Vol. 6, No.
1, April 2003
FORENSIC DO CUME NT EXAMINATION/Handwriting Movements: 30-06-02-08/0304
FINGER AND WRIST COORDINATION DURING
HANDWRITING MOVEMENTS 1
Aspects of physical kinematics of fingers on the wrist pivot in drawing line segments.
by K. Kobayashi2
REFERENCES: Kobayashi, K., “Finger and Wrist Coordination
During Handwriting Movements” The International Journal of Forensic
Document Examiners, Vol. 6, No. 1, April 2003, pp. 1-6.
ABSTRACT: Behavior of fingers and wrist in handwriting is complex.
Computational models of handwriting kinematics support the basis of the
handwriting examination, because some aspects of handwriting simulates
by means of the models. In short words writing, for example writing a
signature on check, forearm movements do not play a roll of handwriting.
So, our approach is static posture investigation during segments like
drawing without forearm movements. The start and end points of the
segments are located on the lattice; therefore the averages on the lattice
points represent the map of the effectors aspects. The pivot of the wrist
rotation is close to the root of thumb. The result of the map indicates a
relationship of the polar coordinates system at the pivot.
KEYWORDS: Handwriting, finger, physical kinematics.
INTRODUCTION
Computational handwriting models will be necessary in order to
analyze the handwriting process precisely. The models give some
functional properties of graphic workspace [1]. It could be applied to real
caseworks to support the basis of handwriting examination. The purpose
of this study is investigation into properties of effectors system in a field
of a short autograph without forearm movements. Besides Latin characters,
Japanese characters are based on short segment lines. In a baseline area of
an actual signature or a mention of an address, movements of the forearm
does not accompany with movements of fingers and wrist. However, all
most of these handwriting models are applications of simple fluent cursive
scripts, which follow forearm movements.
In handwriting, an important class of models views handwriting as
resulting from the activity of two functional components: a horizontal
component moving the pen tip right and leftward, and a vertical
component moving the pen tip up and down. Hollabach[2] proposed that
handwriting is the result of two orthogonally operating oscillations; one
is the vertical direction, the other in the horizontal direction. Additionally,
a third, independent, component is assumed to be responsible for the
rightward progression. Lelivelt [3] consider the Hollabach’s model to
adopt anatomical and geometrical characteristics of the human effectors
system (See Fig.1). For vertical component, flexion and extension of the
index finger lead to the pen-tip displacements. For horizontal component,
flexion and extension of the wrist operate the horizontal oscillation in the
range of wrist movements. Then, evidence suggests that forearm pronation
and supination do not play a critical role in pen-tip displacement, but may
have a stabilizing role [4].
We suggest a new method of fingers posture mapping. Then, we show
an examination result by using it.
1
Presented at the 60th Annual Conference of the American Society of
Questioned Document Examiners, San Diego, USA, August 14-18, 2002
2
Questioned Document Section, National Research Institute of Police
Science, 6-3-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-0882, JAPAN
Copyright © 2003 Shunderson Communication, Inc. All Rights of Reproduction Reserved
METHOD
SUBJECT
One Japanese man (age 32) without disorder of his arm attended
at the experimentation.
MATERIAL AND APPARATUS
To measure behavior of pen stylus, fingers and wrist, we used a
CyberGlove™(Immersion,USA) and a tablet digitizer(WACOM Intuos
I-900, JAPAN). This system is shown in Fig.2, and measuring points
are described in Fig.3. The CyberGlove is a human interface device for
the Virtual Reality that has 22 sensors for measuring angle of fingers
and wrist joints. Angles of thumb finger, index finger and wrist joint
were recorded to file in 60Hz. Behavior of a pen stylus in handwriting
was captured by means of the tablet digitizer with our developed
software[5]. To use a ballpoint pen type stylus (Wacom GP-110), an
operator can writes handwriting on a sheet of paper covered with the
tablet. The paper ruled into 5mm squares. The frequency of the tablet
sampling was 100Hz. Furthermore the scene of the experiment was
recorded by a DV camera (Sony DCR-PC110, JAPAN) hang over the
tablet.
PROCEDURE
The sequence of the experimental handwriting is shown in Fig. 4.
Drawing arcs in the Seq.0 without finger movements were used for
calculating the pivot of the wrist rotation. In the Seq.1 to Seq.4, each
of short segment line was drawn followed the sequence. The length of
the line was about 10mm(Seq.1, 2), and about 14mm (Seq. 3,4). There
was no break and no fixed tool of the wrist during the experiment.
Total of experiment time was about 300s. The mean time of drawing
a segment line was 0.54s. The amount of the segment line was 239
(Seq.1: 64, Seq.2: 63, Seq.3: 56, Seq.4: 56).
DATA ANALYSIS
At first, each of the device output was compensated by linear
interpolation to synchronize time scale. The data analysis tool was the
MATLAB (MathWorks, USA). The pivot (cx,cy) from the Seq.0 was
calculated by the least square method of a circle expression. Next,
positions of the pen tip in the Cartesian (X(t), Y(t)) coordinates were
translated to the polar coordinates (Radius(t), Phase(t)) at the wrist
pivot. The translation expression is below.
1
The International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners

Figure 1: Cartesian coordinates vs. polar coordinates of handwriting model.

