Character Modifier Combinations Recognition in Sinhala Handwriting

Abstract

Sinhala script is categorized as a segmental writing system and therefore consonant-vowel sequences are identified as a unit. Depending on the vowel and the consonant combination, the diacritic can attach above, below, following or preceding the consonant. The identification of characters with the modifier symbols is important in recognizing generally written Sinhala text and has not been addressed sufficiently in the existing research. Sinhala handwriting recognition is much difficult compared to the other popular languages due to the complexity of the shapes of the characters and the presence of the modifier symbols. This paper discusses on a projection profile, distance profile, partial distance profile and contour based approach to identify characters along with character modifiers in Sinhala script. The proposed method has given an average recognition rate of 75% for 283 character modifier combinations. The proposed solution can be used to identify Sinhala handwritten text with a proper segmentation mechanism.