bart; Daffertshofer, Andreas; van Rossum, Marion Aj; Roorda, Leo D.; van der Leeden, Marike; Dekker, Joost; Hoeksma, Agnes F.

2011-01-01

The aim of the present study was to describe handwriting difficulties of primary school children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and to investigate possible correlations with hand function and writing performance. In a cross-sectional approach, 15 children with JIA and reported handwriting

Persistent Handwriting Difficulties in Children With ADHD After Treatment With Stimulant Medication.

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Brossard-Racine, Marie; Shevell, Michael; Snider, Laurie; Bélanger, Stacey Ageranioti; Julien, Marilyse; Majnemer, Annette

2015-07-01

Children with ADHD often present with handwriting difficulties. However, the extent to which motor and attention skills influence performance in this group has not yet been explored. The objective of this study was to examine the factors associated with change in handwriting performance. This study examines the factors associated with change in handwriting performance of 49 children newly diagnosed with ADHD (mean age = 8.4 [SD=1.3] years) prior to and 3 months following use of a stimulant medication. Handwriting legibility and speed improved significantly at follow-up evaluation. However, most of the children with legibility difficulties at baseline continued to demonstrate difficulties when evaluated 3 months after initiation of medication. Change in handwriting legibility was best determined by improvements in visual-motor integration skills (β = 0.07-0.10; p Handwriting difficulties are common in children with ADHD, and medication alone is not sufficient to resolve these challenges. © 2012 SAGE Publications.

Increasing viscosity and inertia using a robotically-controlled pen improves handwriting in children

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Ben-Pazi, Hilla; Ishihara, Abraham; Kukke, Sahana; Sanger, Terence D

2010-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of mechanical properties of the pen on the quality of handwriting in children. Twenty two school aged children, ages 8–14 years wrote in cursive using a pen attached to a robot. The robot was programmed to increase the effective weight (inertia) and stiffness (viscosity) of the pen. Speed, frequency, variability, and quality of the two handwriting samples were compared. Increased inertia and viscosity improved handwriting quality in 85% of children (pHandwriting quality did not correlate with changes in speed, suggesting that improvement was not due to reduced speed. Measures of movement variability remained unchanged, suggesting that improvement was not due to mechanical smoothing of pen movement by the robot. Since improvement was not explained by reduced speed or mechanical smoothing, we conclude that children alter handwriting movements in response to pen mechanics. Altered movement could be caused by changes in proprioceptive sensory feedback. PMID:19794098

Handwriting Velocity Modeling by Artificial Neural Networks

OpenAIRE

Mohamed Aymen Slim; Afef Abdelkrim; Mohamed Benrejeb

2014-01-01

The handwriting is a physical demonstration of a complex cognitive process learnt by man since his childhood. People with disabilities or suffering from various neurological diseases are facing so many difficulties resulting from problems located at the muscle stimuli (EMG) or signals from the brain (EEG) and which arise at the stage of writing. The handwriting velocity of the same writer or different writers varies according to different criteria: age, attitude, mood, wr...

Writer Identification and Verification from Intra-variable Individual Handwriting

OpenAIRE

Adak, Chandranath; Chaudhuri, Bidyut B.; Blumenstein, Michael

2017-01-01

The handwriting of an individual may vary excessively with many factors such as mood, time, space, writing speed, writing medium, utensils etc. Therefore, it becomes more challenging to perform automated writer verification/ identification on a particular set of handwritten patterns (e.g. speedy handwriting) of a person, especially when the system is trained using a different set of writing patterns (e.g. normal/medium speed) of that same person. However, it would be interesting to experiment...

The lognormal handwriter: learning, performing and declining.

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Réjean ePlamondon

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The generation of handwriting is a complex neuromotor skill requiring the interaction of many cognitive processes. It aims at producing a message to be imprinted as an ink trace left on a writing medium. The generated trajectory of the pen tip is made up of strokes superimposed over time. The Kinematic Theory of rapid human movements and its family of lognormal models provide analytical representations of these strokes, often considered as the basic unit of handwriting. This paradigm has not only been experimentally confirmed in numerous predictive and physiologically significant tests but it has also been shown to be the ideal mathematical description for the impulse response of a neuromuscular system. This latter demonstration suggests that the lognormality of the velocity patterns can be interpreted as reflecting the behaviour of subjects who are in perfect control of their movements. To illustrate this interpretation, we present a short overview of the main concepts behind the Kinematic Theory and briefly describe how its models can be exploited, using various software tools, to investigate these ideal lognormal behaviors. We emphasize that the parameters extracted during various tasks can be used to analyze some underlying processes associated with their realization. To investigate the operational convergence hypothesis, we report on two original studies. First, we focus on the early steps of the motor learning process as seen as a converging behaviour toward the production of more precise lognormal patterns as young children practicing handwriting start to become more fluent writers. Second, we illustrate how aging affects handwriting by pointing out the increasing departure from the ideal lognormal behaviour as the control of the fine motricity begins to decline. Overall, the paper highlights this developmental process of merging toward a lognormal behaviour with learning, mastering this behaviour to succeed in performing a given task

Interaction of attentional and motor control processes in handwriting.

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Brown, T L; Donnenwirth, E E

1990-01-01

The interaction between attentional capacity, motor control processes, and strategic adaptations to changing task demands was investigated in handwriting, a continuous (rather than discrete) skilled performance. Twenty-four subjects completed 12 two-minute handwriting samples under instructions stressing speeded handwriting, normal handwriting, or highly legible handwriting. For half of the writing samples, a concurrent auditory monitoring task was imposed. Subjects copied either familiar (English) or unfamiliar (Latin) passages. Writing speed, legibility ratings, errors in writing and in the secondary auditory task, and a derived measure of the average number of characters held in short-term memory during each sample ("planning unit size") were the dependent variables. The results indicated that the ability to adapt to instructions stressing speed or legibility was substantially constrained by the concurrent listening task and by text familiarity. Interactions between instructions, task concurrence, and text familiarity in the legibility ratings, combined with further analyses of planning unit size, indicated that information throughput from temporary storage mechanisms to motor processes mediated the loss of flexibility effect. Overall, the results suggest that strategic adaptations of a skilled performance to changing task circumstances are sensitive to concurrent attentional demands and that departures from "normal" or "modal" performance require attention.

Handwriting features of children with developmental coordination disorder--results of triangular evaluation.

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Rosenblum, Sara; Margieh, Jumana Aassy; Engel-Yeger, Batya

2013-11-01

Developmental coordination disorders (DCD) is one of the most common disorders affecting school-aged children. The study aimed to characterize the handwriting performance of children with DCD who write in Arabic, based on triangular evaluation. Participants included 58 children aged 11-12 years, 29 diagnosed with DCD based on the DSM-IV criteria and the M-ABC, and 29 matched typically developed controls. Children were asked to copy a paragraph on a sheet of paper affixed to a digitizer supplying objective measures of the handwriting process. The handwriting proficiency screening questionnaire (HPSQ) was completed by their teachers while observing their performance and followed by evaluation of their final written product. Results indicated that compared to controls, children with DCD required significantly more on-paper and in-air time per stroke while copying. In addition, global legibility, unrecognizable letters and spatial arrangement measures of their written product were significantly inferior. Significant group differences were also found between the HPSQ subscales scores. Furthermore, 82.8% of all participants were correctly classified into groups based on one discriminate function which included two handwriting performance measures. These study results strongly propose application of triangular standardized evaluation to receive better insight of handwriting deficit features of individual children with DCD who write in Arabic. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

For a Psycholinguistic Model of Handwriting Production: Testing the Syllable-Bigram Controversy

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Kandel, Sonia; Peereman, Ronald; Grosjacques, Geraldine; Fayol, Michel

2011-01-01

This study examined the theoretical controversy on the impact of syllables and bigrams in handwriting production. French children and adults wrote words on a digitizer so that we could collect data on the local, online processing of handwriting production. The words differed in the position of the lowest frequency bigram. In one condition, it…

Effect of pencil grasp on the speed and legibility of handwriting after a 10-minute copy task in Grade 4 children.

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Schwellnus, Heidi; Carnahan, Heather; Kushki, Azadeh; Polatajko, Helene; Missiuna, Cheryl; Chau, Tom

2012-06-01

To investigate the impact of common pencil grasp patterns on the speed and legibility of handwriting after a 10-minute copy task, intended to induce muscle fatigue, in typically developing children and in those non-proficient in handwriting. A total of 120 Grade 4 students completed a standardised handwriting assessment before and after a 10-minute copy task. The students indicated the perceived difficulty of the handwriting task at baseline and after 10 minutes. The students also completed a self-report questionnaire regarding their handwriting proficiency upon completion. The majority of the students rated higher effort after the 10-minute copy task than at baseline (rank sum: P = 0.00001). The effort ratings were similar for the different grasp patterns (multiple linear regression: F = 0.37, P = 0.895). For both typically developing children and those with handwriting issues, the legibility of the writing samples decreased after the 10-minute copy task but the speed of writing increased. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: The quality of the handwriting decreased after the 10-minute copy task; however, there was no difference in the quality or speed scores among the different pencil grasps before and after the copy task. The dynamic tripod pencil grasp did not offer any advantage over the lateral tripod or the dynamic or lateral quadrupod pencil grasps in terms of quality of handwriting after a 10-minute copy task. These four pencil grasp patterns performed equivalently. Our findings question the practice of having students adopt the dynamic tripod pencil grasp. © 2012 The Authors Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2012 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Problems of Gifted and Talented Students Regarding Cursive Handwriting: Parent Opinions

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Hatice Kadioglu Ates

2018-04-01

Full Text Available We are living in an age where knowledge is rapidly produced and consumed. In this period, the future of the individual and the society depends on accessing, using and producing information. This situation requires a qualified education and first literacy teaching which is the foundation of it. Primary school is the foundation of everything; likewise, the first literacy learning is the foundation of learning (Gunes, Uysal and Tac, 2016. First literacy is to create a new communication and interaction channel for the individual by teaching the symbols of humankind that it created in ten thousand years. Education performs a great miracle by making a seven-year old child comprehend this script that humankind developed in ten thousand years within a seven- or eight-month period (Guleryuz, 2001. It is desired for and expected of the children who start the first grade in primary school at the level of illiteracy to reach the level of basic literacy with qualified first literacy education under the supervision of an effective program, equipped teacher (Sagirli, 2015. Education in cursive handwriting in our country has started in Ataturk era. Ataturk demonstrated examples of the New Turkish Latin Letters on the blackboard with the cursive handwriting. Elderly and young people of the generation of Ataturk era have learned the cursive handwriting very well and used for many years. Many documents of that period such as diplomas, identity cards, registry of deeds etc. have been prepared with cursive handwriting in a clear, cursive and aesthetic form (Gunes, 2006. In our country, it has been decided to start the first literacy education with the cursive handwriting under the scope of the 2004 draft program. For nearly thirteen years, our students are becoming literate with cursive handwriting. There are many studies in literature that examine the opinions of teachers, students, and parents about the cursive handwriting. The aim of the concerned study is to

Age-related changes in executive control and their relationships with activity performance in handwriting.

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Rosenblum, Sara; Engel-Yeger, Batya; Fogel, Yael

2013-04-01

Deterioration in the frontal and prefrontal cortex associated with executive functions (EF) occurs with age and may be associated with changes in daily performance. The aim of the present study was to describe changes occurring with age in Executive Functions (EF) and handwriting activity, as well as to analyze relationships between age, EF and handwriting performance. The study population included 80 healthy participants (aged 31 to 76+) living in the community. After answering five questions about their writing habits, the participants completed the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS). In addition, they performed a handwriting task on a digitizer included in the Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET), which provides kinematic measures of the handwriting process. Significant differences were found between the four age groups for both EF and temporal and spatial handwriting measures. A series of regressions indicated that age predicted 35% of the variance of the BADS profile score (EF control) and 32% of the variance of in-air time while writing. The results of this study indicated age effect on both EF control and handwriting performance. Possible implications for further research and clinical evaluation and intervention are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Handwriting Moroccan regions recognition using Tifinagh character

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B. El Kessab

2015-09-01

In this context we propose a data set for handwritten Tifinagh regions composed of 1600 image (100 Image for each region. The dataset can be used in one hand to test the efficiency of the Tifinagh region recognition system in extraction of characteristics significatives and the correct identification of each region in classification phase in the other hand.

Eye movements during the handwriting of words: Individually and within sentences.

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Sita, Jodi C; Taylor, Katelyn A

2015-10-01

Handwriting, a complex motor process involves the coordination of both the upper limb and visual system. The gaze behavior that occurs during the handwriting process is an area that has been little studied. This study investigated the eye-movements of adults during writing and reading tasks. Eye and handwriting movements were recorded for six different words over three different tasks. The results compared reading and handwriting the same words, a between condition comparison and a comparison between the two handwriting tasks. Compared to reading, participants produced more fixations during handwriting tasks and the average fixation durations were longer. When reading fixations were found to be mostly around the center of word, whereas fixations when writing appear to be made for each letter in a written word and were located around the base of letters and flowed in a left to right direction. Between the two writing tasks more fixations were made when words were written individually compared to within sentences, yet fixation durations were no different. Correlation of the number of fixations made to kinematic variables revealed that horizontal size and road length held a strong correlation with the number of fixations made by participants. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Data set for Tifinagh handwriting character recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Omar Bencharef

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The Tifinagh alphabet-IRCAM is the official alphabet of the Amazigh language widely used in North Africa [1]. It includes thirty-one basic letter and two letters each composed of a base letter followed by the sign of labialization. Normalized only in 2003 (Unicode [2], ICRAM-Tifinagh is a young character repertoire. Which needs more work on all levels. In this context we propose a data set for handwritten Tifinagh characters composed of 1376 image; 43 Image For Each character. The dataset can be used to train a Tifinagh character recognition system, or to extract the meaning characteristics of each character.

Handwriting Without Tears(®): General Education Effectiveness Through a Consultative Approach.

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Donica, Denise K

2015-01-01

This study explores the effectiveness of the Handwriting Without Tears(®) (HWT) kindergarten printing curriculum in general education through a consultative approach with occupational therapy. One cohort of students was the control (n = 19), whereas two other cohorts were experimental groups learning printing through the HWT curriculum (n = 20 each). The Test of Handwriting Skills-Revised (THS-R) was used to collect end-of-year legibility scores for all cohorts. Both experimental groups individually and both experimental groups combined into one group outperformed the control group on all 10 of the THS-R subtests-scoring significantly higher (p handwriting curriculum implementation and the success of HWT for printing instruction. Copyright © 2015 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Chinese Handwriting Performance of Primary School Children with Dyslexia

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Lam, Sutie S. T.; Au, Ricky K. C.; Leung, Howard W. H.; Li-Tsang, Cecilia W. P.

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the Chinese handwriting performance of typical children and children with dyslexia, and to examine whether speed and accuracy of handwriting could reliably discriminate these two groups of children. One hundred and thirty-seven children with dyslexia and 756 typical children were recruited from main stream…

Effectiveness of an integrated handwriting program for first-grade students: a pilot study.

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Case-Smith, Jane; Holland, Terri; Bishop, Beth

2011-01-01

We developed and piloted a program for first-grade students to promote development of legible handwriting and writing fluency. The Write Start program uses a coteaching model in which occupational therapists and teachers collaborate to develop and implement a handwriting-writing program. The small-group format with embedded individualized supports allows the therapist to guide and monitor student performance and provide immediate feedback. The 12-wk program was implemented with 1 class of 19 students. We administered the Evaluation of Children's Handwriting Test, Minnesota Handwriting Assessment, and Woodcock-Johnson Fluency and Writing Samples test at baseline, immediately after the Write Start program, and at the end of the school year. Students made large, significant gains in handwriting legibility and speed and in writing fluency that were maintained at 6-mo follow-up. The Write Start program appears to promote handwriting and writing skills in first-grade students and is ready for further study in controlled trials.

Specifying the Graphic Characteristics of Words That Influence Children's Handwriting

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Gosse, Claire; Carbonnelle, Simon; de Vleeschouwer, Christophe; Van Reybroeck, Marie

2018-01-01

Research about the development of the graphomotor side of writing is very scarce. The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of what constitutes graphic complexity of written material by determining the impact of graphic characteristics on handwriting production. In this end, the pen stroke of cursive handwriting was precisely…

Handwriting Manual for Primary Teachers in Somalia. African Studies in Curriculum Development & Evaluation No. 61.

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Dirie, Mohamed Farah

Concern over the poor and illegible handwriting of the students in Somalia led to the development of this handwriting manual for primary school teachers to: (1) give teachers guidance in teaching handwriting; (2) help teachers in the methodology of teaching handwriting; (3) let teachers know the easier ways of making cheap and obtainable materials…

Analysis of in-air movement in handwriting: A novel marker for Parkinson's disease.

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Drotár, Peter; Mekyska, Jiří; Rektorová, Irena; Masarová, Lucia; Smékal, Zdenek; Faundez-Zanuy, Marcos

2014-12-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting significant portion of elderly population. One of the most frequent hallmarks and usually also the first manifestation of PD is deterioration of handwriting characterized by micrographia and changes in kinematics of handwriting. There is no objective quantitative method of clinical diagnosis of PD. It is thought that PD can only be definitively diagnosed at postmortem, which further highlights the complexities of diagnosis. We exploit the fact that movement during handwriting of a text consists not only from the on-surface movements of the hand, but also from the in-air trajectories performed when the hand moves in the air from one stroke to the next. We used a digitizing tablet to assess both in-air and on-surface kinematic variables during handwriting of a sentence in 37 PD patients on medication and 38 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. By applying feature selection algorithms and support vector machine learning methods to separate PD patients from healthy controls, we demonstrated that assessing the in-air/on-surface hand movements led to accurate classifications in 84% and 78% of subjects, respectively. Combining both modalities improved the accuracy by another 1% over the evaluation of in-air features alone and provided medically relevant diagnosis with 85.61% prediction accuracy. Assessment of in-air movements during handwriting has a major impact on disease classification accuracy. This study confirms that handwriting can be used as a marker for PD and can be with advance used in decision support systems for differential diagnosis of PD. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of a task-based training approach in the rehabilitation of three children with poor handwriting quality: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldi, Silvia; Nunzi, Michela; Brina, Carlo Di

2015-02-01

Evidence suggests that task-based training approaches can improve the performance of children with handwriting difficulties. The present case study tests the efficacy of the Handwriting Task Program (HTP). Three male children (9-10 yr. old) with poor handwriting skills and different developmental disorders participated in the HTP, twice per week, for 13 wk. Handwriting legibility was assessed through the Concise Evaluation Scale for Children's Handwriting, and fine motor performance and handwriting speed were evaluated at pre- and post-treatment with the Visual Motor Integration Test and the Battery for the assessment of writing skills of children from 7 to 13 yr. old. The results showed that motor efficiency and global handwriting quality improved in all the children, although some handwriting difficulties still persisted in one child with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Further study may confirm on a larger sample that a visual-spatially based training may improve the handwriting legibility of children with DCD.

SOS: A Screening Instrument to Identify Children with Handwriting Impairments

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Van Waelvelde, Hilde; Hellinckx, Tinneke; Peersman, Wim; Smits-Engelsman, Bouwien C. M.

2012-01-01

Poor handwriting has been shown to be associated with developmental disorders such as Developmental Coordination Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, autism, and learning disorders. Handwriting difficulties could lead to academic underachievement and poor self-esteem. Therapeutic intervention has been shown to be effective in…

Multi-model approach to characterize human handwriting motion.

Science.gov (United States)

Chihi, I; Abdelkrim, A; Benrejeb, M

2016-02-01

This paper deals with characterization and modelling of human handwriting motion from two forearm muscle activity signals, called electromyography signals (EMG). In this work, an experimental approach was used to record the coordinates of a pen tip moving on the (x, y) plane and EMG signals during the handwriting act. The main purpose is to design a new mathematical model which characterizes this biological process. Based on a multi-model approach, this system was originally developed to generate letters and geometric forms written by different writers. A Recursive Least Squares algorithm is used to estimate the parameters of each sub-model of the multi-model basis. Simulations show good agreement between predicted results and the recorded data.

An electromyographic analysis of two handwriting grasp patterns.

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de Almeida, Pedro Henrique Tavares Queiroz; da Cruz, Daniel Marinho Cezar; Magna, Luis Alberto; Ferrigno, Iracema Serrat Vergotti

2013-08-01

Handwriting is a fundamental skill needed for the development of daily-life activities during lifetime and can be performed using different forms to hold the writing object. In this study, we monitored the sEMG activity of trapezius, biceps brachii, extensor carpi radialis brevis and flexor digitorum superficialis during a handwriting task with two groups of subjects using different grasp patterns. Twenty-four university students (thirteen males and eleven females; mean age of 22.04±2.8years) were included in this study. We randomly invited 12 subjects that used the Dynamic Tripod grasp and 12 subjects that used the Static Tripod grasp. The static tripod group showed statistically significant changes in the sEMG activity of trapezium and biceps brachii muscles during handwriting when compared to dynamic tripod group's subjects. No significant differences were found in extensor carpi radialis brevis and flexor digitorum superficialis activities among the two groups. The findings in this study suggest an increased activity of proximal muscles among subjects using a transitional grasp, indicating potential higher energy expenditure and muscular harm with the maintenance of this motor pattern in handwriting tasks, especially during the progression in academic life. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selective attention in vision: recognition memory for superimposed line drawings.

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Goldstein, E B; Fink, S I

1981-10-01

These experiments show that observers can selectively attend to one of two stationary superimposed pictures. If superimposed line drawings are presented to observers who are told to attend to one line drawing in the pair and to ignore the other line drawing in the pair, then a subsequent recognition test in which the pictures are presently singly, the attended picture in each pair is recognized much more frequently than the unattended picture in each pair. This selective recognition occurs both with large (11 degrees-22 degrees) displays in which observers are free to make eye movements during a 3-sec exposure and with small (1 degree) displays in which observers are instructed to fixate steadily on a point during a 1-sec exposure. The results of the steady fixation experiments show that in the absence of eye movements, attention to one of two superimposed stimuli can cause an observer to remember the attended image and not to remember the other, clearly visible, unattended image in a superimposed pair.

Cell line name recognition in support of the identification of synthetic lethality in cancer from text

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Kaewphan, Suwisa; Van Landeghem, Sofie; Ohta, Tomoko; Van de Peer, Yves; Ginter, Filip; Pyysalo, Sampo

2016-01-01

Motivation: The recognition and normalization of cell line names in text is an important task in biomedical text mining research, facilitating for instance the identification of synthetically lethal genes from the literature. While several tools have previously been developed to address cell line recognition, it is unclear whether available systems can perform sufficiently well in realistic and broad-coverage applications such as extracting synthetically lethal genes from the cancer literature. In this study, we revisit the cell line name recognition task, evaluating both available systems and newly introduced methods on various resources to obtain a reliable tagger not tied to any specific subdomain. In support of this task, we introduce two text collections manually annotated for cell line names: the broad-coverage corpus Gellus and CLL, a focused target domain corpus. Results: We find that the best performance is achieved using NERsuite, a machine learning system based on Conditional Random Fields, trained on the Gellus corpus and supported with a dictionary of cell line names. The system achieves an F-score of 88.46% on the test set of Gellus and 85.98% on the independently annotated CLL corpus. It was further applied at large scale to 24 302 102 unannotated articles, resulting in the identification of 5 181 342 cell line mentions, normalized to 11 755 unique cell line database identifiers. Availability and implementation: The manually annotated datasets, the cell line dictionary, derived corpora, NERsuite models and the results of the large-scale run on unannotated texts are available under open licenses at http://turkunlp.github.io/Cell-line-recognition/. Contact: sukaew@utu.fi PMID:26428294

“Let Me Hear Your Handwriting!” Evaluating the Movement Fluency from Its Sonification

Science.gov (United States)

Danna, Jérémy; Paz-Villagrán, Vietminh; Gondre, Charles; Aramaki, Mitsuko; Kronland-Martinet, Richard; Ystad, Sølvi; Velay, Jean-Luc

2015-01-01

The quality of handwriting is evaluated from the visual inspection of its legibility and not from the movement that generates the trace. Although handwriting is achieved in silence, adding sounds to handwriting movement might help towards its perception, provided that these sounds are meaningful. This study evaluated the ability to judge handwriting quality from the auditory perception of the underlying sonified movement, without seeing the written trace. In a first experiment, samples of a word written by children with dysgraphia, proficient children writers, and proficient adult writers were collected with a graphic tablet. Then, the pen velocity, the fluency, and the axial pen pressure were sonified in order to create forty-five audio files. In a second experiment, these files were presented to 48 adult listeners who had to mark the underlying unseen handwriting. In order to evaluate the relevance of the sonification strategy, two experimental conditions were compared. In a first ‘implicit’ condition, the listeners made their judgment without any knowledge of the mapping between the sounds and the handwriting variables. In a second ‘explicit’ condition, they knew what the sonified variables corresponded to and the evaluation criteria. Results showed that, under the implicit condition, two thirds of the listeners marked the three groups of writers differently. In the explicit condition, all listeners marked the dysgraphic handwriting lower than that of the two other groups. In a third experiment, the scores given from the auditory evaluation were compared to the scores given by 16 other adults from the visual evaluation of the trace. Results revealed that auditory evaluation was more relevant than the visual evaluation for evaluating a dysgraphic handwriting. Handwriting sonification might therefore be a relevant tool allowing a therapist to complete the visual assessment of the written trace by an auditory control of the handwriting movement quality

Design of a Template for Handwriting Based Hindi Text Entry in Handheld Devices

Science.gov (United States)

Gangopadhyay, Diya; Vasal, Ityam; Yammiyavar, Pradeep

Mobile phones, in the recent times, have become affordable and accessible to a wider range of users including the hitherto technologically and economically under-represented segments. Indian users are a gigantic consumer base for mobile phones. With Hindi being one of the most widely spoken languages in the country and the primary tool of communication for about a third of its population, an effective solution for Hindi text entry in mobile devices is expected to be immensely useful to the non English speaking users. This paper proposes a mobile phone handwriting based text entry solution for Hindi language, which allows for an easy text entry method, while facilitating better recognition accuracy.

Development of Malayalam Handwriting Scale for School Students in Kerala

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Gafoor, K. Abdul; Naseer, A. R.

2015-01-01

With a view to support instruction, formative and summative assessment and to provide model handwriting performance for students to compare their own performance, a Malayalam handwriting scale is developed. Data from 2640 school students belonging to Malappuram, Palakkad and Kozhikode districts, sampled by taking 240 students per each grade…

Validation of the Chinese Handwriting Analysis System (CHAS) for primary school students in Hong Kong.

Science.gov (United States)

Li-Tsang, Cecilia W P; Wong, Agnes S K; Leung, Howard W H; Cheng, Joyce S; Chiu, Billy H W; Tse, Linda F L; Chung, Raymond C K

2013-09-01

There are more children diagnosed with specific learning difficulties in recent years as people are more aware of these conditions. Diagnostic tool has been validated to screen out this condition from the population (SpLD test for Hong Kong children). However, for specific assessment on handwriting problem, there seems a lack of standardized and objective evaluation tool to look into the problems. The objective of this study was to validate the Chinese Handwriting Analysis System (CHAS), which is designed to measure both the process and production of handwriting. The construct validity, convergent validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability of CHAS was analyzed using the data from 734 grade 1-6 students from 6 primary schools in Hong Kong. Principal Component Analysis revealed that measurements of CHAS loaded into 4 components which accounted for 77.73% of the variance. The correlation between the handwriting accuracy obtained from HAS and eyeballing was r=.73. Cronbach's alpha of all measurement items was .65. Except SD of writing time per character, all the measurement items regarding handwriting speed, handwriting accuracy and pen pressure showed good to excellent test-retest reliability (r=.72-.96), while measurement on the numbers of characters which exceeded grid showed moderate reliability (r=.48). Although there are still ergonomic, biomechanical or unspecified aspects which may not be determined by the system, the CHAS can definitely assist therapists in identifying primary school students with handwriting problems and implement interventions accordingly. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oxytocin increases bias, but not accuracy, in face recognition line-ups.

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Bate, Sarah; Bennetts, Rachel; Parris, Benjamin A; Bindemann, Markus; Udale, Robert; Bussunt, Amanda

2015-07-01

Previous work indicates that intranasal inhalation of oxytocin improves face recognition skills, raising the possibility that it may be used in security settings. However, it is unclear whether oxytocin directly acts upon the core face-processing system itself or indirectly improves face recognition via affective or social salience mechanisms. In a double-blind procedure, 60 participants received either an oxytocin or placebo nasal spray before completing the One-in-Ten task-a standardized test of unfamiliar face recognition containing target-present and target-absent line-ups. Participants in the oxytocin condition outperformed those in the placebo condition on target-present trials, yet were more likely to make false-positive errors on target-absent trials. Signal detection analyses indicated that oxytocin induced a more liberal response bias, rather than increasing accuracy per se. These findings support a social salience account of the effects of oxytocin on face recognition and indicate that oxytocin may impede face recognition in certain scenarios. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Handwriting Tics in Tourette's Syndrome: A Single Center Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zanaboni Dina, Carlotta; Bona, Alberto R; Zekaj, Edvin; Servello, Domenico; Porta, Mauro

2016-01-01

Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder typically defined by multiple motor tics and at least one sound tic, beginning in childhood or in adolescence. Handwriting is one of the most impaired school activities for TS patients because of the presence of tics that hamper learning processes. In this paper, we present a case of handwriting tics in a TS patient highlighting the main features.

Practice Patterns of School-Based Occupational Therapists Targeting Handwriting: A Knowledge-to-Practice Gap

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Cramm, Heidi; Egan, Mary

2015-01-01

Poor handwriting is a common reason for referral to school-based occupational therapy. A survey was used to explore the extent to which current practice patterns in Ontario, Canada, align with evidence on effective intervention for handwriting. Knowledge-to-practice gaps were identified related to focus on performance components versus…

Does Poor Handwriting Conceal Literacy Potential in Primary School Children?

