Retrieval of Offline Handwritten Signatures

Abstract

Similarity retrieval of images is an important task in database applications. In such applications, effective organization and retrieval of images can be achieved through indexing. In this paper, the problem of quick retrieval of offline signatures in the context of database of signature images is addressed. The proposed methodology retrieves signatures in the database of signature images for a given query signature according to the decreasing order of their spatial similarity with the query. Similarity computed is based on orientations of corresponding edges drawn in between geometric centers (centroids) of the signature image. We retrieve the best hypotheses in a simple yet efficient way to speed up the subsequent robust recognition stage. The runtime of the signature recognition process is reduced, because the scanning of the entire database for a given query is narrowed down to comparing the query with a few top retrieved hypotheses. The experimentation conducted on a large MCYT_signature database [1] has shown promising results. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology.