HAND WRITTEN CHARACTER

RECOGNITION USING BACK

PROPAGATION

PROJECT REPORT
Submitted for the course: Neural Network and Fuzzy Control
(EEE1007)
By

BISWAMOY PATTNAIK 16BEI0042

SREYA DEY 15BEI0011
RAAGHAVI 16BEI0053
KAUSHIK GOVINDARAJAN 16BEI0010
ANSHUL DALAL 16BEE0375
S1ot: G1 + TG1

Name of faculty:
PROF.VIVEKANANDAN S

(SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING )

November, 2017

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project work entitled “Hand Written Character Recognition using
back propagation network” that is being submitted by “Biswamoy Pattnaik, Sreya Dey,
Raaghavi, Kaushik Govindarajan, Anshul Dalal” for Neural Network and Fuzzy Control
(EEE1007) is a record of bonafide work done under my supervision. The contents of this
Project work, in full or in parts, have neither been taken from any other source nor have
been submitted for any other CAL course.

Place: Vellore
Date:
09.11.2017

Signature of Faculty:
PROF.VIVEKANANDAN S

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We, the members of Group, wish to express our deepest gratitude and sincere thanks to Prof.
Vivekanandan S. for his guidance and encouragement. We cannot forget to offer our sincere
thanks to all our classmates and seniors for their valuable advice and support.
We feel deeply obliged to thank the SELECT (School of Electrical Engineering) Department
and the VIT University for their services rendered and for giving us the opportunity to carry
out our studies at the University.

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 ABSTRACT

The main aim of this project was to create a program to recognize handwritten
letters and convert them into text. This was to be carried out with the help of
neural networks and Matlab. The neural network used was the Back
Propagation Network. We made use of the Image processing toolbox and the
neural network toolbox, which helped in the preprocessing and the
segmentation part. There were several stages to be implemented before we
could obtain the final output such as image acquisition, preprocessing,
segmentation, edge detection, feature extraction and classification. The inputs
were handwritten and we obtained the text as the output.

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 INTRODUCTION
Goal: To train a neural network to recognize hand written characters and
display them as text.

Objectives:
• To provide an easy user interface to input the object image.

• User should be able to upload the image.

• System should be able to pre-process the given input to suppress the

background.

• System should detect the text area present in the given image

• Should retrieve and display the text to the user in a word file

About BPN:
It is a feed forward supervised learning algorithm. It is a method used
in artificial neural networks to calculate the error contribution of each neuron
after a batch of data (in image recognition, multiple images) is processed. This
technique is also sometimes called backward propagation of errors, because
the error is calculated at the output and distributed back through the network
layers.

Back propagation requires a known, desired output for each input value—it is
therefore considered to be a supervised learning method (although it is used in
some unsupervised networks such as auto encoders). Back propagation is also a
generalization of the delta rule to multi-layered feed forward networks made
possible by using the chain rule to iteratively compute gradients for each layer.

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 METHODOLOGY

The proposed method comprises of 5 phases-

1. Image Acquisition

2. Pre-processing

3. Segmentation

4. Feature extraction

5. Classification and recognition

PRE-PROCESSING
• The pre-processing is a series of operations performed on scanned input
image.

• It essentially enhances the image rendering it suitable for segmentation

• The role of pre-processing is to segment the intersecting pattern from

the background.

• Noise filtering, smoothening and normalization should be done.

• Binarization process involves conversion of grey scale image into binary

image

• Dilation of edges in the binarized image is done using the Sobel

technique

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SEGMENTATION
• An image of sequence of characters is decomposed into sub-images of
individual characters.

• The pre-processed input image is segmented into isolated characters by

assigning a number to each character by labelling process.

• Each individual character is uniformly resized into pixels.

• After extracting the character we need to normalize the size of

characters

CLASSIFICATION

In neural networks, each node perform some simple computation and each
connection conveys a signal from one node to another labelled by a number
called the “connection strength” or weight indicating the extent to which
signals is amplified or diminished by the connection.

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Image processing Toolbox

• Image processing toolbox provides a comprehensive set of reference

standard algorithms, functions, and apps for image processing, analysis,
visualization, and algorithm development.

• Image enhancement, image debarring, image registration, feature

detection, noise reduction, and image segmentation, geometric
transformations can be performed.

• Image Processing Toolbox supports a diverse set of images types,

including high dynamic range, giga pixel resolution, embedded ICC
profile and tomography.

• Visualization functions let you explore an image, examine a region a

region of pixels, adjust the contrast, create contours or histograms, and
manipulate regions of pixels.

• With toolbox algorithms the images can be restored.

Neural network toolbox

• This toolbox provides functions and apps for modelling complex non-linear
systems that are not easily modelled with a closed-form equations

• It supports supervised learning with feed forward, radial basis, and

dynamic networks. It also supports unsupervised leaning with self-
organizing maps and competitive layers.

• This toolbox can be applied for data fitting, pattern recognition,

clustering, time-series prediction, and dynamic system modelling and
control.

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 Specific use of Back Propagation
Network
The training of a network by back propagation involves three stages:

1. Feed forward input training pattern

2. Calculation and back propagation of associated errors

3. Adjustment of Weights

Back-propagation works the same regardless of which application you apply it

to. Here too, we have considered these factors. For every English Alphabet we
have provided 26 different training sets (of the same alphabet) to increase its
efficiency. So, for all the 26 alphabets, in total the network has got 26*26 input
training patterns.

When training a neural network using the back-propagation algorithm, the

gradient descent method is used to determine the weight updates.

Back-propagation works the same regardless of which application you apply it

to.

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 RESULTS AND INTEFERENCE
We were able to convert the handwritten characters into text. The
Back propagation network works well in reading a particular input
and comparing it with a pre-determined target and then classifying it
accordingly.
Here are screenshots of our outputs.

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 CONCLUSION

It can be seen that method that uses feature extraction using character
geometry and gradient technique from scanned images containing
handwritten characters is presented effectively. Preprocessing of image
using edge detection is an ideal choice for noisy images. The method of
training neural network with sample images of each character has high
detection accuracy. The proposed methodology has produced good
results for images containing handwritten text written in slight variations
of writing styles, different size and alignment.

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