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McCarney, Debra; Peters, Lynne; Jackson, Sarah; Thomas, Marie; Kirby, Amanda

2013-01-01

Handwriting is a complex skill that, despite increasing use of computers, still plays a vital role in education. It is assumed that children will master letter formation at a relatively early stage in their school life, with handwriting fluency developing steadily until automaticity is attained. The capacity theory of writing suggests that as…

THE APPLICATION OF GRAPHOLOGY AND ENNEAGRAM TECHNIQUES IN DETERMINING PERSONALITY TYPE BASED ON HANDWRITING FEATURES

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Dian Pratiwi

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This research was conducted with the aim of developing previous studies that have successfully applied the science of graphology to analyze digital handwriting and characteristics of his personality through shape based feature extraction, which in the present study will be applied one method of psychological tests commonly used by psychologists to recognize human’s personality that is Enneagram. The Enneagram method in principle will classify the personality traits of a person into nine types through a series of questions, which then calculated the amount of the overall weight of the answer. Thickness is what will provide direction personality type, which will then be matched with the personality type of the result of the graphology analysis of the handwriting. Personality type of handwritten analysis results is processed based on the personality traits that are the result of the identification of a combination of four dominant form of handwriting through the software output of previous studies, that Slant (tilt writing, Size (font size, Baseline, and Breaks (respite each word. From the results of this research can be found there is a correlation between personality analysis based on the psychology science to the graphology science, which results matching personality types by 81.6% of 49  respondents data who successfully tested.

Analysis of cursive letters, syllables, and words handwriting in a French second-grade child with Developmental Coordination Disorder and comparison with typically developing children.

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Jolly, Caroline; Gentaz, Edouard

2013-01-01

Poor handwriting is a core deficit in Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). In a previous study, we compared the evolution of cursive letters handwriting in a girl with DCD throughout her second-grade year with that of typically developing (TD) children. We found that her handwriting evolved much less than that of TD children and remained similar to that of pre-schoolers at all stages, suggesting that her handwriting skills have reached a steady state level. We present here a continuation of this work, in which we focused on the velocity aspects of handwriting in another French child with DCD. Indeed, different velocity patterns have been observed in Chinese and English children with DCD. In the French cursive style of writing, consecutive letters are joined, a major difference with the English script style of writing. We thus analyzed the handwriting of a second-grade French girl with DCD, not only for isolated letters but also for syllables and words, in comparison to that of TD first-graders (6-7 years old; N = 85) and second-graders (7-8 years old; N = 88). Each written track was digitized, and nine kinematic parameters were measured to evaluate writing fluency. Results showed that the productions of the child with DCD were more similar to those of first-graders than to those of second-graders. In line with our previous study, the most discriminative parameters between the child with DCD and TD children were size and mean speed. Moreover, her handwriting was less fluent than that of TD children. In contrast to previous observations, we observed a higher writing velocity of the child with DCD when compared to TD children, whatever the complexity of the item, and no significant difference with TD children in the pausing time during writing. These differences may reflect linguistic specificities. For syllables and words, each letter was treated separately as a single unit, thus reflecting a problem in anticipation and automation.

Analysis of cursive letters, syllables, and words handwriting in a French second-grade child with Developmental Coordination Disorder and comparison with typically developing children

Science.gov (United States)

Jolly, Caroline; Gentaz, Edouard

2014-01-01

Poor handwriting is a core deficit in Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). In a previous study, we compared the evolution of cursive letters handwriting in a girl with DCD throughout her second-grade year with that of typically developing (TD) children. We found that her handwriting evolved much less than that of TD children and remained similar to that of pre-schoolers at all stages, suggesting that her handwriting skills have reached a steady state level. We present here a continuation of this work, in which we focused on the velocity aspects of handwriting in another French child with DCD. Indeed, different velocity patterns have been observed in Chinese and English children with DCD. In the French cursive style of writing, consecutive letters are joined, a major difference with the English script style of writing. We thus analyzed the handwriting of a second-grade French girl with DCD, not only for isolated letters but also for syllables and words, in comparison to that of TD first-graders (6–7 years old; N = 85) and second-graders (7–8 years old; N = 88). Each written track was digitized, and nine kinematic parameters were measured to evaluate writing fluency. Results showed that the productions of the child with DCD were more similar to those of first-graders than to those of second-graders. In line with our previous study, the most discriminative parameters between the child with DCD and TD children were size and mean speed. Moreover, her handwriting was less fluent than that of TD children. In contrast to previous observations, we observed a higher writing velocity of the child with DCD when compared to TD children, whatever the complexity of the item, and no significant difference with TD children in the pausing time during writing. These differences may reflect linguistic specificities. For syllables and words, each letter was treated separately as a single unit, thus reflecting a problem in anticipation and automation. PMID:24478735

Basic Test Framework for the Evaluation of Text Line Segmentation and Text Parameter Extraction

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Darko Brodić

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Text line segmentation is an essential stage in off-line optical character recognition (OCR systems. It is a key because inaccurately segmented text lines will lead to OCR failure. Text line segmentation of handwritten documents is a complex and diverse problem, complicated by the nature of handwriting. Hence, text line segmentation is a leading challenge in handwritten document image processing. Due to inconsistencies in measurement and evaluation of text segmentation algorithm quality, some basic set of measurement methods is required. Currently, there is no commonly accepted one and all algorithm evaluation is custom oriented. In this paper, a basic test framework for the evaluation of text feature extraction algorithms is proposed. This test framework consists of a few experiments primarily linked to text line segmentation, skew rate and reference text line evaluation. Although they are mutually independent, the results obtained are strongly cross linked. In the end, its suitability for different types of letters and languages as well as its adaptability are its main advantages. Thus, the paper presents an efficient evaluation method for text analysis algorithms.

Handwriting and fine motor problems after treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reinders-Messelink, H.A.; Schoemaker, M.M.; Goeken, L.N H; van den Briel, M.M.; Kamps, W.A; Simner, M L; Leedham, C G; Thomassen, A J W M

1996-01-01

Fine motor skills and handwriting performance were investigated in 17 children at least two years after treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It was hypothesized that as a late effect of vincristine neuropathy, children would still have fine motor and/or handwriting problems. Gross and fine

The effects of dual tasking on handwriting in patients with Parkinson's disease.

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Broeder, S; Nackaerts, E; Nieuwboer, A; Smits-Engelsman, B C M; Swinnen, S P; Heremans, E

2014-03-28

Previous studies have shown that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience extensive problems during dual tasking. Up to now, dual-task interference in PD has mainly been investigated in the context of gait research. However, the simultaneous performance of two different tasks is also a prerequisite to efficiently perform many other tasks in daily life, including upper limb tasks. To address this issue, this study investigated the effect of a secondary cognitive task on the performance of handwriting in patients with PD. Eighteen PD patients and 11 age-matched controls performed a writing task involving the production of repetitive loops under single- and dual-task conditions. The secondary task consisted of counting high and low tones during writing. The writing tests were performed with two amplitudes (0.6 and 1.0cm) using a writing tablet. Results showed that dual-task performance was affected in PD patients versus controls. Dual tasking reduced writing amplitude in PD patients, but not in healthy controls (p=0.046). Patients' writing size was mainly reduced during the small-amplitude condition (small amplitude p=0.017; large amplitude p=0.310). This suggests that the control of writing at small amplitudes requires more compensational brain-processing recourses in PD and is as such less automatic than writing at large amplitudes. In addition, there was a larger dual-task effect on the secondary task in PD patients than controls (p=0.025). The writing tests on the writing tablet proved highly correlated to daily life writing as measured by the 'Systematic Screening of Handwriting Difficulties' test (SOS-test) and other manual dexterity tasks, particularly during dual-task conditions. Taken together, these results provide additional insights into the motor control of handwriting and the effects of dual tasking during upper limb movements in patients with PD. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Joining Movement Sequences: Modified Dynamic Movement Primitives for Robotics Applications Exemplified on Handwriting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kulvicius, Tomas; Ning, K.; Tamosiunaite, M.

2012-01-01

to simulated handwriting generation, which are also shown on a robot, where an adaptive algorithm is used to learn trajectories from human demonstration. These results demonstrate that the new method is a feasible alternative for joining of movement sequences, which has a high potential for all robotics...

Handwriting Difficulties in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Scoping Review

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Kushki, Azadeh; Chau, Tom; Anagnostou, Evdokia

2011-01-01

Functional handwriting involves complex interactions among physical, cognitive and sensory systems. Impairments in many aspects of these systems are associated with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), suggesting a heightened risk of handwriting difficulties in children with ASD. This scoping review aimed to: (1) survey the existing evidence about…

Teachers’ Perceptions of Needs and Supports for Handwriting Instruction in Kindergarten

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Jill A. Nye

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Background: This study was designed to explore the perceived needs of kindergarten teachers as well as the supports they require in preparing children for success in the area of handwriting. Methods: A phenomenological research design was used and nine kindergarten teachers employed at four elementary schools in a school district in Illinois participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were completed to discuss the perceptions of teachers related to challenges they face and the supports they require in promoting the occupational task of handwriting among the children in their classrooms. Results: The results from this pilot study revealed that overall the teachers felt that the lack of a curriculum and formalized training impacted their teaching practices related to handwriting instruction. Conclusion: The teachers stated that gaps in their knowledge base relating to developmental progression, the ability to assist struggling students, an awareness of strategies to use, and the IEP process contributed to their challenges in teaching handwriting to kindergarten students.

Handwriting Capacity in Children Newly Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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Brossard-Racine, Marie; Majnemer, Annette; Shevell, Michael; Snider, Laurie; Belanger, Stacey Ageranioti

2011-01-01

Preliminary evidence suggests that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may exhibit handwriting difficulties. However, the exact nature of these difficulties and the extent to which they may relate to motor or behavioural difficulties remains unclear. The aim of this study was to describe handwriting capacity in children…

Evaluation of Handwriting Movement Kinematics: From an Ecological to a Magnetic Resonance Environment

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Bisio, Ambra; Pedullà, Ludovico; Bonzano, Laura; Ruggeri, Piero; Brichetto, Giampaolo; Bove, Marco

2016-01-01

Writing is a means of communication which requires complex motor, perceptual, and cognitive skills. If one of these abilities gets lost following traumatic events or due to neurological diseases, handwriting could deteriorate. Occupational therapy practitioners provide rehabilitation services for people with impaired handwriting. However, to determine the effectiveness of handwriting interventions no studies assessed whether the proposed treatments improved the kinematics of writing movement or had an effect at the level of the central nervous system. There is need to find new quantitative methodologies able to describe the behavioral and the neural outcomes of the rehabilitative interventions for handwriting. In the present study we proposed a combined approach that allowed evaluating the kinematic parameters of handwriting movements, acquired by means of a magnetic resonance-compatible tablet, and their neural correlates obtained simultaneously from a functional magnetic resonance imaging examination. Results showed that the system was reliable in term of reproducibility of the kinematic data during a test/re-test procedure. Further, despite the modifications with respect to an ecological writing movement condition, the kinematic parameters acquired inside the MR-environment were descriptive of individuals’ movement features. At last, the imaging protocol succeeded to show the activation of the cerebral regions associated with the production of writing movement in healthy people. From these findings, this methodology seems to be promising to evaluate the handwriting movement deficits and the potential alterations in the neural activity in those individuals who have handwriting difficulties. Finally, it would provide a mean to quantitatively assess the effect of a rehabilitative treatment. PMID:27746727

Evaluation of handwriting movement kinematics: from an ecological to a magnetic resonance environment

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Ambra Bisio

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Writing is a means of communication which requires complex motor, perceptual and cognitive skills. If one of these abilities gets lost following traumatic events or due to neurological diseases, handwriting could deteriorate. Occupational therapy practitioners provide rehabilitation services for people with impaired handwriting. However, to determine the effectiveness of handwriting interventions no studies assessed whether the proposed treatments improved the kinematics of writing movement or had an effect at the level of the central nervous system. There is need to find new quantitative methodologies able to describe the behavioral and the neural outcomes of the rehabilitative interventions for handwriting. In the present study we proposed a combined approach that allowed evaluating the kinematic parameters of handwriting movements, acquired by means of a magnetic resonance-compatible tablet, and their neural correlates obtained simultaneously from a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI examination. Results showed that the system was reliable in term of reproducibility of the kinematic data during a test/re-test procedure. Further, despite the modifications with respect to an ecological writing movement condition, the kinematic parameters acquired inside the MR-environment were descriptive of individuals’ movement features. At last, the imaging protocol succeeded to show the activation of the cerebral regions associated with the production of writing movement in healthy people. From these findings, this methodology seems to be promising to evaluate the handwriting movement deficits and the potential alterations in the neural activity in those individuals who have handwriting difficulties. Finally, it would provide a mean to quantitatively assess the effect of a rehabilitative treatment.

Handwriting speed in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: are they really slower?

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Prunty, Mellissa M; Barnett, Anna L; Wilmut, Kate; Plumb, Mandy S

2013-09-01

Handwriting difficulties are often included in descriptions of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). They are cited as the most common reason for referral to health professionals following parent and teacher concerns about slow and untidy writing. The aim of this study was to compare handwriting performance in English children with and without DCD across a range of writing tasks, to gain a better understanding of the nature of 'slowness' so commonly reported. Twenty-eight 8-14 year-old children with a diagnosis of DCD participated in the study, with 28 typically developing age and gender matched controls. Participants completed the four handwriting tasks from the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting (DASH) and wrote their own name; all on a digitising writing tablet. The number of words written, speed of pen movements and the time spent pausing during the tasks were calculated. The findings confirmed what many professionals report, that children with DCD produce less text than their peers. However, this was not due to slow movement execution, but rather a higher percentage of time spent pausing. Discussion centres on the understanding of the pausing phenomenon in children with DCD and areas for further research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Handwriting in 2015: A Main Occupation for Primary School-Aged Children in the Classroom?

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McMaster, Emily; Roberts, Tara

2016-01-01

Historically, handwriting is a skill acquired by children in the classroom. The relevance of this skill today is currently debated due to advances in technology. A nonexperimental time-series design investigated how much time Australian primary school children spend on handwriting in the classroom. A second aim investigated how much time was spent…

The Effect of the Number of Syllables on Handwriting Production

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Lambert, Eric; Kandel, Sonia; Fayol, Michel; Esperet, Eric

2008-01-01

Four experiments examined whether motor programming in handwriting production can be modulated by the syllable structure of the word to be written. This study manipulated the number of syllables. The items, words and pseudo-words, had 2, 3 or 4 syllables. French adults copied them three times. We measured the latencies between the visual…

Retrieving handwriting by combining word spotting and manifold ranking

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Peña Saldarriaga, Sebastián; Morin, Emmanuel; Viard-Gaudin, Christian

2012-01-01

Online handwritten data, produced with Tablet PCs or digital pens, consists in a sequence of points (x, y). As the amount of data available in this form increases, algorithms for retrieval of online data are needed. Word spotting is a common approach used for the retrieval of handwriting. However, from an information retrieval (IR) perspective, word spotting is a primitive keyword based matching and retrieval strategy. We propose a framework for handwriting retrieval where an arbitrary word spotting method is used, and then a manifold ranking algorithm is applied on the initial retrieval scores. Experimental results on a database of more than 2,000 handwritten newswires show that our method can improve the performances of a state-of-the-art word spotting system by more than 10%.

Effects of Neoprene Wrist/Hand Splints on Handwriting for Students with Joint Hypermobility Syndrome: A Single System Design Study

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Frohlich, Lauren; Wesley, Alison; Wallen, Margaret; Bundy, Anita

2012-01-01

Purpose: Pain associated with hypermobility of wrist and hand joints can contribute to decreased handwriting output. This study examined the effectiveness of a neoprene wrist/hand splint in reducing pain and increasing handwriting speed and endurance for students with joint hypermobility syndrome. Methods: Multiple baseline, single system design…

Electrically and magnetically dual-driven Janus particles for handwriting-enabled electronic paper

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Komazaki, Y., E-mail: komazaki@dt.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp; Hirama, H.; Torii, T. [Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8563 (Japan)

2015-04-21

In this work, we describe the synthesis of novel electrically and magnetically dual-driven Janus particles for a handwriting-enabled twisting ball display via the microfluidic technique. One hemisphere of the Janus particles contains a charge control agent, which allows the display color to be controlled by applying a voltage and superparamagnetic nanoparticles, allows handwriting by applying a magnetic field to the display. We fabricated a twisting ball display utilizing these Janus particles and tested the electric color control and handwriting using a magnet. As a result, the display was capable of permitting handwriting with a small magnet in addition to conventional color control using an applied voltage (80 V). Handwriting performance was improved by increasing the concentration of superparamagnetic nanoparticles and was determined to be possible even when 80 V was applied across the electrodes for 4 wt. % superparamagnetic nanoparticles in one hemisphere. This improvement was impossible when the concentration was reduced to 2 wt. % superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The technology presented in our work can be applied to low-cost, lightweight, highly visible, and energy-saving electronic message boards and large whiteboards because the large-size display can be fabricated easily due to its simple structure.

Electrically and magnetically dual-driven Janus particles for handwriting-enabled electronic paper

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komazaki, Y.; Hirama, H.; Torii, T.

2015-01-01

In this work, we describe the synthesis of novel electrically and magnetically dual-driven Janus particles for a handwriting-enabled twisting ball display via the microfluidic technique. One hemisphere of the Janus particles contains a charge control agent, which allows the display color to be controlled by applying a voltage and superparamagnetic nanoparticles, allows handwriting by applying a magnetic field to the display. We fabricated a twisting ball display utilizing these Janus particles and tested the electric color control and handwriting using a magnet. As a result, the display was capable of permitting handwriting with a small magnet in addition to conventional color control using an applied voltage (80 V). Handwriting performance was improved by increasing the concentration of superparamagnetic nanoparticles and was determined to be possible even when 80 V was applied across the electrodes for 4 wt. % superparamagnetic nanoparticles in one hemisphere. This improvement was impossible when the concentration was reduced to 2 wt. % superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The technology presented in our work can be applied to low-cost, lightweight, highly visible, and energy-saving electronic message boards and large whiteboards because the large-size display can be fabricated easily due to its simple structure

Validity and reliability of a new tool to evaluate handwriting difficulties in Parkinson's disease.

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Evelien Nackaerts

Full Text Available Handwriting in Parkinson's disease (PD features specific abnormalities which are difficult to assess in clinical practice since no specific tool for evaluation of spontaneous movement is currently available.This study aims to validate the 'Systematic Screening of Handwriting Difficulties' (SOS-test in patients with PD.Handwriting performance of 87 patients and 26 healthy age-matched controls was examined using the SOS-test. Sixty-seven patients were tested a second time within a period of one month. Participants were asked to copy as much as possible of a text within 5 minutes with the instruction to write as neatly and quickly as in daily life. Writing speed (letters in 5 minutes, size (mm and quality of handwriting were compared. Correlation analysis was performed between SOS outcomes and other fine motor skill measurements and disease characteristics. Intrarater, interrater and test-retest reliability were assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC and Spearman correlation coefficient.Patients with PD had a smaller (p = 0.043 and slower (p 0.769 for both groups.The SOS-test is a short and effective tool to detect handwriting problems in PD with excellent reliability. It can therefore be recommended as a clinical instrument for standardized screening of handwriting deficits in PD.

Handwriting Characteristics among Secondary Students with and without Physical Disabilities: A Study with a Computerized Tool

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Li-Tsang, Cecilia W. P.; Au, Ricky K. C.; Chan, Michelle H. Y.; Chan, Lily W. L.; Lau, Gloria M. T.; Lo, T. K.; Leung, Howard W. H.

2011-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the handwriting characteristics of secondary school students with and without physical disabilities (PD). With the use of a computerized Chinese Handwriting Assessment Tool (CHAT), it was made possible to objectively assess and analyze in detail the handwriting characteristics of individual…

Diversity of Physicians’ Handwriting and Name Stamp in Chemotherapy Prescriptions: Potential Target for Fraud

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Asiyeh Amouei

2018-02-01

Full Text Available BBackgrounds: Verification and authentication of the paper-based handwritten prescriptions is of great importance for antineoplastic medications that are good targets for forgery and fraud. Pharmacists usually investigate handwriting, signature and name stamp of prescribers to verify prescriptions in Iran. Anecdotal reports of variations in handwriting and name stamp of physicians who wrote antineoplastic prescriptions raised concerns in this regard. The aim of the study was to investigate the reported diversity and evaluate the quality of writing physician identity and required items in antineoplastic prescriptions.Methods: All insured hand-written prescriptions contained at least one antineoplastic medication and were dispensed by four main authorized community pharmacies dispensing antineoplastic medications in Tehran during one month were included. Prescriptions that were written by specialties other than oncology-related fields were excluded. Prescriptions of each physician were evaluated considering handwriting and name stamp by experienced pharmacy staff and the frequency of detected handwriting and name stamp types was recorded.Results: Of the 11022 included prescriptions, 10944 were eligible and written by 241 physicians. Median (third quartile number of physicians’ prescriptions was 17 (51. Maximum number of observed handwriting and name stamp types were eight and six respectively. High prescribers tended to have several handwriting and name stamp types.Conclusion: The observed diversity and variation in handwriting and name stamp of the physicians in antineoplastic prescriptions may facilitate the entrance of forged prescription and makes fraud detection difficult. Administrative and regulatory interventions in addition to notification of health care professionals about the observed potential might be necessary.

Relationship between Legible Handwriting and Level of Success of Third Grade Students in Written Expression

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Bayat, Seher; Küçükayar, Hasan

2016-01-01

This study aims to identify third-grade students' performance levels for written expression and handwriting and to find the relationship between these performances. The study is based on relational screening model. It is carried out with 110 third grade students. Students' levels of success in handwriting and in written expression are evaluated…

Image Quality Enhancement Using the Direction and Thickness of Vein Lines for Finger-Vein Recognition

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Young Ho Park

2012-10-01

Full Text Available On the basis of the increased emphasis placed on the protection of privacy, biometric recognition systems using physical or behavioural characteristics such as fingerprints, facial characteristics, iris and finger-vein patterns or the voice have been introduced in applications including door access control, personal certification, Internet banking and ATM machines. Among these, finger-vein recognition is advantageous in that it involves the use of inexpensive and small devices that are difficult to counterfeit. In general, finger-vein recognition systems capture images by using near infrared (NIR illumination in conjunction with a camera. However, such systems can face operational difficulties, since the scattering of light from the skin can make capturing a clear image difficult. To solve this problem, we proposed new image quality enhancement method that measures the direction and thickness of vein lines. This effort represents novel research in four respects. First, since vein lines are detected in input images based on eight directional profiles of a grey image instead of binarized images, the detection error owing to the non-uniform illumination of the finger area can be reduced. Second, our method adaptively determines a Gabor filter for the optimal direction and width on the basis of the estimated direction and thickness of a detected vein line. Third, by applying this optimized Gabor filter, a clear vein image can be obtained. Finally, the further processing of the morphological operation is applied in the Gabor filtered image and the resulting image is combined with the original one, through which finger-vein image of a higher quality is obtained. Experimental results from application of our proposed image enhancement method show that the equal error rate (EER of finger-vein recognition decreases to approximately 0.4% in the case of a local binary pattern-based recognition and to approximately 0.3% in the case of a wavelet transform

Exploring the Participation of Children with Down Syndrome in Handwriting without Tears

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Patton, Sandra; Hutton, Eve

2017-01-01

Children with Down Syndrome typically experience difficulties with attention to task and lack motivation when learning to write. This article provides an evaluation of the HWT (Handwriting Without Tears) method applied as an intervention to promote handwriting among children with Down Syndrome attending mainstream school in the Republic of…

In-Depth Analysis of Handwriting Curriculum and Instruction in Four Kindergarten Classrooms

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Vander Hart, Nanho; Fitzpatrick, Paula; Cortesa, Cathryn

2010-01-01

The quality of handwriting curriculum and instructional practices in actual classrooms was investigated in an in-depth case study of four inner city kindergarten classrooms using quantitative and qualitative methods. The handwriting proficiency of students was also evaluated to assess the impact of the instructional practices observed. The…

Dynamic evolving spiking neural networks for on-line spatio- and spectro-temporal pattern recognition.

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Kasabov, Nikola; Dhoble, Kshitij; Nuntalid, Nuttapod; Indiveri, Giacomo

2013-05-01

On-line learning and recognition of spatio- and spectro-temporal data (SSTD) is a very challenging task and an important one for the future development of autonomous machine learning systems with broad applications. Models based on spiking neural networks (SNN) have already proved their potential in capturing spatial and temporal data. One class of them, the evolving SNN (eSNN), uses a one-pass rank-order learning mechanism and a strategy to evolve a new spiking neuron and new connections to learn new patterns from incoming data. So far these networks have been mainly used for fast image and speech frame-based recognition. Alternative spike-time learning methods, such as Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP) and its variant Spike Driven Synaptic Plasticity (SDSP), can also be used to learn spatio-temporal representations, but they usually require many iterations in an unsupervised or semi-supervised mode of learning. This paper introduces a new class of eSNN, dynamic eSNN, that utilise both rank-order learning and dynamic synapses to learn SSTD in a fast, on-line mode. The paper also introduces a new model called deSNN, that utilises rank-order learning and SDSP spike-time learning in unsupervised, supervised, or semi-supervised modes. The SDSP learning is used to evolve dynamically the network changing connection weights that capture spatio-temporal spike data clusters both during training and during recall. The new deSNN model is first illustrated on simple examples and then applied on two case study applications: (1) moving object recognition using address-event representation (AER) with data collected using a silicon retina device; (2) EEG SSTD recognition for brain-computer interfaces. The deSNN models resulted in a superior performance in terms of accuracy and speed when compared with other SNN models that use either rank-order or STDP learning. The reason is that the deSNN makes use of both the information contained in the order of the first input spikes

Handwriting: A Matter of Affairs

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Al-Ghabra, Iman M. M. Muwafaq

2015-01-01

Academic performance is the main concern of educators all over the world. Authentic researchers have studied the importance of handwriting for improving students' performance, and they have proved that using the hand in writing activates many regions in the brain that are related to memory and comprehension. The study aims at displaying the…

A High Performance Banknote Recognition System Based on a One-Dimensional Visible Light Line Sensor.

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Park, Young Ho; Kwon, Seung Yong; Pham, Tuyen Danh; Park, Kang Ryoung; Jeong, Dae Sik; Yoon, Sungsoo

2015-06-15

An algorithm for recognizing banknotes is required in many fields, such as banknote-counting machines and automatic teller machines (ATM). Due to the size and cost limitations of banknote-counting machines and ATMs, the banknote image is usually captured by a one-dimensional (line) sensor instead of a conventional two-dimensional (area) sensor. Because the banknote image is captured by the line sensor while it is moved at fast speed through the rollers inside the banknote-counting machine or ATM, misalignment, geometric distortion, and non-uniform illumination of the captured images frequently occur, which degrades the banknote recognition accuracy. To overcome these problems, we propose a new method for recognizing banknotes. The experimental results using two-fold cross-validation for 61,240 United States dollar (USD) images show that the pre-classification error rate is 0%, and the average error rate for the final recognition of the USD banknotes is 0.114%.

A High Performance Banknote Recognition System Based on a One-Dimensional Visible Light Line Sensor

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Young Ho Park

2015-06-01

Full Text Available An algorithm for recognizing banknotes is required in many fields, such as banknote-counting machines and automatic teller machines (ATM. Due to the size and cost limitations of banknote-counting machines and ATMs, the banknote image is usually captured by a one-dimensional (line sensor instead of a conventional two-dimensional (area sensor. Because the banknote image is captured by the line sensor while it is moved at fast speed through the rollers inside the banknote-counting machine or ATM, misalignment, geometric distortion, and non-uniform illumination of the captured images frequently occur, which degrades the banknote recognition accuracy. To overcome these problems, we propose a new method for recognizing banknotes. The experimental results using two-fold cross-validation for 61,240 United States dollar (USD images show that the pre-classification error rate is 0%, and the average error rate for the final recognition of the USD banknotes is 0.114%.

Rehabilitation of handwriting skills in stroke patients using interactive games : a pilot study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Curtis, J.S.; Ruijs, L.S.; de Vries, M.H.E.; Winters, R.; Martens, J.B.O.S.

This paper describes an interactive application that aims to support the rehabilitation of handwriting skills in people that suffer from paralysis after a stroke. The purpose of the application is to make the rehabilitation of handwriting skills fun and engaging. Four platform-independent games with

The effect of color on the recognition and use of line drawings by children with severe intellectual disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, Jennifer

2007-03-01

Line drawings are commonly used as communication symbols for individuals with severe intellectual disabilities. This study investigated the effect of color on the recognition and use of line drawings by young children with severe intellectual disabilities and poor verbal comprehension who were beginning picture users. Drawings where the color of the picture matched the object and where the color of the drawing did not match the object were used, as well as black and white line drawings. Tentative findings suggest that some students with intellectual disabilities may find it more difficult to recognize and line drawings where the color does not match the object compared to line drawings where the color of the drawing does match the color of the object.

Influence of Handwriting Skills during Spelling in Primary and lower Secondary Grades

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Virginie ePontart

2013-11-01

Full Text Available We sought to identify, the impact of handwriting skills on the efficiency and temporal course of word spelling across Grades 2-9. Eighty-four students, drawn from primary and lower secondary schools, were asked to perform a dictation task to assess their word spelling. They also had to write out the letters of the alphabet, as well as their firstnames and surnames, from memory to assess their handwriting skills. Handwriting kinematics were recorded using a digitizing tablet and a computer running Eye and Pen software. Results revealed that graphomotor skills (as assessed by the name writing task influenced the success and temporal course of spelling, but only in primary grades, whereas the influence of orthographic knowledge (as assessed by the alphabet task could still be observed in the lower secondary grades, even if it ceased to influence the temporal course and only affected errors. We discuss what these findings tell us about changes in transcription processes over the course of child development.

Influence of handwriting skills during spelling in primary and lower secondary grades

Science.gov (United States)

Pontart, Virginie; Bidet-Ildei, Christel; Lambert, Eric; Morisset, Pauline; Flouret, Lisa; Alamargot, Denis

2013-01-01

We sought to identify, the impact of handwriting skills on the efficiency and temporal course of word spelling across Grades 2–9. Eighty-four students, drawn from primary and lower secondary schools, were asked to perform a dictation task to assess their word spelling. They also had to write out the letters of the alphabet, as well as their firstnames and surnames, from memory to assess their handwriting skills. Handwriting kinematics were recorded using a digitizing tablet and a computer running Eye and Pen software. Results revealed that graphomotor skills (as assessed by the name writing task) influenced the success and temporal course of spelling, but only in primary grades, whereas the influence of orthographic knowledge (as assessed by the alphabet task) could still be observed in the lower secondary grades, even if it ceased to influence the temporal course and only affected errors. We discuss what these findings tell us about changes in transcription processes over the course of child development. PMID:24204357

The Effects of Handwriting Instruction on Reading for Students in Grades 1 and 2

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Stroik, Linda R.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental group comparison study using a repeated measures comparison group design with random assignment of subjects to groups was to investigate the effects of handwriting instruction on reading progress for learners in grade 1 and grade 2. At three points in time, the number of words each student read…

Relationship between the quality of children's handwriting and the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration after one year of writing tuition.

