Skew Detection of Devanagari Script Using Pixels

Skew Detection of Devanagari Script Using Pixels Skew Detection of Devanagari Script Using Pixels of Axes-Parallel Rectangle and Linear Regression Trupti A. Jundale Ravindra S. Hegadi Abstract—Skew detection and correction of handwritten data is one of the difficult tasks in pattern recognition area. Here we illustrate the method for skew detection and correction of Devanagari handwritten script. The proposed approach works for single skew. The input images for this research are collected from various writers and contain single/uniform skew words/lines. The proposed approach uses tangential pixels of axes parallel rectangle and linear regression method to calculate the skew of word/line. Finally rotation transformation is used for correction of skew of word/line which is calculated by linear regression. This technique achieves 89% accuracy to correct skew of word and achieves 93% accuracy to correct skew of line for handwritten Devanagari script. Index Terms—Preprocessing, Axes-parallel rectangle, Linear Regression, Skew detection, Skew correction I. Introduction The frequency of digital document extends to develop at a brisk rate in spite of the usage of paper based documents. As a result, the renovation of paper documents to its electronic version and its consequent image processing and understanding have been converted into a vital application area in computer vision and pattern recognition researches. With recent emergence and widespread application of multimedia technologies, there is an increasing demand to create a paperless environment, hence, document image processing in general and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in particular is playing an important role in transformation of the traditional paper based environment to truly paperless electronic environment[3]. Devanagari is one of the mainly used and espouses writing system in the world. The national/official language of India (Hindi) and Nepal (Nepali) uses Devanagari Script. Many other languages like Marathi (state language of Maharashtra), Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bodo, Dogri etc. comes under Devanagari Script. As India’s national language uses Devanagari script, lot of official data is in written format before the era of digitization. So in the today’s world of digitization, it is needed to keep record of handwritten/printed data in digital form. To make this, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system is carried out. The detection and correction of skew is one of the essential steps in any character recognition or document processing system. Because of the writing genre of the Devanagari script, it is difficult to detect skew as compared to any other script. The writing style of every person may vary so there is presence of multiple skew in data. Skew is t he angle which diverges from x-axis. The successful skew detection and correction turns next process like analysis of character or OCR to be accurate. The document may contain three type of skew: single/uniform skew, multiple skew and non-uniform skew. Single/uniform skew is, when all text lines in a document have same orientation. Multiple skew is, when some text lines have different orientation than other and non-uniform skew is, when orientation changes within a line. There is lot of research available for skew detection of scanned document image but less work is available for skew detection of text/word. II. Devanagari script One of the main parts of Brahmic family is a Devanagari Script, which is belonging from Indo-Aryan languages. It is written from left to right. Unlike Latin script, concept of upper/lower case is absent in Devanagari script. It consists of 33 consonants and 14 vowels. Generally every word written in most of the Devanagari Script will have a header line on group of characters, called as ‘Shirorekha’ and this is considered as one word [7]. Vowels that can be written as separate characters or by using diacritic marks on below, upper, before or after consonants are called modifiers. In Devanagari script, two or three consonants can be written as a single character, which is known as compound character. Fig.1 shows different features of Devanagari script. Fig. 1. Devanagari Script Word The main characters of word are written in middle zone. Upper zone and lower zone are for modifiers and Shirorekha is drawn at header line. In Fig.1 two characters are combined to form a new shape of single character known as compound character. III. Related Work In the literature, algorithms that estimate the angle at which a text/document image is rotated are surveyed. The broad classes of technique are identified, which include methods that calculate skew from Hough transform, horizontal projection profile, Fourier transform, nearest-neighbour or principal component analysis. The basic method used by each class of technique is presented and the contributions of individual algorithms within each class are discussed. Hough Transform: One of the best feature extraction technique used in digital image processing and computer vision is Hough Transform. It is mainly used for detection of regular curves such as lines, ellipses, circles etc. The simplest case of Hough transform is the linear transform for detecting straight lines. The line in the image space is just a single point in the parameter space. [1] uses Hough transform method for detection of document skew. A novel skew correction algorithm is proposed focusing on boundary line that optimizes speed and accuracy by using Hough transform to get the skew corrected licences plate images in [2]. Fourier Transform: In this method first 2-D Fourier transform