Retrieving handwritten documents using multiple document recognizers and techniques allowing both typed and handwritten queries

A computer-implemented method comprising the steps of:

• creating a document stack from at least one word in a handwritten document;
• creating a query stack from a query;
• and
• determining a measure between the document stack and the query stack, wherein each stack is not constrained to words in a vocabulary, wherein each of the words in a query stack or document stack are comprised of a number of n-grams, wherein probabilities are determined for each n-ram of the query stack and document stack, and wherein the probabilities of the n-grams are used in the measure.

A computer-implemented method for retrieving a subset of handwritten documents from a set of handwritten documents, each of the handwritten documents having a plurality of document stacks associated therewith, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) creating at least one query stack from a query comprising one or more words, wherein each word is handwritten or typed;
• b) selecting a handwritten document from the set of handwritten documents;
• c) selecting a document stack from the selected handwritten document;
• d) determining a measure between the at least one query stack and the selected document stack;
• e) performing steps (c) and (d) for at least one document stack associated with the selected handwritten document;
• f) performing steps (b), (c), and (d) for each handwritten document of the set of handwritten documents;
• g) scoring each of the handwritten documents in the set of handwritten documents by using the query and the measures, thereby creating a number of document scores;
• and
• h) selecting the subset of handwritten documents for display by using the document scores, wherein each stack is not constrained to words in a vocabulary, wherein each of the words in a query stack or document stack are comprised of a number of n-grams, wherein probabilities are determined for each n-gram of the query stack and document stack, and wherein the probabilities of the n-grams are used in the measure.

A computer-implemented method comprising the steps of:

• creating a first word recognition stack, by using a first handwriting recognizer, from at least one word;
• creating a second word recognition stack, by using a second handwriting recognizer, from the at least one word;
• comparing the first and second lord recognition stacks with a third word recognition stack to determine whether a handwritten document should be retrieved;
• configuring a handwriting recognizer into a first configuration to create the first handwriting recognizer;
• and
• configuring the handwriting recognizer into a second configuration to create the second handwriting recognizer, wherein the first and second configuration are different, wherein the first configuration comprises a configuration caused by selecting a constraint from the group consisting essentially of an uppercase letter constraint, a lowercase letter constraint, a recognize digits constraint, a language constraint, a constraint wherein characters and words are recognized only if in a vocabulary, and a constraint wherein characters and words are hypothesized when not in a vocabulary, and wherein the second configuration comprises a configuration caused by selecting a S constraint from the group consisting essentially of an uppercase letter constraint, a lowercase letter constraint, a recognize digits constraint, a language constraint, a constraint wherein characters and words are recognized only if in a vocabulary, and a constraint wherein characters and words are hypothesized when not in a vocabulary.

A computer system comprising:

• a memory that stores computer-readable code;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to implement the computer-readable code, the computer-readable code configured to:
• create a document stack from at least one word in a handwritten document;
• create a query stack from a query;
• and
• determine a measure between the document stack and the query stack, where each query stack and document stack comprises a plurality of scores, wherein the measure is a dot product measure defined as follows
• cos
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• where {right arrow over (q)} is a vector comprising scores from the query stack, and wherein {right arrow over (d)} is a vector comprising scores from the document stack.

A computer system comprising:

• a memory that stores computer-readable code;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to implement the computer-readable code, the computer-readable code configured to:
• create a first word recognition stack, by using a first handwriting recognizer, from at least one word;
• create a second word recognition stack, by using a second handwriting recognizer, from the at least one word;
• compare the first and second word recognition stacks with a third word recognition stack to determine whether a handwritten document should be retrieved;
• configure a handwriting recognizer into a first configuration to create the first handwriting recognizer;
• and
• configure the handwriting recognizer into a second configuration to create the second handwriting recognizer, wherein the first and second configuration are different, wherein the first configuration comprises a configuration caused by selecting a constraint from the group consisting essentially of an uppercase letter constraint, a lowercase letter constraint, a recognize digits constraint, a language constraint, a constraint wherein characters and words are recognized only if in a vocabulary, and a constraint wherein characters and words are hypothesized when not in a vocabulary, and wherein the second configuration comprises a configuration caused by selecting a constraint from the group consisting essentially of an uppercase letter constraint, a lowercase letter constraint, a recognize digits constraint, a language constraint, a constraint wherein characters and words are recognized only if in a vocabulary, and a constraint wherein characters and words are hypothesized when not in a vocabulary.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium comprising one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:
• a step to create a document stack from at least one word in a handwritten document;
• a step to create a query stack from a query;
• and
• a step to determine a measure between the document stack and the query stack, where each query stack and document stack comprises a plurality of scores, wherein the measure is a dot product measure defined as follows
• cos
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• where {right arrow over (q)} is a vector comprising scores from the query stack, and wherein {right arrow over (d)} is a vector comprising scores from the document stack.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium comprising one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:
• a step to create a first word recognition stack, by using a first handwriting recognizer, from at least one word;
• a step to create a second word recognition stack, by using a second handwriting recognizer, from the at least one word;
• a step to compare the first and second word recognition stacks with a third word recognition stack to determine whether a handwritten document should be retrieved;
• a step to configure a handwriting recognizer into a first configuration to create the first handwriting recognizer;
• and
• a step to configure the handwriting recognizer into a second configuration to create the second handwriting recognizer, wherein the first and second configuration are different, wherein the first configuration comprises a configuration caused by selecting a constraint from the group consisting essentially of an uppercase letter constraint, a lowercase letter constraint, a recognize digits constraint, a language constraint, a constraint wherein characters and words are recognized only if in a vocabulary, and a constraint wherein characters and words are hypothesized when not in a vocabulary, and wherein the second configuration comprises a configuration caused by selecting a constraint from the group consisting essentially of an uppercase letter constraint, a lowercase letter constraint, a recognize digits constraint, a language constraint, a constraint wherein characters and words are recognized only if in a vocabulary, and a constraint wherein characters and words are hypothesized when not in a vocabulary.