Grip kinetics are emerging as an important measure in clinical assessments of handwriting pathologies and fine motor rehabilitation as well as in biometric and forensic applications. The signature verification literature in particular has extensively examined the spatiotemporal, kinematic, and axial pressure characteristics of handwriting, but has minimally considered grip kinetics. Therefore, the focus of this thesis was to investigate the variability of grip kinetics in adults during signature writing. To address this goal, a database of authentic and well-practiced bogus signatures were collected with an instrumented pen that recorded the forces applied to its barrel. Four different analytical studies were conceived. The first study investigated the intra- and inter-participant variability of grip kinetic topography on the pen barrel based on authentic signatures written over 10 days. The main findings were that participants possessed unique grip force topographies even when the same grasp pattern was employed and that participants could be discriminated from each other with an average error rate of 1.2% on the basis of their grip force topographies. The second study examined the stability of different grip kinetic features over an extended period of a few months. The analyses revealed that intra-participant variation was generally much smaller than inter-participant variations even in the long term. In the third study, grip kinetics associated with authentic and well-practiced bogus signatures were compared. Differences in grip kinetic features between authentic and bogus signatures were only observed in a few participants. The kinetics of bogus signatures were not necessarily more variable. The variation of grip kinetic profiles between participants writing the same bogus signature was evaluated in the fourth study and an average error rate of 5.8% was achieved when verifying signatures with kinetic profile-based features. Collectively, the findings of this thesis serve to inform future applications of grip kinetic measures in biometric, clinical and industrial applications.

Grip kinetics are emerging as an important measure in clinical assessments of handwriting pathologies and fine motor rehabilitation as well as in biometric and forensic applications. The signature verification literature in particular has extensively examined the spatiotemporal, kinematic, and axial pressure characteristics of handwriting, but has minimally considered grip kinetics. Therefore, the focus of this thesis was to investigate the variability of grip kinetics in adults during signature writing. To address this goal, a database of authentic and well-practiced bogus signatures were collected with an instrumented pen that recorded the forces applied to its barrel. Four different analytical studies were conceived. The first study investigated the intra- and inter-participant variability of grip kinetic topography on the pen barrel based on authentic signatures written over 10 days. The main findings were that participants possessed unique grip force topographies even when the same grasp pattern was employed and that participants could be discriminated from each other with an average error rate of 1.2% on the basis of their grip force topographies. The second study examined the stability of different grip kinetic features over an extended period of a few months. The analyses revealed that intra-participant variation was generally much smaller than inter-participant variations even in the long term. In the third study, grip kinetics associated with authentic and well-practiced bogus signatures were compared. Differences in grip kinetic features between authentic and bogus signatures were only observed in a few participants. The kinetics of bogus signatures were not necessarily more variable. The variation of grip kinetic profiles between participants writing the same bogus signature was evaluated in the fourth study and an average error rate of 5.8% was achieved when verifying signatures with kinetic profile-based features. Collectively, the findings of this thesis serve to inform future applications of grip kinetic measures in biometric, clinical and industrial applications.

Handwriting is a complex occupation; it is an intricately coordinated symphony of skills and interactions. The success of a child’s handwriting is dependent on many factors and conditions. The concept of occupational justice implies, as a determinant of health and well-being, all children have the right to access sound handwriting instruction and if required, supportive services for therapeutic intervention. However, a number of school-aged children do not have access to sound handwriting instruction or therapeutic intervention. This is an occupational injustice. An integrative review of the occupational therapy literature was completed for the purposes of enhancing the understanding of handwriting in the school system. The Revised Framework of Occupational Justice was used to guide the analysis of the literature sources and identify the conditions contributing to an occupational injustice. The results of this review provided a comprehensive overview of handwriting and identified conditions leading to an occupational injustice in handwriting.

