Offline Handwriting Acquisition under Controlled and Uncontrolled Conditions

This paper gives a description of offline handwriting acquisition under controlled and uncontrolled conditions for research purposes. The data collection task is an underestimated part in the process of developing signature verification or handwriting identification systems. There is a continuous need for new, unpublished data to train and evaluate new algorithms. Handwriting samples that make up the current publicly available databases have all been collected under controlled conditions. However, good quality data is still limited. On the contrary, research databases constituted of case related biometric data in general are scarce. To suit forensic purposes, it is preferred to start building databases with forensically relevant data. When verification and identification systems are trained on this type of material, the output will be more suited for forensic examination purposes. The challenges in this area are considered. Keywords—offline data, data collection, signature verification, forensic handwriting examiner