A Study on Character Recognition using HMM and the Mason's Theorem

In most of the character recognition systems, the method of template matching or statistical method using hidden Markov model is used to extract and recognize feature shapes. In this paper, we used modified chain-code which has 8-directions but 4-codes, and made the chain-code of hand-written character, after that, converted it into transition chain-code by applying to HMM(Hidden Markov Model). The transition chain code by HMM is analyzed as signal flow graph by Mason's theory which is generally used to calculate forward gain at automatic control system. If the specific forward gain and feedback gain is properly set, the forward gain of transition chain-code using Mason's theory can be distinguished depending on each object for recognition. This data of the gain is reorganized as tree structure, hence making it possible to distinguish different hand-written characters. With this method, $91\%$ recognition rate was acquired.