Investigating an objective measure of writer hesitation for forensic analysis of the handwritten signature

Abstract

The analysis of handwritten signatures is an area of ongoing and increasing interest for both biometrics and forensics researchers. Hesitation in writing execution, estimated (to a large degree) through human inspection, has been commonly used by Forensic Document Examiners (FDE) or Forensic Handwriting Experts (FHE) as one of the important features which may be used to distinguish between genuine signatures and imitations or forgeries. This paper introduces some simple objective measures of hesitation and investigates their reliability and efficacy in automating the analysis of handwritten signatures for forensic or biometric applications.