On Hyperspectral Analysis of Water Soluble Writing Inks

Abstract

In this short paper a possibility of using HyperspectralImaging based analysis of water soluble inks is investigated.The current research has investigated this method mostly formarker inks, ballpoint pen inks and gel inks, yet curiously thewhole water soluble ink class seems underrepresented. Sampleswere prepared and hyperspectral images of said samples taken,and some preliminary statistical analysis was performed. Thedata at this stage suggests that at least some samples arevisually distinguishable from other samples, while certain othersamples are virtually indistinguishable. A method for applyingthis knowledge in a handwritten text ink identification is brieflyoutlined and implemented in a simplified way, the results arepromising on good input data, but poor on subpar images.The weaknesses of the method are discussed and potentialimprovement strategies proposed.