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Handwriting Analysis

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Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security

Synonyms

Longhand; Penmanship

Definition

The term handwriting refers to the act of writing by hand graphical marks with the purpose of information communication according to syntactic and semantic specific rules of a specific language.

Background

The action of handwriting is controlled by a complex neuromuscular process [1] which acts on a writing tool combined with a writing surface to produce a two-dimensional trajectory. Inherently, handwriting is a continuous analog signal which can, however, be digitized in order to be processed by computers. Handwriting data acquisition can be either off-line or on-line. In the off-line case, only the completed writing is available as an image produced by a scanner or a digital camera, where the main parameter which governs the acquisition process is the sampling resolution measured in dots per inch (dpi). This image is a static representation of handwriting where all dynamic information related to handwriting are lost. On the contrary, in the...

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Campisi, P., Maiorana, E., Mouchère, H., Viard-Gaudin, C., Neri, A. (2011). Handwriting Analysis. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A., Jajodia, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_886

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