Figure 2: Data acquisition system for handwriting movement.

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 Vol. 6, No.1, April 2003

Figure 3: Measurement points.

Figure 4: Sequences of the line segments. Bound box represents the same location.

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The International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners
Sampling points of the sequence data were pen-tip down and up
triggers to estimate the static posture of fingers and wrist. Static posture
of each effector was calculated an average at the same lattice point. So,
these averages on the lattice points related to the physical drawing field.
Then, the values of the averages were normalized and mapped to the
drawing area. These maps represent distributions of joint angles and pen
directions. The basis maps of the coordinates system are x, y, radius,
phase. The maps of x, y are vertical and horizontal gradation. The map
of radius is a concentric circle at the center of the wrist pivot. The map
of phase is radiation at it. Therefore, it is available to compare between
the basic maps and the results maps of the effectors system.
RESULTS
Fig.5 shows the result of the pivot calculated from the Seq.0. The
center figure is displayed overlapped from the video frame. The right
figure shows the translation results of the pen-tip positions from the
Cartesian coordinates to the polar coordinates. The pivot of the wrist
does not fit the position of real physical wrist joint. The pivot is close
to the root of the thumb. Fig.6 shows the sweep of the pen-tip
movements by the Cartesian (X, Y) and the polar (Radius, Phase) on
sampling period (the vertical scale of each value was adjusted for the
comparison).
Results maps of static postures of pen, fingers, wrist and the basis
maps are shown in Fig.7. The gradation maps of the other effectors are
similar tendency to the basis maps.
The map of altitude represents inclinations of stylus. When the pen-
tip was close to the wrist, the stylus was stand up. The map of index PIJ
represents the result of the second joint of index finger. The result is
much similar to the basis map of radius. The maps of palm pitch and
palm yaw are obscure.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Some maps fit to the basis map of radius, it shows the basic
mechanism of handwriting relates to the polar coordinates system on the
Figure 5: Results of the Pivot of the wrist rotation.
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pivot. Especially, the pivot location obtained by means of our method
does not correspond with the location of the wrist joint. Fingers posture
of holding the pen stylus is a diamond shape with thumb and index
finger. So, the control of the stylus is based on the root of the thumb.
Then, the map of index PIJ is similar to the radius map. In the Lelivelt’s
model, the most contribution of the handwriting action is the index
finger’s action. So, the experimental results show the correspondence
to the simulation model. The results of the palm do not indicate relation
of the basis maps. Because of the wrist joint has two or more freedoms
of movements, decomposition of the maps does not match the physical
movements.
We did not analyze the dynamic posture of handwriting. In the
actual signature writing, speeds of the movements of effectors are much
faster than this experimental writings. It seems to the change of the
finger’s kinematics. Therefore, we have a plan to investigate the
dynamic posture of handwriting.
REFERENCES
[1]. Joost J. Schillings, Ruud G. J. Meulenbroek, Arnold J. W. M.
Thomassen, “Functional properties of graphic workspace:
assessment by means of a 3D geometric arm model”, Acta
Psychologica, Vol. 100, 1998, pp. 97 – 115.
[2]. Hollerbach, J. M., “An oscillation theory of handwriting”,
Biological Cybernetics, Vol. 39, 1981, pp. 139 – 156.
[3]. Lelivelt, B. M., Meulenbroek, G. J. and Thomassen, W. M.,
“Mapping Abstract Main Axes in Handwriting to Hand and Finger
Joints”, Handwriting and drawing research: basic and applies
issues, IOS Press, Amsterdam, 1996, pp.29 – 40.
[4]. Meulenbroek, G. J., Thomassen, W. M., et al, “The stablility of
pen-joint interjoint coordination in loop writing”, Acta
Psychologica, Vol. 100, 1998, pp. 55 – 70.
[5]. Kobayashi K., et al, “3D Visualization of Handwriting by using
VRML”, Proceedings of the 56th Annual Conference of ASQDE,
Indianapolis, Aug., 1998.
 Vol. 6, No.1, April 2003

Figure 6: Movements of pen-tip based on the Cartesian coordinates or the polar coordinates.

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The International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners

Figure 7: Mapping of static posture at the writing position.

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