Robust Feature Extraction Technique for Optical Character Recognition

Abstract

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a classical research field and has become one of most thriving applications in the field of pattern recognition. Feature extraction is a key step in the process of OCR, which in fact is a deciding factor of the accuracy of the system. This paper proposes a novel and robust technique for feature extraction using Gabor Filters, to be employed in the OCR. The use of 2D Gabor filters is investigated and features are extracted using these filters. The technique generally extracts fifty features based on global texture analysis and can be further extended to increase the number of features if necessary. The algorithm is well explained and is found that the proposed method demonstrated better performance in efficiency. In addition, experimental results show that the method gains high recognition rate and cost reasonable average running time.