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Duiser, Ivonne H F; van der Kamp, John; Ledebt, Annick; Savelsbergh, Geert J P

2014-04-01

We examined whether the three subtests of the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration predicted quality of handwriting across and within groups of boys and girls classified as proficient, at risk or non-proficient writers according to the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting. The Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration and the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting tests were administered to 240 grade 2 children. Proficient writers scored better on the visuomotor integration subtest than non-proficient writers, while proficient and at risk writers scored better than non-proficient writers on the motor coordination subtest. No differences were found on the visual perception subtest. Girls were more often classified as proficient writers than boys, and they scored better on the motor coordination subtest. Across groups, regression indicated that gender and both the visuomotor integration subtest and the motor coordination subtest were significant predictors for the quality of handwriting (i.e., accounted for 17% of the variance). After one year of writing tuition, the visuomotor integration subtest (and to a lesser extent the motor coordination subtest) but not the visual perception subtest significant relates to quality of children's handwriting as measured with the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting. However, the relatively little variance explained also points to other abilities and/or task constraints that underlie quality of handwriting. © 2013 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Aplikasi MATLAB untuk Mengenali Karakter Tulisan Tangan

OpenAIRE

ali mahmudi

2017-01-01

Handwriting recognition is one of the very interesting research object in the field of image processing, artificial intelligence and computer vision. This is due to the handwritten characters is varied in every individual. The style, size and orientation of handwriting characters has made every body’s is different, hence handwriting recognition is a very interesting research object. Handwriting recognition application has been used in quite many applications, such as reading the bank deposits...

A quantitative measure of handwriting dysfluency for assessing tardive dyskinesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Caligiuri, Michael P; Teulings, Hans-Leo; Dean, Charles E; Lohr, James B

2015-04-01

Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a movement disorder commonly associated with chronic exposure to antidopaminergic medications, which may be in some cases disfiguring and socially disabling. The consensus from a growing body of research on the incidence and prevalence of TD in the modern era of antipsychotics indicates that this disorder has not disappeared continues to challenge the effective management of psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. A fundamental component in an effective strategy for managing TD is its reliable and accurate assessment. In the present study, we examined the clinical utility of a brief handwriting dysfluency measure for quantifying TD. Digitized samples of handwritten circles and loops were obtained from 62 psychosis patients with or without TD and from 50 healthy subjects. Two measures of dysfluent pen movements were extracted from each vertical pen stroke, including normalized jerk and the number of acceleration peaks. Tardive dyskinesia patients exhibited significantly higher dysfluency scores than non-TD patients and controls. Severity of handwriting movement dysfluency was correlated with Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale severity ratings for some tasks. The procedure yielded high degrees of test-retest reliability. These results suggest that measures of handwriting movement dysfluency may be particularly useful for objectively evaluating the efficacy of pharmacotherapeutic strategies for treating TD.

Predictors of Handwriting in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Hellinckx, Tinneke; Roeyers, Herbert; Van Waelvelde, Hilde

2013-01-01

During writing, perceptual, motor, and cognitive processes interact. This study explored the predictive value of several factors on handwriting quality as well as on speed in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Our results showed that, in this population, age, gender, and visual-motor integration significantly predicted handwriting…

No adverse effect of vincristine on handwriting in children after completion of therapy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hartman, A.; van den Bos, C.; van Dartel, N.; Stijnen, Th; Pieters, R.

2007-01-01

Long-term writing difficulties in children after treatment with vincristine for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Wilms tumor, B non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and malignant mesenchymal tumors, were investigated. Handwriting of 33 survivors and 33 controls matched for age, sex, and grade, was assessed with the

Aplikasi MATLAB untuk Mengenali Karakter Tulisan Tangan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ali mahmudi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Handwriting recognition is one of the very interesting research object in the field of image processing, artificial intelligence and computer vision. This is due to the handwritten characters is varied in every individual. The style, size and orientation of handwriting characters has made every body’s is different, hence handwriting recognition is a very interesting research object. Handwriting recognition application has been used in quite many applications, such as reading the bank deposits, reading the postal code in letters, and helping peolple in managing documents. This paper presents a handwriting recognition application using Matlab. Matlab toolbox that is used in this research are Image Processing and Neural Network Toolbox.

The Effects of "Handwriting without Tears®" on the Handwriting Skills of Appropriate Size, Form, and Tool for a Four Year-Old Boy with a Developmental Delay

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Meyers, Colleen; McLaughlin, T. F.; Derby, Mark; Weber, Kimberly P.; Robison, Milena

2015-01-01

The ability to write one's own name legibly is a critical lifelong skill for academic success. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of the Handwriting Without Tears® program on teaching a four year-old how to write his first name using proper size, form, and tool. The participant was a four year-old boy in a self-contained…

Functional MRI of Handwriting Tasks: A Study of Healthy Young Adults Interacting with a Novel Touch-Sensitive Tablet

Science.gov (United States)

Karimpoor, Mahta; Churchill, Nathan W.; Tam, Fred; Fischer, Corinne E.; Schweizer, Tom A.; Graham, Simon J.

2018-01-01

Handwriting is a complex human activity that engages a blend of cognitive and visual motor skills. Current understanding of the neural correlates of handwriting has largely come from lesion studies of patients with impaired handwriting. Task-based fMRI studies would be useful to supplement this work. To address concerns over ecological validity, previously we developed a fMRI-compatible, computerized tablet system for writing and drawing including visual feedback of hand position and an augmented reality display. The purpose of the present work is to use the tablet system in proof-of-concept to characterize brain activity associated with clinically relevant handwriting tasks, originally developed to characterize handwriting impairments in Alzheimer’s disease patients. As a prelude to undertaking fMRI studies of patients, imaging was performed of twelve young healthy subjects who copied sentences, phone numbers, and grocery lists using the fMRI-compatible tablet. Activation maps for all handwriting tasks consisted of a distributed network of regions in reasonable agreement with previous studies of handwriting performance. In addition, differences in brain activity were observed between the test subcomponents consistent with different demands of neural processing for successful task performance, as identified by investigating three quantitative behavioral metrics (writing speed, stylus contact force and stylus in air time). This study provides baseline behavioral and brain activity results for fMRI studies that adopt this handwriting test to characterize patients with brain impairments. PMID:29487511

Functional MRI of Handwriting Tasks: A Study of Healthy Young Adults Interacting with a Novel Touch-Sensitive Tablet.

Science.gov (United States)

Karimpoor, Mahta; Churchill, Nathan W; Tam, Fred; Fischer, Corinne E; Schweizer, Tom A; Graham, Simon J

2018-01-01

Handwriting is a complex human activity that engages a blend of cognitive and visual motor skills. Current understanding of the neural correlates of handwriting has largely come from lesion studies of patients with impaired handwriting. Task-based fMRI studies would be useful to supplement this work. To address concerns over ecological validity, previously we developed a fMRI-compatible, computerized tablet system for writing and drawing including visual feedback of hand position and an augmented reality display. The purpose of the present work is to use the tablet system in proof-of-concept to characterize brain activity associated with clinically relevant handwriting tasks, originally developed to characterize handwriting impairments in Alzheimer's disease patients. As a prelude to undertaking fMRI studies of patients, imaging was performed of twelve young healthy subjects who copied sentences, phone numbers, and grocery lists using the fMRI-compatible tablet. Activation maps for all handwriting tasks consisted of a distributed network of regions in reasonable agreement with previous studies of handwriting performance. In addition, differences in brain activity were observed between the test subcomponents consistent with different demands of neural processing for successful task performance, as identified by investigating three quantitative behavioral metrics (writing speed, stylus contact force and stylus in air time). This study provides baseline behavioral and brain activity results for fMRI studies that adopt this handwriting test to characterize patients with brain impairments.

Functional MRI of Handwriting Tasks: A Study of Healthy Young Adults Interacting with a Novel Touch-Sensitive Tablet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahta Karimpoor

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Handwriting is a complex human activity that engages a blend of cognitive and visual motor skills. Current understanding of the neural correlates of handwriting has largely come from lesion studies of patients with impaired handwriting. Task-based fMRI studies would be useful to supplement this work. To address concerns over ecological validity, previously we developed a fMRI-compatible, computerized tablet system for writing and drawing including visual feedback of hand position and an augmented reality display. The purpose of the present work is to use the tablet system in proof-of-concept to characterize brain activity associated with clinically relevant handwriting tasks, originally developed to characterize handwriting impairments in Alzheimer’s disease patients. As a prelude to undertaking fMRI studies of patients, imaging was performed of twelve young healthy subjects who copied sentences, phone numbers, and grocery lists using the fMRI-compatible tablet. Activation maps for all handwriting tasks consisted of a distributed network of regions in reasonable agreement with previous studies of handwriting performance. In addition, differences in brain activity were observed between the test subcomponents consistent with different demands of neural processing for successful task performance, as identified by investigating three quantitative behavioral metrics (writing speed, stylus contact force and stylus in air time. This study provides baseline behavioral and brain activity results for fMRI studies that adopt this handwriting test to characterize patients with brain impairments.

The Use of Graphic Rules in Grade One to Help Identify Children at Risk of Handwriting Difficulties

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Khalid, Puspa Inayat; Yunus, Jasmy; Adnan, Robiah; Harun, Mokhtar; Sudirman, Rubita; Mahmood, Nasrul Humaimi

2010-01-01

Previous researches on elementary grade handwriting revealed that pupils employ certain strategy when writing or drawing. The relationship between this strategy and the use of graphic rules has been documented but very little research has been devoted to the connection between the use of graphic rules and handwriting proficiency. Thus, this study…

The Relationship of Pencil Grasp on College Students' Handwriting Speed and Legibility

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Shah, Lalit J.; Gladson, Beth L.

2015-01-01

To be successful in school, it is important for students to be able to communicate to teachers what they know and have learned through exams, papers, daily assignments, and projects. The primary way students display this knowledge during these tasks is in written form, and thus, the skill of handwriting is essential. School-based occupational…

Impact of distal median neuropathy on handwriting performance for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome in office and administrative support occupations.

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Kuo, Li-Chieh; Hsu, Hsiao-Man; Wu, Po-Ting; Lin, Sheng-Che; Hsu, Hsiu-Yun; Jou, I-Ming

2014-06-01

This study investigates the handwriting performance of patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and healthy controls in office and administrative support occupations, adopting both biomechanical and functional perspectives. This work also explores how surgical intervention altered the performance of the CTS patients. Fourteen CTS patients and 14 control subjects were recruited to complete a self-reported survey and participate in sensory tests, hand strength, dexterity and handwriting tasks using a custom force acquisition pen along with motion capture technology. Based on the results of these, the sensory measurements, along with functional and biomechanical parameters, were used to determine the differences between the groups and also reveal any improvements that occurred in the CTS group after surgical intervention. The CTS patients showed significantly poorer hand sensibility and dexterity than the controls, as well as excessive force exertion of the digits and pen tip, and less efficient force adjustment ability during handwriting. After surgery and sensory recovery, the hand dexterity and pen tip force of the CTS patients improved significantly. The force adjustment abilities of the digits also increased, but these changes were not statistically significant. This study provides the objective measurements and novel apparatus that can be used to determine impairments in the handwriting abilities of office or administrative workers with CTS. The results can also help clinicians or patients to better understand the sensory-related deficits in sensorimotor control of the hand related to CTS, and thus develop and implement more suitable training or adaptive protocols.

Handwriting measures as reflectors of executive functions among adults with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD)

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Rosenblum, Sara

2013-01-01

Planning ahead and organizational abilities in time and space are ingredients of high-level cognitive functions labeled as ‘Executive Functions’ (EF) required for daily activities such as writing or home management. EF deficits are considered a possible underlying brain mechanism involved in Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD). The aim: of the study was to compare the handwriting process measures and the planning and organizational abilities in space and time of students with DCD with those of matched controls and to find whether handwriting measures can predict daily planning and organizational abilities among students with DCD. Method: 30 students diagnosed with DCD, between the ages of 24–41, and 30 age- and gender-matched controls participated in the study. They filled out the Handwriting Proficiency Screening Questionnaire (HPSQ) and the Adult Developmental Co-ordination Disorders Checklist (ADC). Furthermore, they copied a paragraph on a digitizer that is part of a computerized system Computerised Penmanship Evaluation Toll (ComPET). Results: Significant group differences were found for the HPSQ subscales scores as well as for the temporal and spatial measures of the paragraph copy task. Significant group differences were also found for the planning and organizational abilities in space and time as reflected through the ADC subscales. Significant medium correlations were found in both groups between the mean HPSQ time subscale and the ADC-B subscale mean score (r = 0.50/0.58, p handwriting performance measures (mean HPSQ time subscale and mean stroke duration) predicted 19% of planning and organizational abilities as reflected through daily functions (ADC-B) [F(3, 54) = 38.37, β = 0.40, p handwriting and daily function among DCD will be examined. PMID:23805113

Circadian rhythms in handwriting kinematics and legibility

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jasper, Isabelle; Gordijn, Marijke; Haeussler, Andreas; Hermsdoerfer, Joachim

The aim of the present study was to analyze the circadian rhythmicity in handwriting kinematics and legibility and to compare the performance between Dutch and German writers. Two subject groups underwent a 40 h sleep deprivation protocol under Constant Routine conditions either in Groningen (10

Invariant properties between stroke features in handwriting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Teulings, H L; Schomaker, L R

A handwriting pattern is considered as a sequence of ballistic strokes. Replications of a pattern may be generated from a single, higher-level memory representation, acting as a motor program. Therefore, those stroke features which show the most invariant pattern are probably related to the

Use of a task-oriented self-instruction method to support children in primary school with poor handwriting quality and speed

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jongmans, M.J.; Linthorst-Bakker, E.; Westenberg, Y.; Smits-Engelsman, B.C.M.

2003-01-01

Two studies were conducted to investigate the effect of a task-specific self-instruction intervention to improve handwriting ability of children with poor handwriting quality in schools for regular education (Study 1) and children with poor handwriting quality in schools for special education (Study

Parents' perspectives on a collaborative approach to the application of the Handwriting Without Tears(®) programme with children with Down syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Patton, Sandra; Hutton, Eve

2016-08-01

The active involvement of parents and children in goal setting and intervention is integral to contemporary occupational therapy process models. However, parental perspectives on collaborative handwriting intervention are limited. This paper presents parental perspectives on a three-way collaboration involving teachers, parents and an occupational therapist in the application of Handwriting Without Tears(®) (HWT(®) ) with children with Down syndrome. Within a larger mixed methods study, 44 parents completed purpose-designed questionnaires and six parents participated in a focus group, post 8 months of programme implementation. Both methods gathered parent's perspectives on the usefulness and limitations of applying HWT(®) . The focus group explored collaboration in depth. Analysis involved triangulation of data from descriptive analysis of numerical data with content analysis of open-ended questions and focus group data. Enablers of parent-child engagement in HWT(®) were identified as; the parent-child-friendly aspects of HWT(®) , the teacher involvement ensuring continuity which eased demands on parents, the ongoing support/guidance of the occupational therapist and the child's involvement in HWT(®) group intervention. The occupational therapists' involvement was reported as essential to encouraging teacher/parent involvement. Barriers to child-parent engagement included fluctuations in child health, mood, attention span and time limitations including the child's involvement in other therapy programmes. Parents perceived the HWT(®) and the three-way collaborative approach as enabling active parent-child engagement in handwriting intervention. This approach warrants further investigation. Findings have the potential to inform practice guidelines and pre- and post-graduation education related to collaborative handwriting intervention with children with Down syndrome and their families. © 2016 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Handwriting and Gender: A Multi-Use Data Set

Science.gov (United States)

Bradley, Sean

2015-01-01

Can individuals guess the gender of a writer based on a sample of his or her handwriting? We administer an electronic survey twice to the same individuals to find out. The resulting data set is interesting to students, rich enough to be amenable to a wide array of activities, and open to a variety of exploratory tacks for statistics students and…

Handwriting in Signing Deaf Middle-School Students and Relationship with Text Composition and Spelling

Science.gov (United States)

Alamargot, Denis; Morin, Marie-France; Simard-Dupuis, Érika

2018-01-01

We set out to (i) assess the handwriting skills of signing deaf students, and (ii) examine the extent to which their text composition and spelling performances are linked to their handwriting efficiency. We asked 15 prelingually and profoundly deaf middle-school students (M = 15.18 years), all sign-language users, and a group of hearing students…

Handwriting measures as reflectors of Executive Functions among adults withDevelopmental Coordination Disorders (DCD.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara eRosenblum

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Planning ahead and organizational abilities in time and space are ingredients of high-level cognitive functions labelled as ‘Executive Functions’ (EF required for daily activities such as writing or home management. EF deficits are considered a possible underlying brain mechanism involved in Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD. The aim of the study was to compare the handwriting process measures and the planning and organizational abilities in space and time of students with DCD with those of matched controls and to find whether handwriting measures can predict daily planning and organizational abilities among students with DCD. Method: 30 students diagnosed with DCD, between the ages of 24-41, and 30 age- and gender-matched controls participated in the study. They filled out the Handwriting Proficiency Screening Questionnaire (HPSQ and the Adult Developmental Co-ordination Disorders Checklist (ADC. Furthermore, they copied a paragraph on a digitizer that is part of a computerized system (ComPET.Results: Significant group differences were found for the HPSQ subscales scores as well as for the temporal and spatial measures of the paragraph copy task. Significant group differences were also found for the planning and organizational abilities in space and time as reflected through the ADC subscales. Significant medium correlations were found in both groups between the mean HPSQ time subscale and the ADC-B subscale mean score (r=.50 /.58 p<.05. Series of regression analyses indicated that two handwriting performance measures (mean HPSQ time subscale and mean stroke duration predicted 19% of planning and organizational abilities as reflected through daily functions (ADC-B (F (3, 54 = 38.37, β= . 40 p<.0001.Conclusion: The results support previous evidence about EF deficits as an underlying brain mechanism involved in motor coordination disorders, their significance as related to theoretical models of handwriting and daily function among

Novel Automated Morphometric and Kinematic Handwriting Assessment: A Validity Study in Children with ASD and ADHD

Science.gov (United States)

Dirlikov, Benjamin; Younes, Laurent; Nebel, Mary Beth; Martinelli, Mary Katherine; Tiedemann, Alyssa Nicole; Koch, Carolyn A.; Fiorilli, Diana; Bastian, Amy J.; Denckla, Martha Bridge; Miller, Michael I.; Mostofsky, Stewart H.

2017-01-01

This study presents construct validity for a novel automated morphometric and kinematic handwriting assessment, including (1) convergent validity, establishing reliability of automated measures with traditional manual-derived Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA), and (2) discriminant validity, establishing that the automated methods distinguish…

A long-term self-managed handwriting intervention for people with Parkinson's disease: results from the control group of a phase II randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Collett, Johnny; Franssen, Marloes; Winward, Charlotte; Izadi, Hooshang; Meaney, Andy; Mahmoud, Wala; Bogdanovic, Marko; Tims, Martin; Wade, Derick; Dawes, Helen

2017-12-01

To report on the control group of a trial primarily designed to investigate exercise for improving mobility in people with Parkinson's disease (pwP). The control group undertook a handwriting intervention to control for attention and time spent practising a specific activity. Secondary analysis of a two-arm parallel phase II randomized controlled trial with blind assessment. Community. PwP able to walk ⩾100 m and with no contraindication to exercise were recruited from the Thames Valley, UK, and randomized (1:1) to exercise or handwriting, via a concealed computer-generated list. Handwriting was undertaken at home and exercise in community facilities; both were delivered through workbooks with monthly support visits and involved practice for 1 hour, twice weekly, over a period of six months. Handwriting was assessed, at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months, using a pangram giving writing speed, amplitude (area) and progressive reduction in amplitude (ratio). The Movement Disorder Society (MDS)-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) item 2.7 measured self-reported handwriting deficits. In all, 105 pwP were recruited (analysed: n  = 51 handwriting, n  = 54 exercise). A total of 40 pwP adhered to the handwriting programme, most completing ⩾1 session/week. Moderate effects were found for amplitude (total area: d = 0.32; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.11 to 0.7; P = 0.13) in favour of handwriting over a period of12 months; effects for writing speed and ratio parameters were small ≤0.11. Self-reported handwriting difficulties also favoured handwriting (UPDRS 2.7: odds ratio (OR) = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.34 to 0.91; P = 0.02). No adverse effects were reported. PwP generally adhere to self-directed home handwriting which may provide benefit with minimal risk. Encouraging effects were found in writing amplitude and, moreover, perceived ability.

Finding features used in the human reading of cursive handwriting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schomaker, Lambert; Segers, Eliane

Abstract. This paper first summarizes a number of findings in the human reading of handwriting. A method is proposed to uncover more detailed information about geometrical features which human readers use in the reading of Western script. The results of an earlier experiment on the use of

Finding features used in the human reading of cursive handwriting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schomaker, L.R.B.; Segers, P.C.J.

1999-01-01

This paper first summarizes a number of findings in human reading of handwriting. A method is proposed to uncover more detailed information about geometrical features which human readers use in the reading of Western script. The results of an earlier experiment on the use of ascender/descender

Motor control of handwriting in the developing brain: A review.

Science.gov (United States)

Palmis, Sarah; Danna, Jeremy; Velay, Jean-Luc; Longcamp, Marieke

This review focuses on the acquisition of writing motor aspects in adults, and in 5-to 12-year-old children without learning disabilities. We first describe the behavioural aspects of adult writing and dominant models based on the notion of motor programs. We show that handwriting acquisition is characterized by the transition from reactive movements programmed stroke-by-stroke in younger children, to an automatic control of the whole trajectory when the motor programs are memorized at about 10 years old. Then, we describe the neural correlates of adult writing, and the changes that could occur with learning during childhood. The acquisition of a new skill is characterized by the involvement of a network more restricted in space and where neural specificity is increased in key regions. The cerebellum and the left dorsal premotor cortex are of fundamental importance in motor learning, and could be at the core of the acquisition of handwriting.

User-centred design and experience prototyping: Design and implementation of pre-handwriting intervention to children with coordination difficulties/dyspraxia

Science.gov (United States)

Othman, Muhammad Fakri; Senan, Norhalina; Suparjoh, Suriawati; Keay-Bright, Wendy

2017-10-01

We have proposed a method to assist children with coordination difficulties or dyspraxia to improve their pre-handwriting skills. We have chosen an animation technique called `Rotoscopy', a method that normally been used in animation and film production and adapted it to Rotoscopy Pre-handwriting Interface (RPI) prototypes using the interactive whiteboard (IWB) as interaction device. The motivation of this research is to discover how efficient if Rotoscopy is used beyond its normal purposes; and how it gives benefits in terms of behavioural and motivational aspects rather than commercial and profit point of view. Implementation of RPI prototypes has taken place through series of workshops with a teacher and a group of children with handwriting difficulties at a special education school in Caerphilly, Cardiff, United Kingdom. In the workshops children were given pre-handwriting activities in two different environments. They have been trained to use RPI prototypes and IWB, as well as pen and paper tasks. Their activities and action have been observed and recorded using video camera. Evaluation method is based-on video analysis of children's pre-handwriting result and their reaction and motivation during the workshop. It was learnt that majority of children who used RPI prototypes and IWB have produced better results in terms of accuracy of the drawing as compared to results of pen and paper activities. Furthermore the children were more motivated to use the prototypes and IWB rather than using pen and paper. The study's contribution to knowledge includes offering a new way to improve children's pre-handwriting skills using computer animation technique and touch-based devices.

Multiwavelet packet entropy and its application in transmission line fault recognition and classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhigang; Han, Zhiwei; Zhang, Yang; Zhang, Qiaoge

2014-11-01

Multiwavelets possess better properties than traditional wavelets. Multiwavelet packet transformation has more high-frequency information. Spectral entropy can be applied as an analysis index to the complexity or uncertainty of a signal. This paper tries to define four multiwavelet packet entropies to extract the features of different transmission line faults, and uses a radial basis function (RBF) neural network to recognize and classify 10 fault types of power transmission lines. First, the preprocessing and postprocessing problems of multiwavelets are presented. Shannon entropy and Tsallis entropy are introduced, and their difference is discussed. Second, multiwavelet packet energy entropy, time entropy, Shannon singular entropy, and Tsallis singular entropy are defined as the feature extraction methods of transmission line fault signals. Third, the plan of transmission line fault recognition using multiwavelet packet entropies and an RBF neural network is proposed. Finally, the experimental results show that the plan with the four multiwavelet packet energy entropies defined in this paper achieves better performance in fault recognition. The performance with SA4 (symmetric antisymmetric) multiwavelet packet Tsallis singular entropy is the best among the combinations of different multiwavelet packets and the four multiwavelet packet entropies.

A practical approach for writer-dependent symbol recognition using a writer-independent symbol recognizer.

Science.gov (United States)

LaViola, Joseph J; Zeleznik, Robert C

2007-11-01

We present a practical technique for using a writer-independent recognition engine to improve the accuracy and speed while reducing the training requirements of a writer-dependent symbol recognizer. Our writer-dependent recognizer uses a set of binary classifiers based on the AdaBoost learning algorithm, one for each possible pairwise symbol comparison. Each classifier consists of a set of weak learners, one of which is based on a writer-independent handwriting recognizer. During online recognition, we also use the n-best list of the writer-independent recognizer to prune the set of possible symbols and thus reduce the number of required binary classifications. In this paper, we describe the geometric and statistical features used in our recognizer and our all-pairs classification algorithm. We also present the results of experiments that quantify the effect incorporating a writer-independent recognition engine into a writer-dependent recognizer has on accuracy, speed, and user training time.

A self-organized learning strategy for object recognition by an embedded line of attraction

Science.gov (United States)

Seow, Ming-Jung; Alex, Ann T.; Asari, Vijayan K.

2012-04-01

on this observation we developed a self- organizing line attractor, which is capable of generating new lines in the feature space to learn unrecognized patterns. Experiments performed on UMIST pose database and CMU face expression variant database for face recognition have shown that the proposed nonlinear line attractor is able to successfully identify the individuals and it provided better recognition rate when compared to the state of the art face recognition techniques. Experiments on FRGC version 2 database has also provided excellent recognition rate in images captured in complex lighting environments. Experiments performed on the Japanese female face expression database and Essex Grimace database using the self organizing line attractor have also shown successful expression invariant face recognition. These results show that the proposed model is able to create nonlinear manifolds in a multidimensional feature space to distinguish complex patterns.

Handwriting Movement Kinematics for Quantifying EPS in Patients Treated with Atypical Antipsychotics

Science.gov (United States)

Caligiuri, Michael P.; Teulings, Hans-Leo; Dean, Charles E.; Niculescu, Alexander B.; Lohr, James B.

2009-01-01

Ongoing monitoring of neuroleptic-induced extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) is important to maximize treatment outcome, improve medication adherence and reduce re-hospitalization. Traditional approaches for assessing EPS such as parkinsonism, tardive akathisia, or dyskinesia rely upon clinical ratings. However, these observer-based EPS severity ratings can be unreliable and are subject to examiner bias. In contrast, quantitative instrumental methods are less subject to bias. Most instrumental methods have only limited clinical utility because of their complexity and costs. This paper describes an easy-to-use instrumental approach based on handwriting movements for quantifying EPS. Here, we present findings from psychiatric patients treated with atypical (second generation) antipsychotics. The handwriting task consisted of a sentence written several times within a 2 cm vertical boundary at a comfortable speed using an inkless pen and digitizing tablet. Kinematic variables including movement duration, peak vertical velocity and the number of acceleration peaks, and average normalized jerk (a measure of smoothness) for each up or down stroke and their submovements were analyzed. Results from 59 psychosis patients and 46 healthy comparison subjects revealed significant slowing and dysfluency in patients compared to controls. We observed differences across medications and daily dose. These findings support the ecological validity of handwriting movement analysis as an objective behavioral biomarker for quantifying the effects of antipsychotic medication and dose on the motor system. PMID:20381875

Relationships between Handwriting Performance and Organizational Abilities among Children with and without Dysgraphia: A Preliminary Study

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Rosenblum, Sara; Aloni, Tsipi; Josman, Naomi

2010-01-01

Organizational ability constitutes one executive function (EF) component essential for common everyday performance. The study aim was to explore the relationship between handwriting performance and organizational ability in school-aged children. Participants were 58 males, aged 7-8 years, 30 with dysgraphia and 28 with proficient handwriting.…

A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of Handwriting Instruction

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Santangelo, Tanya; Graham, Steve

2016-01-01

While there are many ways to author text today, writing with paper and pen (or pencil) is still quite common at home and work, and predominates writing at school. Because handwriting can bias readers' judgments about the ideas in a text and impact other writing processes, like planning and text generation, it is important to ensure students…

Recognition of facial expressions by cortical multi-scale line and edge coding

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Sousa, R.; Rodrigues, J. M. F.; du Buf, J. M. H.

2010-01-01

Face-to-face communications between humans involve emotions, which often are unconsciously conveyed by facial expressions and body gestures. Intelligent human-machine interfaces, for example in cognitive robotics, need to recognize emotions. This paper addresses facial expressions and their neural correlates on the basis of a model of the visual cortex: the multi-scale line and edge coding. The recognition model links the cortical representation with Paul Ekman's Action Units which are relate...

Extraction of Dynamic Features from Hand Drawn Data for the Identification of Children with Handwriting Difficulty

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Khalid, Puspa Inayat; Yunus, Jasmy; Adnan, Robiah

2010-01-01

Studies have shown that differences between children with and without handwriting difficulties lie not only in the written product (static data) but also in dynamic data of handwriting process. Since writing system varies among countries and individuals, this study was conducted to determine the feasibility of using quantitative outcome measures…

Characterization of Motor Control in Handwriting Difficulties in Children with or without Developmental Coordination Disorder

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Chang, Shao-Hsia; Yu, Nan-Ying

2010-01-01

Aim: The purpose of this study was to characterize handwriting deficits in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) using computerized movement analyses. Method: Seventy-two children (40 females, 32 males; mean age 7y, SD 7mo; range 6y 2mo to 7y 11mo) with handwriting deficits (33 with DCD, 39 without DCD); and 22 age- and…

Ponderings of an Occupational Therapy Administrator: Beyond Handwriting--Are We Ready?

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Polichino, Jean E.

2016-01-01

Handwriting has historically played a significant role in the services provided by occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants working in schools. Reflecting on nearly three decades of school practice, an occupational therapy administrator considers how this niche developed and how it positions occupational therapy practitioners to…

Material recognition based on thermal cues: Mechanisms and applications.

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Ho, Hsin-Ni

2018-01-01

Some materials feel colder to the touch than others, and we can use this difference in perceived coldness for material recognition. This review focuses on the mechanisms underlying material recognition based on thermal cues. It provides an overview of the physical, perceptual, and cognitive processes involved in material recognition. It also describes engineering domains in which material recognition based on thermal cues have been applied. This includes haptic interfaces that seek to reproduce the sensations associated with contact in virtual environments and tactile sensors aim for automatic material recognition. The review concludes by considering the contributions of this line of research in both science and engineering.

