Handwriting movement analysis
Encyclopedia
Handwriting movement analysis is the study and analysis of the movements involved in handwriting
and drawing. It forms an important part of graphonomics
, which became established after the "International Workshop on Handwriting Movement Analysis" in 1982 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. It would become the first of a continuing series of International Graphonomics Conferences. The first graphonomics milestone was Thomassen, Keuss, Van Galen, Grootveld (1983).
Handwriting is historically considered the widest taught motor skill. It is also one of the first, and often the only motor skill that children will learn at elementary school. It takes years of practice and maturing before a person has mastered the adult handwriting skill. Handwriting is not considered only as a movement that leaves a visible trace of ink on paper (product) but it can also be considered as a movement (process). Understanding of the handwriting product will not be complete until the handwriting process is understood. Therefore, handwriting movement has been researched since measurement techniques became available.
However, before recording and processing handwriting movements were within reach for those interested in studying handwriting movements, three components were required: Devices to capture handwriting movements, laboratory computers to store and process the movement data, and computer software which enables the researcher to do this under specific experimental paradigms without the need to program untested custom software. Handwriting movement analysis software is also used for studying drawing, eye–hand coordination, or any other situation where the researcher wishes to record movements using a pen.
-like handwriting and drawing strokes. Higher-than-necessary sampling rates such as 100 Hz are preferred as this would also allow low-pass filtering or smoothed data with reduced equipment and quantization noise by factor √(100/20) = √5. A laboratory computer will be needed to store, process, and visualize massive amounts of samples. It took more than 50 years for computers to be available in laboratories. Electronic analog computer
s were used until digital computer
s came within reach for research: Wang Laboratories
, Digital Equipment Corporation
(DEC), Apple Inc., IBM PC
(Personal Computer), Norsk Data
, Atari
, Osborne Computer Corporation
, and Data General
. Sadly, most of these innovative mini and microcomputer companies have discontinued their operation.
, or digitizer, x-y-tablet, graphics pad, with electronic pens as we know them today. Among the earliest tablets are the
Styalator electronic tablet with pen for computer input and handwriting recognition in 1957
and the commercial products by Vector General. The Vector General products reported the position of the stylus at 100 Hz and claimed an accuracy of 0.1 cm. Typical tablets sense the position of the pen electromagnetically. Touch-sensitive tablets cannot be used when the hand is resting on the tablet unless they implement some form of hand rejection. Tablets can have a display built in (e.g., as in a tablet PC). Still today, handwriting tablets are the gold standard to record handwriting. Sampling rates used to be 100 Hz until it was decided that the minimum rate for Human Input Devices HID
should be at least 133 Hz, bumping the sampling rates up to 133 – 200 Hz. The advantage is a 15%–40% reduction of device noise and quantization noise. The digitizer technology belongs to the most accurate and cost-effective pointing device
s. Dynamic accuracy of 0.01 cm at constant frequency is achievable. Opaque tablets are produced by Wacom
who also produces display digitizers, Hanvon, VisTablet, Adesso, Genius.
Pen-based handwriting capturing devices have been developed but never achieved the accuracy of tablets. Currently many novel systems appear on the market that "record" handwriting, such as those by Anoto
, and also EMG-based systems.
Many pen movement recording systems capture, not only the x and y coordinates of the pen top, but also axial pen pressure, an x an y tilt or altitude and azimuth of the pen barrel.
Handwriting movement measurement systems can capture:
Optionally, digitizers can deliver the orientation of the pen barrel relative to the tablet:
Ideally, each set of coordinates should be sampled simultaneously and at a fixed frequency, and include times stamps per coordinate to correct non-isochronous sampling. Additional features that can be measured by the digitizers (mostly in past models) include pen height, pen barrel rotation, and grip forces (e.g., at the 3 finger grip areas).
, human movement science, biomechanics
of the hand, fine motor control, handedness
, human-computer interaction, visuomotor control, visual feedback, goal-directed movements, drawing
, experimental psychology
, psychiatry
, extrapyramidal symptoms
(EPS) or movement side effects due to medication, neurology
, movement disorders, Parkinson's disease
, dystonia
, writer's cramp
, physiotherapy, remedial handwriting instruction, occupational therapy
, child development
, developmental disorders, education
, elementary education, home schooling, re-education, linguistics
, language
, communication
, stuttering
, forensic document examination, document analysis, forensic document examination or questioned document examination
, signature verification and identification, handwriting image analysis, computer science
, artificial intelligence
, handwriting recognition
, etc.
