Using position extrema points to capture shape in on-line handwritten signature verification

Abstract

There is considerable interest in authentication based on handwritten signature verification (HSV) because of the long-standing tradition of its use in many common authentication tasks. HSV may be considered superior to many other biometric authentication techniques, for example fingerprints or retinal patterns, which are more reliable but also more intrusive. Furthermore, they require special and relatively expensive hardware to capture the image. The present paper is an attempt to develop a reliable HSV technique by capturing the shape of the signature using the position extrema points of a signature. The technique presented essentially captures the directions of pen motion during the writing of the signature and this is represented in a simple way by a string. The technique is evaluated and shown to be promising.