A novel word spotting method based on recurrent neural networks.

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Frinken, Volkmar; Fischer, Andreas; Manmatha, R; Bunke, Horst

2012-02-01

Keyword spotting refers to the process of retrieving all instances of a given keyword from a document. In the present paper, a novel keyword spotting method for handwritten documents is described. It is derived from a neural network-based system for unconstrained handwriting recognition. As such it performs template-free spotting, i.e., it is not necessary for a keyword to appear in the training set. The keyword spotting is done using a modification of the CTC Token Passing algorithm in conjunction with a recurrent neural network. We demonstrate that the proposed systems outperform not only a classical dynamic time warping-based approach but also a modern keyword spotting system, based on hidden Markov models. Furthermore, we analyze the performance of the underlying neural networks when using them in a recognition task followed by keyword spotting on the produced transcription. We point out the advantages of keyword spotting when compared to classic text line recognition.

Handwriting Movement Analyses for Monitoring Drug-Induced Motor Side Effects in Schizophrenia Patients Treated with Risperidone

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Caligiuri, Michael P.; Teulings, Hans-Leo; Dean, Charles E.; Niculescu, Alexander B.; Lohr, James

2009-01-01

Epidemiologic studies indicate that nearly 60% of schizophrenia (SZ) patients treated with conventional antipsychotic drugs develop extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) such as parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia. Although the prevalence of EPS has decreased due to the newer antipsychotics, EPS continue to limit the effectiveness of these medicines. Ongoing monitoring of EPS is likely to improve treatment outcome or compliance and reduce the frequency of re-hospitalization. A quantitative analysis of handwriting kinematics was used to evaluate effects of antipsychotic medication type and dose in schizophrenia patients. Twenty-seven schizophrenia patients treated with risperidone, six schizophrenia patients who received no antipsychotic medication and 46 healthy comparison participants were enrolled. Participants performed a 20-minute handwriting task consisting of loops of various sizes and a sentence. Data were captured and analyzed using MovAlyzeR software. Results indicated that risperidone-treated participants exhibited significantly more dysfluent handwriting movements than either healthy or untreated SZ participants. Risperidone-treated participants exhibited lower movement velocities during production of simple loops compared to unmedicated patients. Handwriting dysfluency during sentence writing increased with dose. A 3-factor model consisting of kinematic variables derived from sentence writing accounted for 83% (r = .91) of the variability in medication dose. In contrast, we found no association between observer-based EPS severity ratings and medication dose. These findings support the importance of handwriting-based measures to monitor EPS in medicated schizophrenia patients. PMID:19692133

Handwriting, visuomotor integration, and neurological condition at school age

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Hoorn, Jessika F.; Maathuis, Carel G. B.; Peters, Lieke H. J.; Hadders-Algra, Mijna

2010-01-01

Aim The study investigated the relationships between handwriting, visuomotor integration, and neurological condition. We paid particular attention to the presence of minor neurological dysfunction (MND). Method Participants were 200 children (131 males, 69 females; age range 8-13y) of whom 118

In Early Education, Why Teach Handwriting before Keyboarding?

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Stevenson, Nancy C.; Just, Carol

2014-01-01

Legible written communication is essential for students to share knowledge (Rogers and Case-Smith 2002). If students lack proficiency in written communication, their composition skills will suffer, which can affect their self-esteem and grades. Whether or not this proficiency is in handwriting or keyboarding is a question worthy of discussion. In…

Efficient Banknote Recognition Based on Selection of Discriminative Regions with One-Dimensional Visible-Light Line Sensor.

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Pham, Tuyen Danh; Park, Young Ho; Kwon, Seung Yong; Park, Kang Ryoung; Jeong, Dae Sik; Yoon, Sungsoo

2016-03-04

Banknote papers are automatically recognized and classified in various machines, such as vending machines, automatic teller machines (ATM), and banknote-counting machines. Previous studies on automatic classification of banknotes have been based on the optical characteristics of banknote papers. On each banknote image, there are regions more distinguishable than others in terms of banknote types, sides, and directions. However, there has been little previous research on banknote recognition that has addressed the selection of distinguishable areas. To overcome this problem, we propose a method for recognizing banknotes by selecting more discriminative regions based on similarity mapping, using images captured by a one-dimensional visible light line sensor. Experimental results with various types of banknote databases show that our proposed method outperforms previous methods.

Efficient Banknote Recognition Based on Selection of Discriminative Regions with One-Dimensional Visible-Light Line Sensor

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Tuyen Danh Pham

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Banknote papers are automatically recognized and classified in various machines, such as vending machines, automatic teller machines (ATM, and banknote-counting machines. Previous studies on automatic classification of banknotes have been based on the optical characteristics of banknote papers. On each banknote image, there are regions more distinguishable than others in terms of banknote types, sides, and directions. However, there has been little previous research on banknote recognition that has addressed the selection of distinguishable areas. To overcome this problem, we propose a method for recognizing banknotes by selecting more discriminative regions based on similarity mapping, using images captured by a one-dimensional visible light line sensor. Experimental results with various types of banknote databases show that our proposed method outperforms previous methods.

Handwriting as a Tool for Learning in ELT

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Lund, Ragnhild Elisabeth

2016-01-01

This article discusses the role that handwriting can have when writing is used as a tool for learning in English language education. Nineteen Norwegian EFL teacher training students were interviewed in focus groups about their own practices and their thoughts about writing-to-learn activities. All the students said that they prefer to write by…

Students' Choices between Typing and Handwriting in Examinations

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Mogey, Nora; Cowan, John; Paterson, Jessie; Purcell, Mike

2012-01-01

Keyboarding (typing) is a ubiquitous skill for most UK students, and most coursework essays must be word processed. However, few examinations, other than for students with disabilities, permit the use of a word processor. It is not known how students would respond given a free choice between handwriting and word processing in an essay examination.…

Examining Teachers' Trait, State and Cursive Handwriting Anxiety

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Karatas, Zeynep; Arslan, Derya; Karatas, Mustafa Erdal

2014-01-01

This study examines whether the trait and state anxiety and cursive handwriting anxiety of teachers differs according to assorted variables. The study group for this research project is composed of 381 teachers from the city of Burdur and the district centre of Bucak, Turkey. Of these participants, 44% were female and 56% were male. As for the…

Neuroimaging correlates of handwriting quality as children learn to read and write

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Gimenez, Paul; Bugescu, Nicolle; Black, Jessica M.; Hancock, Roeland; Pugh, Kenneth; Nagamine, Masanori; Kutner, Emily; Mazaika, Paul; Hendren, Robert; McCandliss, Bruce D.; Hoeft, Fumiko

2014-01-01

Reading and writing are related but separable processes that are crucial skills to possess in modern society. The neurobiological basis of reading acquisition and development, which critically depends on phonological processing, and to a lesser degree, beginning writing as it relates to letter perception, are increasingly being understood. Yet direct relationships between writing and reading development, in particular, with phonological processing is not well understood. The main goal of the current preliminary study was to examine individual differences in neurofunctional and neuroanatomical patterns associated with handwriting in beginning writers/readers. In 46 5–6 year-old beginning readers/writers, ratings of handwriting quality, were rank-ordered from best to worst and correlated with brain activation patterns during a phonological task using functional MRI, and with regional gray matter volume from structural T1 MRI. Results showed that better handwriting was associated negatively with activation and positively with gray matter volume in an overlapping region of the pars triangularis of right inferior frontal gyrus. This region, in particular in the left hemisphere in adults and more bilaterally in young children, is known to be important for decoding, phonological processing, and subvocal rehearsal. We interpret the dissociation in the directionality of the association in functional activation and morphometric properties in the right inferior frontal gyrus in terms of neural efficiency, and suggest future studies that interrogate the relationship between the neural mechanisms underlying reading and writing development. PMID:24678293

Neuroimaging correlations of handwriting quality as children learn to read and write

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Paul eGimenez

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Reading and writing are related but separable processes that are crucial skills to possess in modern society. The neurobiological basis of reading acquisition and development, which critically depends on phonological processing, and to a lesser degree, beginning writing as it relates to letter perception, are increasingly being understood. Yet direct relationships between writing and reading development, in particular, with phonological processing is not well understood. The main goal of the current preliminary study was to examine individual differences in neurofunctional and neuroanatomical patterns associated with handwriting in beginning writers/readers. In 46 5-6 year-old beginning readers/writers, ratings of handwriting quality, were rank-ordered from best to worst and correlated with brain activation patterns during a phonological task using functional MRI, and with regional grey matter volume from structural T1 MRI. Results showed that better handwriting was associated negatively with activation and positively with gray matter volume in an overlapping region of the pars triangularis of right inferior frontal gyrus. This region, in particular in the left hemisphere in adults and more bilaterally in young children, is known to be important for decoding, phonological processing, and subvocal rehearsal. We interpret the dissociation in the directionality of the association in functional activation and morphometric properties in the right inferior frontal gyrus in terms of neural efficiency, and suggest future studies that interrogate the relationship between the neural mechanisms underlying reading and writing development.

A primary care physician perspective survey on the limited use of handwriting and pen computing in the electronic medical record

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Gary Arvary

2002-09-01

The use of handwriting in the EMR was broadly supported by this group of PCPs in private practice. Likewise, wireless pen computers were the overwhelming choice of computer for use during a consultation. In this group, older and lower volume physicians were less likely to desire a computer for use during a consultation. User acceptance of the EMR may be related to how closely it resembles the processes that are being automated. More surveys are required to determine the needs and expectations of physicians. The data also support other research studies that demonstrate the preference for handwriting and wireless computers, and the need for a limited, standardised and controlled vocabulary.

Handwriting Development in Grade 2 and Grade 3 Primary School Children with Normal, At Risk, or Dysgraphic Characteristics

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Overvelde, Anneloes; Hulstijn, Wouter

2011-01-01

The wide variation in prevalence of dysgraphic handwriting (5-33%) is of clinical importance, because poor handwriting has been identified as one of the most common reasons for referring school-age children to occupational therapy or physiotherapy, and is included as an criterion for the diagnosis of Developmental Coordination Disorder. This study…

Standardized handwriting to assess bradykinesia, micrographia and tremor in Parkinson's disease.

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Esther J Smits

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To assess whether standardized handwriting can provide quantitative measures to distinguish patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease from age- and gender-matched healthy control participants. DESIGN: Exploratory study. Pen tip trajectories were recorded during circle, spiral and line drawing and repeated character 'elelelel' and sentence writing, performed by Parkinson patients and healthy control participants. Parkinson patients were tested after overnight withdrawal of anti-Parkinsonian medication. SETTING: University Medical Center Groningen, tertiary care, the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with Parkinson's disease (n = 10; mean age 69.0 years; 6 male and healthy controls (n = 10; mean age 68.1 years; 6 male. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Movement time and velocity to detect bradykinesia and the size of writing to detect micrographia. A rest recording to investigate the presence of a rest-tremor, by frequency analysis. RESULTS: Mean disease duration in the Parkinson group was 4.4 years and the patients were in modified Hoehn-Yahr stages 1-2.5. In general, Parkinson patients were slower than healthy control participants. Median time per repetition, median velocity and median acceleration of the sentence task and median velocity of the elel task differed significantly between Parkinson patients and healthy control participants (all p<0.0014. Parkinson patients also wrote smaller than healthy control participants and the width of the 'e' in the elel task was significantly smaller in Parkinson patients compared to healthy control participants (p<0.0014. A rest-tremor was detected in the three patients who were clinically assessed as having rest-tremor. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that standardized handwriting can provide objective measures for bradykinesia, tremor and micrographia to distinguish Parkinson patients from healthy control participants.

Handwriting Analysis Indicates Spontaneous Dyskinesias in Neuroleptic Naïve Adolescents at High Risk for Psychosis

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Dean, Derek J.; Teulings, Hans-Leo; Caligiuri, Michael; Mittal, Vijay A.

2013-01-01

Growing evidence suggests that movement abnormalities are a core feature of psychosis. One marker of movement abnormality, dyskinesia, is a result of impaired neuromodulation of dopamine in fronto-striatal pathways. The traditional methods for identifying movement abnormalities include observer-based reports and force stability gauges. The drawbacks of these methods are long training times for raters, experimenter bias, large site differences in instrumental apparatus, and suboptimal reliability. Taking these drawbacks into account has guided the development of better standardized and more efficient procedures to examine movement abnormalities through handwriting analysis software and tablet. Individuals at risk for psychosis showed significantly more dysfluent pen movements (a proximal measure for dyskinesia) in a handwriting task. Handwriting kinematics offers a great advance over previous methods of assessing dyskinesia, which could clearly be beneficial for understanding the etiology of psychosis. PMID:24300590

Exploring Content Validity of Shore Handwriting Screening and Newly Developed Score Sheet With Pre-Kindergarten Students

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Denise K. Donica

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Limited tools exist to measure handwriting readiness skills of pre-kindergarten students. This study was a preliminary exploration of content validity of the Shore Handwriting Screening (SHS and the newly developed Score Sheet with the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2 in 4- and 5-year-old pre-kindergarten students. Because socioeconomic status (SES is known to impact handwriting skills, data from two different socioeconomic groups were collected. Method: Students from a Lower SES group (n = 36 and a Higher SES group (n = 14 completed the SHS and fine motor composite of the BOT-2. Pearson’s correlation was used to compare scores on the two assessments within the two groups. Results: SHS overall percentage scores were compared to standard scores and composite scores of the BOT-2. SHS scores displayed moderate to high correlation with fine manual control portions of the BOT-2 for the Lower SES group and low to moderate correlation for the same portion in the Higher SES group. Conclusion: SHS and the Score Sheet correlate to fine and visual-motor skill subtests on the fine manual control portions of the BOT-2, which supports the need for further research on the reliability and validity of the Score Sheet for use in practice.

Handwriting, Visuomotor Integration, and Neurological Condition at School Age

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Van Hoorn, Jessika F.; Maathuis, Carel G. B.; Peters, Lieke H. J.; Hadders-Algra, Mijna

2010-01-01

Aim: The study investigated the relationships between handwriting, visuomotor integration, and neurological condition. We paid particular attention to the presence of minor neurological dysfunction (MND). Method : Participants were 200 children (131 males, 69 females; age range 8-13y) of whom 118 received mainstream education (mean age 10y 5mo, SD…

Should Cursive Handwriting Still Be Taught in Schools? Information Capsule. Volume 0916

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Blazer, Christie

2010-01-01

Elementary school students spend less time learning cursive handwriting than they did in years past. The declining emphasis on cursive writing has been attributed to the increasing use of technology, the growing proportion of class time spent preparing for standardized tests, and the perception that the time students spend learning to write in…

Sub-word based Arabic handwriting analysis for writer identification

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Maliki, Makki; Al-Jawad, Naseer; Jassim, Sabah

2013-05-01

Analysing a text or part of it is key to handwriting identification. Generally, handwriting is learnt over time and people develop habits in the style of writing. These habits are embedded in special parts of handwritten text. In Arabic each word consists of one or more sub-word(s). The end of each sub-word is considered to be a connect stroke. The main hypothesis in this paper is that sub-words are essential reflection of Arabic writer's habits that could be exploited for writer identification. Testing this hypothesis will be based on experiments that evaluate writer's identification, mainly using K nearest neighbor from group of sub-words extracted from longer text. The experimental results show that using a group of sub-words could be used to identify the writer with a successful rate between 52.94 % to 82.35% when top1 is used, and it can go up to 100% when top5 is used based on K nearest neighbor. The results show that majority of writers are identified using 7 sub-words with a reliability confident of about 90% (i.e. 90% of the rejected templates have significantly larger distances to the tested example than the distance from the correctly identified template). However previous work, using a complete word, shows successful rate of at most 90% in top 10.

Long-term consequences of switching handedness: a positron emission tomography study on handwriting in "converted" left-handers.

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Siebner, H.R.; Limmer, C.; Peinemann, A.; Drzezga, A.; Bloem, B.R.; Schwaiger, M.; Conrad, B.

2002-01-01

Until some decades ago, left-handed children who attended German schools were forced to learn to write with their right hand. To explore the long-term consequences of switching handedness, we studied the functional neuroanatomy of handwriting in 11 adult "converted" left-handers and 11 age-matched

Diffraction, Handwriting and Intra-Mediality in Louise Paillé's Livres-livres

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Brillenburg Wurth, Kiene

2014-01-01

In this article, I focus on primary entanglements as the co-materialization of the verbal and visual in contemporary literary handwriting. As we will see, this is a special kind of writing. It is a writing meant to be seen and engaged with as matter. It tends to be non-linear and almost completely

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Improves Handwriting in Parkinson’s Disease

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Bubblepreet K. Randhawa

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Parkinson disease (PD is characterized by hypometric movements resulting from loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. PD leads to decreased activation of the supplementary motor area (SMA; the net result of these changes is a poverty of movement. The present study determined the impact of 5 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS over the SMA on a fine motor movement, handwriting (writing cursive “l”s, and on cortical excitability, in individuals with PD. Methods. In a cross-over design, ten individuals with PD were randomized to receive either 5 Hz or control stimulation over the SMA. Immediately following brain stimulation right handed writing was assessed. Results. 5 Hz stimulation increased vertical size of handwriting and diminished axial pressure. In addition, 5 Hz rTMS significantly decreased the threshold for excitability in the primary motor cortex. Conclusions. These data suggest that in the short term 5 Hz rTMS benefits functional fine motor task performance, perhaps by altering cortical excitability across a network of brain regions. Further, these data may provide the foundation for a larger investigation of the effects of noninvasive brain stimulation over the SMA in individuals with PD.

Do motor ability and handwriting kinematic measures predict organizational ability among children with Developmental Coordination Disorders?

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Rosenblum, Sara

2015-10-01

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) exhibit deficient daily performance concealed in their perception-action mechanism. The aim of this study was to analyze behavior organization of children with DCD, in varied tasks that require generating and monitoring mental representations related to space and time inputs/requirements, for achieving better insight about their perception-action mechanism. Participants included 42 children aged 7-10, half of whom were defined with DCD and half were typically developing (TD). The children were matched for age, gender and school. They were evaluated using the Movement-ABC and performed three handwriting tasks on an electronic tablet that is part of a computerized system (ComPET - Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool). In addition, their teachers completed the Questionnaire for Assessing Students' Organizational Abilities-Teachers (QASOA-T) to assess the children's daily organizational ability. Significant group differences (DCD versus controls) were found for all handwriting kinematic measures across the three handwriting tasks and for the children's organizational abilities. Motor ability predicted a considerable percentage of the variance of the kinematic handwriting measures (30-37%), as well as a high percentage of the variance of their organizational abilities (67%). The coefficient of variance of the pen tilt added an additional 3% to the prediction of their organizational abilities. The results of this study exhibited deficient ability among children with DCD in organizing their behavior in varied real-world tasks requiring generation and monitoring representation related to space and time. The significance of the results to understanding the performance mechanism and implication to the clinical field are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Children with Dyslexia Are Slow Writers Because They Pause More Often and Not Because They Are Slow at Handwriting Execution

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Sumner, Emma; Connelly, Vincent; Barnett, Anna L.

2013-01-01

It is commonly assumed that children with dyslexia are slower at handwriting than other children. However, evidence of slow handwriting in children with dyslexia is very mixed. Thirty-one children with dyslexia, aged 9 years, were compared to both age-matched children and younger spelling-ability matched children. Participants completed an…

The "handwriting brain": a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of motor versus orthographic processes.

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Planton, Samuel; Jucla, Mélanie; Roux, Franck-Emmanuel; Démonet, Jean-François

2013-01-01

Handwriting is a modality of language production whose cerebral substrates remain poorly known although the existence of specific regions is postulated. The description of brain damaged patients with agraphia and, more recently, several neuroimaging studies suggest the involvement of different brain regions. However, results vary with the methodological choices made and may not always discriminate between "writing-specific" and motor or linguistic processes shared with other abilities. We used the "Activation Likelihood Estimate" (ALE) meta-analytical method to identify the cerebral network of areas commonly activated during handwriting in 18 neuroimaging studies published in the literature. Included contrasts were also classified according to the control tasks used, whether non-specific motor/output-control or linguistic/input-control. These data were included in two secondary meta-analyses in order to reveal the functional role of the different areas of this network. An extensive, mainly left-hemisphere network of 12 cortical and sub-cortical areas was obtained; three of which were considered as primarily writing-specific (left superior frontal sulcus/middle frontal gyrus area, left intraparietal sulcus/superior parietal area, right cerebellum) while others related rather to non-specific motor (primary motor and sensorimotor cortex, supplementary motor area, thalamus and putamen) or linguistic processes (ventral premotor cortex, posterior/inferior temporal cortex). This meta-analysis provides a description of the cerebral network of handwriting as revealed by various types of neuroimaging experiments and confirms the crucial involvement of the left frontal and superior parietal regions. These findings provide new insights into cognitive processes involved in handwriting and their cerebral substrates. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recognition and use of line drawings by children with severe intellectual disabilities: the effects of color and outline shape.

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Stephenson, Jennifer

2009-03-01

Communication symbols for students with severe intellectual disabilities often take the form of computer-generated line drawings. This study investigated the effects of the match between color and shape of line drawings and the objects they represented on drawing recognition and use. The match or non-match between color and shape of the objects and drawings did not have an effect on participants' ability to match drawings to objects, or to use drawings to make choices.

Computer Instruction in Handwriting, Spelling, and Composing for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities in Grades 4 to 9

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Berninger, Virginia W.; Nagy, William; Tanimoto, Steve; Thompson, Rob; Abbott, Robert D.

2014-01-01

Effectiveness of iPad computerized writing instruction was evaluated for 4th to 9th graders (n=35) with diagnosed specific learning disabilities (SLDs) affecting writing: dysgraphia (impaired handwriting), dyslexia (impaired spelling), and oral and written language learning disability (OWL LD) (impaired syntax composing). Each of the 18 two-hour lessons had multiple learning activities aimed at improving subword- (handwriting), word- (spelling), and syntax- (sentence composing) level language skills by engaging all four language systems (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) to create a functional writing system. To evaluate treatment effectiveness, normed measures of handwriting, spelling, and composing were used with the exception of one non-normed alphabet writing task. Results showed that the sample as a whole improved significantly from pretest to posttest in three handwriting measures, four spelling measures, and both written and oral syntax construction measures. All but oral syntax was evaluated with pen and paper tasks, showing that the computer writing instruction transferred to better writing with pen and paper. Performance on learning activities during instruction correlated with writing outcomes; and individual students tended to improve in the impaired skill associated with their diagnosis. Thus, although computers are often used in upper elementary school and middle school in the United States (US) for accommodations (alternatives to pen and paper) for students with persisting SLDs affecting writing, this study shows computers can also be used for Tier 3 instruction to improve the writing skills of students in grades 4 to 9 with history of persisting writing disabilities. PMID:25378768

Computer Instruction in Handwriting, Spelling, and Composing for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities in Grades 4 to 9.

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Berninger, Virginia W; Nagy, William; Tanimoto, Steve; Thompson, Rob; Abbott, Robert D

2015-02-01

Effectiveness of iPad computerized writing instruction was evaluated for 4 th to 9 th graders ( n =35) with diagnosed specific learning disabilities (SLDs) affecting writing: dysgraphia (impaired handwriting), dyslexia (impaired spelling), and oral and written language learning disability (OWL LD) (impaired syntax composing). Each of the 18 two-hour lessons had multiple learning activities aimed at improving subword - (handwriting), word - (spelling), and syntax - (sentence composing) level language skills by engaging all four language systems (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) to create a functional writing system. To evaluate treatment effectiveness, normed measures of handwriting, spelling, and composing were used with the exception of one non-normed alphabet writing task. Results showed that the sample as a whole improved significantly from pretest to posttest in three handwriting measures, four spelling measures, and both written and oral syntax construction measures. All but oral syntax was evaluated with pen and paper tasks, showing that the computer writing instruction transferred to better writing with pen and paper. Performance on learning activities during instruction correlated with writing outcomes; and individual students tended to improve in the impaired skill associated with their diagnosis. Thus, although computers are often used in upper elementary school and middle school in the United States (US) for accommodations (alternatives to pen and paper) for students with persisting SLDs affecting writing, this study shows computers can also be used for Tier 3 instruction to improve the writing skills of students in grades 4 to 9 with history of persisting writing disabilities.

Writing to dictation and handwriting performance among Chinese children with dyslexia: relationships with orthographic knowledge and perceptual-motor skills.

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Cheng-Lai, Alice; Li-Tsang, Cecilia W P; Chan, Alan H L; Lo, Amy G W

2013-10-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between writing to dictation, handwriting, orthographic, and perceptual-motor skills among Chinese children with dyslexia. A cross-sectional design was used. A total of 45 third graders with dyslexia were assessed. Results of stepwise multiple regression models showed that Chinese character naming was the only predictor associated with word dictation (β=.32); handwriting speed was related to deficits in rapid automatic naming (β=-.36) and saccadic efficiency (β=-.29), and visual-motor integration predicted both of the number of characters exceeded grid (β=-.41) and variability of character size (β=-.38). The findings provided support to a multi-stage working memory model of writing for explaining the possible underlying mechanism of writing to dictation and handwriting difficulties. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Typing Compared with Handwriting for Essay Examinations at University: Letting the Students Choose

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Mogey, Nora; Paterson, Jessie; Burk, John; Purcell, Michael

2010-01-01

Students at the University of Edinburgh do almost all their work on computers, but at the end of the semester they are examined by handwritten essays. Intuitively it would be appealing to allow students the choice of handwriting or typing, but this raises a concern that perhaps this might not be "fair"--that the choice a student makes,…

Handwriting in Early Childhood Education: Current Research and Future Implications

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Dinehart, Laura H.

2015-01-01

Early fine motor writing skills are quickly becoming recognized as an important school readiness skill associated with later academic success (Dinehart and Manfra, 2013; Grissmer et al., 2010; Son and Meisels, 2006). Yet, little is known about the development of handwriting, the extent to which it is of value in the early childhood classroom and…

Characteristics of Handwriting of People With Cerebellar Ataxia: Three-Dimensional Movement Analysis of the Pen Tip, Finger, and Wrist.

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Fujisawa, Yuhki; Okajima, Yasutomo

2015-11-01

There are several functional tests for evaluating manual performance; however, quantitative manual tests for ataxia, especially those for evaluating handwriting, are limited. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of cerebellar ataxia by analyzing handwriting, with a special emphasis on correlation between the movement of the pen tip and the movement of the finger or wrist. This was an observational study. Eleven people who were right-handed and had cerebellar ataxia and 17 people to serve as controls were recruited. The Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia was used to grade the severity of ataxia. Handwriting movements of both hands were analyzed. The time required for writing a character, the variability of individual handwriting, and the correlation between the movement of the pen tip and the movement of the finger or wrist were evaluated for participants with ataxia and control participants. The writing time was longer and the velocity profile and shape of the track of movement of the pen tip were more variable in participants with ataxia than in control participants. For participants with ataxia, the direction of movement of the pen tip deviated more from that of the finger or wrist, and the shape of the track of movement of the pen tip differed more from that of the finger or wrist. The severity of upper extremity ataxia measured with the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia was mostly correlated with the variability parameters. Furthermore, it was correlated with the directional deviation of the trajectory of movement of the pen tip from that of the finger and with increased dissimilarity of the shapes of the tracks. The results may have been influenced by the scale and parameters used to measure movement. Ataxic handwriting with increased movement noise is characterized by irregular pen tip movements unconstrained by the finger or wrist. The severity of ataxia is correlated with these unconstrained movements. © 2015 American

Handwriting individualization using distance and rarity

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Tang, Yi; Srihari, Sargur; Srinivasan, Harish

2012-01-01

Forensic individualization is the task of associating observed evidence with a specific source. The likelihood ratio (LR) is a quantitative measure that expresses the degree of uncertainty in individualization, where the numerator represents the likelihood that the evidence corresponds to the known and the denominator the likelihood that it does not correspond to the known. Since the number of parameters needed to compute the LR is exponential with the number of feature measurements, a commonly used simplification is the use of likelihoods based on distance (or similarity) given the two alternative hypotheses. This paper proposes an intermediate method which decomposes the LR as the product of two factors, one based on distance and the other on rarity. It was evaluated using a data set of handwriting samples, by determining whether two writing samples were written by the same/different writer(s). The accuracy of the distance and rarity method, as measured by error rates, is significantly better than the distance method.

The Attitudes of Primary School Pre-Service Teachers towards Cursive Handwriting

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Karadag, Ruhan

2014-01-01

The aim of this study is to determine the primary school pre-service teachers' attitude toward cursive handwriting and to determine whether a significant difference exists among those pre-service teachers' attitude with respect to gender, class and their universities. In order to collect data "Scale for Attitude towards Cursive…

Benchmarking desktop and mobile handwriting across COTS devices: The e-BioSign biometric database.

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Tolosana, Ruben; Vera-Rodriguez, Ruben; Fierrez, Julian; Morales, Aythami; Ortega-Garcia, Javier

2017-01-01

This paper describes the design, acquisition process and baseline evaluation of the new e-BioSign database, which includes dynamic signature and handwriting information. Data is acquired from 5 different COTS devices: three Wacom devices (STU-500, STU-530 and DTU-1031) specifically designed to capture dynamic signatures and handwriting, and two general purpose tablets (Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and Samsung ATIV 7). For the two Samsung tablets, data is collected using both pen stylus and also the finger in order to study the performance of signature verification in a mobile scenario. Data was collected in two sessions for 65 subjects, and includes dynamic information of the signature, the full name and alpha numeric sequences. Skilled forgeries were also performed for signatures and full names. We also report a benchmark evaluation based on e-BioSign for person verification under three different real scenarios: 1) intra-device, 2) inter-device, and 3) mixed writing-tool. We have experimented the proposed benchmark using the main existing approaches for signature verification: feature- and time functions-based. As a result, new insights into the problem of signature biometrics in sensor-interoperable scenarios have been obtained, namely: the importance of specific methods for dealing with device interoperability, and the necessity of a deeper analysis on signatures acquired using the finger as the writing tool. This e-BioSign public database allows the research community to: 1) further analyse and develop signature verification systems in realistic scenarios, and 2) investigate towards a better understanding of the nature of the human handwriting when captured using electronic COTS devices in realistic conditions.

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting 17+ to Brazilian Portuguese: conceptual, item and semantic equivalence.

