A fuzzy approach to 2D-shape recognition

This paper describes a method for fuzzy classification and recognition of 2D shapes, such as handwritten characters, image contours, etc. A fuzzy model is derived for each considered shape from a fuzzy description of a set of instances of this shape. A fuzzy description of a shape instance, in its turn, exploits appropriate fuzzy partitions of the two dimensions of the shape. These fuzzy partitions allow us to identify, and automatically associate an importance degree with the relevant shape zones for classification and recognition purposes. Two significant applications of the method are described, namely, recognition of olfactory signals and recognition of isolated, handwritten characters. In the former case, results are shown concerning the recognition of three different types of waste waters, collected in three different dilutions. In the latter case, results are shown concerning the application of the method to a NIST database, containing the segmented handprinted characters of 500 writers.