will be applied to the image plane. Then, coefficients of the power spectrum are calculated and stored in a spectrum. A directional criterion for each angle is then calculated. The angle that maximizes the directional criterion is assumed to give the skew angle of the image. Projection Profile: Projection Profile can be a horizontal projection profile or vertical projection profile. The horizontal/vertical projection profile is a histogram of the number of black pixels along horizontal/vertical scan lines. In projection profiles, histogram is created at each possible angle and a ‘cost function’ is applied to this histogram. The skew angle is the angle at which this cost function is maximized. Mostly horizontal projection profile method is used for scanned document skew detection. [6] exploits the unique property of the writing line of Arabic script and is based on connected component analysis and projection profiles. Skew detection of fabric images scheme based on morphological method and projection profile analysis is proposed in [8]. Nearest Neighbour: In Nearest Neighbour method histogram of the direction angle is computed. [5] uses a Focused Nearest Neighbour Clustering (FNNC) of interest points and the analysis of paragraphs/lines. Chains with a largest possible number of nearest neighbour pairs are selected and their slopes are computed to give the skew angle of document image. Other than these techniques, one-step skew and orientation detection method using a well-established geometric text-line model is used in [11]. The advantage of this method is that it combines accurate skew estimation with robust, resolution-independent orientation detection. [12] proposed a Rectangular Active Contour Model (RAC Model) for content region detection and skew angle calculation by imposing a rectangular shape constraint on the zero-level set in Chain-Vese Model (C-V Model) according to the rectangular feature of content regions in document images. B. V. Dhandra et.al, [13] uses image dilation and region labelling approach for binary document skew detection. Apart from this, fast and robust skew estimation techniques like a bilinear filtering model which is used to detect edges existing in the document, COG (Centre of Gravity) method are used in the literature. IV. Proposed Methodology This section illustrates the proposed methodology for skew detection and correction. Section A describes pre-processing step. Section B describes extraction of axes parallel rectangle pixels. Skew detection using linear regression is described in C. Section D describes skew correction technique and last section E describes steps of proposed algorithm. A. Pre-processing The input to the system is a word or a line of single/uniform skew of handwritten Devanagari script which is scanned by optical scanner or captured by digital camera. Acquired input is pre-processed for removing noise. Firstly input image is converted into gray scale image and then thresholding is applied over for converting given image into binary image containing only black and white pixels. In this binarized image, white pixels represent background and black pixels represent foreground. B. Axes-Parallel Rectangle This stage calculates the area of axes-parallel rectangle. The angle with the least area of the axes-parallel rectangle represents the skew angle. Outer tangential pixels of an input word/line are used to form an axes-parallel rectangle. Figure 2 shows tangential pixels of skewed one are embedded into an axes-parallel rectangle. Fig. 2 (a) Skewed rectangle fitted in an Axes-parallel rectangle (b) Rectangle with zero skew. C. Skew Detection After getting required pixels using axes-parallel rectangle, linear regression formula is used to detect skew of word/line. Regression analysis can be used to identify the line or curve which provides the best fit through a set of data points. Linear regression analyzes the relation between two variables, X and Y. The variables X and Y are known and the problem is to fit best straight line through X and Y. In general, the goal of linear regression is to find the line that best predicts Y from X. Linear regression does this by finding the line that minimizes the sum of the squares of the vertical distances of the points from line. Linear regression does not test whether the data are linear. It assumes that the data is linear, and finds the slope and intercept that make a straight line best fit the given data. The goal of linear regression is to adjust the values of slope and intercept to find the line that best predicts Y from X. Fig. 3 (a) Plot of data without best-fit line (b) Plot of data with best-fit line. This is the simple linear regression model where à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢0 and à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢1 are unknown constants and à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¥ is the residual error. To fit the regression line in the equation of the data (x1, y1), (x2, y2),..,(xn, yn) by finding best match between the line and the data. The best choice of à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢0+à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢1 will be chosen to minimize, This is called the least square fit. The equation (2) implies à ¯Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬ º After little algebra, get where and (4) Equation (3) gives slope of the regression line and Equation (4) gives the intercept. The slope of the line is nothing but the skew angle of our word/line. Fig.4 shows the slope and intercept of a best fit line. Fig. 4 Slope and intercept of a best fit line After calculating slope using linear regression, skew is calculated