International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 9 No.
20, 2014
Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm
Combined histogram chain code feature extraction
method to recognize handwritten digits with
probabilistic neural network
N. Venkateswara Rao
Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering,
R.V.R. & J.C. College of Engineering,
Guntur, INDIA
vraonaramala@gmail.com
Abstract - This paper presents a novel approach for automatic
recognition of handwritten digits from histogram chain code
feature extraction method by using probabilistic neural network
classifier. The handwritten digits recognition is a vital research
in the domain of pattern recognition. The features are extracted
from the digit images using histogram chain code. Four
directional histogram chain codes were calculated here, i.e.,
horizontal, vertical, left diagonal and right diagonal histogram
chain code. To increase the accuracy of the recognition rate the
chain code features are trained with probabilistic neural network
to classify the digit images. The individual histogram chain code
features give reasonably good accuracy, while the combined
histogram chain code features gives a recognition rate of 98.1%
which is better than the individual histogram chain code feature.
The strength of this approach is the probabilistic neural network
classification scheme due to which, we have been able to achieve
a high recognition rate.
Keywords handwritten digits, probabilistic neural network,
chain code histogram, feature extraction.
INTRODUCTION
Handwritten Digit Recognition is an active research area
in the field of artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, and
computer vision problems. It refers to the translation of
scanned or photocopied images of handwritten text into
machine editable text. Nowadays, the recognition of
handwritten characters is comparatively difficult than the
recognition of machine printed characters [5], because the
people have different handwriting styles. Each handwritten
digit character image is unique in many ways and if we can
extract the unique features of the character image we can
train the computer about that particular character image.
Each character has different sets of features which can be
used while comparing with a test character. Hence by this
way we can make the computer recognize a character. So,
the handwritten character recognition is still an active area
of research [1, 6]. The approach used in this system is a
two-step
process: 1) represent the handwritten digits as a
histogram chain code feature vector [20, 21] and 2)
classification of features vector into set of classes. The
recognition rate of handwritten digits is depends on the
[Page No. 4585]
B. RaveendraBabu
VNR VignanaJyothi Institute of Engineering and
Technology,
Hyderabad, INDIA
rbhogapathi@yahoo.com
selection of feature extraction method and classifier. To
achieving high recognition rate we used combined
histogram chain code feature extraction method and a
probabilistic neural network classifier. If the feature
extraction method is robust then the classification of the
features is easy so that for a variety of samples of the same
digit images, similar set of feature are generated. Different
feature extraction methods for handwritten digits are
majorly classified into two types: statistical features and
structural features. The most common statistical features
used for handwritten character recognition are: a) zoning,
where the character image is divided into multiple zones and
features are extracted from each zone b) projections like
horizontal projections, vertical projections etc. and c)
crossings that consist of the number of transitions from
foreground image pixels to background image pixels along
horizontal and vertical lines and distances [11]. Structural
features are based on topological and geometrical properties
of the character image [12]. In addition to the above
methods, many different feature extraction techniques have
been described in the literature [8, 9, 15, 16, 18, and 19].
The selection of neural network classification scheme is not
an easy task since the classifier depends on so many things
such as available training samples, number of hidden
neurons, type of training algorithm, transfer function etc.
Since from many decades different classification methods
have been applied to handwritten digit recognition. These
methods include statistical methods like Bayes decision
rule, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) [11, 13, 17],
Kernel Methods including Support Vector Machine (SVM)
[14], Hidden Markov Models (HMM) [3,4] and multiple
classifier combination [10].
METHODOLOGY
The basic processes involved in any handwritten digit
recognition systems were Pre-processing the input image
data, extracting the features from the input data, and the
classification of the extracted features. The steps involved in
pre-processing are binarization, cropping, normalization,
and thinning. In binarization the given image is converted
into binary image by computing the average threshold value
of the image. Normally the image data is not aligned to the
center, so the images are cropped. In normalization all the
 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 9 No. 20, 2014
Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

sample images of the dataset are set to a predefined size in a digital image. It plots the number of pixels for each
since all the images may not have the same size. In thinning intensity value in the given image. The histogram is a graph
the normalized image is reduced to a single pixel thickness. showing the number of pixels in an image at each different
In feature extraction process the number of image pixels of intensity values found in that image. There are 256 different
a thinned image in different directions are summed into a possible intensities for grayscale images, and so the
numeric value and it is represented as a histogram chain histogram of these images will graphically display a total of
code value. The classification is performed on the histogram 256 numbers showing the distribution of the pixels amongst
chain code features of different directions with a those grayscale values. Here we represented the histogram
probabilistic neural network. The overall process of this of an image as the number of pixels in each direction as a
methodology is shown in Figure 1. count instead of intensity values. When the thinned image is
obtained, the horizontal, vertical, left diagonal and right
Preprocessing diagonal histogram of the image is calculated and it is
Binarizatio Normaliization Thinning determined as a feature vector. Then all the four directional
histogram sequences are combined into a single integer
sequence as feature vector of the digit image sample. The
combined integer sequence is represented as a chain code of
Right Left Vertical Horizonta the digit image. The histogram chain code features are used
Diagonal Diagonal
in the neural network classifier to recognize the digit
Histogram Chain code Feature Extraction images. Classical chain code is represented as directional
information of the image. Figure 3 shows the four
directional chain code histograms computed for an example
Feature Neural Class
Vector Network Label of one sample image which shown in Figure 2.
Classification

Pre-processing
Pre-processing is one of the preliminary steps in
handwritten character recognition systems. Before the raw
data is used for feature extraction it has to undergo certain
preliminary processes so that we can get accurate results.
This step helps in correcting the deficiencies in the data
which may have occurred due to the limitations of the
sensor or photo copied data. The input for a system may be
taken in different environmental conditions. Same object
may give different images when taken in different time and
different conditions. Hence by doing preprocessing we get
data that will be easy for the system to operate on, there by
producing accurate result. Before inputting the data into the
network, the image has to be converted into the binary
image. Then the binary image is resized to 32 X 32 pixels.
Afterwards, the image is thinned to the single pixel
thickness so only the skeleton remains. The process of the
preprocessing is shown in Figure 2 for one sample of the
image taken from the digit dataset.

