Neural Network- Handwriting Recognition Technology
What is Neural Network?
Neural networks are the workhorses of deep learning. And while they may look like black boxes, deep down they are trying to accomplish the same thing as any other model — to make good predictions. Neural networks are multi-layer networks of neurons (the blue and magenta nodes in the chart below) that we use to classify things, make predictions, etc.
Starting from the left, we have:
- The input layer of our model in orange.
- Our first hidden layer of neurons in blue.
- Our second hidden layer of neurons in magenta.
- The output layer (a.k.a. the prediction) of our model in green.
The arrows that connect the dots shows how all the neurons are interconnected and how data travels from the input layer all the way through to the output layer.
Later we will calculate step by step each output value. We will also watch how the neural network learns from its mistake using a process known as backpropagation.
Handwriting Recognition
Offline Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) systems transcribe text contained in scanned images into digital text, an example is shown in Fig. 1. We will build a Neural Network (NN) which is trained on word-images from the IAM dataset. As the input layer (and therefore also all the other layers) can be kept small for word-images, NN-training is feasible on the CPU (of course, a GPU would be better). This implementation is the bare minimum that is needed for HTR using TF.
Industry uses
Microblink is an R&D company developing proprietary computer vision technology optimized for realtime processing on mobile devices. Advanced neural networks and deep learning techniques are used to process the fastest and the most accurate text recognition locally on a mobile device. Therefore, we offer a variety of products as mobile SDK (software development kit) or Web API tailored for specific use-cases.
We aim to completely eliminate the need for manual data entry on mobile devices, thus improving user experience and engagement.
MyScript started off as a small company in Nantes, France. For many years, there were less than 15 employees. They are now over 100 people and lately celebrated our 20th anniversary.
All different yet all united by a common goal, we share our enthusiasm and knowledge to push the limits of productivity and shape the digital world of tomorrow.
Their technology is deployed in hundreds of millions of touch screens over the world, in mobile devices, cars, interactive whiteboards, etc.