Firemaker image collection for benchmarking forensic writer identification using image-based pattern recognition

Disclaimer and terms of use: ============================ /*****************************************************************************\ * * * * * This is the Firemaker NFI-images Distribution * * * * This distribution contains 1000 images of scanned handwritten text, * * scanned at resolution 300dpi grey scale, containing pages of * * handwritten text by 250 writers, four pages per writer, from four * * writing conditions, one condition per page. The conditions are: * * p1: copied, natural style, p2: copied, UPPER case, p3: copied and forged, * * i.e.,"try to write in a different style than your natural style", and p4, * * self generated, i.e., text produced to describe a given cartoon. * * * * * * * * Copyright The International Unipen Foundation, 2000, All rights reserved * ******************************************************************************* * * * * * DISCLAIMER AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE FOR ALL DATA CONTAINED ON THIS CDROM: * * * * * * 1) PERMISSION IS HEREBY GRANTED TO USE THE DATA FOR RESEARCH * * PURPOSES. IT IS NOT ALLOWED TO DISTRIBUTE THIS DATA FOR COMMERCIAL * * PURPOSES. * * * * * * 2) PROVIDER GIVES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND AND ANY * * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR PURPOSE ARE * * DISCLAIMED. * * * * 3) PROVIDER SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, * * INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THIS * * DATA. * * * * 4) THE USER SHOULD REFER TO THE FIRST PUBLIC ARTICLE ON THIS DATA SET: * * * * M. Bulacu, L. Schomaker & L. Vuurpijl (2003). * * Writer identification using edge-based directional features. * * ICDAR '03: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Document * * Analysis and Recognition, pp. 937-941. * * Piscataway: IEEE Computer, ISBN 0-7695-1960-1 * * * * 5) THE RECIPIENT SHOULD REFRAIN FROM PROLIFERATING THE DATA SET TO THIRD * * PARTIES EXTERNAL TO HIS/HER LOCAL RESEARCH GROUP. PLEASE REFER INTERESTED * * RESEARCHERS TO HTTP://UNIPEN.ORG FOR OBTAINING THEIR OWN COPY. * \*****************************************************************************/ BibTeX entry: @inproceedings{Firemaker, author = {Bulacu, M. and Schomaker, L.R.B. and Vuurpijl, L.}, title = {Writer Identification Using Edge-Based Directional Features}, booktitle = {ICDAR '03: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition}, year = {2003}, isbn = {0-7695-1960-1}, pages = {937-941}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {Washington, DC, USA}, } In the project "Vergelijk", a grant obtained from the Dutch Forensic Science Institute, two existing professional writer-identification systems have been compared regarding usability studies and in particular recognition performance (Schomaker & Vuurpijl, 2000). The results of this comparison are contained in a confidential report: L.R.B. Schomaker and L.G. Vuurpijl (2000). Forensic writer identification: A benchmark data set and a comparison of two systems. Technical report, Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information (NICI), University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Informative and non-confidential details from this report are given in the accompanying file: 'firemaker-dbase.pdf' To compare both systems, a carefully designed experiment was conducted to record handwritten samples from male and female writers in several conditions: Condition 1: Normal constrained handwriting ============================================== Below, the Dutch text writers had to produce in normal handwriting is given. --- start text ---- Zij bezochten veilingen en reisden met de KLM. Voor korte afstanden huurden ze een auto, meestal een VW of een Ford. <EMPTY LINE> De veilingen waren van 7-4-1993 tot 3-5-1993 in New York, Tokyo, Québec, Rome, Parijs, Zürich en Oslo. <EMPTY LINE> Omdat de veilingen steeds begonnen om 12 uur en je gemiddeld 200 tot 300 kilometer moest rijden, stonden zij steeds om 6.30 uur op en vertrokken om 8 uur uit het hotel. <EMPTY LINE> Elke dag hadden ze vijfhonderd (f 500,-) gulden nodig. Daarvoor gebruikten ze elke keer een cheque van tweehonderd (f 200,-) en een cheque van driehonderd (f 300,-) gulden. Aan geschenken gaven ze ongeveer honderd gulden (f 100,-) uit. --- end text ---- Condition 2: Production of constrained block capital handwriting ================================================================ In this condition, the writers had to produce the following text in block-capital handwriting: --- start text ---- NADAT ZE IN NEW YORK, TOKYO, QUÉBEC, PARIJS, ZÜRICH EN OSLO WAREN GEWEEST, VLOGEN