On-line Handwritten Mathematical Expression Recognition Method Based on Statistical and Semantic Analysis

Abstract

Recognition of handwritten mathematical expressions (HMEs) has become a cutting edge research topic recently, as there are increasingly needs for pen-inputting applications. In this paper, we presented a novel framework to analyse HME layout and semantic information. This framework includes three steps, namely symbol segmentation, symbol recognition and semantic relationship analysis. For symbol segmentation, a decomposition on strokes is operated, then dynamic programming is adopted to find the paths corresponding to the best segmentation manner and reduce the stroke searching complexity. For symbol recognition, spatial geometry and directional element features are classified by a Gaussian Mixture Model learnt through Expectation-Maximization algorithm. At last, in the semantic relationship analysis module, a ternary tree is utilized to to store the ranked symbols through calculating the operator priorities. The motivation for our work comes from the apparent difference in writing styles across western and Chinese populations. Our results are reasonable and show promise on the private dataset.