Figure 1: Process of Pre-Processing Method
Feature Extraction
In Statistics, Histogram is a graphical representation
showing a visual impression of the distribution of data. In
an image processing environment, the histogram of an
image is normally refers to the intensity of the pixel values.
An Image Histogram is a type of histogram that acts as a
graphical representation of the lightness or color distribution
Figure 2: Four Directional Chain Code Histogram (a) horizontal (b) vertical
(c) left diagonal (d) right diagonal
Classification
A Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) is one type of the
back propagation neural network. The PNN is motivated
from the theory of Bayesian classification and the classical
estimation of probability density functions (PDF). The
architecture of the Probabilistic neural network is a feed

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 9 No. 20, 2014
Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm
forward in nature which is analogous to the back
propagation neural network, but the distinction between
these two is the way that learning process occurs.
Probabilistic neural network is one of the supervised
learning mechanisms but it includes no weights in its hidden
layer. Each hidden layer node represents a pattern or feature
vector, with the example substitute as the weights to that
hidden layer node. These hidden layer nodes are not
adjusted at all. The sample architecture of the PNN is shown
Input Hidden Summation Output
Layer Layer Layer Layer
in Figure 4.
Figure 3: Probabilistic Neural Network Architecture
The architecture of the probabilistic neural network
consists four layers, i.e. input layer, hidden (pattern) layer,
summation layer, and output layer as shown in Figure 4.
The input layer is fully interconnected with the hidden layer,
which consists of the example feature vectors of the training
set. The example vector serves as the weights as applied to
the input layer. The output layer represents each of the
possible classes for which the input vector data can be
classified. The classification in the PNN is done by the
output layer using winner-takes-all method. The output class
node with the largest activation represents the winning class.
But the hidden layer nodes are not fully interconnected to
the output layer nodes. The basic operation performed by
the PNN is an estimation of the probability density function
of features of the each class provided from the training
samples with Gaussian Kernel method. The training process
is performed by the net is shown in Algorithm 1. These
estimated probability densities are then used in a Bayes
decision rule to perform the classification. The classification
is performed by the net is shown in Algorithm 2.
PNN Training Algorithm 1:
Step 1: For each training input pattern, x (p), p=1, P.
perform step 2-3
Step 2: Create a hidden layer (or pattern unit) Zp, and
Weight vector for unit Zp is wp = x (p)
Step 3: Connect the hidden layer to summation layer. If x
(p) belongs to Class A, connect hidden layer Zp to
summation layer SA otherwise connect hidden layer Zp to
summation layer SB and so on.
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In PNN algorithm, calculating the class-node activations is a
simple process. For each class node, the example vector
activations are summed, which are the sum of the products
of the example vector and the input vector. The hidden node
activation, shown in the following equation, is simply the
product of the two vectors (E is the example vector, and F is
the input feature vector).
=
The class output activations are then defined as:
( )
=
where N is the total number of example vectors for this
class, hi is the hidden-node activation, and is a smoothing
factor. From the experimentation the smoothing factor is
chosen. If the smoothing factor is too small, the classifier
may not generalize well, but if the smoothing factor is large,
the details can be lost. Even in the noisy data environment
the probabilistic neural network also generalizes very well.
PNN Classification Algorithm 2:
Step 1: Initialize the weights from training algorithm.
Step 2: For each pattern (hidden layer) to be classified, do
steps 3-5
Step 3: in hidden layer units
i) Calculate net input, Zinj = x . wj= xT.Wj
ii) Calculate the output Z =exp[Zinj 1/ 2]
Step 4: in Summation layer units
The weights used by the summation unit for Class B is,
VB = - PBCBmA / PACAmB
Step 5: Output unit:
It sums the signals from fA and fB. Input vector is
classified as Class A if the total input to decision unit
is positive.
RESULTS
Experiments are conducted on MNIST digit dataset. We
have taken 100 samples of each digit images from the data
set a total of 1000 samples. For all the samples the four
directional chain code histogram feature vector is computed.
All the images are normalized to 32 X 32. The input pattern
vector consists of 32 horizontal chain code values, 32
vertical chain code values, 63 left diagonal chain code
values, and 63 right diagonal chain code values, a total of
190 values. The individual chain code histogram features
are trained by the probabilistic neural network classifier and
observed the recognition rate. The four directional chain
code histograms are combined into a single histogram chain
code as a feature vector of a numeric value. The combined
histogram chain code features is trained with probabilistic
neural network and gives good results than the individual
histogram chain codes. The recognition rate and the error
rate for the combined histogram chain code are observed as
 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 9 No. 20, 2014
Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm
98.1% and 1.9% respectively. The combined histogram
results are observed in the confusion matrix shown in Figure
5.The performance of the net is also computed and it is
shown in theFigure 6.
Figure 5: Confusion Matrix
Figure 6: Performance of the Net
CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new combined histogram chain code feature
extraction method has been proposed to solve the problem
of handwritten digit recognition with probabilistic neural
network. The feasibility and efficiency of this proposed
method was evaluated in two aspects, they are performance
and the recognition accuracy.
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