Morgan Stanley
AUTOMATED SIGNATURE EXTRACTION AND VERIFICATION

Abstract:

A system for extraction and verification of handwritten signatures from arbitrary documents. The system comprises one or more computing devices configured to: receive a digital image of a document; perform a dilating transformation via convolution matrix on the digital image to obtain a modified image; determine a plurality of regions of connected markings in the digital image; based at least in part on a pixel density or proximity to an anchor substring of each region, determine whether any region contains any handwritten signature; extract first image data of the region containing a handwritten signature from the digital image; retrieve second image data of a confirmed example signature for a purported signer of the handwritten signature; and based on a comparison of the first image data with the second image data, forward a determination of whether the first image data and second image data are similar.