A Study of Handwritten Characters by Shape Descriptors: Doping Using the Freeman Code

In this paper, we present the role of shape descriptors in the off-line recognition process of handwritten isolated Arabic and Latin characters. We will give some statistical and structural shape descriptors and mention their performance. Then we will present an hybrid approach that uses structural shapes´ descriptors from a different angle in order to improve the recognition´s results from a statistical descriptor. We will therefore introduce the concept of doping aiming to raise the recognition rate.