Automated signature extraction and verification

A method for extracting a handwritten signature from a digital image, comprising:

• receiving a transmission comprising a digital image of a document comprising a handwritten signature;
• removing a subset of words from the digital image identified via optical character recognition to obtain a first modified image;
• performing a dilating transformation via convolution matrix on the first modified image to obtain a second modified image;
• determining a plurality of regions of connected markings that remain in the second modified image;
• based at least in part on a pixel density of or a proximity to an anchor substring of each of the plurality of regions, determining that one or more regions of the plurality of regions each contain any handwritten signature;
• and
• extracting image data of the one or more regions, each containing any handwritten signature, from the digital image.

A method for verifying that a handwritten signature was made by a given human user, comprising:

• receiving first image data comprising a purported signature of an individual;
• retrieving second image data comprising a known signature of an individual;
• extracting at least one global feature from the first and second image data to obtain at least one global similarity metric between the first and second image data;
• extracting a plurality of local features from the first and second image data to obtain a plurality of local similarity metrics between the first and second image data:
• creating a feature vector that incorporates the global and local similarity metrics between the first and second image data;
• and
• passing the feature vector to a linear regression model to estimate a likelihood that that the first image data and second image data are similar, wherein determining whether the first image data and second image are similar is made based on the likelihood exceeding a predetermined threshold.