Convolutional ensembles for Arabic Handwritten Character and Digit RecognitionA learning algorithm is proposed for the task of Arabic Handwritten Character and Digit recognition. The architecture consists on an ensemble of different Convolutional Neural Networks. The proposed training algorithm uses a combination of adaptive gradient descent on the first epochs and regular stochastic gradient descent in the last epochs, to facilitate convergence. Different validation strategies are tested, namely Monte Carlo Cross-Validation and K-fold Cross Validation. Hyper-parameter tuning was done by using the MADbase digits dataset. State of the art validation and testing classification accuracies were achieved, with average values of 99.74% and 99.47% respectively. The same algorithm was then trained and tested with the AHCD character dataset, also yielding state of the art validation and testing classification accuracies: 98.60% and 98.42% respectively.
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Convolutional ensembles for Arabic Handwritten Character and Digit Recognition