Signature recognition with a hybrid approach combining modular neural networks and fuzzy logic for response integration

This paper describes a modular neural network (MNN) with fuzzy integration for the problem of signature recognition. Currently, biometric identification has gained a great deal of research interest within the pattern recognition community. For instance, many attempts have been made in order to automate the process of identifying a person’s handwritten signature; however this problem has proven to be a very difficult task. In this work, we propose a MNN that has three separate modules, each using different image features as input, these are: edges, wavelet coefficients, and the Hough transform matrix. Then, the outputs from each of these modules are combined using a Sugeno fuzzy integral and a fuzzy inference system. The experimental results obtained using a database of 30 individual’s shows that the modular architecture can achieve a very high 99.33% recognition accuracy with a test set of 150 images. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed architecture provides a suitable platform to build a signature recognition system. Furthermore we consider the verification of signatures as false acceptance, false rejection and error recognition of the MNN.