No / This paper describes a novel procedure for thinning binary text images by generating graphical representations of words within the image. A smoothed polygonal approximation of the boundaries of each word is first decomposed into a set of contiguous triangles. Each triangle is then classified into one of only three possible types from which a graph is generated that represents the topological features of the object. Joining graph points with straight lines generates a final polygon skeleton that, by construction, is one pixel wide and fully connected. Results of applying the procedure to thinning Arabic and English handwriting are presented. Comparisons of skeleton structure and execution time with results from alternative techniques are also presented. The procedure is considerably faster than the alternatives tested when the image resolution is greater than 600 dpi and the graphical representation often needed in subsequent recognition steps is available without further processing.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Se a escrita pessoal precisa sobreviver como habilidade individual perante as novas técnicas de produção textual, parece-nos necessária uma análise da escrita manual sob uma nova perspectiva. Num universo regido pelas mídias tecnológicas, no qual o computador pode ser visto como uma verdadeira extensão do homem, qual o lugar da escrita manual na atualidade? E, ainda: acreditando que o design pode auxiliar o educador, de que forma o mesmo pode interferir na aquisição da escrita manual e na formação de uma escrita legível e funcional? O presente projeto de pesquisa procura lançar luzes sobre este tema a partir de uma síntese dos principais modelos de escrita adotados na educação fundamental no Brasil durante o século XX. Para tanto, vamos elencá-los e analisá-los buscando relações e pontos comuns entre esses modelos e apontando para uma reflexão futura, calcada no campo do design e, em especial, da tipografia, tendo a aquisição da escrita como pano de fundo. / If the personal handwriting has to survive as individual skill against the new techniques of writing, it seems necessary to analyze the handwriting in a new perspective. Since we live in a universe governed by the technological media, in which the computer can be seen as a true extension of man, what is the place of handwriting?And yet, believing that design can help the educator, how to interfere in the acquisition of handwriting and the development of a functional and legible writing? This research project attempts to shed light on this issue from a synthesis of the main models of writing adopted in primary education in Brazil during the twentieth century. To this end, we list those models and analyze them in the search of relationships and commonalities between these models and pointing to future notes, based on the design field and, in particular, on that of typography, having the acquisition of writing as a back stage.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Se a escrita pessoal precisa sobreviver como habilidade individual perante as novas técnicas de produção textual, parece-nos necessária uma análise da escrita manual sob uma nova perspectiva. Num universo regido pelas mídias tecnológicas, no qual o computador pode ser visto como uma verdadeira extensão do homem, qual o lugar da escrita manual na atualidade? E, ainda: acreditando que o design pode auxiliar o educador, de que forma o mesmo pode interferir na aquisição da escrita manual e na formação de uma escrita legível e funcional? O presente projeto de pesquisa procura lançar luzes sobre este tema a partir de uma síntese dos principais modelos de escrita adotados na educação fundamental no Brasil durante o século XX. Para tanto, vamos elencá-los e analisá-los buscando relações e pontos comuns entre esses modelos e apontando para uma reflexão futura, calcada no campo do design e, em especial, da tipografia, tendo a aquisição da escrita como pano de fundo. / If the personal handwriting has to survive as individual skill against the new techniques of writing, it seems necessary to analyze the handwriting in a new perspective. Since we live in a universe governed by the technological media, in which the computer can be seen as a true extension of man, what is the place of handwriting?And yet, believing that design can help the educator, how to interfere in the acquisition of handwriting and the development of a functional and legible writing? This research project attempts to shed light on this issue from a synthesis of the main models of writing adopted in primary education in Brazil during the twentieth century. To this end, we list those models and analyze them in the search of relationships and commonalities between these models and pointing to future notes, based on the design field and, in particular, on that of typography, having the acquisition of writing as a back stage.

Parkinson’s disease causes among other symptoms also writing disorder. Parkinson's dysgrafia is disease the writing of parkinsonics. The aim of the work is to show the importance of examinig the parametres of Parkinson's dysgrafia and to find writing parametres, which could distinguish healthy subjects from the pacient and also it could monitoring progress of pakinson's disease. Some of the parametrs showed marked differences and therefore could distinguish healthy people from those with Parkinson’s disease.