ZE UIT DE USA TERUG MET VLUCHT KL 658 OM 12 UUR. <empty line> ZE KWAMEN AAN IN DUBLIN OM 7 UUR EN IN AMSTERDAM OM 9.40 UUR 'S AVONDS. DE FIAT VAN BOB EN DE VW VAN DAVID STONDEN IN R3 VAN HET PARKEERTERREIN. HIERVOOR MOESTEN ZE HONDERD GULDEN (F 100,-) BETALEN. --- end text ---- Condition 3: Production of free-forged handwriting ================================================== Below, the text writers had to produce in the free-forged handwriting condition is given. No example of handwriting is given which they have to mimick (forge), the condition concerns a self-conceived distorted handwriting style. --- start text ---- Nog dezelfde avond reden ze naar hun vrienden Chris, Emile, Jan, Irene en Henk, nadat ze hun vriendinnen Greta en Maria hadden opgehaald. <EMPTY LINE> Samen hadden ze vijfhonderd (500) zeldzame postzegels gekocht, Bob driehonderd (300) en David tweehonderd (200). <EMPTY LINE> De reis was de moeite waard geweest. --- end text ---- Condition 4: Production of unconstrained handwriting ==================================================== The final text writers had to produce is unconstrained handwriting. The cartoon, a series of pictures concerning a 'UFO' landing had to be described in their own words, in at least six lines of text. See image file "space.gif". Thruth labels and writer identifications ======================================== Each writer has a unique id, specified as: id: {num}{set} num: a three-digit number set: either 01, 02, 03 or 04, identifying one of the 4 experiments The vast majority of the writers producing sets 01, 02 and 03 mimicked the content and layout (empty lines) of the constrained texts they had to copy sufficiently accurately, such that the example texts are a good indication of the contents. However, as set 04 ("describe cartoon story") contains unconstrained self-generated handwriting, the corresponding thruth labels had to be extracted manually. The resulting label files are contained in the directory ./300dpi/p4-self-natural/labels/ Note: no letter, word, line or paragraph segmentation is provided with this data set. The main text can be cropped easily. Since the orientation is horizontal, projection techniques can be used to extract lines, using a line-spacing parameter (~94 pixels line height) as an additional check. Overview of directories: 300dpi/ p1-copy-normal/ Copying task, normal writing style p2-copy-upper/ Copying task, UPPER-case p3-copy-forged/ Copying task, instructed to mimic another script style p4-self-natural/ Self-generated text, natural writing condition Note: the original raw collection contained writer #155, who has been removed from this data set, as his first condition (p1) was started in upper case and the page was not completed. Deleted files were 15501.tif, 15502.tif, 15503.tif and 15504.tif. Note: the name of this data set (Firemaker) is a contraction of the names Vuurpijl and Schomaker. Note b: Example of a cutout of essential handwritten text using NetPBM tools: tifftopnm 15201.tif | pnmcut -left 50 -right 2400 -top 700 -bottom 3250 > handwriting.pgm For an experiment, the upper and lower halves of the resulting image were usually used in the Schomaker & Bulacu studies to obtain two samples of handwriting for a writer. http://www.ai.rug.nl/~lambert http://www.ai.rug.nl/~bulacu Our features for writer identification: Lambert Schomaker http://www.ai.rug.nl/~lambert/allographic-fraglet-codebooks/allographic-fraglet-codebooks.html L. Schomaker & M. Bulacu (2004). Automatic writer identification using connected-component contours and edge-based features of upper-case Western script. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol 26(6), June 2004, pp. 787 - 798. Marius Bulacu http://www.ai.rug.nl/~lambert/hinge/hinge-transform.html Bulacu, M. & Schomaker, L.R.B. (2007). Text-independent Writer Identification and Verification Using Textural and Allographic Features, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), Special Issue - Biometrics: Progress and Directions, April, 29(4), p. 701-717. Axel Brink http://www.ai.rug.nl/~axel/ 'Quill' feature A.A. Brink, J. Smit, M.L. Bulacu, and L.R.B. Schomaker (2011). Writer identification using directional ink-trace width measurements, Pattern Recognition (July 2011), doi: 10.1016/j.patcog.2011.07.005 These three feature groups (hinge, fraglets, quill) have been combined in a single MS Windows application, GIWIS which is available for scientific use upon request ([e-mail]) Note c. The accompanying file 'Firemaker-writer-info.dat' contains some writer information: Column 1: writer identification code Column 2: sex Column 3: handedness, Column 4: age in years Column 5: major Western script group (print,cursive or mixed)