Water reservoir based approach for touching numeral segmentation

Deals with a scheme for automatic segmentation of unconstrained handwritten connected numerals. The scheme is mainly based on features obtained from a new concept based on a water reservoir. A reservoir is a metaphor to illustrate the region where numerals touch. The reservoir is obtained by considering accumulation of water poured from the top or from the bottom of the numerals. At first, considering the reservoir location and size, touching positions (top, middle and bottom) are decided. Next, by analyzing the reservoir boundary, touching position and topological features of the touching pattern, the best cutting point is determined. Finally, combined with morphological structural features the cutting path for segmentation is generated.