The next wave consisted of packaged software that could be made available to record handwriting at many locations. Most initial software systems were developed by university researchers who, often, were the only ones capable of using it. Even today, it is a major accomplishment to make software available as a package that can be installed on an unknown computer and can be used after a brief familiarization time by other users who have not been involved.
Over the last several years, software packages have appeared on the market that can be used by many other researchers interested in the field of handwriting movement analysis.
In 2003, NeuroSkill received a US patent 6,546,134: "System for assessment of fine motor control in humans". Their method estimates stability, smoothness and synchronization of the writer's motion as quantifying measures of the neurological function using their Correlation Function Analysis (CFA) of behavioral signals. CFA returns numerical scores and charts expressing stability of the handwriting strokes and the characteristics of the phase distortions in reproducing cursive samples.
Another application was to evaluate persons with critical skills (e.g., airline pilots, bus drivers) for physical and mental performance impairments caused by stress, physiological disorders, and alcohol and drug abuse using their proprietary VeriFax Impairoscope writing instrument. This last application raised the possibility of using a space-qualified Impairoscope variant to evaluate astronaut performance with respect to the impacts of stress, fatigue, excessive workload, build-up of toxic chemicals within the space habitat, etc.
In 2009, the iNeuroskill web portal was established under a new business entity: iNeuroskill. The website enables Parkinson patients to upload their signatures that were recorded using a digitizing tablet. They receive immediate feedback regarding their fine motor function in the form of a chart analysis. Their oldest article is by Morgenthaler, Shrairman, and Landau (1998).
was developed by NeuroScript, Tempe, AZ, USA. NeuroScript was founded in 1997 by Prof. Dr. George Stelmach, who has since retired, and Dr. Hans-Leo Teulings. In 1999 Gregory M. Baker joined as MovAlyzeR’s designer and implementer. This handwriting movement analysis software is the first to demonstrate that it can discern movement side-effects due to schizophrenia
medication better than with any conventional evaluation method used in psychiatry today (international patent pending) (Caligiuri et al., 2009a, b). MovAlyzeR is currently the only handwriting movement analysis software that is certified for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. It can be integrated with MATLAB
and perform image processing on scanned handwriting exemplars. It is used in fields ranging from research in human movement sciences, kinesiology
, psychology
, education
, aging research, psychiatry
, neurology
, occupational therapy
, forensic document examination, computer science
(handwriting recognition
, signature verification
), to educational demonstrations or student projects in these fields. The oldest references to MovAlyzeR are Teulings and Romero (2003), Teulings and Van Gemmert, (2003), Romero and Teulings (2003).
Soon afterward, POET was developed further and renamed to ComPET: Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool. It is used to study children with dysgraphia, Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorders (ADHD) and adults with several pathologies as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Depression, Alzheimer, Parkinson as well as aging effects. It is also used with verbal-based lie detection technology such as the polygraph.
Handwriting
Handwriting is a person's particular & individual style of writing with pen or pencil, which contrasts with "Hand" which is an impersonal and formalised writing style in several historical varieties...
and drawing. It forms an important part of graphonomics
Graphonomics
Graphonomics is the interdisciplinary field directed towards the scientific analysis of the handwriting process and the handwritten product. Researchers in handwriting recognition, forensic handwriting examination, kinesiology, psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, paleography and...
, which became established after the "International Workshop on Handwriting Movement Analysis" in 1982 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. It would become the first of a continuing series of International Graphonomics Conferences. The first graphonomics milestone was Thomassen, Keuss, Van Galen, Grootveld (1983).
Handwriting is historically considered the widest taught motor skill. It is also one of the first, and often the only motor skill that children will learn at elementary school. It takes years of practice and maturing before a person has mastered the adult handwriting skill. Handwriting is not considered only as a movement that leaves a visible trace of ink on paper (product) but it can also be considered as a movement (process). Understanding of the handwriting product will not be complete until the handwriting process is understood. Therefore, handwriting movement has been researched since measurement techniques became available.
