Dynamic selection of generative–discriminative ensembles for off-line signature verification

In practice, each writer provides only a limited number of signature samples to design a signature verification (SV) system. Hybrid generative–discriminative ensembles of classifiers (EoCs) are proposed in this paper to design an off-line SV system from few samples, where the classifier selection process is performed dynamically. To design the generative stage, multiple discrete left-to-right Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are trained using a different number of states and codebook sizes, allowing the system to learn signatures at different levels of perception. To design the discriminative stage, HMM likelihoods are measured for each training signature, and assembled into feature vectors that are used to train a diversified pool of two-class classifiers through a specialized Random Subspace Method. During verification, a new dynamic selection strategy based on the K-nearest-oracles (KNORA) algorithm and on Output Profiles selects the most accurate EoCs to classify a given input signature. This SV system is suitable for incremental learning of new signature samples. Experiments performed with real-world signature data (composed of genuine samples, and random, simple and skilled forgeries) indicate that the proposed dynamic selection strategy can significantly reduce the overall error rates, with respect to other EoCs formed using well-known dynamic and static selection strategies. Moreover, the performance of the SV system proposed in this paper is significantly greater than or comparable to that of related systems found in the literature.

► We designed a generative–discriminative system for off-line SV with few samples.
► Multiple HMMs are used as feature extractors.
► HMM likelihoods are used to train a diversified pool of 2-class classifiers.
► The classifier selection process is performed dynamically.
► The proposed dynamic selection method is suitable for incremental learning.