Towards Automated Hyperspectral Document Image Analysis

Hyperspectral imaging and analysis refers to the capture and understanding of image content in multiple spectral channels. Satellite and airborne hyperspectral imaging has been the focus of research in remote sensing applications since nearly the past three decades. Recent use of ground-based hyperspectral imaging has found immense interest in areas such as medical imaging, art and archaeology, and computer vision. In this paper, we make an attempt to draw closer the forensic community and image analysis community towards automated forensic document examination. We believe that it has a huge potential to solve various challenging document image analysis problems, especially in the forensic document examination domain. We present the use of hyperspectral imaging for ink mismatch detection in handwritten notes as a sample application. Overall, this paper provides an overview of the applications of hyperspectral imaging with focus on solving pattern recognition problems. We hope that this work will pave the way for exploring its true potential in the document analysis research field. Keywords—Multispectral imaging, Hyperspectral imaging, Hyperspectral document analysis, forensic document examination, ink mismatch detection