Computer vision vs human perception: Novel preprocessing technique to reduce inter-character similaity of Bangla alphabet

In Bangla alphabet, most of the characters share same features and such similarity misleads a recognizer as it makes decision based on measures of absolute difference. A preprocessing step called `scrambling´ and modification of existing grouping scheme are proposed to decrease the intercharacter similarity among Bangla characters. The theory behind this proposal is originally inspired by experiments done on human vision and perception by psychologists and vision scientists. Experimental results corroborate theoretical predictions which lead us to propose scrambling and new grouping technique as effective steps in character recognition.