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Cardoso, Monique Herrera; Capellini, Simone Aparecida

2018-02-19

Perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting 17+ (DASH 17+) for Brazilians. Evaluation of (1) conceptual, item and (2) semantic equivalence, with assistance of four translators and application of a pilot study to 36 students. (1) The concepts and items are equivalent in the British and Brazilian cultures. (2) Adaptations were made concerning the English language pangram used in copying tasks and selection of the lower-case, cursive handwriting in the alphabet-writing task. Application of the pilot study verified acceptability and understanding of the proposed tasks by the students. The Brazilian Portuguese version of the DASH 17+ was presented after finalization of the conceptual, item and semantic equivalence of the instrument. Further studies on psychometric properties should be conducted with the purpose of measuring the speed of handwriting in youngsters and adults with greater reliability and validity to the procedure.

[Asymmetric confusability effects in recognition memory of line drawings].

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Uchino, Y; Hakoda, Y; Yamada, N

2000-06-01

Experiment 1 and 2 examined the effect of addition or deletion changes in a picture recognition test. Addition and deletion applied to original pictures were referred to deviation change, and addition to deleted pictures or deletion from added pictures was referred to restoration change. In Experiment 1 (n = 40), elaborative detailed information contained in line drawings of scenes was changed whereas one of major features in a single object was changed in Experiment 2 (n = 36). In the test phase, participants indicated whether each test picture was changed or not from the picture they had seen in the study phase. Deviation change had a greater effect on detection performance than restoration only in Experiment 2. Additions were easily detected than deletions only in deviation change in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, 51 participants rated impression of added or deleted pictures used in Experiment 2. Impression of added pictures was significantly different from that of deleted in 3 factors. These results suggest that superiority of additions over deletions might be due to their different impression change.

Relationships between Fine-Motor, Visual-Motor, and Visual Perception Scores and Handwriting Legibility and Speed

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Klein, Sheryl; Guiltner, Val; Sollereder, Patti; Cui, Ying

2011-01-01

Occupational therapists assess fine motor, visual motor, visual perception, and visual skill development, but knowledge of the relationships between scores on sensorimotor performance measures and handwriting legibility and speed is limited. Ninety-nine students in grades three to six with learning and/or behavior problems completed the Upper-Limb…

Dataset of coded handwriting features for use in statistical modelling

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Anna Agius

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The data presented here is related to the article titled, “Using handwriting to infer a writer's country of origin for forensic intelligence purposes” (Agius et al., 2017 [1]. This article reports original writer, spatial and construction characteristic data for thirty-seven English Australian11 In this study, English writers were Australians whom had learnt to write in New South Wales (NSW. writers and thirty-seven Vietnamese writers. All of these characteristics were coded and recorded in Microsoft Excel 2013 (version 15.31. The construction characteristics coded were only extracted from seven characters, which were: ‘g’, ‘h’, ‘th’, ‘M’, ‘0’, ‘7’ and ‘9’. The coded format of the writer, spatial and construction characteristics is made available in this Data in Brief in order to allow others to perform statistical analyses and modelling to investigate whether there is a relationship between the handwriting features and the nationality of the writer, and whether the two nationalities can be differentiated. Furthermore, to employ mathematical techniques that are capable of characterising the extracted features from each participant.

Effects of modality and repetition in a continuous recognition memory task: Repetition has no effect on auditory recognition memory.

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Amir Kassim, Azlina; Rehman, Rehan; Price, Jessica M

2018-04-01

Previous research has shown that auditory recognition memory is poorer compared to visual and cross-modal (visual and auditory) recognition memory. The effect of repetition on memory has been robust in showing improved performance. It is not clear, however, how auditory recognition memory compares to visual and cross-modal recognition memory following repetition. Participants performed a recognition memory task, making old/new discriminations to new stimuli, stimuli repeated for the first time after 4-7 intervening items (R1), or repeated for the second time after 36-39 intervening items (R2). Depending on the condition, participants were either exposed to visual stimuli (2D line drawings), auditory stimuli (spoken words), or cross-modal stimuli (pairs of images and associated spoken words). Results showed that unlike participants in the visual and cross-modal conditions, participants in the auditory recognition did not show improvements in performance on R2 trials compared to R1 trials. These findings have implications for pedagogical techniques in education, as well as for interventions and exercises aimed at boosting memory performance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Learning through hand- or typewriting influences visual recognition of new graphic shapes: behavioral and functional imaging evidence.

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Longcamp, Marieke; Boucard, Céline; Gilhodes, Jean-Claude; Anton, Jean-Luc; Roth, Muriel; Nazarian, Bruno; Velay, Jean-Luc

2008-05-01

Fast and accurate visual recognition of single characters is crucial for efficient reading. We explored the possible contribution of writing memory to character recognition processes. We evaluated the ability of adults to discriminate new characters from their mirror images after being taught how to produce the characters either by traditional pen-and-paper writing or with a computer keyboard. After training, we found stronger and longer lasting (several weeks) facilitation in recognizing the orientation of characters that had been written by hand compared to those typed. Functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings indicated that the response mode during learning is associated with distinct pathways during recognition of graphic shapes. Greater activity related to handwriting learning and normal letter identification was observed in several brain regions known to be involved in the execution, imagery, and observation of actions, in particular, the left Broca's area and bilateral inferior parietal lobules. Taken together, these results provide strong arguments in favor of the view that the specific movements memorized when learning how to write participate in the visual recognition of graphic shapes and letters.

Profiling of glycan receptors for minute virus of mice in permissive cell lines towards understanding the mechanism of cell recognition.

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Sujata Halder

Full Text Available The recognition of sialic acids by two strains of minute virus of mice (MVM, MVMp (prototype and MVMi (immunosuppressive, is an essential requirement for successful infection. To understand the potential for recognition of different modifications of sialic acid by MVM, three types of capsids, virus-like particles, wild type empty (no DNA capsids, and DNA packaged virions, were screened on a sialylated glycan microarray (SGM. Both viruses demonstrated a preference for binding to 9-O-methylated sialic acid derivatives, while MVMp showed additional binding to 9-O-acetylated and 9-O-lactoylated sialic acid derivatives, indicating recognition differences. The glycans recognized contained a type-2 Galβ1-4GlcNAc motif (Neu5Acα2-3Galβ1-4GlcNAc or 3'SIA-LN and were biantennary complex-type N-glycans with the exception of one. To correlate the recognition of the 3'SIA-LN glycan motif as well as the biantennary structures to their natural expression in cell lines permissive for MVMp, MVMi, or both strains, the N- and O-glycans, and polar glycolipids present in three cell lines used for in vitro studies, A9 fibroblasts, EL4 T lymphocytes, and the SV40 transformed NB324K cells, were analyzed by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. The cells showed an abundance of the sialylated glycan motifs recognized by the viruses in the SGM and previous glycan microarrays supporting their role in cellular recognition by MVM. Significantly, the NB324K showed fucosylation at the non-reducing end of their biantennary glycans, suggesting that recognition of these cells is possibly mediated by the Lewis X motif as in 3'SIA-Le(X identified in a previous glycan microarray screen.

Both Handwriting Speed and Selective Attention Are Important to Lecture Note-Taking

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Peverly, Stephen T.; Garner, Joanna K.; Vekaria, Pooja C.

2014-01-01

The primary purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship of handwriting speed, fine motor fluency, speed of verbal access, language comprehension, working memory, and attention (executive control; selective) to note-taking and all of the aforementioned variables to test performance (written recall). A second purpose was to…

UPX: a new XML representation for annotated datasets of online handwriting data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Agrawal, M.; Bali, K.; Madhvanath, S.; Vuurpijl, L.G.

2005-01-01

This paper introduces our efforts to create UPX, an XML-based successor to the venerable UNIPEN format for the representation of annotated datasets of online handwriting data. In the first part of the paper, shortcomins of the UNIPEN format are dicussed and the goals of UPX are outlined. Prior work

Perception of the Cursive Handwriting Movement in Writers and Pre-Writers

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Bonneton-Botté, Nathalie; Bara, Florence; Marec-Breton, Nathalie; De La Haye-Nicolas, Fanny; Gonthier, Corentin

2018-01-01

The objective of this study was to confirm the existence of knowledge relating to the cursive writing movement for French pupils in 3rd year of kindergarten, 2nd grade and 5th grade of elementary school. 141 pupils were asked to watch a visual presentation of cursive handwriting to determine whether they were able to detect violations of two rules…

Evaluation of adolescents' self-esteem through the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory and graphometric analysis of students' handwriting.

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Wellingham-Jones, P

1987-10-01

Self-esteem has long been considered an essential component of good mental health. Coopersmith's Self-esteem Inventory and Wellingham-Jones Self-esteem Values List applied to handwritings were given to 15- to 19-yr.-old students to explore the former's usefulness in designing programs to enhance self-esteem. Students were from 4 high schools representing the socioeconomic range of a small rural California city. Handwritings of the 25 students scoring highest and the 25 scoring lowest on self-esteem were graphometrically evaluated. Chi squared showed total agreement between the two tests in 62% of the cases, partial agreement in 30%, complete disagreement in 8%. This suggests Coopersmith's inventory may be a useful tool for school administrators, provided its limitations are understood. Similarities and differences between and within the high and low self-esteem groups were discussed.

To Write or to Type? The Effects of Handwriting and Word-Processing on the Written Style of Examination Essays

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Mogey, Nora; Hartley, James

2013-01-01

There is much debate about whether or not these days students should be able to word-process essay-type examinations as opposed to handwriting them, particularly when they are asked to word-process everything else. This study used word-processing software to examine the stylistic features of 13 examination essays written by hand and 24 by…

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation to the cerebellum improves handwriting and cyclic drawing kinematics in focal hand dystonia.

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Bradnam, Lynley V; Graetz, Lynton J; McDonnell, Michelle N; Ridding, Michael C

2015-01-01

There is increasing evidence that the cerebellum has a role in the pathophysiology of primary focal hand dystonia and might provide an intervention target for non-invasive brain stimulation to improve function of the affected hand. The primary objective of this study was to determine if cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improves handwriting and cyclic drawing kinematics in people with hand dystonia, by reducing cerebellar-brain inhibition (CBI) evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Eight people with dystonia (5 writer's dystonia, 3 musician's dystonia) and eight age-matched controls completed the study and underwent cerebellar anodal, cathodal and sham tDCS in separate sessions. Dystonia severity was assessed using the Writer's Cramp Rating Scale (WRCS) and the Arm Dystonia Disability Scale (ADDS). The kinematic measures that differentiated the groups were; mean stroke frequency during handwriting and fast cyclic drawing and average pen pressure during light cyclic drawing. TMS measures of cortical excitability were no different between people with FHD and controls. There was a moderate, negative relationship between TMS-evoked CBI at baseline and the WRCS in dystonia. Anodal cerebellar tDCS reduced handwriting mean stroke frequency and average pen pressure, and increased speed and reduced pen pressure during fast cyclic drawing. Kinematic measures were not associated with a decrease in CBI within an individual. In conclusion, cerebellar anodal tDCS appeared to improve kinematics of handwriting and circle drawing tasks; but the underlying neurophysiological mechanism remains uncertain. A study in a larger homogeneous population is needed to further investigate the possible therapeutic benefit of cerebellar tDCS in dystonia.

Handwriting tics in Tourette’s syndrome: a single center study.

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Carlotta eZanaboni Dina

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Tourette’s syndrome (TS is a neurodevelopmental disorder typically defined by multiple motor tics and at least one sound tic (1, beginning in childhood or in adolescence. More recently, Tourette’s syndrome has been acknowledged as a broad spectrum syndrome (2, including different comorbidities and coexisting symptoms. When beginning in early childhood TS mainly presents with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD and tics, when beginning in adolescence instead tics and obsessive-compulsive behavior or disorder (OCB/OCD are predominant. OCB/OCD trait is present in 60-80% of patients (3, and they are considered as thought tics (4. In many cases motor and sound tics resolve spontaneously in adulthood, though OCB/OCD generally remain. Tics often interfere with subject’s daily activities (5 affecting Quality of Life and causing Social Impairment, particularly in schooling and working. Handwriting is one of the most impaired school activity for TS patients because of the tics presence that hamper learning processes.In our clinical experience handwriting tics (HT could severely affect and condition TS subjects, but they are not often pointed out in the Literature. For this reason there are not precise data regarding the incidence of HT neither in Tourette’s syndrome patients nor in healthy population.

Three-dimensional movement analysis of handwriting in subjects with mild hemiparesis.

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Harada, Takako; Okajima, Yasutomo; Takahashi, Hidetoshi

2010-08-01

To investigate the effects of hemiparesis on handwriting using a 3-dimensional movement analyzer. Comparative case study. Ambulatory care clinic. Right-handed patients (n=25; mean age +/- SD, 62.3+/-10y) with mild right hemiparesis secondary to subcortical stroke, and age-matched (n=10; 65.6+/-13y) and age-unmatched (n=15; 32.4+/-10y) control subjects. Not applicable. Time required to write a Japanese character of 2 different sizes and average speed of handwriting at the pen tip. Average radii of tracks of the moving pen tip, metacarpal head of the index finger, and distal end of the forearm during writing. Correlation coefficients of the instantaneous speed-time graph of the pen tip with that of the index finger and with that of the distal forearm during writing. Time for writing with the hemiparetic right hand was longer than that with the unaffected left hand (P=.05 approximately .03), while it was shorter in healthy control subjects (P=.07 approximately .05). In contrast with the left-hand writing, the track radius of the pen tip of the right-hand writing in patients with hemiparesis with normal joint position sense was significantly larger than that of the finger or distal forearm (P=.01). The finding was the same as in the young and elderly control subjects. This right-left difference disappeared in the patients with hemiparesis with position sense impairment. The correlation coefficient of speed between the pen tip and the finger was larger in right-hand than left-hand writing in the control and sensory-normative patients with hemiparesis even though the difference was significant only in the healthy elderly subjects (P=.03). Irrespective of the right or left hand use, the correlation coefficient between the pen tip and the finger or distal forearm significantly increased as the character size increased (P=.03 approximately 6 x10(-6)) in all subjects and patients. However, this size-related difference was less significant in the patients with sensory

Handwriting: Feature Correlation Analysis for Biometric Hashes

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Vielhauer, Claus; Steinmetz, Ralf

2004-12-01

In the application domain of electronic commerce, biometric authentication can provide one possible solution for the key management problem. Besides server-based approaches, methods of deriving digital keys directly from biometric measures appear to be advantageous. In this paper, we analyze one of our recently published specific algorithms of this category based on behavioral biometrics of handwriting, the biometric hash. Our interest is to investigate to which degree each of the underlying feature parameters contributes to the overall intrapersonal stability and interpersonal value space. We will briefly discuss related work in feature evaluation and introduce a new methodology based on three components: the intrapersonal scatter (deviation), the interpersonal entropy, and the correlation between both measures. Evaluation of the technique is presented based on two data sets of different size. The method presented will allow determination of effects of parameterization of the biometric system, estimation of value space boundaries, and comparison with other feature selection approaches.

Handwriting: Feature Correlation Analysis for Biometric Hashes

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Ralf Steinmetz

2004-04-01

Full Text Available In the application domain of electronic commerce, biometric authentication can provide one possible solution for the key management problem. Besides server-based approaches, methods of deriving digital keys directly from biometric measures appear to be advantageous. In this paper, we analyze one of our recently published specific algorithms of this category based on behavioral biometrics of handwriting, the biometric hash. Our interest is to investigate to which degree each of the underlying feature parameters contributes to the overall intrapersonal stability and interpersonal value space. We will briefly discuss related work in feature evaluation and introduce a new methodology based on three components: the intrapersonal scatter (deviation, the interpersonal entropy, and the correlation between both measures. Evaluation of the technique is presented based on two data sets of different size. The method presented will allow determination of effects of parameterization of the biometric system, estimation of value space boundaries, and comparison with other feature selection approaches.

Application of A Computer Animation Technique to Assist the Teaching of Pre-Handwriting Skills to Children with Coordination Difficulties/Dyspraxia

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Othman Muhammad Fakri

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We have proposed a method to assist children with coordination difficulties or dyspraxia to improve their handwriting skills. We have chosen an animation technique called ‘Rotoscopy’, a method that normally been used in animation and film production and adapted it to Rotoscopy Prehandwriting Interface (RPI prototypes using the interactive whiteboard (IWB as interaction device. The motivation of this research is to discover how efficient if Rotoscopy is used beyond its normal purposes? Does it give benefits in terms of behavioural and motivational aspect rather than commercial and profit point of view? Implementation of RPI prototypes has taken place through series of workshops with a teacher and a group of children with handwriting difficulties at a special education school in Caerphilly, Cardiff, United Kingdom. In the workshops children were given pre-handwriting activities in two different environments. They have been trained to use RPI prototypes and IWB as well as using pen and paper. Their activities and action has been observed and recorded using video camera. Evaluation method is based-on video analysis of children’s pre-handwriting result and their reaction and motivation during the workshop. It was learnt that majority of children who used RPI prototypes and IWB have produced better results in terms of accuracy of the drawing as compared to results of pen and paper activities. Furthermore the children are more motivated to use the prototypes and IWB rather than using pen and paper. The study’s contribution includes offering a new way to improve children’s prehandwriting skills using computer animation technique and touch-based devices.

Teaching Handwriting to Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities: A Problem-Solving Approach

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Datchuk, Shawn

2015-01-01

Problems with handwriting can negatively impact the writing of students with learning disabilities. In this article, an example is provided of a fourth-grade special education teacher's efforts to assist a new student by using a problem-solving approach to help determine an efficient course of action for special education teachers who are trying…

Pattern recognition in high energy physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tenner, A.G.

1980-01-01

In high energy physics experiments tracks of elementary particles are recorded by different types of equipment. Coordinates of points of these tracks have to be measured for the geometrical reconstruction and the further analysis of the observed events. Pattern recognition methods may facilitate the detection of tracks or whole events and the separation of relevant from non-relevant information. They may also serve for the automation of measurement. Generally, all work is done by digital computation. In a bubble chamber tracks appear as strings of vapour bubbles that can be recorded photographically. Two methods of pattern recognition are discussed. The flying spot digitizer encodes the pattern on the photograph into point coordinates in the memory of a computer. The computer carries out the pattern recognition procedure entirely on the basis of the stored information. Cathode ray instruments scan the photograph by means of a computer steered optical device. Data acquisition from the film is performed in a feedback loop of the computation. In electronic experimental equipment tracks are defined by the spacial distribution of hits of counters (wire counters, scintillation counters, spark chambers). Pattern recognition is generally performed in various stages both by on-line and off-line equipment. Problems in the data handling arise both from the great abundance of data and from the time limits imposed on the on-line computation by high measuring rates. The on-line computation is carried out by hardwired logic, small computers, and to an increasing extent by microprocessors. (Auth.)

Integrating Eye Trackers with Handwriting Tablets to Discover Difficulties of Solving Geometry Problems

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Lin, John J. H.; Lin, Sunny S. J.

2018-01-01

To deepen our understanding of those aspects of problems that cause the most difficulty for solvers, this study integrated eye-tracking with handwriting devices to investigate problem solvers' online processes while solving geometry problems. We are interested in whether the difference between successful and unsuccessful solvers can be identified…

Study on recognition algorithm for paper currency numbers based on neural network

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Li, Xiuyan; Liu, Tiegen; Li, Yuanyao; Zhang, Zhongchuan; Deng, Shichao

2008-12-01

Based on the unique characteristic, the paper currency numbers can be put into record and the automatic identification equipment for paper currency numbers is supplied to currency circulation market in order to provide convenience for financial sectors to trace the fiduciary circulation socially and provide effective supervision on paper currency. Simultaneously it is favorable for identifying forged notes, blacklisting the forged notes numbers and solving the major social problems, such as armor cash carrier robbery, money laundering. For the purpose of recognizing the paper currency numbers, a recognition algorithm based on neural network is presented in the paper. Number lines in original paper currency images can be draw out through image processing, such as image de-noising, skew correction, segmentation, and image normalization. According to the different characteristics between digits and letters in serial number, two kinds of classifiers are designed. With the characteristics of associative memory, optimization-compute and rapid convergence, the Discrete Hopfield Neural Network (DHNN) is utilized to recognize the letters; with the characteristics of simple structure, quick learning and global optimum, the Radial-Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) is adopted to identify the digits. Then the final recognition results are obtained by combining the two kinds of recognition results in regular sequence. Through the simulation tests, it is confirmed by simulation results that the recognition algorithm of combination of two kinds of recognition methods has such advantages as high recognition rate and faster recognition simultaneously, which is worthy of broad application prospect.

A Comparison of the Handwriting Abilities of Secondary Students with Visual Impairments and Those of Sighted Students

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Harris-Brown, Talitha; Richmond, Janet; Maddalena, Sebastian Della; Jaworski, Alinta

2015-01-01

Despite the large number of people with visual impairments in Australia, all Western Australian secondary students are required to complete their secondary exams using handwriting, unless they qualify for special provisions. Students with visual impairments do not necessarily qualify for special provisions on the basis of their visual impairment…

A Longitudinal Study of Handwriting Skills in Pre-Schoolers: The Acquisition of Syllable Oriented Programming Strategies

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Soler Vilageliu, Olga; Kandel, Sonia

2012-01-01

Previous studies have shown the relevance of the syllable as a programming unit in handwriting production, both in adults and elementary school children. This longitudinal study focuses on the acquisition of writing skills in a group of preschoolers. It examines how and when the syllable structure of the word starts regulating motor programming in…

Examining the Contribution of Handwriting and Spelling to Written Expression in Kindergarten Children

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Puranik, Cynthia S.; AlOtaiba, Stephanie

2012-01-01

In this study, we examined the development of beginning writing skills in kindergarten children and the contribution of spelling and handwriting to these writing skills after accounting for early language, literacy, cognitive skills, and student characteristics. Two hundred and forty two children were given a battery of cognitive, oral language,…

Handwriting Development in Spanish Children with and without Learning Disabilities: A Graphonomic Approach

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Barrientos, Pablo

2017-01-01

The central purpose of this study was to analyze the dynamics of handwriting movements in real time for Spanish students in early grades with and without learning disabilities. The sample consisted of 120 children from Grades 1 through 3 (primary education), classified into two groups: with learning disabilities and without learning disabilities.…

Handwriting, Spelling, and Narrative Competence in the Fictional Stories of Italian Primary-School Children

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Longobardi, Emiddia; Spataro, Pietro; Pizzicannella, Emiliano

2018-01-01

Previous studies with English-speaking children showed that handwriting and spelling abilities played a critical role in the development of writing fluency and quality, particularly during the transition from the kindergarten to primary school; in contrast, studies dealing with orthographically transparent languages found small or no relations…

Chinese character recognition based on Gabor feature extraction and CNN

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Xiong, Yudian; Lu, Tongwei; Jiang, Yongyuan

2018-03-01

As an important application in the field of text line recognition and office automation, Chinese character recognition has become an important subject of pattern recognition. However, due to the large number of Chinese characters and the complexity of its structure, there is a great difficulty in the Chinese character recognition. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a method of printed Chinese character recognition based on Gabor feature extraction and Convolution Neural Network(CNN). The main steps are preprocessing, feature extraction, training classification. First, the gray-scale Chinese character image is binarized and normalized to reduce the redundancy of the image data. Second, each image is convoluted with Gabor filter with different orientations, and the feature map of the eight orientations of Chinese characters is extracted. Third, the feature map through Gabor filters and the original image are convoluted with learning kernels, and the results of the convolution is the input of pooling layer. Finally, the feature vector is used to classify and recognition. In addition, the generalization capacity of the network is improved by Dropout technology. The experimental results show that this method can effectively extract the characteristics of Chinese characters and recognize Chinese characters.

Development of Chinese Handwriting Skills among Kindergarten Children: Copying of the Composition in Chinese Characters and Name Writing

Science.gov (United States)

Tse, Linda F. L.; Siu, Andrew M. H.; Li-Tsang, Cecilia W. P.

2017-01-01

Although copying and name writing skills are regarded as the indicators of handwriting development in alphabetic writing systems, there is limited information on logographs such as Chinese. Chinese characters are not only simply a combination of strokes as letters in English, but also place a great demand on visuospatial ability to maintain good…

Factors Influencing Student Preference When Comparing Handwriting and Typing for Essay Style Examinations

Science.gov (United States)

Mogey, Nora; Fluck, Andrew

2015-01-01

It seems anachronistic that we expect students to handwrite essay examinations when almost all their other work is mediated by computer. Two universities, one in the UK and one in Australia, are exploring the use of computers in free text response examinations. This paper compares both the attitudes and the behaviours of their students concerning…

Sequence for the Training of Eye-Hand Coordination Needed for the Organization of Handwriting Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Trester, Mary Fran

1971-01-01

Suggested is a sequence of 11 class activities, progressing from gross to fine motor skills, to assist the development of skills required to perform handwriting tasks successfully, for use particularly with children who lack fine motor control and eye-hand coordination. (KW)

A Bayesian computational model for online character recognition and disability assessment during cursive eye writing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julien eDiard

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This research involves a novel apparatus, in which the user is presented with an illusion inducing visual stimulus. The user perceives illusory movement that can be followed by the eye, so that smooth pursuit eye movements can be sustained in arbitrary directions. Thus, free-flow trajectories of any shape can be traced. In other words, coupled with an eye-tracking device, this apparatus enables "eye writing", which appears to be an original object of study. We adapt a previous model of reading and writing to this context. We describe a probabilistic model called the Bayesian Action-Perception for Eye On-Line model (BAP-EOL. It encodes probabilistic knowledge about isolated letter trajectories, their size, high-frequency components of the produced trajectory, and pupil diameter. We show how Bayesian inference, in this single model, can be used to solve several tasks, like letter recognition and novelty detection (i.e., recognizing when a presented character is not part of the learned database. We are interested in the potential use of the eye writing apparatus by motor impaired patients: the final task we solve by Bayesian inference is disability assessment (i.e., measuring and tracking the evolution of motor characteristics of produced trajectories. Preliminary experimental results are presented, which illustrate the method, showing the feasibility of character recognition in the context of eye writing. We then show experimentally how a model of the unknown character can be used to detect trajectories that are likely to be new symbols, and how disability assessment can be performed by opportunistically observing characteristics of fine motor control, as letter are being traced. Experimental analyses also help identify specificities of eye writing, as compared to handwriting, and the resulting technical challenges.

Does the Handwriting Style Learned in First Grade Determine the Style Used in the Fourth and Fifth Grades and Influence Handwriting Speed and Quality? A Comparison between French and Quebec Children

Science.gov (United States)

Bara, Florence; Morin, Marie-France

2013-01-01

An important issue relating to the teaching of handwriting concerns the style that should be learned at school (manuscript or cursive). Whereas some countries choose to teach both styles (e.g., Canada), other countries choose to teach only one (e.g., France). Our research had three main underlying goals, namely (1) to observe and describe the…

Use of the recognition heuristic depends on the domain's recognition validity, not on the recognition validity of selected sets of objects.

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Pohl, Rüdiger F; Michalkiewicz, Martha; Erdfelder, Edgar; Hilbig, Benjamin E

2017-07-01

According to the recognition-heuristic theory, decision makers solve paired comparisons in which one object is recognized and the other not by recognition alone, inferring that recognized objects have higher criterion values than unrecognized ones. However, success-and thus usefulness-of this heuristic depends on the validity of recognition as a cue, and adaptive decision making, in turn, requires that decision makers are sensitive to it. To this end, decision makers could base their evaluation of the recognition validity either on the selected set of objects (the set's recognition validity), or on the underlying domain from which the objects were drawn (the domain's recognition validity). In two experiments, we manipulated the recognition validity both in the selected set of objects and between domains from which the sets were drawn. The results clearly show that use of the recognition heuristic depends on the domain's recognition validity, not on the set's recognition validity. In other words, participants treat all sets as roughly representative of the underlying domain and adjust their decision strategy adaptively (only) with respect to the more general environment rather than the specific items they are faced with.

Automated Linguistic Personality Description and Recognition Methods

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Danylyuk Illya

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background: The relevance of our research, above all, is theoretically motivated by the development of extraordinary scientific and practical interest in the possibilities of language processing of huge amount of data generated by people in everyday professional and personal life in the electronic forms of communication (e-mail, sms, voice, audio and video blogs, social networks, etc.. Purpose: The purpose of the article is to describe the theoretical and practical framework of the project "Communicative-pragmatic and discourse-grammatical lingvopersonology: structuring linguistic identity and computer modeling". The description of key techniques is given, such as machine learning for language modeling, speech synthesis, handwriting simulation. Results: Lingvopersonology developed some great theoretical foundations, its methods, tools, and significant achievements let us predict that the newest promising trend is a linguistic identity modeling by means of information technology, including language. We see three aspects of the modeling: 1 modeling the semantic level of linguistic identity – by means of the use of corpus linguistics; 2 sound level formal modeling of linguistic identity – with the help of speech synthesis; 3 formal graphic level modeling of linguistic identity – with the help of image synthesis (handwriting. For the first case, we suppose to use machine learning technics and vector-space (word2vec algorithm for textual speech modeling. Hybrid CUTE method for personality speech modeling will be applied to the second case. Finally, trained with the person handwriting images neural network can be an instrument for the last case. Discussion: The project "Communicative-pragmatic, discourse, and grammatical lingvopersonology: structuring linguistic identity and computer modeling", which is implementing by the Department of General and Applied Linguistics and Slavonic philology, selected a task to model Yuriy Shevelyov (Sherekh�

Model-based recognition of 3-D objects by geometric hashing technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Severcan, M.; Uzunalioglu, H.

1992-09-01

A model-based object recognition system is developed for recognition of polyhedral objects. The system consists of feature extraction, modelling and matching stages. Linear features are used for object descriptions. Lines are obtained from edges using rotation transform. For modelling and recognition process, geometric hashing method is utilized. Each object is modelled using 2-D views taken from the viewpoints on the viewing sphere. A hidden line elimination algorithm is used to find these views from the wire frame model of the objects. The recognition experiments yielded satisfactory results. (author). 8 refs, 5 figs

Experiences of handwriting and using a computerized ATD in school: adolescents with Asperger's syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Breivik, Ingrid; Hemmingsson, Helena

2013-09-01

Adolescents with Asperger's syndrome (AS), often have handwriting difficulties that affect their academic performance. The purpose of this descriptive multiple-case mixed-method study was to highlight how adolescents with AS experience writing in the school setting when writing by hand and when using a computerized Assistive Technology Device (ATD), for writing. A qualitative content analysis approach was used, including interviews with five adolescents, their parents, and their teachers. This was complemented by asking the adolescents to rate their perceived performance and satisfaction of writing with and without the ATD. All adolescents described handwriting difficulties, but a reduced ability to express oneself in writing was also common. Initiating and completing writing tasks was often so demanding that it caused resistance to the activity. Several advantages when using the ATD were described by the participants and the self-ratings showed higher scores for performance of and satisfaction with writing when the ATD was used. The results show that teachers' encouragement seemed to be important for the initiation and continuation of use of the ATD.

