Mathematical expression recognition: a survey

Abstract. Automatic recognition of mathematical expressions is one of the key vehicles in the drive towards transcribing documents in scientific and engineering disciplines into electronic form. This problem typically consists of two major stages, namely, symbol recognition and structural analysis. In this survey paper, we will review most of the existing work with respect to each of the two major stages of the recognition process. In particular, we try to put emphasis on the similarities and differences between systems. Moreover, some important issues in mathematical expression recognition will be addressed in depth. All these together serve to provide a clear overall picture of how this research area has been developed to date.