However, before recording and processing handwriting movements were within reach for those interested in studying handwriting movements, three components were required: Devices to capture handwriting movements, laboratory computers to store and process the movement data, and computer software which enables the researcher to do this under specific experimental paradigms without the need to program untested custom software. Handwriting movement analysis software is also used for studying drawing, eye–hand coordination, or any other situation where the researcher wishes to record movements using a pen.
Earliest devices to capture handwriting movements
Elisha Gray's "Telautograph", US Patent 386,815 (1888), followed by four more similar patents (1891–93). See the "Annotated Bibliography in Pen Computing and Handwriting Recognition" by Jean Renard Ward (http://users.erols.com/rwservices/biblio.html). Handwriting could only be transmitted by wire and reproduced elsewhere in real-time. Scripture (1895) developed a writing apparatus that enabled storage of pen positions on paper at 100 Hz. This apparatus permitted measurement of durations of individual handwriting strokes (McAllister, 1900).Earliest laboratory computers
Handwriting movements are fast, non-repetitive with a primary frequency around 5 Hz and a bandwidth of about 10 Hz. While sampling rates of 20 Hz would theoretically suffice, up-sampling will be needed to properly visualize the LissajousLissajous
Lissajous may refer to* Jules Antoine Lissajous , French mathematician.* Lissajous curve , a mathematical figure showing a type of harmonic motion.* Lissajous orbit, an orbital trajectory resembling a Lissajous curve....
-like handwriting and drawing strokes. Higher-than-necessary sampling rates such as 100 Hz are preferred as this would also allow low-pass filtering or smoothed data with reduced equipment and quantization noise by factor √(100/20) = √5. A laboratory computer will be needed to store, process, and visualize massive amounts of samples. It took more than 50 years for computers to be available in laboratories. Electronic analog computer
Analog computer
An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved...
s were used until digital computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s came within reach for research: Wang Laboratories
Wang Laboratories
Wang Laboratories was a computer company founded in 1951 by Dr. An Wang and Dr. G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge , Tewksbury , and finally in Lowell, Massachusetts . At its peak in the 1980s, Wang Laboratories had annual revenues of $3 billion and employed over...
, Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
(DEC), Apple Inc., IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
(Personal Computer), Norsk Data
Norsk Data
Norsk Data was a computer manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway. Existing from 1967 to 1992, it had its most active period in the years from the early 1970s to the late 1980s...
, Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
, Osborne Computer Corporation
Osborne Computer Corporation
The Osborne Computer Corporation was a pioneering maker of portable computers.-The Osborne 1:After Adam Osborne sold his computer book-publishing company to McGraw-Hill in 1979, he decided to sell an inexpensive portable computer with bundled software and hired Lee Felsenstein to design it...
, and Data General
Data General
Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation. Their first product, the Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer...
. Sadly, most of these innovative mini and microcomputer companies have discontinued their operation.
Pen movement recording devices
The first devices to accurately record handwriting that could be connected to computers were graphics tabletGraphics tablet
A graphics tablet is a computer input device that enables a user to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures...
, or digitizer, x-y-tablet, graphics pad, with electronic pens as we know them today. Among the earliest tablets are the
Styalator electronic tablet with pen for computer input and handwriting recognition in 1957
and the commercial products by Vector General. The Vector General products reported the position of the stylus at 100 Hz and claimed an accuracy of 0.1 cm. Typical tablets sense the position of the pen electromagnetically. Touch-sensitive tablets cannot be used when the hand is resting on the tablet unless they implement some form of hand rejection. Tablets can have a display built in (e.g., as in a tablet PC). Still today, handwriting tablets are the gold standard to record handwriting. Sampling rates used to be 100 Hz until it was decided that the minimum rate for Human Input Devices HID
HID
HID may refer to:*HID Global, American-based manufacturer of access control products*HID, National Rail code for Hall i' th' Wood railway station, England*High-intensity discharge lamp, a type of electrical light...
should be at least 133 Hz, bumping the sampling rates up to 133 – 200 Hz. The advantage is a 15%–40% reduction of device noise and quantization noise. The digitizer technology belongs to the most accurate and cost-effective pointing device
Pointing device
A pointing device is an input interface that allows a user to input spatial data to a computer...
s. Dynamic accuracy of 0.01 cm at constant frequency is achievable. Opaque tablets are produced by Wacom
Wacom
in Krefeld, Germany. Wacom is a Japanese portmanteau: Wa for "harmony" or "circle", and Komu for "computer". Wacom tablets are notable for their use of a patented cordless, battery-free, and pressure-sensitive stylus or digital pen...
who also produces display digitizers, Hanvon, VisTablet, Adesso, Genius.