using the formula, This gives the required skew of word. D. Skew Correction After the skew angle of the word/line has been detected, the word/line must be rotated in order to correct this skew. Various methods used for skew correction are direct method, indirect method and contour-oriented method etc. The direct method uses rotation transformation in which corresponding pixels in the input image will be transformed to new location by using equation (1) (5) Where (x, y) are the co-ordinates of pixels belonging to the word for which skew has to be detected and (x’, y’) are the co-ordinates of pixels belonging to the word after correction. For a pixel (x’, y’) in the output image, the indirect method finds corresponding pixel in the input image and assigns a value of (x’, y’) to (x, y) using Equation (2). (6) We apply direct method for skew correction which simply rotate calculated skew angle to horizontal angle. The detected angle by linear regression is corrected by applying rotation transformation. The word/line is rotated with ÃŽ ¸ angle. The word/line is corrected by rotating at positive angle if the skew detection angle is negative and corrected by rotating at negative angle if skew detection angle is positive. E. Algorithm Step 1: Accept the input image which may be word or line. Step 2: Convert the given input into binary by using thresholding method. Step 3: Calculate the axes-parallel rectangle of binary image by finding minimum row and minimum column pixels. Step 4: Apply linear regression, Equation (3), to detect the skew of axes-parallel rectangle, which is the skew of original word/line. Step 5: Using Equation (6), correct the skew angle of word/line. V. Experimental Result We tested our algorithm for input images of handwritten document for Hindi and Marathi languages. The algorithm is tested on 500 words and 300 lines of Devanagari script. The accuracy rate for skew correction of word is 89% and accuracy rate for uniform skew correction of line is 93%.Mostly the word with single character or small size length does not give accurate result because of the lack of a sufficient number of minima points. Table I shows the sample results of words with skew detection of positive and negative angle and skew correction of all these. Results of word skew Figure 5 shows skew detection and correction of uniform skew line. We tested our algorithm for document with single/uniform skew and for skewed printed document also. For these kinds of input images, algorithm runs successfully. VI. Conclusion We have proposed a methodology for skew detection and correction of word and line of handwritten Devanagari script. The slope of best line fit using linear regression algorithm is used for skew detection and it is corrected by simply rotating word/line by calculated angle. This method is tested on handwritten data of Hindi and Marathi language. The word dataset is collected from various writers for testing purpose which contains 500 words and 300 lines. The proposed approach can be modified for future work to get higher accuracy and for detection of documents contain multiple or non-uniform skew text. Fig. 5 (a) Skewed line (b) Axes-parallel rectangle of skewed line (c) Skew correction of line VII. References Deepak Kumar, Dalwinder Singh, â€Å"Modified approach of Hough transform for skew detection and correction in documented images†, International Journal of Research in Computer Science, Vol. 2, Issue 3, pp. 37-40, April 2012. Arulmozhi K., Perumal S. A., Priyadarshini C.S.T., Nallaperumal K., â€Å"Image refinement using skew angle detection and correction for Indian licences plates†, Computational Intelligence Computing Research (ICCIC), IEEE, pp. 1-4, Dec. 2012. B.V.Dhandra, H.Mallikarjun, Ravindra Hegadi, V.S.Malemath, â€Å"Word-wise Script Identification from Bilingual Documents Based on Morphological Reconstruction†, Visual Information Engineering, IEEE, pp 389-395, 2006. Kleber, Florian, Markus Diem, Robert Sablatnig, Robust Skew Estimation of Handwritten and Printed Documents Based on Grayvalue Images, International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR), pp. 3020 – 3025, Aug. 2014. Ahmad Irfan, A Technique for Skew Detection of Printed Arabic Documents, Computer Graphics, Imaging and Visualization (CGIV), IEEE, pp. 62-67, Aug. 2013. Trupti A. Jundale, Ravindra S. Hegadi, â€Å"Skew Detection and Correction of Devanagari Script Using Hough Transform†, International Conference on Advanced Computing Technologies and Applications, Procedia of Computer Science, Journal of Elsevier, March2015, in press. Liu, Zhoufeng, Jie Huang, Chunlei Li, Skew detection of fabric images based on edge detection and projection profile analysis, Foundations of Intelligent Systems, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Vol. 122, pp 483-488, 2012. H. K. Kwag, S. H. Kim, S. H. Jeony and G. S. Lee, â€Å"Efficient skew estimation and correction algorithm for document images†, Image and vision Computing, Vol. 20, pp. 25-35, Jan. 2002. van Beusekom, Joost, Faisal Shafait, and Thomas M. Breuel, Combined orientation and skew detection using geometric text-line modeling, International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), Vol. 13, Issue 2, pp 79-92, June 2010. Fan, Huijie, Linlin Zhu, and Yandong Tang, Skew detection in document images based on rectangular active contour, International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition (IJDAR), Vol. 13.4, pp 261-269, Dec. 2010. B. V. Dhandra, V. S. Malemath, H. Mallikarjun and R. Hegadi, â€Å"Skew detection in binary image documents based on image dilation and region labelling approach† International Conference on Pattern Recognition, IEEE, Vol. 2. pp 954-957, 2006.

