Document skew estimation without angle range restriction

The existing skew estimation techniques usually assume that the input image is of high resolution and that the detectable angle range is limited. We present a more generic solution for this task that overcomes these restrictions. Our method is based on determination of the first eigenvector of the data covariance matrix. The solution comprises image resolution reduction, connected component analysis, component classification using a fuzzy approach, and skew estimation. Experiments on a large set of various document images and performance comparison with two Hough transform-based methods show a good accuracy and robustness for our method. Received October 10, 1998 / Revised version September 9, 1999