Pen-based handwriting capturing devices have been developed but never achieved the accuracy of tablets. Currently many novel systems appear on the market that "record" handwriting, such as those by Anoto
Anoto
Anoto Group AB is a Swedish technology company which has invented, developed and licensed a product line of digital pens and a product suite to manage information capturing utilizing these . The Anoto Group has around 110 employees...
, and also EMG-based systems.
Many pen movement recording systems capture, not only the x and y coordinates of the pen top, but also axial pen pressure, an x an y tilt or altitude and azimuth of the pen barrel.
Handwriting movement measurement systems can capture:
- x = Horizontal coordinates; parallel to the baseline in Western script
- y = Vertical coordinates; perpendicular to the horizontal base line and in the writing surface.
- z = Axial pen pressure; as pressure data are often non-linearly related to actual pressure, pen orientation will be needed to estimate normal pressure.
Optionally, digitizers can deliver the orientation of the pen barrel relative to the tablet:
- Altitude = How steep the pen is held; this angle can be used to estimate pen pressure perpendicular to the paper from the axial pen pressure.
- Azimuth = Direction of the pen barrel projected on the x-y plane.
Ideally, each set of coordinates should be sampled simultaneously and at a fixed frequency, and include times stamps per coordinate to correct non-isochronous sampling. Additional features that can be measured by the digitizers (mostly in past models) include pen height, pen barrel rotation, and grip forces (e.g., at the 3 finger grip areas).
Handwriting movement analysis software
Handwriting movements are being studied from many disciplines including kinesiologyKinesiology
Kinesiology, also known as human kinetics is the scientific study of human movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, mechanical, and psychological mechanisms. Applications of kinesiology to human health include: biomechanics and orthopedics, rehabilitation, such as physical and occupational...
, human movement science, biomechanics
Biomechanics
Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Perhaps one of the best definitions was provided by Herbert Hatze in 1974: "Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of...
of the hand, fine motor control, handedness
Handedness
Handedness is a human attribute defined by unequal distribution of fine motor skills between the left and right hands. An individual who is more dexterous with the right hand is called right-handed and one who is more skilled with the left is said to be left-handed...
, human-computer interaction, visuomotor control, visual feedback, goal-directed movements, drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, experimental psychology
Experimental psychology
Experimental psychology is a methodological approach, rather than a subject, and encompasses varied fields within psychology. Experimental psychologists have traditionally conducted research, published articles, and taught classes on neuroscience, developmental psychology, sensation, perception,...
, psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, extrapyramidal symptoms
Extrapyramidal symptoms
The extrapyramidal system can be affected in a number of ways, which are revealed in a range of extrapyramidal symptoms , also known as extrapyramidal side-effects , such as akinesia and akathisia .Extrapyramidal symptoms are various movement disorders such as acute dystonic reactions,...
(EPS) or movement side effects due to medication, neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
, movement disorders, Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
, dystonia
Dystonia
Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder, in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures. The disorder may be hereditary or caused by other factors such as birth-related or other physical trauma, infection, poisoning or reaction to...
, writer's cramp
Writer's cramp
Writer's cramp, also called mogigraphia and scrivener's palsy, causes a cramp or spasm affecting certain muscles of the hand and/or fingers. Writer's cramp is a task-specific focal dystonia of the hand...
, physiotherapy, remedial handwriting instruction, occupational therapy
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
, child development
Child development
Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories....
, developmental disorders, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, elementary education, home schooling, re-education, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
, stuttering
Stuttering
Stuttering , also known as stammering , is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds...
, forensic document examination, document analysis, forensic document examination or questioned document examination
Questioned document examination
Questioned document examination is the forensic science discipline pertaining to documents that are in dispute in a court of law...
