Handwriting Analysis Identifies Who Wrote What

German software vendor Paragon Software Group has unveiled PenMetrics, which it claims can measure a wide range of individual handwriting characteristics and parameters.

The parameters it measures include letter width, height, and inclination. These, and more, can be subjected to further analysis for a range of purposes, including determining whether or not a particular individual wrote a piece of text.

Written proof

PenMetrics is capable of processing both plain text (scanned from a paper handwriting sample, for example) and dynamic text which could be collected using a range of mobile devices or graphics tablets.

Paragon said that, while handwriting is taught to children from an early age, personal style continues to develop over the years to add individual, defining strokes.

“Each person has his or her own unique way of writing, which can be decoded through handwriting analysis,” said the company. “The technology immediately determines constants in handwriting and provides full, detailed data on requested parameters. The collectable characteristics can be customised upon request.”

The company is now making the technology available to any organisation involved in handwritten analysis, including clinics, research labs, forensic or criminal analysts, profilers of missing or dead persons, law enforcement agencies, and other organisations.

Although PenMetrics is a new product, prior to bringing it to the market, Paragon Software has built it on experience gained while devloping its proprietary PenReader handwriting recognition software which first appeared in 1997 for personal digital assistant (PDA) devices. Over the following years, specialised operations such as orthographical correction of recognition results and support for more than 30 world languages were added to the PenReader engine.

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