OHASD: The First On-Line Arabic Sentence Database Handwritten on Tablet PC

Abstract — In this paper we present the first Arabic sentence dataset for on-line handwriting recognition written on tablet pc. The dataset is natural, simple and clear. Texts are sampled from daily newspapers. To collect naturally written handwriting, forms are dictated to writers. The current version of our dataset includes 154 paragraphs written by 48 writers. It contains more than 3800 words and more than 19,400 characters. Handwritten texts are mainly written by researchers from different research centers. In order to use this dataset in a recognition system word extraction is needed. In this paper a new word extraction technique based on the Arabic handwriting cursive nature is also presented. The technique is applied to this dataset and good results are obtained. The results can be considered as a bench mark for future research to be compared with. Keywords — Arabic, Handwriting recognition, on-line dataset. I. I NTRODUCTION ANDWRITING is one of the most important ways in which civilized people communicate. It is used both for personal (e.g. letters, notes, addresses on envelopes, etc.) and business communications (e.g. bank checks, tax and business forms, etc.) between person and person and for communications written to ourselves (e.g. reminders, lists, diaries, etc.) [1]. Despite long standing predictions that handwriting, and even paper itself, would become obsolete in the age of the digital computer, both persist. The reason that handwriting persists in the age of the digital computer is the convenience of paper and pen as compared to keyboards for numerous day-to-day situations. Computers are becoming ubiquitous as more people than ever are forced into contact with computers and our dependence upon them continues to increase, it is essential that they become more friendly to use. As more of the world’s information processing is done electronically, it becomes more important to make the transfer of information between people and machines simple and reliable. Thus the daily