Title: Handwriting Stroke Trajectory Variability in the context of the Kinematic Theory

prof. dr. Réjean Plamondon

Abstract

This presentation summarizes the basic properties of rapid trajectories produced by human subjects and shows how the Kinematic Theory, in its vectorial form, can explain the origin of all the features generally observed in empirical studies dealing with the control of rapid movements, such as strokes in handwriting.

Plamondon, R. A kinematic theory of rapid human movements. part I: Movement representation and generation. Biological Cybernetics, 72, 295-307, 1995;

part II : Movement time and control, Biological Cybernetics, 72, 309-320, 1995;

part III : Kinetic outcomes, Biological Cybernetics, 78, 133-145, 1998;

Woch A, Plamondon R. Using the framework of the kinematic theory for the definition of a movement primitive. Motor Control, 8(4):547-57, 2004;

CV of speaker

Rejéan Plamondon received the BSc degree in physics and the MScA and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada, in 1973, 1975, and 1978, respectively. In 1978, he became a member of the faculty of the Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal, Canada, where he is currently a full professor. He was the head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1996 to 1998 and he is now the chief executive officer of the Ecole Polytechnique, one of the largest engineering schools in Canada. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Plamondon has proposed many original solutions to problems in the field of on-line and off-line handwriting analysis and processing. He has based these solutions on his exhaustive studies of human movement generation and perception, particularly as it relates to problems associated with the design of automatic systems for signature verification and handwriting recognition, and has also applied this knowledge to the development of interactive electronic penpads to help children learn handwriting skills and of powerful methods for analyzing and interpreting neuromuscular signals. His major contribution has been the theoretical development of a kinematic theory of rapid human movements which can take into account, with the help of a single equation called a delta-lognormal function, many phenomena reported in empirical studies dealing with rapid movements over the past century. The theory has been found to be successful in describing the basic kinematic properties. His research interests focus on the automatic processing of handwriting: neuromotor models of movement generation and image perception, script recognition, signature verification, signal analysis and processing, electronic penpads, man-computer interfaces via handwriting, forensic sciences, education, and artifical intelligence. He is the founder and director of Laboratoire Scribens, a research group dedicated exclusively to the study of these topics. Dr. Plamondon is an active member of several professional societies; is the president of the International Graphonomics Society; and is the Canadian representative on the Board of Governors of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR). From 1988 to 1994, he was the chair of the IEEE Computer Society TC-11. In 1989-1990, he was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar. From 1990 to 1997, he was the president of the Canadian Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Society. In 1994, he was named a fellow of the IAPR and, from 1994 to 1998, he was the chair of the IAPR conferences and meetings committee. He is the author or coauthor of numerous publications and technical reports. He has coedited four books and has also published a children's book, a novel, and two collections of poems. He is a fellow of the IEEE.