Children Handwritings Database

Presentation:

The Children Handwritings Database can be used for analysis of writing performances along a learning process based on repeats of letter writing.

This database is part of IntuiScript, an innovative project that aims for designing a digital notebook dedicated to handwriting learning at primary schools. One of the main goals is to provide children real-time feedback to make them more autonomous. The IntuiScript project complies with a user-centered design approach, based on iterative campaigns of development and test with more than 1000 children from three to seven years old, in 40 pilot-classes, and implying also teachers and pedagogical experts.

Content:

This first version of the database has been extracted from the first short-term test campaigns allowing to evaluate the pedagogical relevance of educational scenarios proposed. It contains description of 27.000 handwritten characters (24 different cursive letters), written by 147 children (anonymous ID) with a stylus on a digital tablet. Among the different features, the digital tablet allows the observation of the time required to write a specific symbol, the number of strokes used to write it, and also the pressure applied by the children on the stylus all along each drawing. Moreover, the score progression along the sequence is recorded and each score can be easily linked to specific criteria in the gesture done [1, 2].

Here is the description of each column/feature in the current database (other features like fluidity index will be added in following version):

  1. Repeats: the number of the repeat, i.e. is it the 1st time the children write this letter
  2. Class: the written letter
  3. ID: the anonymous children ID
  4. Gender: the children gender (male/female)
  5. Age: the student age
  6. Laterality: the student laterality (left/right)
  7. Duration: the time in ms the student used to write the letter
  8. NbStrokes: the number of strokes in the gesture to write the letter
  9. AveragePressure: the average of pressure apply by the children on the stylus along his gesture
  10. VariancePressure: the variance of pressure apply by the children on the stylus along his gesture
  11. SavedScoreGlobal: the computed score for the written letter taking into account the shape, order and direction

Download link

Reference:

These datasets can be used freely for research purpose. However, any published work utilizing them should refer explicitly to this repository:

IntuiScript Project Children Handwritings Database [https://www-intuidoc.irisa.fr/files/2017/04/Data_IGS.zip]. INSA Rennes, UMR IRISA 35042 Rennes, FRANCE.

Here is a BiBTeX citation as well:

@misc{CHD:2017 ,
author =  » IntuiScript Project »,
year = « 2017 »,
title =  » Children Handwritings Database « ,
url =  » https://www-intuidoc.irisa.fr/files/2017/04/Data_IGS.zip »,
institution =  »  INSA Rennes, UMR IRISA 35042 Rennes, FRANCE » }

Acknowledgment:

We would like to thank our industrial partner Script&Go, educational experts, Brittany region and LOUSTIC laboratory for their collaboration. And, we recall that this work takes place in the context of the three years research project IntuiScript, founded by the French government as part of innovative projects (BPI).

Related publications:

[1] D. Simonnet, E. Anquetil, M. Bouillon, “Multi-Criteria Handwriting Quality Analysis with Online Fuzzy Models”, Pattern Recognition, In minor Revision (2016).

[2] D. Simonnet, E. Anquetil, “Handwriting Quality Analysis of Block Letters and Cursive Words.”, Handwriting Today, Journal of the National Handwriting Association, 15, Autumn 2016, p. 15–21.

Contact:

If you have any questions or suggestions, you can contact Nathalie Girard.