Analysis of Handwriting Variation and Development of High Performance Computer-Based System to Support Forensic Examination of Japanese Documents

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This research project has been carried out over two years (2003-2004). The aims of this research project are to establish individuality of handwriting and to develop a high performance support system for forensic document examination. We were able to achieve the aim of this research project. The summary of results obtained by the research project are as follows :(1) We have improved a handwriting extraction method by adding color information to the conventional extraction method. Through an experiment, it confirmed that this extraction method can extract precisely handwriting and seal imprint from various types of documents, even if handwriting and seal imprint are superimposed each other.(2) Forensic handwriting examination is based on the hypothesis that each individual person has consistent handwriting that is distinct from the handwriting of other individuals. This hypothesis has accepted subjectively through many case studies. However the individuality of handwriting has not been established with scientific and quantitative rigor, therefore its admissibility as forensic evidence can be questioned. We proposed a method for validating handwriting individuality using a "variation entropy" and a writer verification experiment based on the pattern matching method. Through the experiments, it was confirmed that the variation entropy was appropriate for evaluating the variation of handwriting as whole shape. We got a prospect to be possible of validating handwriting individuality by combining the variation entropy and writer verification results.(3) We have developed a measurement tool of handwriting stroke structure. We are now investigating on the individuality of stroke structures of handwriting by using a statistical analysis method.We aim to develop a complete system to support forensic document examination by combining above results in the future.