Finger Vein Recognition Based on Local Directional Code

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Xianjing; Yang, Gongping; Yin, Yilong; Xiao, Rongyang

2012-01-01

Finger vein patterns are considered as one of the most promising biometric authentication methods for its security and convenience. Most of the current available finger vein recognition methods utilize features from a segmented blood vessel network. As an improperly segmented network may degrade the recognition accuracy, binary pattern based methods are proposed, such as Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Local Derivative Pattern (LDP) and Local Line Binary Pattern (LLBP). However, the rich directional information hidden in the finger vein pattern has not been fully exploited by the existing local patterns. Inspired by the Webber Local Descriptor (WLD), this paper represents a new direction based local descriptor called Local Directional Code (LDC) and applies it to finger vein recognition. In LDC, the local gradient orientation information is coded as an octonary decimal number. Experimental results show that the proposed method using LDC achieves better performance than methods using LLBP. PMID:23202194

Finger Vein Recognition Based on Local Directional Code

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Rongyang Xiao

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Finger vein patterns are considered as one of the most promising biometric authentication methods for its security and convenience. Most of the current available finger vein recognition methods utilize features from a segmented blood vessel network. As an improperly segmented network may degrade the recognition accuracy, binary pattern based methods are proposed, such as Local Binary Pattern (LBP, Local Derivative Pattern (LDP and Local Line Binary Pattern (LLBP. However, the rich directional information hidden in the finger vein pattern has not been fully exploited by the existing local patterns. Inspired by the Webber Local Descriptor (WLD, this paper represents a new direction based local descriptor called Local Directional Code (LDC and applies it to finger vein recognition. In LDC, the local gradient orientation information is coded as an octonary decimal number. Experimental results show that the proposed method using LDC achieves better performance than methods using LLBP.

End-Stop Exemplar Based Recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Søren I.

2003-01-01

An approach to exemplar based recognition of visual shapes is presented. The shape information is described by attributed interest points (keys) detected by an end-stop operator. The attributes describe the statistics of lines and edges local to the interest point, the position of neighboring int...... interest points, and (in the training phase) a list of recognition names. Recognition is made by a simple voting procedure. Preliminary experiments indicate that the recognition is robust to noise, small deformations, background clutter and partial occlusion....

Means of Ensuring Information Security and Experimental Study of the Efficiency of Forensic Handwriting Techniques

OpenAIRE

Sergey Dmitrievich Kulik; Konstantin Igorevich Tkachenko; Denis Arturovich Nikonets

2013-01-01

This article deals with the special means, which allow to protect the information in the document. They are an integral part of the automated tools of ensuring the information security. It is proposed the use of a special input device PC Notes Taker. The results of experimental verification of the effectiveness of forensic handwriting techniques are described.

Age-Related Evolution Patterns in Online Handwriting

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Characterizing age from handwriting (HW) has important applications, as it is key to distinguishing normal HW evolution with age from abnormal HW change, potentially triggered by neurodegenerative decline. We propose, in this work, an original approach for online HW style characterization based on a two-level clustering scheme. The first level generates writer-independent word clusters from raw spatial-dynamic HW information. At the second level, each writer's words are converted into a Bag of Prototype Words that is augmented by an interword stability measure. This two-level HW style representation is input to an unsupervised learning technique, aiming at uncovering HW style categories and their correlation with age. To assess the effectiveness of our approach, we propose information theoretic measures to quantify the gain on age information from each clustering layer. We have carried out extensive experiments on a large public online HW database, augmented by HW samples acquired at Broca Hospital in Paris from people mostly between 60 and 85 years old. Unlike previous works claiming that there is only one pattern of HW change with age, our study reveals three major aging HW styles, one specific to aged people and the two others shared by other age groups. PMID:27752277

Recognition and automatic tracking of weld line in fringe welding by autonomous mobile robot with visual sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suga, Yasuo; Saito, Keishin; Ishii, Hideaki.

1994-01-01

An autonomous mobile robot with visual sensor and four driving axes for welding of pipe and fringe was constructed. The robot can move along a pipe, and detect the weld line to be welded by visual sensor. Moreover, in order to perform welding automatically, the tip of welding torch can track the weld line of the joint by rotating the robot head. In the case of welding of pipe and fringe, the robot can detect the contact angle between the two base metals to be welded, and the torch angle changes according to the contact angle. As the result of tracking test by the robot system, it was made clear that the recognition of geometry of the joint by the laser lighting method and automatic tracking of weld line were possible. The average tracking error was ±0.3 mm approximately and the torch angle could be always kept at the optimum angle. (author)

License plate recognition (phase B).

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-01

License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology has been used for off-line automobile enforcement purposes. The technology has seen mixed success with correct reading rate as high as 60 to 80% depending on the specific application and environment. This li...

Examining ERP correlates of recognition memory: Evidence of accurate source recognition without recollection

Science.gov (United States)

Addante, Richard, J.; Ranganath, Charan; Yonelinas, Andrew, P.

2012-01-01

Recollection is typically associated with high recognition confidence and accurate source memory. However, subjects sometimes make accurate source memory judgments even for items that are not confidently recognized, and it is not known whether these responses are based on recollection or some other memory process. In the current study, we measured event related potentials (ERPs) while subjects made item and source memory confidence judgments in order to determine whether recollection supported accurate source recognition responses for items that were not confidently recognized. In line with previous studies, we found that recognition memory was associated with two ERP effects: an early on-setting FN400 effect, and a later parietal old-new effect [Late Positive Component (LPC)], which have been associated with familiarity and recollection, respectively. The FN400 increased gradually with item recognition confidence, whereas the LPC was only observed for highly confident recognition responses. The LPC was also related to source accuracy, but only for items that had received a high confidence item recognition response; accurate source judgments to items that were less confidently recognized did not exhibit the typical ERP correlate of recollection or familiarity, but rather showed a late, broadly distributed negative ERP difference. The results indicate that accurate source judgments of episodic context can occur even when recollection fails. PMID:22548808

Employing Handwriting without Tears® to Teach a 4-Year-Old Preschool Student to Write His Name with the Appropriate Size, Shape, and Form Combined with an Imitate/Trace/Copy/Memory Procedure

Science.gov (United States)

Steele, Emalia C.; McLaughlin, Thomas; Derby, K. Mark; Weber, Kimberly P.; Donica, Denise K.; McKenzie, Michelle

2015-01-01

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the prewriting and handwriting curriculum Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) in a preschool setting with a single student who has developmental delays and a suspected Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. Data were collected during the regular preschool day. The behavior…

Means of Ensuring Information Security and Experimental Study of the Efficiency of Forensic Handwriting Techniques

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergey Dmitrievich Kulik

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This article deals with the special means, which allow to protect the information in the document. They are an integral part of the automated tools of ensuring the information security. It is proposed the use of a special input device PC Notes Taker. The results of experimental verification of the effectiveness of forensic handwriting techniques are described.

Retrival experience as an accurate indicator of person identification in line-ups

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María José Contreras

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Responses in eyewitness identification of a person in a line-up may be based on two types of recovery experiences, remember and know experiences. Remember responses involve eyewitness identification of the target person as an episodic memory task, because it implies retrieving information about the target person in the place and at the time of the event. Know responses, in contrast, engage recognition based on familiarity or perceptual facilitation, that is, as a semantic memory task. To explore the relation between retrieval experiences and recognition accuracy, 86 participants took part in a recognition task with two conditions: one with an interpolated target absent line-up and the other only with the target present line-up. Accuracy of recognition and retrieval experience was measured. The results showed that, having previously participated in a target-absent line-up, increased omissions, while the number of hits decreased. Furthermore, participants’ know responses were associated to false recognition, whilst remember responses were associated to hits in recognition. Thus, asking eyewitnesses to inform about the kind of retrieval experience in which they based their recognition responses, may serve as a reliable indicator of accuracy in recognition. Future studies are needed to investigate whether this is also the case in natural settings.

Speech Recognition on Mobile Devices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tan, Zheng-Hua; Lindberg, Børge

2010-01-01

in the mobile context covering motivations, challenges, fundamental techniques and applications. Three ASR architectures are introduced: embedded speech recognition, distributed speech recognition and network speech recognition. Their pros and cons and implementation issues are discussed. Applications within......The enthusiasm of deploying automatic speech recognition (ASR) on mobile devices is driven both by remarkable advances in ASR technology and by the demand for efficient user interfaces on such devices as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). This chapter presents an overview of ASR...

Using features of local densities, statistics and HMM toolkit (HTK for offline Arabic handwriting text recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

El Moubtahij Hicham

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an analytical approach of an offline handwritten Arabic text recognition system. It is based on the Hidden Markov Models (HMM Toolkit (HTK without explicit segmentation. The first phase is preprocessing, where the data is introduced in the system after quality enhancements. Then, a set of characteristics (features of local densities and features statistics are extracted by using the technique of sliding windows. Subsequently, the resulting feature vectors are injected to the Hidden Markov Model Toolkit (HTK. The simple database “Arabic-Numbers” and IFN/ENIT are used to evaluate the performance of this system. Keywords: Hidden Markov Models (HMM Toolkit (HTK, Sliding windows

Convolutional Neural Network-Based Finger-Vein Recognition Using NIR Image Sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Hyung Gil; Lee, Min Beom; Park, Kang Ryoung

2017-06-06

Conventional finger-vein recognition systems perform recognition based on the finger-vein lines extracted from the input images or image enhancement, and texture feature extraction from the finger-vein images. In these cases, however, the inaccurate detection of finger-vein lines lowers the recognition accuracy. In the case of texture feature extraction, the developer must experimentally decide on a form of the optimal filter for extraction considering the characteristics of the image database. To address this problem, this research proposes a finger-vein recognition method that is robust to various database types and environmental changes based on the convolutional neural network (CNN). In the experiments using the two finger-vein databases constructed in this research and the SDUMLA-HMT finger-vein database, which is an open database, the method proposed in this research showed a better performance compared to the conventional methods.

Design of handwriting drawing board based on common copper clad laminate

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hongyuan; Gao, Wenzhi; Wang, Yuan

2015-02-01

Handwriting drawing board is not only a subject which can be used to write and draw, but also a method to measure and process weak signals. This design adopts 8051 single chip microprocessor as the main controller. It applies a constant-current source[1][2] to copper plate and collects the voltage value according to the resistance divider effect. Then it amplifies the signal with low-noise and high-precision amplifier[3] AD620 which is placed in the low impedance and anti-interference pen. It converts analog signal to digital signal by an 11-channel, 12-bit A/D converter TLC2543. Adoption of average filtering algorithm can effectively improve the measuring accuracy, reduce the error and make the collected voltage signal more stable. The accurate position can be detected by scanning the horizontal and vertical ordinates with the analog switch via the internal bridge of module L298 which can change the direction of X-Y axis signal scan. DM12864 is used as man-machine interface and this hominization design is convenient for man-machine communication. This collecting system has high accuracy, high stability and strong anti-interference capability. It's easy to control and has very large development space in the future.

Evaluating fine motor coordination in children who are not ready for handwriting : which test should we take?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Vries, Liesbeth; van Hartingsveldt, Margo J.; Cup, Edith H.C.; Nijhuis-van der Sanden, Maria W.G.; de Groot, Imelda J.M.

2015-01-01

When children are not ready to write, assessment of fine motor coordination may be indicated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate which fine motor test, the Nine-Hole Peg Test (9-HPT) or the newly developed Timed Test of In-Hand Manipulation (Timed-TIHM), correlates best with handwriting

Evaluating fine motor coordination in children who are not ready for handwriting: which test should we take?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vries, L. de; Hartingsveldt, M.J. van; Cup, E.H.C.; Nijhuis-Van der Sanden, M.W.G.; Groot, I.J.M. de

2015-01-01

When children are not ready to write, assessment of fine motor coordination may be indicated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate which fine motor test, the Nine-Hole Peg Test (9-HPT) or the newly developed Timed Test of In-Hand Manipulation (Timed-TIHM), correlates best with handwriting

Kinematic and Pressure Features of Handwriting and Drawing: Preliminary Results Between Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer Disease and Healthy Controls.

Science.gov (United States)

Garre-Olmo, Josep; Faúndez-Zanuy, Marcos; López-de-Ipiña, Karmele; Calvó-Perxas, Laia; Turró-Garriga, Oriol

2017-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative dementia of old age, and the leading chronic disease contributor to disability and dependence among older people worldwide. Clinically, AD is characterized by a progressive cognitive decline that interferes with the ability to perform the activities of daily living. Handwriting and drawing are complex human activities that entail an intricate blend of cognitive, kinesthetic, and perceptual-motor features. To compare the kinematic characteristics of handwriting and drawing between patients with AD, patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy controls. We used a cross-sectional and observational design to assess the kinematic and pressure features of handwriting and drawing using a computerized system. Participants were asked to copy one sentence, write a dictated sentence and an own sentence, copy two and-three dimensions drawings, and to execute the clock drawing test. By means of discriminant analyses, we explored the value of several kinematic features in order to classify participants depending on their degree of cognitive functioning. The sample consisted of 52 participants (23 AD, 12 MCI, and 17 healthy controls) with a mean age of 69.7 years (SD=8.11). The degree of correct classification was largely dependent on the nature of the groups to be classified and the specific task, and ranged between 63.5% and 100%. Diagnostic accuracy based on kinematic measures showed higher specificity values for distinguishing between normal and impaired cognition (MCI and AD), and higher sensitivity was obtained when distinguishing between impaired cognition levels (MCI vs. AD). The kinematic features of writing and drawing procedures, rather than the final product, may be a useful and objective complement to the clinical assessment of patients with cognitive impairment. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Artificial intelligence tools for pattern recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Acevedo, Elena; Acevedo, Antonio; Felipe, Federico; Avilés, Pedro

2017-06-01

In this work, we present a system for pattern recognition that combines the power of genetic algorithms for solving problems and the efficiency of the morphological associative memories. We use a set of 48 tire prints divided into 8 brands of tires. The images have dimensions of 200 x 200 pixels. We applied Hough transform to obtain lines as main features. The number of lines obtained is 449. The genetic algorithm reduces the number of features to ten suitable lines that give thus the 100% of recognition. Morphological associative memories were used as evaluation function. The selection algorithms were Tournament and Roulette wheel. For reproduction, we applied one-point, two-point and uniform crossover.

The memory state heuristic: A formal model based on repeated recognition judgments.

Science.gov (United States)

Castela, Marta; Erdfelder, Edgar

2017-02-01

The recognition heuristic (RH) theory predicts that, in comparative judgment tasks, if one object is recognized and the other is not, the recognized one is chosen. The memory-state heuristic (MSH) extends the RH by assuming that choices are not affected by recognition judgments per se, but by the memory states underlying these judgments (i.e., recognition certainty, uncertainty, or rejection certainty). Specifically, the larger the discrepancy between memory states, the larger the probability of choosing the object in the higher state. The typical RH paradigm does not allow estimation of the underlying memory states because it is unknown whether the objects were previously experienced or not. Therefore, we extended the paradigm by repeating the recognition task twice. In line with high threshold models of recognition, we assumed that inconsistent recognition judgments result from uncertainty whereas consistent judgments most likely result from memory certainty. In Experiment 1, we fitted 2 nested multinomial models to the data: an MSH model that formalizes the relation between memory states and binary choices explicitly and an approximate model that ignores the (unlikely) possibility of consistent guesses. Both models provided converging results. As predicted, reliance on recognition increased with the discrepancy in the underlying memory states. In Experiment 2, we replicated these results and found support for choice consistency predictions of the MSH. Additionally, recognition and choice latencies were in agreement with the MSH in both experiments. Finally, we validated critical parameters of our MSH model through a cross-validation method and a third experiment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Prevention of prescription errors by computerized, on-line, individual patient related surveillance of drug order entry.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliven, A; Zalman, D; Shilankov, Y; Yeshurun, D; Odeh, M

2002-01-01

Computerized prescription of drugs is expected to reduce the number of many preventable drug ordering errors. In the present study we evaluated the usefullness of a computerized drug order entry (CDOE) system in reducing prescription errors. A department of internal medicine using a comprehensive CDOE, which included also patient-related drug-laboratory, drug-disease and drug-allergy on-line surveillance was compared to a similar department in which drug orders were handwritten. CDOE reduced prescription errors to 25-35%. The causes of errors remained similar, and most errors, on both departments, were associated with abnormal renal function and electrolyte balance. Residual errors remaining on the CDOE-using department were due to handwriting on the typed order, failure to feed patients' diseases, and system failures. The use of CDOE was associated with a significant reduction in mean hospital stay and in the number of changes performed in the prescription. The findings of this study both quantity the impact of comprehensive CDOE on prescription errors and delineate the causes for remaining errors.

Research on Face Recognition Based on Embedded System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Zhao

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Because a number of image feature data to store, complex calculation to execute during the face recognition, therefore the face recognition process was realized only by PCs with high performance. In this paper, the OpenCV facial Haar-like features were used to identify face region; the Principal Component Analysis (PCA was employed in quick extraction of face features and the Euclidean Distance was also adopted in face recognition; as thus, data amount and computational complexity would be reduced effectively in face recognition, and the face recognition could be carried out on embedded platform. Finally, based on Tiny6410 embedded platform, a set of embedded face recognition systems was constructed. The test results showed that the system has stable operation and high recognition rate can be used in portable and mobile identification and authentication.

Selective Attention in Vision: Recognition Memory for Superimposed Line Drawings.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldstein, E. Bruce; Fink, Susan I.

1981-01-01

Four experiments show that observers can selectively attend to one of two stationary superimposed pictures. Selective recognition occurred with large displays in which observers were free to make eye movements during a 3-sec exposure and with small displays in which observers were instructed to fixate steadily on a point. (Author/RD)

Survey of Technologies for the Airport Border of the Future

Science.gov (United States)

2014-04-01

layout; they are burgundy in colour with the words "European Union" printed on the cover, accompanied by the name of the issuing EU State. Schengen...34 psychological priming" or " psychological cueing" or crowd w/2 (density or model* or control or management) Airport Border of the Future March 2014...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handwriting_recognition Iris recognition Iris recognition involves analyzing the features in the coloured tissue

The effects of Chinese calligraphy handwriting and relaxation training in Chinese Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xue-Ling; Li, Huan-Huan; Hong, Ming-Huang; Kao, Henry S R

2010-05-01

Chinese calligraphy handwriting is the practice of traditional Chinese brush writing, researches found calligraphy had therapeutic effects on certain diseases, some authors argued that calligraphy might have relaxation effect. This study was to compare the effects of calligraphy handwriting with those of progressive muscle relaxation and imagery training in Chinese Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma patients. This study was a randomized controlled trial. Two hundred and eighty-seven Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma patients were approached, ninety (31%) patients were recruited and randomized to one of the three treatment groups: progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery training group, Calligraphy handwriting group, or a Control group. Seventy-nine (87.8%) completed all of the outcome measures. The primary treatment outcome was the changes of physiological arousal parameters measured by pre- and post-treatment differences of heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate. The secondary outcomes included: modified Chinese version of Symptom Distress Scale, Profile of Mood State-Short Form, and Karnofsky Performance Status measured at baseline, during treatment (after the 2-week intervention), post-treatment (after the 4-week intervention) and after a 2-week follow-up. Effectiveness was tested by repeated measure ANOVA analyses. Cancer centre of a major university hospital in Guangdong, China. Results showed that both of calligraphy and relaxation training demonstrated slow-down effects on physiological arousal parameters. Moreover, calligraphy practice gradually lowered participants' systolic blood pressure (simple main effect of time at pre-treatment measure, p=.007) and respiration rate (p=.000) at pre- and post-treatment measures as the intervention proceeded, though with a smaller effect size as compared to relaxation. Both of calligraphy and relaxation training had certain symptom relief and mood improvement effects in NPC patients. Relaxation was effective in relieving

Handwritten Character Recognition Based on the Specificity and the Singularity of the Arabic Language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Youssef Boulid

2017-08-01

Full Text Available A good Arabic handwritten recognition system must consider the characteristics of Arabic letters which can be explicit such as the presence of diacritics or implicit such as the baseline information (a virtual line on which cursive text are aligned and/join. In order to find an adequate method of features extraction, we have taken into consideration the nature of the Arabic characters. The paper investigate two methods based on two different visions: one describes the image in terms of the distribution of pixels, and the other describes it in terms of local patterns. Spatial Distribution of Pixels (SDP is used according to the first vision; whereas Local Binary Patterns (LBP are used for the second one. Tested on the Arabic portion of the Isolated Farsi Handwritten Character Database (IFHCDB and using neural networks as a classifier, SDP achieve a recognition rate around 94% while LBP achieve a recognition rate of about 96%.

Application of neural network and pattern recognition software to the automated analysis of continuous nuclear monitoring of on-load reactors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howell, J.A.; Eccleston, G.W.; Halbig, J.K.; Klosterbuer, S.F. [Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); Larson, T.W. [California Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo, CA (US)

1993-08-01

Automated analysis using pattern recognition and neural network software can help interpret data, call attention to potential anomalies, and improve safeguards effectiveness. Automated software analysis, based on pattern recognition and neural networks, was applied to data collected from a radiation core discharge monitor system located adjacent to an on-load reactor core. Unattended radiation sensors continuously collect data to monitor on-line refueling operations in the reactor. The huge volume of data collected from a number of radiation channels makes it difficult for a safeguards inspector to review it all, check for consistency among the measurement channels, and find anomalies. Pattern recognition and neural network software can analyze large volumes of data from continuous, unattended measurements, thereby improving and automating the detection of anomalies. The authors developed a prototype pattern recognition program that determines the reactor power level and identifies the times when fuel bundles are pushed through the core during on-line refueling. Neural network models were also developed to predict fuel bundle burnup to calculate the region on the on-load reactor face from which fuel bundles were discharged based on the radiation signals. In the preliminary data set, which was limited and consisted of four distinct burnup regions, the neural network model correctly predicted the burnup region with an accuracy of 92%.

Design considerations for a large-scale image-based text search engine in historical manuscript collections

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schomaker, Lambertus

2016-01-01

This article gives an overview of design considerations for a handwriting search engine based on pattern recognition and high-performance computing, “Monk”. In order to satisfy multiple and often conflicting technological requirements, an architecture is used which heavily relies on high-performance

BanglaLekha-Isolated: A multi-purpose comprehensive dataset of Handwritten Bangla Isolated characters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mithun Biswas

2017-06-01

Full Text Available BanglaLekha-Isolated, a Bangla handwritten isolated character dataset is presented in this article. This dataset contains 84 different characters comprising of 50 Bangla basic characters, 10 Bangla numerals and 24 selected compound characters. 2000 handwriting samples for each of the 84 characters were collected, digitized and pre-processed. After discarding mistakes and scribbles, 1,66,105 handwritten character images were included in the final dataset. The dataset also includes labels indicating the age and the gender of the subjects from whom the samples were collected. This dataset could be used not only for optical handwriting recognition research but also to explore the influence of gender and age on handwriting. The dataset is publicly available at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/hf6sf8zrkc/2.

Mobile Visual Recognition on Smartphones

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhenwen Gui

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses the recognition of large-scale outdoor scenes on smartphones by fusing outputs of inertial sensors and computer vision techniques. The main contributions can be summarized as follows. Firstly, we propose an ORD (overlap region divide method to plot image position area, which is fast enough to find the nearest visiting area and can also reduce the search range compared with the traditional approaches. Secondly, the vocabulary tree-based approach is improved by introducing GAGCC (gravity-aligned geometric consistency constraint. Our method involves no operation in the high-dimensional feature space and does not assume a global transform between a pair of images. Thus, it substantially reduces the computational complexity and memory usage, which makes the city scale image recognition feasible on the smartphone. Experiments on a collected database including 0.16 million images show that the proposed method demonstrates excellent recognition performance, while maintaining the average recognition time about 1 s.

Oxytocin increases bias, but not accuracy, in face recognition line-ups

OpenAIRE

Bate, Sarah; Bennetts, Rachel; Parris, Benjamin A.; Bindemann, Markus; Udale, Robert; Bussunt, Amanda

2014-01-01

Previous work indicates that intranasal inhalation of oxytocin improves face recognition skills, raising the possibility that it may be used in security settings. However, it is unclear whether oxytocin directly acts upon the core face-processing system itself, or indirectly improves face recognition via affective or social salience mechanisms. In a double-blind procedure, 60 participants received either an oxytocin or placebo nasal spray before completing the One-in-Ten task – a standardized...

Random-Profiles-Based 3D Face Recognition System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joongrock Kim

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a noble nonintrusive three-dimensional (3D face modeling system for random-profile-based 3D face recognition is presented. Although recent two-dimensional (2D face recognition systems can achieve a reliable recognition rate under certain conditions, their performance is limited by internal and external changes, such as illumination and pose variation. To address these issues, 3D face recognition, which uses 3D face data, has recently received much attention. However, the performance of 3D face recognition highly depends on the precision of acquired 3D face data, while also requiring more computational power and storage capacity than 2D face recognition systems. In this paper, we present a developed nonintrusive 3D face modeling system composed of a stereo vision system and an invisible near-infrared line laser, which can be directly applied to profile-based 3D face recognition. We further propose a novel random-profile-based 3D face recognition method that is memory-efficient and pose-invariant. The experimental results demonstrate that the reconstructed 3D face data consists of more than 50 k 3D point clouds and a reliable recognition rate against pose variation.

Detection of Text Lines of Handwritten Arabic Manuscripts using Markov Decision Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Youssef Boulid

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In a character recognition systems, the segmentation phase is critical since the accuracy of the recognition depend strongly on it. In this paper we present an approach based on Markov Decision Processes to extract text lines from binary images of Arabic handwritten documents. The proposed approach detects the connected components belonging to the same line by making use of knowledge about features and arrangement of those components. The initial results show that the system is promising for extracting Arabic handwritten lines.

A modular multi-microcomputer system for on-line vibration diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saedtler, E.

1988-01-01

A new modular multi-microprocessor system for on-line vibration monitoring and diagnostics of PWRs is described. The aim of the system is to make feasible an early detection of increasing failures in relevant regions of a reactor plant, to verify the mechanical integrity of the investigated components, and to improve therefore the operational safety of the plant. After a discussion of the implemented surveillance methods and algorithms, which are based on hierarchical structured identification (estimation) and statistical pattern recognition tools, the system architecture (software and hardware) is portrayed. The classification scheme itself works sequential so that samples (or features) can arrive on-line. This on-line classification is important in order to take necessary actions in time. Furthermore, the system has learning capabilities, which means it is adaptable to different, varying states and plant conditions. The main features of the system are presented and its contribution to an automation of complex surveillance and monitoring tasks is shown. (author)

Automated pattern recognition system for noise analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sides, W.H. Jr.; Piety, K.R.

1980-01-01

A pattern recognition system was developed at ORNL for on-line monitoring of noise signals from sensors in a nuclear power plant. The system continuousy measures the power spectral density (PSD) values of the signals and the statistical characteristics of the PSDs in unattended operation. Through statistical comparison of current with past PSDs (pattern recognition), the system detects changes in the noise signals. Because the noise signals contain information about the current operational condition of the plant, a change in these signals could indicate a change, either normal or abnormal, in the operational condition

Emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder: effects of emotional information on negative bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Fenske, Sabrina; Lis, Stefanie; Liebke, Lisa; Niedtfeld, Inga; Kirsch, Peter; Mier, Daniela

2015-01-01

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by severe deficits in social interactions, which might be linked to deficits in emotion recognition. Research on emotion recognition abilities in BPD revealed heterogeneous results, ranging from deficits to heightened sensitivity. The most stable findings point to an impairment in the evaluation of neutral facial expressions as neutral, as well as to a negative bias in emotion recognition; that is the tendency to attribute negative emotions to neutral expressions, or in a broader sense to report a more negative emotion category than depicted. However, it remains unclear which contextual factors influence the occurrence of this negative bias. Previous studies suggest that priming by preceding emotional information and also constrained processing time might augment the emotion recognition deficit in BPD. To test these assumptions, 32 female BPD patients and 31 healthy females, matched for age and education, participated in an emotion recognition study, in which every facial expression was preceded by either a positive, neutral or negative scene. Furthermore, time constraints for processing were varied by presenting the facial expressions with short (100 ms) or long duration (up to 3000 ms) in two separate blocks. BPD patients showed a significant deficit in emotion recognition for neutral and positive facial expression, associated with a significant negative bias. In BPD patients, this emotion recognition deficit was differentially affected by preceding emotional information and time constraints, with a greater influence of emotional information during long face presentations and a greater influence of neutral information during short face presentations. Our results are in line with previous findings supporting the existence of a negative bias in emotion recognition in BPD patients, and provide further insights into biased social perceptions in BPD patients.

Degraded character recognition based on gradient pattern

Science.gov (United States)

Babu, D. R. Ramesh; Ravishankar, M.; Kumar, Manish; Wadera, Kevin; Raj, Aakash

2010-02-01

Degraded character recognition is a challenging problem in the field of Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The performance of an optical character recognition depends upon printed quality of the input documents. Many OCRs have been designed which correctly identifies the fine printed documents. But, very few reported work has been found on the recognition of the degraded documents. The efficiency of the OCRs system decreases if the input image is degraded. In this paper, a novel approach based on gradient pattern for recognizing degraded printed character is proposed. The approach makes use of gradient pattern of an individual character for recognition. Experiments were conducted on character image that is either digitally written or a degraded character extracted from historical documents and the results are found to be satisfactory.

A License Plate Locating Method Based on Tophat-bothat Changing and Line Scanning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hou, P G; Zhao, J; Liu, M

2006-01-01

The automatic license plate recognition is an important technique to obtain traffic information, it mixes computer vision, image processing techniques and pattern recognition techniques, it is an important technique in intelligent traffic system. In a vehicle license plate recognition system, plate region detection is the key step before the final recognition. This article introduces the whole process of plate region detection. Top - hat and bot - hat transformation are used for enhancing the image contrast in this paper, and wavelet threshold method is used as image filter, and a improved line scanning is used for plate region detection at last. This method has strong practicability. The experimental results demonstrate that the method introduced in this paper is effective

Automated recognition system for ELM classification in JET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duro, N.; Dormido, R.; Vega, J.; Dormido-Canto, S.; Farias, G.; Sanchez, J.; Vargas, H.; Murari, A.

