From Terminology to Evaluation: Performance Assessment of Automatic Signature Verification Systems

This paper is an effort towards the development of a shared conceptualization regarding automatic signature verification systems. The requirements of both communities, Pattern Recognition and Forensic Handwriting Examiners, are explicitly focused. This is required because an increasing gap regarding evaluation of automatic verification systems is observed in the recent past. The paper addresses three major areas. First, it highlights how signature verification is taken differently in the above mentioned communities and why this gap is increasing. Various factors that widen this gap are discussed with reference to some of the recent signature verification studies and probable solutions are suggested. Second, it discusses the state-of-the-art evaluation and its problems as seen by FHEs. The real evaluation issues faced by FHEs, when trying to incorporate automatic signature verification systems in their routine casework, are presented. Third, it reports a standardized evaluation scheme capable of fulfilling the requirements of both PR researchers and FHEs.