Extraction of filled in strokes from cheque image using pseudo 2D wavelet with adjustable support

Automatic cheque image processing is an important task in document image processing. Although many methods have been developed, it is still a challenge to find effective methods for some of the tasks, one of these is how to extract the filled-in strokes from a given cheque image. The problem becomes more difficult when a cheque has a complicated background. Most current methods are only applicable to simple binary images. This paper presents a method for processing complicated grey images in two steps. Both the extraction of reference lines and filled-in strokes are included. Our method is based on the construction of a pseudo 2D wavelet with adjustable rectangular supports. The experimental result shows good performance in the present method, which is also effective for slightly skewed cheque image.

1. Introduction

A lot of cheques are used in the daily life and generally processed manually. However, manual processing is very tedious and requires high cost. Therefore, the development of an automatic system for cheque image processing has been highly desirable.