In this paper we study the important issue of choosing representations that are suitable for recognizing pen based handwriting of characters in Tamil, a language of India. Four different choices, based on the following set of features are considered: (1) a sequence of directions and curvature; (2) a sequence of angles; (3) Fourier transform coefficients; and (4) wavelet features. We provide arguments in support of the representation using wavelet features. A neural network designed using these features gives excellent accuracy for recognizing Tamil characters.
C. S. Sundaresan, S. Sathiya Keerthi