Nowadays, one of the issues of concern that brought on by the aging population is legal disputes that have been increasing in number every year. One core problem in these legal disputes involves handwriting identification. There are however not many previous studies in China that have been concentrated on this field. Hence, the study on elderly Chinese subjects' handwriting has an extremely broad potential value for its application for academic usage and practical meaning. This study uses an empirical technique, gathering first hand data and analysing them by employing proper methods. There are 7 handwriting features and characteristics that have been found in the study to represent the key characteristics of the elderly Chinese subjects' handwriting. They are: Pen pressure, occurrence rate of traditional Chinese words, letter size, poor structure, tremor, half-way stop sign, and towing sign at beginning and end of strokes.

Notre démarche repose sur le constat que de plus en plus d’enfants sont en difficulté d’écriture. Elle vise à proposer une base de réflexion sur laquelle pourrait s’appuyer un enseignement structuré de l’écriture. Notre recherche porte sur l’écriture des lettres minuscules cursives manuscrites latines en usage dans les écoles françaises. Nous avons fait l’hypothèse que cette écriture, produit de l’école française, constitue un système dont nous pouvons désigner les éléments et définir le fonctionnement. Cette hypothèse ouvre sur la perspective que la prise en compte de ce système pourrait être une aide à l’apprentissage de l’écriture. Notre choix est conforté par les résultats des neurosciences qui montrent qu’écrire à la main serait une aide à l’apprentissage de la lecture. A partir de l’analyse de commentaires sur la lisibilité d’un corpus d’écritures manuscrites, nous montrerons comment est construit ce système et quelles relations hiérarchiques et fonctionnelles ses éléments entretiennent entre eux. Nous y verrons que le cœur du système s’organiserait en deux unités minimales, déclinées chacune en une forme de base et deux dérivées pour l’une, trois dérivées pour l’autre. Le système constitué par l’ensemble de ces sept formes permettrait d’écrire toutes les lettres minuscules cursives latines en usage en France.En ouverture vers d’autres projets, nous avons mis ce système à l’épreuve de la reconnaissance des lettres par des enfants d’école maternelle. Nous avons constaté une amélioration du score entre avant et après une séance d’observation commentée collective. Cette recherche sur le système d’écriture des lettres minuscules cursives latines nous a conduite à avancer des propositions pédagogiques pour l’enseignement de l’écriture. / Our processes are based on the fact that more and more children have difficulties with handwriting. Its aim is to propose a basis for thought on which a structured teaching of handwriting could lean. Our research focuses on Latin handwritten cursive small letters used in French schools. We made the assumption that this writing - a French school product - constitutes a system, the elements of which can be named and the functioning described. This hypothesis leads to the viewpoint that to take this system into account could be a help in the teaching of writing. Our choice is backed up by the results of neurosciences which show that to write with the hand would be a help in learning to read. From the analysis of comments on the legibility of a corpus of handwritings, we shall show how this system is built and what hierarchic and functional relations its elements continuously use with each other. We shall see that the heart of the system would be organized into two minimal units. Each of them set up as a basic form and two derivatives for the one, three for the other. The system constituted by these seven forms would allow all of the Latin cursive small letters used in France to be written. As an opening towards others projects, we submitted this system to the recognition of letters by children at nursery school. We noticed an improvement of the score between before and after a session of collective commented observation of the letters. This research about Latin handwritten cursive small letters brought us to make certain pedagogical proposals for the training of teachers.

This study examined the relationship of holistic scoring with handwriting legibility, spelling accuracy and number of T-units within compositions written by children in grades 3 through 6 using path analysis. A sample of 223 compositions was rated for handwriting legibility and composition quality, and coded for number of T-units and percentage of accurately spelled words. Number of T-units was consistently the strongest predictor of holistic scoring across the four grade levels. Handwriting legibility and spelling accuracy yielded varying results in different grade levels.