NOVEL RULE-BASED STATIC AND DYNAMIC FEATURE EXTRACTION FROM FIGURE COPYING TASKS FOR THE DETECTION OF VISUO-SPATIAL NEGLECT

R.M. GUEST, M.C. FAIRHURST and J.M. POTTER*

Electronic Engineering Laboratory, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK
*Nunnery Fields Hospital, Canterbury, Kent, UK

A series of static rule-based assessment criteria and dynamic constructional features are defined and used to analyse the hand-drawn responses from a geometric figure copying task. Assessment subjectivity is removed by the algorithmic definition of analysis criteria and test diagnostic sensitivity to the condition of visuo-spatial neglect is increased through the analysis of the novel dynamic features. This sensitivity increase is demonstrated by the identification of constructional performance deficits in test responses which appear 'normal' by conventional static assessment. The investigation is carried out with a population of stroke patients.

In: L.R.B. Schomaker and L.G. Vuurpijl (Eds.)
Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on Frontiers
in Handwriting Recognition, September 11-13 2000, Amsterdam,
Nijmegen: International Unipen Foundation,
ISBN 90-76942-01-3
pp. 547-552.