Downloads
Read Me
Sample File
Label File |
Bangla is the
second most popular language and script in the Indian subcontinent and
among the top ten popular languages/scripts in the world. As a script, it
is used for Bangla, Ahamia and Manipuri languages. Bangla is also the
national language of Bangladesh. Despite its importance, research
contributions related to recognition of handwritten Bangla script are
limited in the literature and in many of them recognition accuracies had been
reported based on non-standard sample databases. An unbiased evaluation
platform is thus necessary to rank proposed solutions in this domain.
This competition on handwritten Bangla character recognition aims to
serve as the first such attempt to bring together prospective
researchers/groups working in this challenging area of
application.
Features of Bangla script:
There are 10 numeric patterns, 11 vowels, 39 consonants and
more than 200 compound characters in Bangla alphabet-set. Apart from these,
there also exist 10 vowel modifiers and 2 consonant modifiers.
Scope of the competition:
This competition is restricted to recognition of off-line handwritten
Bangla (i) isolated digits, (ii) isolated basic characters (vowels and
consonants) and (iii) a set of frequently used isolated 150 compound (conjuncts
of two or more consonants) characters. There are 10 pattern classes in the digit
dataset. The basic character set comprises of 49 patterns, leaving out
one consonant (chandra-bindu) that appears above a character pattern
(similar to a character modifier). Finally, the list of compound
characters consists of 150 frequently occurring conjunct character
patterns.
The present competition is divided into four parts, viz., recognition of digits,
recognition of basic characters, recognition of compound characters and
recognition of all the above shapes (digit + basic character + compound
character) together. More specifically, the competition is aimed at
designing a 10 class digit classifier, a 49 class classifier for basic
characters, a 150 class classifier for compound characters and a 209
class classifier for all.
Evaluation process:
Training samples will be provided to all registered
participants for all the three character sets. All the participants will
have to submit four different systems, as mentioned before.
Additionally, outputs of all the classifiers on respective test datasets
need to be submitted as a text file similar to the file ‘Classes_labels.txt’ to be provided along
with the training data. Performances of all four classifiers on test
datasets will be considered (weighted average) to rank the final
submissions. The weighting scheme will be reported soon.
Sample dataset:
For ease of understanding, please download the file called README.pdf, another text file named ‘BanglaHandwrittenCharSamples.txt’
containing a few samples from all the three categories, a third text file
called ‘Classes_labels.txt’ containing
the ground truths of the samples in ‘BanglaHandwrittenCharSamples.txt’.
Registration :
All researchers
willing to participate in the competition are requested to register themselves by sending an email
(with Cc: icfhr2010@isical.ac.in) to any or both the contacts given below.
| Important Dates: |
|
| Deadline for registration (to receive training datasets): |
February 28, 2010 |
| Deadline for submission of systems: |
April 15, 2010 |
|