A wavelet approach to double-sided document image pair processing

In this paper, we present a novel method for processing double-sided historic handwritten documents using wavelets. The method is specially designed to remove the interfering strokes from the reverse side due to ink sipping through pages after long periods of storage. The proposed method works by first matching both sides of a document page such that the interfering strokes are mapped with the originating strokes from the reverse side. This is to facilitate the identification of the foreground and interfering strokes. A wavelet reconstruction process then iteratively enhances the foreground strokes and smears the interfering strokes so as to strengthen the discriminating capability of an edge detector to extract clear foreground image. This is an improvement of our earlier work.