, signature verification and identification, handwriting image analysis, computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
, etc.
The next wave consisted of packaged software that could be made available to record handwriting at many locations. Most initial software systems were developed by university researchers who, often, were the only ones capable of using it. Even today, it is a major accomplishment to make software available as a package that can be installed on an unknown computer and can be used after a brief familiarization time by other users who have not been involved.
Over the last several years, software packages have appeared on the market that can be used by many other researchers interested in the field of handwriting movement analysis.
CSWin
The first handwriting movement analysis offered for sale (around 1980) was CSWin by Science And Motion and developed by Christian Marquardt and Norbert May in Munich, Germany. CSWin was marketed in Germany and is being used in many German hospitals. It was used for treating 500 writer’s cramp patients. The present company focuses on golf training and was established in 2003 and is run by the owner, Christian Marquardt. Their oldest publication is by Marquardt and Mai (1994).Oasis
Another early system was Oasis by KikoSoft, The Netherlands, which was established in 1995 by Peter De Jong. Oasis can be customized by its flexible macro language. In 1998, this system was used to develop an automated test-battery for psychopharmacological research: Orgabat. One of the oldest references to Oasis is De Jong, Hulstijn, Kosterman, and Smits-Engelsman (1996).Pullman spiral acquisition and analysis
At Columbia university, Prof. Dr. Seth Pullman developed Pullman Spiral Acquisition and Analysis. It is used to test tremor in Parkinson patients. In 2002, Pullman received US Patent 6,454,706: "System and method for clinically assessing motor function". Patients with motor disorders such as Parkinson's disease draw spirals. The software calculates first-order smoothness, second-order smoothness, tightness of the spiral, zero-crossing rate, second-order zero-crossing rate, and derives from these score a degree of severity score. Their system enables objectively assessing motor function by physicians who are not skilled or experienced in evaluating motor disorders, for example general practitioners or pediatricians who are not certified in the practice of neurology. An early publication about his spiral analysis is by Pullman (1998).Neuroskill
Another handwriting analysis system is Neuroskill by Verifax, Boulder, Colorado, USA, which was founded in 1990 by Dr. Ruth Shrairman and Alex Landau. Neuroskill was designed for biometric measurement, security purposes, and Parkinson medication effects and has many applications in movement disorders. Verifax began operations with the aim of developing a biometric tool for the verification of signatures from a distance (VeriFax Autograph Technology). Verifax developed two more applications using application-specific modifications of their customized Neuroskill software: Applications for substance abuse screening and detection, monitoring for toxic inhalants and environmental distress, and accurate signature identification for security/privacy protection and forgery detection. Target markets could include neuromuscular disease centers, drug and alcohol abuse clinics, occupational health centers and the security industry. In the process, they applied their technology to biometric measurements as a clinical monitoring tool for physicians investigating neuromuscular diseases.In 2003, NeuroSkill received a US patent 6,546,134: "System for assessment of fine motor control in humans". Their method estimates stability, smoothness and synchronization of the writer's motion as quantifying measures of the neurological function using their Correlation Function Analysis (CFA) of behavioral signals. CFA returns numerical scores and charts expressing stability of the handwriting strokes and the characteristics of the phase distortions in reproducing cursive samples.
Another application was to evaluate persons with critical skills (e.g., airline pilots, bus drivers) for physical and mental performance impairments caused by stress, physiological disorders, and alcohol and drug abuse using their proprietary VeriFax Impairoscope writing instrument. This last application raised the possibility of using a space-qualified Impairoscope variant to evaluate astronaut performance with respect to the impacts of stress, fatigue, excessive workload, build-up of toxic chemicals within the space habitat, etc.
In 2009, the iNeuroskill web portal was established under a new business entity: iNeuroskill. The website enables Parkinson patients to upload their signatures that were recorded using a digitizing tablet. They receive immediate feedback regarding their fine motor function in the form of a chart analysis. Their oldest article is by Morgenthaler, Shrairman, and Landau (1998).