2009-01-01

Edge localized modes (ELMs) are instabilities occurring in the edge of H-mode plasmas. Considerable efforts are being devoted to understanding the physics behind this non-linear phenomenon. A first characterization of ELMs is usually their identification as type I or type III. An automated pattern recognition system has been developed in JET for off-line ELM recognition and classification. The empirical method presented in this paper analyzes each individual ELM instead of starting from a temporal segment containing many ELM bursts. The ELM recognition and isolation is carried out using three signals: Dα, line integrated electron density and stored diamagnetic energy. A reduced set of characteristics (such as diamagnetic energy drop, ELM period or Dα shape) has been extracted to build supervised and unsupervised learning systems for classification purposes. The former are based on support vector machines (SVM). The latter have been developed with hierarchical and K-means clustering methods. The success rate of the classification systems is about 98% for a database of almost 300 ELMs.

Relationship between the quality of children's handwriting and the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration after one year of writing tuition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duiser, I.H.; van der Kamp, J.; Ledebt, A.; Savelsbergh, G.J.P.

2014-01-01

Objective: We examined whether the three subtests of the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration predicted quality of handwriting across and within groups of boys and girls classified as proficient, at risk or non-proficient writers according to the Concise Assessment Scale for

Image Quality Enhancement Using the Direction and Thickness of Vein Lines for Finger-Vein Recognition

OpenAIRE

Park, Young Ho; Park, Kang Ryoung

2012-01-01

On the basis of the increased emphasis placed on the protection of privacy, biometric recognition systems using physical or behavioural characteristics such as fingerprints, facial characteristics, iris and finger‐vein patterns or the voice have been introduced in applications including door access control, personal certification, Internet banking and ATM machines. Among these, finger‐vein recognition is advantageous in that it involves the use of inexpensive and small devices that are diffic...

Automatic Human Facial Expression Recognition Based on Integrated Classifier From Monocular Video with Uncalibrated Camera

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Tao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available An automatic recognition framework for human facial expressions from a monocular video with an uncalibrated camera is proposed. The expression characteristics are first acquired from a kind of deformable template, similar to a facial muscle distribution. After associated regularization, the time sequences from the trait changes in space-time under complete expressional production are then arranged line by line in a matrix. Next, the matrix dimensionality is reduced by a method of manifold learning of neighborhood-preserving embedding. Finally, the refined matrix containing the expression trait information is recognized by a classifier that integrates the hidden conditional random field (HCRF and support vector machine (SVM. In an experiment using the Cohn–Kanade database, the proposed method showed a comparatively higher recognition rate than the individual HCRF or SVM methods in direct recognition from two-dimensional human face traits. Moreover, the proposed method was shown to be more robust than the typical Kotsia method because the former contains more structural characteristics of the data to be classified in space-time

ASERA: A Spectrum Eye Recognition Assistant

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Hailong; Zhang, Haotong; Zhang, Yanxia; Lei, Yajuan; Dong, Yiqiao; Zhao, Yongheng

2018-04-01

ASERA, ASpectrum Eye Recognition Assistant, aids in quasar spectral recognition and redshift measurement and can also be used to recognize various types of spectra of stars, galaxies and AGNs (Active Galactic Nucleus). This interactive software allows users to visualize observed spectra, superimpose template spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and interactively access related spectral line information. ASERA is an efficient and user-friendly semi-automated toolkit for the accurate classification of spectra observed by LAMOST (the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) and is available as a standalone Java application and as a Java applet. The software offers several functions, including wavelength and flux scale settings, zoom in and out, redshift estimation, and spectral line identification.

Food-Induced Emotional Resonance Improves Emotion Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Pandolfi, Elisa; Sacripante, Riccardo; Cardini, Flavia

2016-01-01

The effect of food substances on emotional states has been widely investigated, showing, for example, that eating chocolate is able to reduce negative mood. Here, for the first time, we have shown that the consumption of specific food substances is not only able to induce particular emotional states, but more importantly, to facilitate recognition of corresponding emotional facial expressions in others. Participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task before and after eating either a piece of chocolate or a small amount of fish sauce-which we expected to induce happiness or disgust, respectively. Our results showed that being in a specific emotional state improves recognition of the corresponding emotional facial expression. Indeed, eating chocolate improved recognition of happy faces, while disgusted expressions were more readily recognized after eating fish sauce. In line with the embodied account of emotion understanding, we suggest that people are better at inferring the emotional state of others when their own emotional state resonates with the observed one.

Food-Induced Emotional Resonance Improves Emotion Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Pandolfi, Elisa; Sacripante, Riccardo; Cardini, Flavia

2016-01-01

The effect of food substances on emotional states has been widely investigated, showing, for example, that eating chocolate is able to reduce negative mood. Here, for the first time, we have shown that the consumption of specific food substances is not only able to induce particular emotional states, but more importantly, to facilitate recognition of corresponding emotional facial expressions in others. Participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task before and after eating either a piece of chocolate or a small amount of fish sauce—which we expected to induce happiness or disgust, respectively. Our results showed that being in a specific emotional state improves recognition of the corresponding emotional facial expression. Indeed, eating chocolate improved recognition of happy faces, while disgusted expressions were more readily recognized after eating fish sauce. In line with the embodied account of emotion understanding, we suggest that people are better at inferring the emotional state of others when their own emotional state resonates with the observed one. PMID:27973559

RE-SONANCE--IJ-un-e

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

manufacturing, handwriting and face recognition are discussed. Introduction ..... Integrated circuit chips are examined for defects using image- processing ... [3] R Gonzalez and R Woods, Digital Image Processing, Second Edition,. Addison ...

The Differential Effects of the Use of Handwriting without Tears® Modified Gray Block Paper to Teach Two Preschool Students with Developmental Delays Capital Letter Writing Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Griffith, Jessica; McLaughlin, T. F.; Neyman, Jen; Donica, Denise K.; Robison, Milena

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) modified gray block paper with letter writing on two preschool students diagnosed with developmental delays in pre-academics. Two students were selected from a self-contained special education preschool classroom in the Pacific Northwest. All…

Image preprocessing study on KPCA-based face recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xuan; Li, Dehua

2015-12-01

Face recognition as an important biometric identification method, with its friendly, natural, convenient advantages, has obtained more and more attention. This paper intends to research a face recognition system including face detection, feature extraction and face recognition, mainly through researching on related theory and the key technology of various preprocessing methods in face detection process, using KPCA method, focuses on the different recognition results in different preprocessing methods. In this paper, we choose YCbCr color space for skin segmentation and choose integral projection for face location. We use erosion and dilation of the opening and closing operation and illumination compensation method to preprocess face images, and then use the face recognition method based on kernel principal component analysis method for analysis and research, and the experiments were carried out using the typical face database. The algorithms experiment on MATLAB platform. Experimental results show that integration of the kernel method based on PCA algorithm under certain conditions make the extracted features represent the original image information better for using nonlinear feature extraction method, which can obtain higher recognition rate. In the image preprocessing stage, we found that images under various operations may appear different results, so as to obtain different recognition rate in recognition stage. At the same time, in the process of the kernel principal component analysis, the value of the power of the polynomial function can affect the recognition result.

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Two Intervention Methods of Neurofeedback Training (NFT and the Movement Program on the Handwriting Performance of 9-11 Years Old Children with Dysgraphia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saeid Arsham

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background: Learning disorders, especially dysgraphia, are among the students' educational disabilities. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two intervention methods of neurofeedback training and the movement program on the handwriting performance of 9-11 years old children with dysgraphia. Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental comparative study with a pretest-posttest design. Thirty right-handed boy students aged 9 to 11 years old were selected from elementary and middle schools (district 4 in Karaj, based on the dysgraphia Fallahchai test. Participants were randomly divided into three groups each included 10 subjects. The movement program group did activities with emphasis on visual-motor coordination, fine motor control, visual-motor integrity, and eye-hand coordination 3 sessions per week, for 4 weeks (total of twelve sessions. The neurofeedback group did a training protocol (decreasing beta wave and increasing alpha wave at C3 zone in 4 weeks, 3 sessions per week each session for 20 minutes. The control group did not any training intervention. Results: The data analysis showed that there were significant differences between two groups of intervention and the control group. The two experimental groups had a significant improvement compared to the control group. Also, the results showed that the selected movement program is more effective than neurofeedback training intervention. Conclusion: Overall, the selected movement program was more effective than the neurofeedback training and control group. Therefore, it is suggested that the movement program intervention should be used to improve the handwriting performance of students with poor handwritten quality.

Transgenerational effects of prenatal bisphenol A on social recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolstenholme, Jennifer T; Goldsby, Jessica A; Rissman, Emilie F

2013-11-01

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a man-made endocrine disrupting compound used to manufacture polycarbonate plastics. It is found in plastic bottles, canned food linings, thermal receipts and other commonly used items. Over 93% of people have detectable BPA levels in their urine. Epidemiological studies report correlations between BPA levels during pregnancy and activity, anxiety, and depression in children. We fed female mice control or BPA-containing diets that produced plasma BPA concentrations similar to concentrations in humans. Females were mated and at birth, pups were fostered to control dams to limit BPA exposure to gestation in the first generation. Sibling pairs were bred to the third generation with no further BPA exposure. First (F1) and third (F3) generation juveniles were tested for social recognition and in the open field. Adult F3 mice were tested for olfactory discrimination. In both generations, BPA exposed juvenile mice displayed higher levels of investigation than controls in a social recognition task. In F3 BPA exposed mice, dishabituation to a novel female was impaired. In the open field, no differences were noted in F1 mice, while in F3, BPA lineage mice were more active than controls. No impairments were detected in F3 mice, all were able to discriminate different male urine pools and urine from water. No sex differences were found in any task. These results demonstrate that BPA exposure during gestation has long lasting, transgenerational effects on social recognition and activity in mice. These findings show that BPA exposure has transgenerational actions on behavior and have implications for human neurodevelopmental behavioral disorders. © 2013.

On speech recognition during anaesthesia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alapetite, Alexandre

2007-01-01

This PhD thesis in human-computer interfaces (informatics) studies the case of the anaesthesia record used during medical operations and the possibility to supplement it with speech recognition facilities. Problems and limitations have been identified with the traditional paper-based anaesthesia...... and inaccuracies in the anaesthesia record. Supplementing the electronic anaesthesia record interface with speech input facilities is proposed as one possible solution to a part of the problem. The testing of the various hypotheses has involved the development of a prototype of an electronic anaesthesia record...... interface with speech input facilities in Danish. The evaluation of the new interface was carried out in a full-scale anaesthesia simulator. This has been complemented by laboratory experiments on several aspects of speech recognition for this type of use, e.g. the effects of noise on speech recognition...

Acoustic Pattern Recognition on Android Devices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller, Maiken Bjerg; Gaarsdal, Jesper; Steen, Kim Arild

2013-01-01

an Android application developed for acoustic pattern recognition of bird species. The acoustic data is recorded using a built-in microphone, and pattern recognition is performed on the device, requiring no network connection. The algorithm is implemented in C++ as a native Android module and the Open......CV library is used for signal processing. We conclude that the approach presented here is a viable solution to pattern recognition problems. Since it requires no network connection, it shows promise in fields such as wildlife research....

Examining the Conditions of Using an On-Line Dictionary to Learn Words and Comprehend Texts

Science.gov (United States)

Dilenschneider, Robert Francis

2018-01-01

This study investigated three look-up conditions for language learners to learn unknown target words and comprehend a reading passage when their attention is transferred away to an on-line dictionary. The research questions focused on how each look-up condition impacted the recall and recognition of word forms, word meanings, and passage…

Consequences of temporary inhibition of the medial amygdala on social recognition memory performance in mice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia eNoack

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Different lines of investigation suggest that the medial amygdala is causally involved in the processing of information linked to social behaviour in rodents. Here we investigated the consequences of temporary inhibition of the medial amygdala by bilateral injections of lidocaine on long-term social recognition memory as tested in the social discrimination task. Lidocaine or control NaCl solution was infused immediately before learning or before retrieval. Our data show that lidocaine infusion immediately before learning did not affect long-term memory retrieval. However, intra-amygdalar lidocaine infusions immediately before choice interfered with correct memory retrieval. Analysis of the aggressive behaviour measured simultaneously during all sessions in the social recognition memory task support the impression that the lidocaine dosage used here was effective as it – at least partially – reduced the aggressive behaviour shown by the experimental subjects towards the juveniles. Surprisingly, also infusions of NaCl solution blocked recognition memory at both injection time points. The results are interpreted in the context of the importance of the medial amygdala for the processing of non-volatile odours as a major contributor to the olfactory signature for social recognition memory.

Computational Intelligence Paradigms in Advanced Pattern Classification

CERN Document Server

Jain, Lakhmi

2012-01-01

This monograph presents selected areas of application of pattern recognition and classification approaches including handwriting recognition, medical image analysis and interpretation, development of cognitive systems for image computer understanding, moving object detection, advanced image filtration and intelligent multi-object labelling and classification. It is directed to the scientists, application engineers, professors, professors and students will find this book useful.

Gait recognition based on integral outline

Science.gov (United States)

Ming, Guan; Fang, Lv

2017-02-01

Biometric identification technology replaces traditional security technology, which has become a trend, and gait recognition also has become a hot spot of research because its feature is difficult to imitate and theft. This paper presents a gait recognition system based on integral outline of human body. The system has three important aspects: the preprocessing of gait image, feature extraction and classification. Finally, using a method of polling to evaluate the performance of the system, and summarizing the problems existing in the gait recognition and the direction of development in the future.

Effects of Instructions on False Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, John H.; And Others

Four experiments were conducted to examine the effects of various processing instructions on the rate of false recognition. The continuous single-item procedure was used, and false recognitions of four types were examined: synonyms, antonyms, nonsemantic associates, and homonyms. The instructions encouraged subjects to think of associates, usages…

On-device mobile speech recognition

OpenAIRE

Mustafa, MK

2016-01-01

Despite many years of research, Speech Recognition remains an active area of research in Artificial Intelligence. Currently, the most common commercial application of this technology on mobile devices uses a wireless client – server approach to meet the computational and memory demands of the speech recognition process. Unfortunately, such an approach is unlikely to remain viable when fully applied over the approximately 7.22 Billion mobile phones currently in circulation. In this thesis we p...

Recognition and cinema: new ways of approaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Luis GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Along the following lines we propose the use of films for educational purposes. Our main argument, based on philosophical grounds, shows the use of film format to emphasize and understand people’s motivations and actions. The reflections brought about by empathy with the characters are the first step in the approach of the topic of recognition, a term that in the medical framework involves taking into account the various aspects of inter-human relationships. Recognition of “the other” as he/she stands, implies addressing differences and providing a better doctor-patient relationship. The analysis of several films might encourage the acknowledgement of recognition as one of the key concepts to understand our ways of relating within plural societies with different lifestyles and different outlooks on the world. We believe that the effort made in dealing with such topics results in greater closeness to the patient and, therefore, better care.

Garbage Modeling for On-device Speech Recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Gysel, C.; Velikovich, L.; McGraw, I.; Beaufays, F.

2015-01-01

User interactions with mobile devices increasingly depend on voice as a primary input modality. Due to the disadvantages of sending audio across potentially spotty network connections for speech recognition, in recent years there has been growing attention to performing recognition on-device. The

Syllabic Length Effect in Visual Word Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roya Ranjbar Mohammadi

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Studies on visual word recognition have resulted in different and sometimes contradictory proposals as Multi-Trace Memory Model (MTM, Dual-Route Cascaded Model (DRC, and Parallel Distribution Processing Model (PDP. The role of the number of syllables in word recognition was examined by the use of five groups of English words and non-words. The reaction time of the participants to these words was measured using reaction time measuring software. The results indicated that there was syllabic effect on recognition of both high and low frequency words. The pattern was incremental in terms of syllable number. This pattern prevailed in high and low frequency words and non-words except in one syllable words. In general, the results are in line with the PDP model which claims that a single processing mechanism is used in both words and non-words recognition. In other words, the findings suggest that lexical items are mainly processed via a lexical route.  A pedagogical implication of the findings would be that reading in English as a foreign language involves analytical processing of the syllable of the words.

Wood Variety Recognition on Mobile Devices

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Vácha, Pavel; Haindl, Michal

2013-01-01

Roč. 2013, č. 93 (2013), s. 52-52 ISSN 0926-4981 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA102/08/0593 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : wood recognition * Markov random fields Subject RIV: BD - Theory of Information http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2013/RO/vacha-wood variety recognition on mobile devices.pdf

Man machine interface based on speech recognition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jorge, Carlos A.F.; Aghina, Mauricio A.C.; Mol, Antonio C.A.; Pereira, Claudio M.N.A.

2007-01-01

This work reports the development of a Man Machine Interface based on speech recognition. The system must recognize spoken commands, and execute the desired tasks, without manual interventions of operators. The range of applications goes from the execution of commands in an industrial plant's control room, to navigation and interaction in virtual environments. Results are reported for isolated word recognition, the isolated words corresponding to the spoken commands. For the pre-processing stage, relevant parameters are extracted from the speech signals, using the cepstral analysis technique, that are used for isolated word recognition, and corresponds to the inputs of an artificial neural network, that performs recognition tasks. (author)

Towards explainable writer verification and identification using vantage writers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brink, Axel; Schomaker, Lambert; Bulacu, Marius; Werner, B

2007-01-01

In this paper a new method for off-line writer verification and identification is proposed which encodes writer features as a mix of typical handwriting styles, written by so-called vantage writers. Since their handwriting can be shown to the user the method provides a degree of transparency that is

A Review on Video-Based Human Activity Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shian-Ru Ke

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This review article surveys extensively the current progresses made toward video-based human activity recognition. Three aspects for human activity recognition are addressed including core technology, human activity recognition systems, and applications from low-level to high-level representation. In the core technology, three critical processing stages are thoroughly discussed mainly: human object segmentation, feature extraction and representation, activity detection and classification algorithms. In the human activity recognition systems, three main types are mentioned, including single person activity recognition, multiple people interaction and crowd behavior, and abnormal activity recognition. Finally the domains of applications are discussed in detail, specifically, on surveillance environments, entertainment environments and healthcare systems. Our survey, which aims to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the field, also addresses several challenges associated with these systems and applications. Moreover, in this survey, various applications are discussed in great detail, specifically, a survey on the applications in healthcare monitoring systems.

On-line analysis of algae in water by discrete three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Nanjing; Zhang, Xiaoling; Yin, Gaofang; Yang, Ruifang; Hu, Li; Chen, Shuang; Liu, Jianguo; Liu, Wenqing

2018-03-19

In view of the problem of the on-line measurement of algae classification, a method of algae classification and concentration determination based on the discrete three-dimensional fluorescence spectra was studied in this work. The discrete three-dimensional fluorescence spectra of twelve common species of algae belonging to five categories were analyzed, the discrete three-dimensional standard spectra of five categories were built, and the recognition, classification and concentration prediction of algae categories were realized by the discrete three-dimensional fluorescence spectra coupled with non-negative weighted least squares linear regression analysis. The results show that similarities between discrete three-dimensional standard spectra of different categories were reduced and the accuracies of recognition, classification and concentration prediction of the algae categories were significantly improved. By comparing with that of the chlorophyll a fluorescence excitation spectra method, the recognition accuracy rate in pure samples by discrete three-dimensional fluorescence spectra is improved 1.38%, and the recovery rate and classification accuracy in pure diatom samples 34.1% and 46.8%, respectively; the recognition accuracy rate of mixed samples by discrete-three dimensional fluorescence spectra is enhanced by 26.1%, the recovery rate of mixed samples with Chlorophyta 37.8%, and the classification accuracy of mixed samples with diatoms 54.6%.

Pathogen recognition in the innate immune response.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Himanshu; Kawai, Taro; Akira, Shizuo

2009-04-28

Immunity against microbial pathogens primarily depends on the recognition of pathogen components by innate receptors expressed on immune and non-immune cells. Innate receptors are evolutionarily conserved germ-line-encoded proteins and include TLRs (Toll-like receptors), RLRs [RIG-I (retinoic acid-inducible gene-I)-like receptors] and NLRs (Nod-like receptors). These receptors recognize pathogens or pathogen-derived products in different cellular compartments, such as the plasma membrane, the endosomes or the cytoplasm, and induce the expression of cytokines, chemokines and co-stimulatory molecules to eliminate pathogens and instruct pathogen-specific adaptive immune responses. In the present review, we will discuss the recent progress in the study of pathogen recognition by TLRs, RLRs and NLRs and their signalling pathways.

Face recognition based on improved BP neural network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yue Gaili

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In order to improve the recognition rate of face recognition, face recognition algorithm based on histogram equalization, PCA and BP neural network is proposed. First, the face image is preprocessed by histogram equalization. Then, the classical PCA algorithm is used to extract the features of the histogram equalization image, and extract the principal component of the image. And then train the BP neural network using the trained training samples. This improved BP neural network weight adjustment method is used to train the network because the conventional BP algorithm has the disadvantages of slow convergence, easy to fall into local minima and training process. Finally, the BP neural network with the test sample input is trained to classify and identify the face images, and the recognition rate is obtained. Through the use of ORL database face image simulation experiment, the analysis results show that the improved BP neural network face recognition method can effectively improve the recognition rate of face recognition.

Acute effects of triazolam on false recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Mintzer, M Z; Griffiths, R R

2000-12-01

Neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological techniques have been applied to the study of false recognition; however, psychopharmacological techniques have not been applied. Benzodiazepine sedative/anxiolytic drugs produce memory deficits similar to those observed in organic amnesia and may be useful tools for studying normal and abnormal memory mechanisms. The present double-blind, placebo-controlled repeated measures study examined the acute effects of orally administered triazolam (Halcion; 0.125 and 0.25 mg/70 kg), a benzodiazepine hypnotic, on performance in the Deese (1959)/Roediger-McDermott (1995) false recognition paradigm in 24 healthy volunteers. Paralleling previous demonstrations in amnesic patients, triazolam produced significant dose-related reductions in false recognition rates to nonstudied words associatively related to studied words, suggesting that false recognition relies on normal memory mechanisms impaired in benzodiazepine-induced amnesia. The results also suggested that relative to placebo, triazolam reduced participants' reliance on memory for item-specific versus list-common semantic information and reduced participants' use of remember versus know responses.

Arabic Handwriting Recognition Using Neural Network Classifier

African Journals Online (AJOL)

pc

2018-03-05

Mar 5, 2018 ... an OCR using Neural Network classifier preceded by a set of preprocessing .... Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), which we adopt in this research, consist of ... advantage and disadvantages of each technique. In [9],. Khemiri ...

On-line use of the 168/E emulator at the CERN ISR SFM detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertuzzi, C.; Drijard, D.; Frehse, H.; Gavillet, P.; Gokieli, R.; Innocenti, P.G.; Messerli, R.; Mornacchi, G.; Norton, A.; Porte, J.P.

1981-01-01

The Split Field Magnet Detector at the CERN ISR has been used in recent years to study events with a high transverse momentum charged particle. As a first level computer based trigger a linear estimate of the track momentum by fixed point arithmethic was calculated on-line by a minicomputer. In addition appreciable further rejection was obtained by off-line filtering on the IBM-370/168, using pattern recognition and a fit of the triggering particle in the magnetic field. The availability of the 168/E emulator makes it possible to transfer the proven methods used off-line to real time data reduction. Preliminary results on filter efficiency and speed for an experiment triggering on a high Psub(T) hadron at 10 to 20 0 with respect to the outgoing beam (Exp. R 419) are given. Possible improvements and extensions are discussed. (orig.)

Research and Development of Target Recognition and Location Crawling Platform based on Binocular Vision

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Weidong; Lei, Zhu; Yuan, Zhang; Gao, Zhenqing

2018-03-01

The application of visual recognition technology in industrial robot crawling and placing operation is one of the key tasks in the field of robot research. In order to improve the efficiency and intelligence of the material sorting in the production line, especially to realize the sorting of the scattered items, the robot target recognition and positioning crawling platform based on binocular vision is researched and developed. The images were collected by binocular camera, and the images were pretreated. Harris operator was used to identify the corners of the images. The Canny operator was used to identify the images. Hough-chain code recognition was used to identify the images. The target image in the image, obtain the coordinates of each vertex of the image, calculate the spatial position and posture of the target item, and determine the information needed to capture the movement and transmit it to the robot control crawling operation. Finally, In this paper, we use this method to experiment the wrapping problem in the express sorting process The experimental results show that the platform can effectively solve the problem of sorting of loose parts, so as to achieve the purpose of efficient and intelligent sorting.

A Survey on Sentiment Classification in Face Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Jingyu

2018-01-01

Face recognition has been an important topic for both industry and academia for a long time. K-means clustering, autoencoder, and convolutional neural network, each representing a design idea for face recognition method, are three popular algorithms to deal with face recognition problems. It is worthwhile to summarize and compare these three different algorithms. This paper will focus on one specific face recognition problem-sentiment classification from images. Three different algorithms for sentiment classification problems will be summarized, including k-means clustering, autoencoder, and convolutional neural network. An experiment with the application of these algorithms on a specific dataset of human faces will be conducted to illustrate how these algorithms are applied and their accuracy. Finally, the three algorithms are compared based on the accuracy result.

NAMED ENTITY RECOGNITION FROM BIOMEDICAL TEXT -AN INFORMATION EXTRACTION TASK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Kanya

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Biomedical Text Mining targets the Extraction of significant information from biomedical archives. Bio TM encompasses Information Retrieval (IR and Information Extraction (IE. The Information Retrieval will retrieve the relevant Biomedical Literature documents from the various Repositories like PubMed, MedLine etc., based on a search query. The IR Process ends up with the generation of corpus with the relevant document retrieved from the Publication databases based on the query. The IE task includes the process of Preprocessing of the document, Named Entity Recognition (NER from the documents and Relationship Extraction. This process includes Natural Language Processing, Data Mining techniques and machine Language algorithm. The preprocessing task includes tokenization, stop word Removal, shallow parsing, and Parts-Of-Speech tagging. NER phase involves recognition of well-defined objects such as genes, proteins or cell-lines etc. This process leads to the next phase that is extraction of relationships (IE. The work was based on machine learning algorithm Conditional Random Field (CRF.

Extensions of the picture superiority effect in associative recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Hockley, William E; Bancroft, Tyler

2011-12-01

Previous research has shown that the picture superiority effect (PSE) is seen in tests of associative recognition for random pairs of line drawings compared to pairs of concrete words (Hockley, 2008). In the present study we demonstrated that the PSE for associative recognition is still observed when subjects have correctly identified the individual items of each pair as old (Experiment 1), and that this effect is not due to rehearsal borrowing (Experiment 2). The PSE for associative recognition also is shown to be present but attenuated for mixed picture-word pairs (Experiment 3), and similar in magnitude for pairs of simple black and white line drawings and coloured photographs of detailed objects (Experiment 4). The results are consistent with the view that the semantic meaning of nameable pictures is activated faster than that of words thereby affording subjects more time to generate and elaborate meaningful associations between items depicted in picture form. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Iris recognition based on robust principal component analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Karn, Pradeep; He, Xiao Hai; Yang, Shuai; Wu, Xiao Hong

2014-11-01

Iris images acquired under different conditions often suffer from blur, occlusion due to eyelids and eyelashes, specular reflection, and other artifacts. Existing iris recognition systems do not perform well on these types of images. To overcome these problems, we propose an iris recognition method based on robust principal component analysis. The proposed method decomposes all training images into a low-rank matrix and a sparse error matrix, where the low-rank matrix is used for feature extraction. The sparsity concentration index approach is then applied to validate the recognition result. Experimental results using CASIA V4 and IIT Delhi V1iris image databases showed that the proposed method achieved competitive performances in both recognition accuracy and computational efficiency.

L2 Word Recognition: Influence of L1 Orthography on Multi-Syllabic Word Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Hamada, Megumi

2017-01-01

L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on…

Finger vein recognition using local line binary pattern.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosdi, Bakhtiar Affendi; Shing, Chai Wuh; Suandi, Shahrel Azmin

2011-01-01

In this paper, a personal verification method using finger vein is presented. Finger vein can be considered more secured compared to other hands based biometric traits such as fingerprint and palm print because the features are inside the human body. In the proposed method, a new texture descriptor called local line binary pattern (LLBP) is utilized as feature extraction technique. The neighbourhood shape in LLBP is a straight line, unlike in local binary pattern (LBP) which is a square shape. Experimental results show that the proposed method using LLBP has better performance than the previous methods using LBP and local derivative pattern (LDP).

Automatic anatomy recognition on CT images with pathology

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Lidong; Udupa, Jayaram K.; Tong, Yubing; Odhner, Dewey; Torigian, Drew A.

2016-03-01

Body-wide anatomy recognition on CT images with pathology becomes crucial for quantifying body-wide disease burden. This, however, is a challenging problem because various diseases result in various abnormalities of objects such as shape and intensity patterns. We previously developed an automatic anatomy recognition (AAR) system [1] whose applicability was demonstrated on near normal diagnostic CT images in different body regions on 35 organs. The aim of this paper is to investigate strategies for adapting the previous AAR system to diagnostic CT images of patients with various pathologies as a first step toward automated body-wide disease quantification. The AAR approach consists of three main steps - model building, object recognition, and object delineation. In this paper, within the broader AAR framework, we describe a new strategy for object recognition to handle abnormal images. In the model building stage an optimal threshold interval is learned from near-normal training images for each object. This threshold is optimally tuned to the pathological manifestation of the object in the test image. Recognition is performed following a hierarchical representation of the objects. Experimental results for the abdominal body region based on 50 near-normal images used for model building and 20 abnormal images used for object recognition show that object localization accuracy within 2 voxels for liver and spleen and 3 voxels for kidney can be achieved with the new strategy.

Facial expression recognition based on improved deep belief networks

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yao; Qiu, Weigen

2017-08-01

In order to improve the robustness of facial expression recognition, a method of face expression recognition based on Local Binary Pattern (LBP) combined with improved deep belief networks (DBNs) is proposed. This method uses LBP to extract the feature, and then uses the improved deep belief networks as the detector and classifier to extract the LBP feature. The combination of LBP and improved deep belief networks is realized in facial expression recognition. In the JAFFE (Japanese Female Facial Expression) database on the recognition rate has improved significantly.

Detection of boiling by Piety's on-line PSD-pattern recognition algorithm applied to neutron noise signals in the SAPHIR reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spiekerman, G.