Land Degradation and Global Warming Essay

Our planet has experienced many changes in its climate from day 1 of creation up to the present. Today, we are faced with issues concerning global warming or the average increase of temperature of Earth’s atmosphere. What causes global warming leads researchers to identify natural conditions and manmade activities that cause this phenomenon (U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2008). Land degradation is being eyed as one of the contributing factors of global warming. By definition, it is the loss of the land productivity that could be permanently or temporarily (Stocking & Murnagham, 2000). Literature Review Land degradation has been a problem for a long time. Researches are done in order to find out the most applicable solution to the affected areas. Michael Stocking and Niamh Murnaghan, in 2000, had published â€Å"Land Degradation: Guidelines for Field Assessment. † This publication consists of 8 chapters. The authors have focus on the following areas: farmers’ perspective on land degradation, definition and causes, effects and consequences to land users, soil loss, effects to production, indicators of land degradation, and the benefits of conservation. Agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency or CIDA, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the United Nations have promoted their awareness programs regarding land degradation and global warming. With the help of these agencies, people are gaining information about the effects of natural events and some human activities to the environment. Methodology This research is mainly based on information, researches, and readings from the Internet. I have chosen Web sites from reliable agencies such as U. S. EPA, CIDA, and the United Nations in order to acquire information about land degradation and global warming. Since the Internet is also known as the information superhighway, these agencies are successful in spreading their researches and making the public aware of the increasing effect of global warming to our environment. Data Analysis California is just one of the States that promotes rainforest conservation to lessen the effect of global warming by reducing emissions from deforestation and land degradation or REDD. REDD is an state-to-state sub-national agreement that aims to promote improved forest management practices and reforestation. The parties involved in this agreement have signed the Memorandum of Understanding on 18 November 2008. (Mongabay. com, 2008) In Canada, CIDA has led the promotion to reverse the effects of land degradation. CIDA works with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCCD. CIDA’s efforts to reverse the effects include: tree planting, sustainable irrigation, and environmental monitoring among others. (Land Degradation, CIDA, 2008) Results The effects of land degradation to Earth’s climate were not observed immediately. Now, the effects of global warming are increasingly being noticed. We have experienced El Nino and La Nina and heard news about the melting of ice in the Arctic. The processes done to counteract the effects could also take longer time before we could see the results. Discussion When the soil lost its productivity due to land degradation, trees and plants could not thrive on it. Add to this phenomenon the continuous illegal logging and deforestation activities could lead to decreased numbers of planted trees and plants. When the number of planted trees and plants continue to lessen, few trees and plants could absorb carbon dioxide, the gas that contributes to global warming due to excessive production. Carbon dioxide traps heat. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to an abnormal increase in the temperature of the atmosphere, thus the occurrence of global warming. The common causes of land degradation are overgrazing, deforestation, and pollution. There is a human factor in these causes. We are responsible to what is happening in our climate now. As we wait for the results of the present actions concerning global warming. It’s best to help in our own simple ways on how to prevent land degradation. One is to help promote the advocacies of the concerned agencies. Conclusion Global warming is a reality. The effects of it are tremendous and detrimental. Should global warming continue to worsen, Earth and all its tenants are in grave danger. Public awareness of the effects of global warming is deemed necessary. We are the ones who have triggered the ignition of global warming. We should also be the ones to trigger the solution. Works Cited â€Å"California Joins Effort to Fight Global Warming by Saving Rainforests. † Mongabay. com. 19 November 2008. 25 November 2008 â€Å"Climate Change. † Canadian International Development Agency. 24 October 2008. 27 November 2008 â€Å"Climate Change. † U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2008. 27 November 2008 â€Å"Land Degradation. † Canadian International Development Agency. 23 July 2008. 25 November 2008 Stocking, M. & Niamh Murnagham. â€Å"Land Degradation: Guidelines for Field Assessment. † PLEC Databases. 2000. 25 November 2008

Abelard and Aquinas Essay - 713 Words

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The Ethical Issues Of Abortion - 1847 Words