MovAlyzeR
MovAlyzeRMovAlyzeR
MovAlyzeR is a software package for handwriting movement analysis for research and professional applications. Handwriting movements are recorded using a digitizing tablet connected to a computer...
was developed by NeuroScript, Tempe, AZ, USA. NeuroScript was founded in 1997 by Prof. Dr. George Stelmach, who has since retired, and Dr. Hans-Leo Teulings. In 1999 Gregory M. Baker joined as MovAlyzeR’s designer and implementer. This handwriting movement analysis software is the first to demonstrate that it can discern movement side-effects due to schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
medication better than with any conventional evaluation method used in psychiatry today (international patent pending) (Caligiuri et al., 2009a, b). MovAlyzeR is currently the only handwriting movement analysis software that is certified for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. It can be integrated with MATLAB
MATLAB
MATLAB is a numerical computing environment and fourth-generation programming language. Developed by MathWorks, MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages,...
and perform image processing on scanned handwriting exemplars. It is used in fields ranging from research in human movement sciences, kinesiology
Kinesiology
Kinesiology, also known as human kinetics is the scientific study of human movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, mechanical, and psychological mechanisms. Applications of kinesiology to human health include: biomechanics and orthopedics, rehabilitation, such as physical and occupational...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, aging research, psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
, occupational therapy
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
, forensic document examination, computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
(handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
, signature verification
Digital signature
A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...
), to educational demonstrations or student projects in these fields. The oldest references to MovAlyzeR are Teulings and Romero (2003), Teulings and Van Gemmert, (2003), Romero and Teulings (2003).
ComPET
At the University of Haifa, Dr. Sara Rosenblum and Patricia L (Tamar) Weiss and colleagues developed a computerized handwriting evaluation system called POET: Penmanship Objective Evaluation Tool using MATLAB. It was used to administer visual stimuli and to record and analyze handwriting movements. They researched the Air Phenomenon: Pen movements above the paper (air strokes). The oldest mention of POET is in Rosenblum, Parush, Epstain, and Weiss (2003).Soon afterward, POET was developed further and renamed to ComPET: Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool. It is used to study children with dysgraphia, Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorders (ADHD) and adults with several pathologies as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Depression, Alzheimer, Parkinson as well as aging effects. It is also used with verbal-based lie detection technology such as the polygraph.
MedDraw
MedDraw is a computer-based drawing-task diagnosis and rehabilitation system project between the University of Kent, UK and the University of Rouen, France, coordinated by Dr. Richard Guest and started in 2003. The project aims to develop a robust, state-of-the art, yet easy to use clinical system producing objective diagnostic recommendations across a range of clinical conditions. Their focus is to detect spatial neglect in the visual field and organization of movement disorder. They will remain focused on drawing-based diagnosis of these disorders. The first research publications that mention MedDraw are by Kaplani, Guest, and Fairhurst (2005), and by Glenat, Heutte, Paquet, and Mellier (2005).Extended Drawing Test (EDT)
The Extended Drawing Test is a computerized graphonomic assessment for arm and hand function. The EDT measures the ability of the subject to draw vertical lines, with both the left and right hands. To compare performance between gross arm movements and fine finger control, the subjects draw lines holding either the tablet's pen (held by the fingers) or a mouse (held by the whole hand). The latter movements do not include finger movements. Norms have been established for 3–70 year old healthy persons. Deviations from the healthy norms will reflect different pathologies for different patient groups, e.g., hemiplegic stroke patients. The first paper mentioning EDT is Vuillermot, Pescatore, Holper, Kiper, and Eng (2009).Related fields
- Asemic writingAsemic writingAsemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means "having no specific semantic content". With the nonspecificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret. All of this is similar to the way one would...
- Questioned document examinationQuestioned document examinationQuestioned document examination is the forensic science discipline pertaining to documents that are in dispute in a court of law...
- CalligraphyCalligraphyCalligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
- GraphonomicsGraphonomicsGraphonomics is the interdisciplinary field directed towards the scientific analysis of the handwriting process and the handwritten product. Researchers in handwriting recognition, forensic handwriting examination, kinesiology, psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, paleography and...
- DoodleDoodleA doodle is an unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes....
- MovAlyzeRMovAlyzeRMovAlyzeR is a software package for handwriting movement analysis for research and professional applications. Handwriting movements are recorded using a digitizing tablet connected to a computer...
handwriting movement analysis software