N-gram and N-class models for on line handwriting recognition

Abstract

This paper highlights the interest of a language modelin increasing the performances of on-line handwritingrecognition systems. Models based on statisticalapproaches, trained on written corpora, have beeninvestigated. Two kinds of models have been studied: n-grammodels and n-class models. In the latter case, theclasses result either from a syntactic criteria or acontextual criteria. In order to integrate it into smallcapacity systems (mobile device), an n-class model hasbeen designed by combining these criteria. It outperformsbulkier models based on n-gram. Integration into an on-linehandwriting recognition system demonstrates asubstantial performance improvement due to the languagemodel.