1988-09-01

A partial blockage of the cooling channels of a fuel element in a swimming pool reactor could lead to vapour generation and to burn-out. To detect such anomalies, a pattern recognition algorithm based on power spectra density (PSD) proposed by Piety was further developed and implemented on a PDP 11/23 for on-line applications. This algorithm identifies anomalies by measuring the PSD on the process signal and comparing them with a standard baseline previously formed. Up to 8 decision discriminants help to recognize spectral changes due to anomalies. In our application, to detect boiling as quickly as possible with sufficient sensitivity, Piety's algorithm was modified using overlapped Fast-Fourier-Transform-Processing and the averaging of the PSDs over a large sample of preceding instantaneous PSDs. This processing allows high sensitivity in detecting weak disturbances without reducing response time. The algorithm was tested with simulation-of-boiling experiments where nitrogen in a cooling channel of a mock-up of a fuel element was injected. Void fractions higher than 30 % in the channel can be detected. In the case of boiling, it is believed that this limit is lower because collapsing bubbles could give rise to stronger fluctuations. The algorithm was also tested with a boiling experiment where the reactor coolant flow was actually reduced. The results showed that the discriminant D5 of Piety's algorithm based on neutron noise obtained from the existing neutron chambers of the reactor control system could sensitively recognize boiling. The detection time amounts to 7-30 s depending on the strength of the disturbances. Other events, which arise during a normal reactor run like scrams, removal of isotope elements without scramming or control rod movements and which could lead to false alarms, can be distinguished from boiling. 49 refs., 104 figs., 5 tabs

Stein and Honneth on Empathy and Emotional Recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jardine, James Alexander

2015-01-01

My aim in this paper is to make use of Edith Stein’s phenomenological analyses of empathy, emotion, and personhood to clarify and critically assess the recent suggestion by Axel Honneth that a basic form of recognition is affective in nature. I will begin by considering Honneth’s own presentation...... of this claim in his discussion of the role of affect in recognitive gestures, as well as in his notion of ‘elementary recognition,’ arguing that while his account contains much of value it also generates problems. On the basis of this analysis, I will try to show that Stein’s account of empathy demarcates...... an elementary form of recognition in a less problematic fashion than does Honneth’s own treatment of this issue. I will then spell out the consequences of this move for the emotional recognition thesis, arguing that Stein’s treatment lends it further credence, before ending with some remarks on the connection...

Galeotti on recognition as inclusion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lægaard, Sune

2008-01-01

Anna Elisabetta Galeotti's theory of 'toleration as recognition' has been criticised by Peter Jones for being conceptually incoherent, since liberal toleration presupposes a negative attitude to differences, whereas multicultural recognition requires positive affirmation hereof. The paper spells ...

An Approach for Pattern Recognition of EEG Applied in Prosthetic Hand Drive

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-Dong Zhang

2011-12-01

Full Text Available For controlling the prosthetic hand by only electroencephalogram (EEG, it has become the hot spot in robotics research to set up a direct communication and control channel between human brain and prosthetic hand. In this paper, the EEG signal is analyzed based on multi-complicated hand activities. And then, two methods of EEG pattern recognition are investigated, a neural prosthesis hand system driven by BCI is set up, which can complete four kinds of actions (arm’s free state, arm movement, hand crawl, hand open. Through several times of off-line and on-line experiments, the result shows that the neural prosthesis hand system driven by BCI is reasonable and feasible, the C-support vector classifiers-based method is better than BP neural network on the EEG pattern recognition for multi-complicated hand activities.

Effect of robotic-assisted three-dimensional repetitive motion to improve hand motor function and control in children with handwriting deficits: a nonrandomized phase 2 device trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Palsbo, Susan E; Hood-Szivek, Pamela

2012-01-01

We explored the efficacy of robotic technology in improving handwriting in children with impaired motor skills. Eighteen participants had impairments arising from cerebral palsy (CP), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or other disorders. The intervention was robotic-guided three-dimensional repetitive motion in 15-20 daily sessions of 25-30 min each over 4-8 wk. Fine motor control improved for the children with learning disabilities and those ages 9 or older but not for those with CP or under age 9. All children with ASD or ADHD referred for slow writing speed were able to increase speed while maintaining legibility. Three-dimensional, robot-assisted, repetitive motion training improved handwriting fluidity in children with mild to moderate fine motor deficits associated with ASD or ADHD within 10 hr of training. This dosage may not be sufficient for children with CP. Copyright © 2012 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Computed Ontology-based Situation Awareness of Multi-User Observations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fitrianie, S.; Rothkrantz, L.J.M.

2009-01-01

In recent years, we have developed a framework of human-computer interaction that offers recognition of various communication modalities including speech, lip movement, facial expression, handwriting/drawing, gesture, text and visual symbols. The framework allows the rapid construction of a

The effects of age and divided attention on spontaneous recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Benjamin A; Jacoby, Larry L; Thomas, Ruthann C; Balota, David A

2011-05-01

Studies of recognition typically involve tests in which the participant's memory for a stimulus is directly questioned. There are occasions however, in which memory occurs more spontaneously (e.g., an acquaintance seeming familiar out of context). Spontaneous recognition was investigated in a novel paradigm involving study of pictures and words followed by recognition judgments on stimuli with an old or new word superimposed over an old or new picture. Participants were instructed to make their recognition decision on either the picture or word and to ignore the distracting stimulus. Spontaneous recognition was measured as the influence of old vs. new distracters on target recognition. Across two experiments, older adults and younger adults placed under divided-attention showed a greater tendency to spontaneously recognize old distracters as compared to full-attention younger adults. The occurrence of spontaneous recognition is discussed in relation to ability to constrain retrieval to goal-relevant information.

8th International Conference on Computer Recognition Systems

CERN Document Server

Jackowski, Konrad; Kurzynski, Marek; Wozniak, Michał; Zolnierek, Andrzej

2013-01-01

The computer recognition systems are nowadays one of the most promising directions in artificial intelligence. This book is the most comprehensive study of this field. It contains a collection of 86 carefully selected articles contributed by experts of pattern recognition. It reports on current research with respect to both methodology and applications. In particular, it includes the following sections: Biometrics Data Stream Classification and Big Data Analytics  Features, learning, and classifiers Image processing and computer vision Medical applications Miscellaneous applications Pattern recognition and image processing in robotics  Speech and word recognition This book is a great reference tool for scientists who deal with the problems of designing computer pattern recognition systems. Its target readers can be the as well researchers as students of computer science, artificial intelligence or robotics.

Transfer-Appropriate Processing in Recognition Memory: Perceptual and Conceptual Effects on Recognition Memory Depend on Task Demands

Science.gov (United States)

Parks, Colleen M.

2013-01-01

Research examining the importance of surface-level information to familiarity in recognition memory tasks is mixed: Sometimes it affects recognition and sometimes it does not. One potential explanation of the inconsistent findings comes from the ideas of dual process theory of recognition and the transfer-appropriate processing framework, which…

Finger Vein Recognition Using Local Line Binary Pattern

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bakhtiar Affendi Rosdi

2011-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a personal verification method using finger vein is presented. Finger vein can be considered more secured compared to other hands based biometric traits such as fingerprint and palm print because the features are inside the human body. In the proposed method, a new texture descriptor called local line binary pattern (LLBP is utilized as feature extraction technique. The neighbourhood shape in LLBP is a straight line, unlike in local binary pattern (LBP which is a square shape. Experimental results show that the proposed method using LLBP has better performance than the previous methods using LBP and local derivative pattern (LDP.

Finger Vein Recognition Using Local Line Binary Pattern

Science.gov (United States)

Rosdi, Bakhtiar Affendi; Shing, Chai Wuh; Suandi, Shahrel Azmin

2011-01-01

In this paper, a personal verification method using finger vein is presented. Finger vein can be considered more secured compared to other hands based biometric traits such as fingerprint and palm print because the features are inside the human body. In the proposed method, a new texture descriptor called local line binary pattern (LLBP) is utilized as feature extraction technique. The neighbourhood shape in LLBP is a straight line, unlike in local binary pattern (LBP) which is a square shape. Experimental results show that the proposed method using LLBP has better performance than the previous methods using LBP and local derivative pattern (LDP). PMID:22247670

Document localization algorithms based on feature points and straight lines

Science.gov (United States)

Skoryukina, Natalya; Shemiakina, Julia; Arlazarov, Vladimir L.; Faradjev, Igor

2018-04-01

The important part of the system of a planar rectangular object analysis is the localization: the estimation of projective transform from template image of an object to its photograph. The system also includes such subsystems as the selection and recognition of text fields, the usage of contexts etc. In this paper three localization algorithms are described. All algorithms use feature points and two of them also analyze near-horizontal and near- vertical lines on the photograph. The algorithms and their combinations are tested on a dataset of real document photographs. Also the method of localization quality estimation is proposed that allows configuring the localization subsystem independently of the other subsystems quality.

Pattern recognition

CERN Document Server

Theodoridis, Sergios

2003-01-01

Pattern recognition is a scientific discipline that is becoming increasingly important in the age of automation and information handling and retrieval. Patter Recognition, 2e covers the entire spectrum of pattern recognition applications, from image analysis to speech recognition and communications. This book presents cutting-edge material on neural networks, - a set of linked microprocessors that can form associations and uses pattern recognition to ""learn"" -and enhances student motivation by approaching pattern recognition from the designer's point of view. A direct result of more than 10

Is handwriting constrained by phonology? Evidence from Stroop tasks with written responses and Chinese characters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus eDamian

2013-10-01

Full Text Available To what extent is handwritten word production based on phonological codes? A few studies conducted in Western languages have recently provided evidence showing that phonology contributes to the retrieval of graphemic properties in written output tasks. Less is known about how orthographic production works in languages with non-alphabetic scripts such as written Chinese. We report a Stroop study in which Chinese participants wrote the colour of characters on a digital graphic tablet; characters were either neutral, or homophonic to the target (congruent, or homophonic to an alternative (incongruent. Facilitation was found from congruent homophonic distractors, but only when the homophone shared the same tone with the target. This finding suggests a contribution of phonology to written word production. A second experiment served as a control experiment to exclude the possibility that the effect in Experiment 1 had an exclusively semantic locus. Overall, the findings offer new insight into the relative contribution of phonology to handwriting, particularly in non-Western languages.

A novel, optical, on-line bacteria sensor for monitoring drinking water quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Højris, Bo; Christensen, Sarah Christine Boesgaard; Albrechtsen, Hans-Jørgen; Smith, Christian; Dahlqvist, Mathis

2016-04-04

Today, microbial drinking water quality is monitored through either time-consuming laboratory methods or indirect on-line measurements. Results are thus either delayed or insufficient to support proactive action. A novel, optical, on-line bacteria sensor with a 10-minute time resolution has been developed. The sensor is based on 3D image recognition, and the obtained pictures are analyzed with algorithms considering 59 quantified image parameters. The sensor counts individual suspended particles and classifies them as either bacteria or abiotic particles. The technology is capable of distinguishing and quantifying bacteria and particles in pure and mixed suspensions, and the quantification correlates with total bacterial counts. Several field applications have demonstrated that the technology can monitor changes in the concentration of bacteria, and is thus well suited for rapid detection of critical conditions such as pollution events in drinking water.

Facial Expression Recognition Based on TensorFlow Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia Xiao-Ling

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Facial expression recognition have a wide range of applications in human-machine interaction, pattern recognition, image understanding, machine vision and other fields. Recent years, it has gradually become a hot research. However, different people have different ways of expressing their emotions, and under the influence of brightness, background and other factors, there are some difficulties in facial expression recognition. In this paper, based on the Inception-v3 model of TensorFlow platform, we use the transfer learning techniques to retrain facial expression dataset (The Extended Cohn-Kanade dataset, which can keep the accuracy of recognition and greatly reduce the training time.

Exposure effects on music preference and recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Peretz, I; Gaudreau, D; Bonnel, A M

1998-09-01

In three experiments, the effects of exposure to melodies on their subsequent liking and recognition were explored. In each experiment, the subjects first listened to a set of familiar and unfamiliar melodies in a study phase. In the subsequent test phase, the melodies were repeated, along with a set of distractors matched in familiarity. Half the subjects were required to rate their liking of each melody, and half had to identify the melodies they had heard earlier in the study phase. Repetition of the studied melodies was found to increase liking of the unfamiliar melodies in the affect task and to be best for detection of familiar melodies in the recognition task (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). These memory effects were found to fade at different time delays between study and test in the affect and recognition tasks, with the latter leading to the most persistent effects (Experiment 2). Both study-to-test changes in melody timbre and manipulation of study tasks had a marked impact on recognition and little influence on liking judgments (Experiment 3). Thus, all manipulated variables were found to dissociate the memory effects in the two tasks. The results are consistent with the view that memory effects in the affect and recognition tasks pertain to the implicit and explicit forms of memory, respectively. Part of the results are, however, at variance with the literature on implicit and explicit memory in the auditory domain. Attribution of these differences to the use of musical material is discussed.

A Universal Vacant Parking Slot Recognition System Using Sensors Mounted on Off-the-Shelf Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jae Kyu Suhr

2018-04-01

Full Text Available An automatic parking system is an essential part of autonomous driving, and it starts by recognizing vacant parking spaces. This paper proposes a method that can recognize various types of parking slot markings in a variety of lighting conditions including daytime, nighttime, and underground. The proposed method can readily be commercialized since it uses only those sensors already mounted on off-the-shelf vehicles: an around-view monitor (AVM system, ultrasonic sensors, and in-vehicle motion sensors. This method first detects separating lines by extracting parallel line pairs from AVM images. Parking slot candidates are generated by pairing separating lines based on the geometric constraints of the parking slot. These candidates are confirmed by recognizing their entrance positions using line and corner features and classifying their occupancies using ultrasonic sensors. For more reliable recognition, this method uses the separating lines and parking slots not only found in the current image but also found in previous images by tracking their positions using the in-vehicle motion-sensor-based vehicle odometry. The proposed method was quantitatively evaluated using a dataset obtained during the day, night, and underground, and it outperformed previous methods by showing a 95.24% recall and a 97.64% precision.

Evaluating automatically parallelized versions of the support vector machine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Codreanu, Valeriu; Droge, Bob; Williams, David; Yasar, Burhan; Yang, Fo; Liu, Baoquan; Dong, Feng; Surinta, Olarik; Schomaker, Lambertus; Roerdink, Jos; Wiering, Marco

2014-01-01

The support vector machine (SVM) is a supervised learning algorithm used for recognizing patterns in data. It is a very popular technique in machine learning and has been successfully used in applications such as image classification, protein classification, and handwriting recognition. However, the

Handwritten-word spotting using biologically inspired features

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Zant, Tijn; Schomaker, Lambert; Haak, Koen

For quick access to new handwritten collections, current handwriting recognition methods are too cumbersome. They cannot deal with the lack of labeled data and would require extensive laboratory training for each individual script, style, language, and collection. We propose a biologically inspired

Evaluating automatically parallelized versions of the support vector machine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Codreanu, V.; Dröge, B.; Williams, D.; Yasar, B.; Yang, P.; Liu, B.; Dong, F.; Surinta, O.; Schomaker, L.R.B.; Roerdink, J.B.T.M.; Wiering, M.A.

2016-01-01

The support vector machine (SVM) is a supervised learning algorithm used for recognizing patterns in data. It is a very popular technique in machine learning and has been successfully used in applications such as image classification, protein classification, and handwriting recognition. However, the

Study on municipal road cracking and surface deformation based on image recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Haitao; Wang, Shuai; Tan, Jizong

2017-05-01

In recent years, the digital image recognition technology of concrete structure cracks and deformation of binocular vision technology detection of civil engineering structure have made substantial development. As a result, people's understanding of the road engineering structure cracking and surface deformation recognition gives rise to a new situation. For the research on digital image concrete structure cracking and masonry structure surface deformation recognition technology, the key is to break through in the method, and to improve the traditional recognition technology and mode. Only in this way can we continuously improve the security level of the highway, to adapt to the new requirements of the development of new urbanization and modernization. This thesis focuses on and systematically analyzes the digital image road engineering structure cracking and key technologies of surface deformation recognition and its engineering applications. In addition, we change the concrete structure cracking and masonry structure surface deformation recognition pattern, and realize the breakthrough and innovation of the road structure safety testing means and methods.

Model, analysis, and evaluation of the effects of analog VLSI arithmetic on linear subspace-based image recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Carvajal, Gonzalo; Figueroa, Miguel

2014-07-01

Typical image recognition systems operate in two stages: feature extraction to reduce the dimensionality of the input space, and classification based on the extracted features. Analog Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) is an attractive technology to achieve compact and low-power implementations of these computationally intensive tasks for portable embedded devices. However, device mismatch limits the resolution of the circuits fabricated with this technology. Traditional layout techniques to reduce the mismatch aim to increase the resolution at the transistor level, without considering the intended application. Relating mismatch parameters to specific effects in the application level would allow designers to apply focalized mismatch compensation techniques according to predefined performance/cost tradeoffs. This paper models, analyzes, and evaluates the effects of mismatched analog arithmetic in both feature extraction and classification circuits. For the feature extraction, we propose analog adaptive linear combiners with on-chip learning for both Least Mean Square (LMS) and Generalized Hebbian Algorithm (GHA). Using mathematical abstractions of analog circuits, we identify mismatch parameters that are naturally compensated during the learning process, and propose cost-effective guidelines to reduce the effect of the rest. For the classification, we derive analog models for the circuits necessary to implement Nearest Neighbor (NN) approach and Radial Basis Function (RBF) networks, and use them to emulate analog classifiers with standard databases of face and hand-writing digits. Formal analysis and experiments show how we can exploit adaptive structures and properties of the input space to compensate the effects of device mismatch at the application level, thus reducing the design overhead of traditional layout techniques. Results are also directly extensible to multiple application domains using linear subspace methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

Individual recognition based on communication behaviour of male fowl.

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Smith, Carolynn L; Taubert, Jessica; Weldon, Kimberly; Evans, Christopher S

2016-04-01

Correctly directing social behaviour towards a specific individual requires an ability to discriminate between conspecifics. The mechanisms of individual recognition include phenotype matching and familiarity-based recognition. Communication-based recognition is a subset of familiarity-based recognition wherein the classification is based on behavioural or distinctive signalling properties. Male fowl (Gallus gallus) produce a visual display (tidbitting) upon finding food in the presence of a female. Females typically approach displaying males. However, males may tidbit without food. We used the distinctiveness of the visual display and the unreliability of some males to test for communication-based recognition in female fowl. We manipulated the prior experience of the hens with the males to create two classes of males: S(+) wherein the tidbitting signal was paired with a food reward to the female, and S (-) wherein the tidbitting signal occurred without food reward. We then conducted a sequential discrimination test with hens using a live video feed of a familiar male. The results of the discrimination tests revealed that hens discriminated between categories of males based on their signalling behaviour. These results suggest that fowl possess a communication-based recognition system. This is the first demonstration of live-to-video transfer of recognition in any species of bird. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

State Recognition of High Voltage Isolation Switch Based on Background Difference and Iterative Search

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Xu, Jiayuan; Yu, Chengtao; Bo, Bin; Xue, Yu; Xu, Changfu; Chaminda, P. R. Dushantha; Hu, Chengbo; Peng, Kai

2018-03-01

The automatic recognition of the high voltage isolation switch by remote video monitoring is an effective means to ensure the safety of the personnel and the equipment. The existing methods mainly include two ways: improving monitoring accuracy and adopting target detection technology through equipment transformation. Such a method is often applied to specific scenarios, with limited application scope and high cost. To solve this problem, a high voltage isolation switch state recognition method based on background difference and iterative search is proposed in this paper. The initial position of the switch is detected in real time through the background difference method. When the switch starts to open and close, the target tracking algorithm is used to track the motion trajectory of the switch. The opening and closing state of the switch is determined according to the angle variation of the switch tracking point and the center line. The effectiveness of the method is verified by experiments on different switched video frames of switching states. Compared with the traditional methods, this method is more robust and effective.

Struggling Musicians: Implications of the (Hegelian) Philosophy of Recognition for Music Education

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Väkevä, Lauri

2016-01-01

Charles Taylor has argued that recognition is a vital human need. This essay discusses recognition as a philosophical concept, following a line of argumentation that can be traced back to Hegel's early philosophy. An important premise of this tradition is that because a subject's freedom is conditioned by other subjects, individual agency cannot…

Revisiting the earliest electrophysiological correlate of familiar face recognition.

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Huang, Wanyi; Wu, Xia; Hu, Liping; Wang, Lei; Ding, Yulong; Qu, Zhe

2017-10-01

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to reinvestigate the earliest face familiarity effect (FFE: ERP differences between familiar and unfamiliar faces) that genuinely reflects cognitive processes underlying recognition of familiar faces in long-term memory. To trigger relatively early FFEs, participants were required to categorize upright and inverted famous faces and unknown faces in a task that placed high demand on face recognition. More importantly, to determine whether an observed FFE was linked to on-line face recognition, systematical investigation about the relationship between the FFE and behavioral performance of face recognition was conducted. The results showed significant FFEs on P1, N170, N250, and P300 waves. The FFEs on occipital P1 and N170 (faces, and were not correlated with any behavioral measure (accuracy, response time) or modulated by learning, indicating that they might merely reflect low-level visual differences between face sets. In contrast, the later FFEs on occipito-temporal N250 (~230ms) and centro-parietal P300 (~350ms) showed consistent polarities for upright and inverted faces. The N250 FFE was individually correlated with recognition speed for upright faces, and could be obtained for inverted faces through learning. The P300 FFE was also related to behavior in many aspects. These findings provide novel evidence supporting that cognitive discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar faces starts no less than 200ms after stimulus onset, and the familiarity effect on N250 may be the first electrophysiological correlate underlying recognition of familiar faces in long-term memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Implicit recognition based on lateralized perceptual fluency.

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Vargas, Iliana M; Voss, Joel L; Paller, Ken A

2012-02-06

In some circumstances, accurate recognition of repeated images in an explicit memory test is driven by implicit memory. We propose that this "implicit recognition" results from perceptual fluency that influences responding without awareness of memory retrieval. Here we examined whether recognition would vary if images appeared in the same or different visual hemifield during learning and testing. Kaleidoscope images were briefly presented left or right of fixation during divided-attention encoding. Presentation in the same visual hemifield at test produced higher recognition accuracy than presentation in the opposite visual hemifield, but only for guess responses. These correct guesses likely reflect a contribution from implicit recognition, given that when the stimulated visual hemifield was the same at study and test, recognition accuracy was higher for guess responses than for responses with any level of confidence. The dramatic difference in guessing accuracy as a function of lateralized perceptual overlap between study and test suggests that implicit recognition arises from memory storage in visual cortical networks that mediate repetition-induced fluency increments.

Features Speech Signature Image Recognition on Mobile Devices

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Alexander Mikhailovich Alyushin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The algorithms fordynamic spectrograms images recognition, processing and soundspeech signature (SS weredeveloped. The software for mobile phones, thatcan recognize speech signatureswas prepared. The investigation of the SS recognition speed on its boundarytypes was conducted. Recommendations on the boundary types choice in the optimal ratio of recognitionspeed and required space were given.

Enhanced tactile encoding and memory recognition in congenital blindness.

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D'Angiulli, Amedeo; Waraich, Paul

2002-06-01

Several behavioural studies have shown that early-blind persons possess superior tactile skills. Since neurophysiological data show that early-blind persons recruit visual as well as somatosensory cortex to carry out tactile processing (cross-modal plasticity), blind persons' sharper tactile skills may be related to cortical re-organisation resulting from loss of vision early in their life. To examine the nature of blind individuals' tactile superiority and its implications for cross-modal plasticity, we compared the tactile performance of congenitally totally blind, low-vision and sighted children on raised-line picture identification test and re-test, assessing effects of task familiarity, exploratory strategy and memory recognition. What distinguished the blind from the other children was higher memory recognition and higher tactile encoding associated with efficient exploration. These results suggest that enhanced perceptual encoding and recognition memory may be two cognitive correlates of cross-modal plasticity in congenital blindness.

Low-cost and high-speed optical mark reader based on an intelligent line camera

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Hussmann, Stephan; Chan, Leona; Fung, Celine; Albrecht, Martin

2003-08-01

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) is thoroughly reliable and highly efficient provided that high standards are maintained at both the planning and implementation stages. It is necessary to ensure that OMR forms are designed with due attention to data integrity checks, the best use is made of features built into the OMR, used data integrity is checked before the data is processed and data is validated before it is processed. This paper describes the design and implementation of an OMR prototype system for marking multiple-choice tests automatically. Parameter testing is carried out before the platform and the multiple-choice answer sheet has been designed. Position recognition and position verification methods have been developed and implemented in an intelligent line scan camera. The position recognition process is implemented into a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), whereas the verification process is implemented into a micro-controller. The verified results are then sent to the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for answers checking and statistical analysis. At the end of the paper the proposed OMR system will be compared with commercially available system on the market.

Oxytocin and the oxytocin receptor underlie intrastrain, but not interstrain, social recognition.

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Macbeth, A H; Lee, H-J; Edds, J; Young, W S

2009-07-01

We studied three lines of oxytocin (Oxt) and oxytocin receptor (Oxtr) knockout (KO) male mice [Oxt(-/-), total Oxtr(-/-) and partial forebrain Oxtr (Oxtr(FB/FB))] with established deficits in social recognition to further refine our understanding of their deficits with regard to stimulus female's strain. We used a modified social discrimination paradigm in which subjects are singly housed only for the duration of the test. Additionally, stimulus females are singly housed throughout testing and are presented within corrals for rapid comparison of investigation by subject males. Wild-type (WT) males from all three lines discriminated between familiar and novel females of three different strains (C57BL/6, BALB/c and Swiss-Webster). No KO males discriminated between familiar and novel BALB/c or C57BL/6 females. Male Oxt(-/-) and Oxtr(-/-) mice, but not Oxtr(FB/FB) mice, discriminated between familiar and novel Swiss-Webster females. As this might indicate a global deficit in individual recognition for Oxtr(FB/FB) males, we examined their ability to discriminate between females from different strains and compared performance with Oxtr(-/-) males. WT and KO males from both lines were able to distinguish between familiar and novel females from different strains, indicating the social recognition deficit is not universal. Instead, we hypothesize that the Oxtr is involved in 'fine' intrastrain recognition, but is less important in 'broad' interstrain recognition. We also present the novel finding of decreased investigation across tests, which is likely an artifact of repeated testing and not because of stimulus female's strain or age of subject males.

Journal of EEA, Vol. 27, 2010 WRITER IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

messy

Two approaches have been employed for feature extraction from the handwritten images: texture ... gait, keystroke dynamics, signature, handwriting). Identifying the writer of a handwritten sample using automatic image-based methods is an interesting pattern recognition problem with a wide variety of applications including ...

A new selective developmental deficit: Impaired object recognition with normal face recognition.

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Germine, Laura; Cashdollar, Nathan; Düzel, Emrah; Duchaine, Bradley

2011-05-01

Studies of developmental deficits in face recognition, or developmental prosopagnosia, have shown that individuals who have not suffered brain damage can show face recognition impairments coupled with normal object recognition (Duchaine and Nakayama, 2005; Duchaine et al., 2006; Nunn et al., 2001). However, no developmental cases with the opposite dissociation - normal face recognition with impaired object recognition - have been reported. The existence of a case of non-face developmental visual agnosia would indicate that the development of normal face recognition mechanisms does not rely on the development of normal object recognition mechanisms. To see whether a developmental variant of non-face visual object agnosia exists, we conducted a series of web-based object and face recognition tests to screen for individuals showing object recognition memory impairments but not face recognition impairments. Through this screening process, we identified AW, an otherwise normal 19-year-old female, who was then tested in the lab on face and object recognition tests. AW's performance was impaired in within-class visual recognition memory across six different visual categories (guns, horses, scenes, tools, doors, and cars). In contrast, she scored normally on seven tests of face recognition, tests of memory for two other object categories (houses and glasses), and tests of recall memory for visual shapes. Testing confirmed that her impairment was not related to a general deficit in lower-level perception, object perception, basic-level recognition, or memory. AW's results provide the first neuropsychological evidence that recognition memory for non-face visual object categories can be selectively impaired in individuals without brain damage or other memory impairment. These results indicate that the development of recognition memory for faces does not depend on intact object recognition memory and provide further evidence for category-specific dissociations in visual

Fast Pedestrian Recognition Based on Multisensor Fusion

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Hongyu Hu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available A fast pedestrian recognition algorithm based on multisensor fusion is presented in this paper. Firstly, potential pedestrian locations are estimated by laser radar scanning in the world coordinates, and then their corresponding candidate regions in the image are located by camera calibration and the perspective mapping model. For avoiding time consuming in the training and recognition process caused by large numbers of feature vector dimensions, region of interest-based integral histograms of oriented gradients (ROI-IHOG feature extraction method is proposed later. A support vector machine (SVM classifier is trained by a novel pedestrian sample dataset which adapt to the urban road environment for online recognition. Finally, we test the validity of the proposed approach with several video sequences from realistic urban road scenarios. Reliable and timewise performances are shown based on our multisensor fusing method.

The mere exposure effect and recognition depend on the way you look!

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Willems, Sylvie; Dedonder, Jonathan; Van der Linden, Martial

2010-01-01

In line with Whittlesea and Price (2001), we investigated whether the memory effect measured with an implicit memory paradigm (mere exposure effect) and an explicit recognition task depended on perceptual processing strategies, regardless of whether the task required intentional retrieval. We found that manipulation intended to prompt functional implicit-explicit dissociation no longer had a differential effect when we induced similar perceptual strategies in both tasks. Indeed, the results showed that prompting a nonanalytic strategy ensured performance above chance on both tasks. Conversely, inducing an analytic strategy drastically decreased both explicit and implicit performance. Furthermore, we noted that the nonanalytic strategy involved less extensive gaze scanning than the analytic strategy and that memory effects under this processing strategy were largely independent of gaze movement.

Adaptive Self-Occlusion Behavior Recognition Based on pLSA

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Hong-bin Tu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Human action recognition is an important area of human action recognition research. Focusing on the problem of self-occlusion in the field of human action recognition, a new adaptive occlusion state behavior recognition approach was presented based on Markov random field and probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (pLSA. Firstly, the Markov random field was used to represent the occlusion relationship between human body parts in terms an occlusion state variable by phase space obtained. Then, we proposed a hierarchical area variety model. Finally, we use the topic model of pLSA to recognize the human behavior. Experiments were performed on the KTH, Weizmann, and Humaneva dataset to test and evaluate the proposed method. The compared experiment results showed that what the proposed method can achieve was more effective than the compared methods.

L2 Word Recognition: Influence of L1 Orthography on Multi-syllabic Word Recognition.

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Hamada, Megumi

2017-10-01

L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on the position of an embedded word. The participants were Arabic ESL learners, Chinese ESL learners, and native speakers of English. The task was a word search task, in which the participants identified a target word embedded in a pseudoword at the initial, middle, or final position. The search accuracy and speed indicated that all groups showed a strong preference for the initial position. The accuracy data further indicated group differences. The Arabic group showed higher accuracy in the final than middle, while the Chinese group showed the opposite and the native speakers showed no difference between the two positions. The findings suggest that L2 multi-syllabic word recognition involves unique processes.