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IWFHR-9 was sponsored by the Technical Committee TC-11 (Reading Systems) of the IAPR, and was financially supported by IBM (USA), Microsoft (USA), and Hitachi (Japan). The general chairs, Dr. H. Fujisawa and Prof. G. Lorette, led the organization of the IWFHR-9 to great success: 100 presentations (selected from over 120 submissions), over 140 participants, and stimulating discussions. The technical sessions of the IWFHR-9 included 47 oral presentations and 53 poster presentations. The oral presentations were organized into sessions titled · “Handwriting Recognition and Shape Analysis”, · “Classification Techniques”, · “Handwriting Analysis and Gesture Recognition”, · “Signature Verification and Writer Identification”, · “Recognition of Word and Text”, and · “Document Analysis and Applications”. The poster presentations were grouped into eight topics ranging from fundamental techniques to applications. In addition to the regular sessions, Prof. S.N. Srihari, from SUNY at Buffalo, gave an invited talk on “Machine Learning in Questioned Handwriting Examination”. The presentations reported progress on traditional technical issues and applications, as well as emerging techniques like Bayesian networks and new applications like pen-based hand-drawing and gesture analysis. The program committee rated the presentations and announced three awards. · The best paper award was given to S.-J. Cho, et al. (Samsung, Korea) for the work on a new device and algorithm for hand-drawn gesture recognition; · The best student paper award was given to H. Choi (KAIST, Korea) for the work on handwriting generation using Bayesian network; · The best poster award was given to J. Sadri (CENPARMI, Canada) for the work on numeral string segmentation. A panel discussion was organized on “The Present and Future of the Postal Automation System: In Quest of More Advanced Recognition Technology”. The panelists were invited from major postal companies of America, Europe, and Asia, and the research community of handwriting recognition. They discussed the urgent need to improve address recognition performance, especially error the reduction, and showed some possibilities of accomplishing this need. The IWFHR-9 also featured an outstanding venue and well-organized social programs. The participants were impressed by the park-like campus of HCRL. On having lunch at the cafeteria of HCRL, they enjoyed walking around the garden in the campus. In the workshop banquet, held in a business hotel located in the downtown area of Kichijoji, the participants were excited by a performance of Japanese drum. On the last day afternoon, an optional excursion to Mt Fuji was organized, which attracted about 40 participants and companions. During the IWFHR-9, a meeting was held to approve the proposal by Prof. M. Cheriet for holding the 11th IWFHR in 2008 in Montreal, Canada. The 10th IWFHR, chaired by Professors G. Lorette, H. Bunke, and L. Schomaker, will be held in October, 2006, in La Baul, France. |
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