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Most arguments about abortion are often focused on political insinuations and the legal aspect of such actions. Some frequently asked questions’ regarding the issue is if the practice should be outlawed and regarded as murder or should women have the right to practice it. For example, prior to

Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House Essay - 1067 Words

Marriage is a forever commitment between two individuals to love one another but marriages dont always have the fairytale happy ending. In Henrik Ibsens play A Doll House, Nora and Torvald Helmer learn some things about their marriage that they had not realized before. Nora Helmer discovers Torvald, herself, her marriage, as well as her own identity as a woman. Nora Helmer, the wife of Torvald Helmer, throughout the whole play has been keeping a secret from her husband. A few years back when Torvald became ill the doctor recommended that the whole family move south in order for Torvald to fully recover. Torvald would not pay the money for the family to move so instead, Nora borrowed the money from the bank, without her†¦show more content†¦Nora expects compassion from Torvald because she only did it because she loved him. Instead Torvald only thinks about himself and his appearance. Torvald also panics after hearing the news of the crime Nora has committed on his behalf but Torvald doesnt show the lease remorse for what may happen to his wife. Torvald is only concerned with his reputation. Nora expected Torvald to treat her with gratitude and understanding instead he threatens and blames her for messing up his family. When the promissory note arrives, that states that Nora is no longer in debt to the bank, Torvald shouts, Im saved . Torvald saying that just shows that he was only thinking about himself during the panic. Nora is the one that is saved but Torvald doesnt seem to acknowledge that Noras reputation is the one at stake. Torvalds reaction to the letter opens Nora eyes to the truth about her relationship with Torvald . Nora starts thinking of ways to change her priorities and of course an action to take. Nora shifts her thinking from suicide to deciding to leave Torvald and her kids. Nora becomes more independent on herself rather than having to rely on Torvald. Nora now realizes that she can escape from Torvalds realm of a perfect family and have no regrets. Nora realizes some things about herself throughout Torvalds panic also. Nora realizes that since she has been treated as a child her entire life, she is still very child like and now needs to growShow MoreRelatedHenrik Ibsens A Dolls House1489 Words   |  6 Pagesmany other types of literature, drama relies on several separate components all working together to tell a story. These components serve to draw an audience in, create a believable situation, and illicit a particular response. The play â€Å"A Doll’s House† by Henrik Ibsen provides an excellent example for analysis, with each component strongly supported. Often the first, and most obvious, component that can be observed when reading drama is the point of view that it is written from. Point of viewRead MoreHenrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House1433 Words   |  6 Pagesindividual morals go against the social appearance, but in value, individuals perceive a need for an appearance to convey a sense of belonging. Within two diverse yet similarly realist dramas, A Doll’s House and Death of a Salesman societal appearance’s stands above all else. Henrick Ibsens A Dolls House embarks on the gender fitting and domesticity of the Victorian Era at its worse as Nora Helmers unrealistic marriage falls within her grasps, leading to rebellion. Arthur Miller, on the other handRead More Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House Essay1050 Words   |  5 PagesHenrik Ibsens A Dolls House Ibsenss play is a modern tragedy which functions on two levels, questioning the established social order of the day and presenting the death of a marriage. Both these events create a great deal of tension, and combined with the language and actions used by the characters, make the play very intense. The main cause of dramatic tension throughout the play is the way that the difference between the real nature of the characters and the roles they are assignedRead MoreHenrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Essay example1182 Words   |  5 Pages Phylogeny versus misogyny, arguable one of the greatest binary oppositions in a work of literature, is present in Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 Norwegian play A Doll’s House. The title itself suggests a misogynist view, while the work mainly consists of feminist ideology, as Ibsen was a supporter of the female as an independent, rather than a dependent on a male. Nora knew herself that her husband did not fully respect her, and this became a major conflict in the play as Nora progressively became more self-reliantRead MoreThe Masquerade in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Essay1015 Words   |  5 Pages   Ã‚   In A Doll House, Ibsen presents us with Torvald and Nora Helmer, a husband and wife who have lived together for eight years and still dont know each other. This rift in their relationship, caused in part by Torvalds and Noras societally-induced gender roles and also by the naivete of both parties to the fact that they dont truly love one another, expands to a chasm by the end of the play, ultimately causing Nora to leave Helmer. Throughout most of the play, Ibsen continually has his charactersRead MoreHenrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Essay657 Words   |  3 PagesWhat comes to mind when the word morals is said? Whose morals should be followed, individual or group? In A Doll House, Ibsen portrays the protagonist, Nora, to follow the morals of her husband, Torvald. Four key aspects that help Nora decide to change her mind and make a decision to leave Torvald. These include the constant change of nicknames, the questioning of her own independence, the questionin g of Torvalds love, and the realization that Torvald loves his reputation more then herself.Read MoreEssay on Themes and Symbols in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House1296 Words   |  6 Pagesdoll-child† (Ibsen 1491). Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House tells a story of scandal and deceit set in the Victorian era. Nora Helmer is married to Torvald Helmer and she feels more like his toy than his wife. Nora had to have Torvald to be able to do anything, because of when she lived. Nora borrows money behind her husband’s back (which is illegal at this time) and tries to cover up everything she has done. Ibsen employs the use of many themes and symbols in his A Doll House to show the reader just howRead More Noras Symbolism in Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House Essay973 Words   |  4 PagesNoras Symbolism in Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House      Ã‚  Ã‚   In every society power is the bringer of fortune and influence. In his play A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen portrays, through the character of Nora, the power women are gaining in patriarchal societies. Nora, who symbolizes all women, exercises her power throughout the entire play. She cleverly manipulates the men around her while, to them, she seems to be staying in her subordinate role. In all three acts of the play Nora controls manyRead MoreThe Theme of Feminism in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Essay2521 Words   |  11 Pagesand social dependence, and her dependence through her children. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen argues that a dependent woman will be passive and unwilling to speak her mind. She will not try to understand the abstract reality of life, unless it contain to her lifestyle at home. Instead she will let the title of her marriage suppress her. She will lose sight of finding her own independence and instead become a doll living in a house. Nora, the protagonist of the play has all of these qualities Nora’sRead MorePet Names and Belittlement: Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House1329 Words   |  6 PagesIn a dolls house, Ibsen has combined several characters with diverse personal qualities and used them to develop the story line as well as bring to life the major themes and issues that the plot is meant to address. Primarily there are two types of characters who can be categorized as static and dynamic, the static characters remain the same form the start to the end of a story and despite the events taking place around them, and they do not change their perception or altitudes. These types of characters

Marketing plan in mortgage services Free Essays

Owning a home is an American dream that mortgage services is positioned to a lucrative business investment.   However, there are several factors that influence market decisions where market research can be useful.   One important area is researching about the historical and forecasted changes in market value. We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing plan in mortgage services or any similar topic only for you Order Now    When values are expected to rise, the firm has greater potential to be successful in its expansion plan.   People are motivated to mortgage home purchase when there is a likely price gain. Similarly valuable is to determine other economic indicators such as trends of wage rate, income taxes and also mortgage rate, down payment and monthly payment limits.   In expanding to four other states, there may be local policies and regulations that can modify economic characteristics from Idaho which could trigger different marketing strategies.   For example, declining salaries in one state can reduce ability of the market to pay monthly installments. There are also other alternatives to purchasing a primary or secondary home that minimizes the market for mortgage services.   In effect, the advantages and disadvantages of decision substitutes should be compared to home mortgage.   Factors to consider are the costs and tax benefit of home improvements, profitability of real estate investment trust (REIT) and buying-versus-renting performance.   There might be a need for the firm to search for other lenders that can offer more attractive provisions to outweigh the benefits of decisions substitutes. For example, longer mortgage period may be necessary to bring down monthly installments and be competitive to comparative monthly rental fees.   It is also helpful to gather information on population mobility (i.e. tendency to transfer to other states or countries) or the visitor performance on the four states.   When they are people have high mobility or the state does not receive substantial visits, the location is less attractive for homeowners which can suggest new strategies to the firm. Marketing Medium In its expansion, the company is required to inform the market of its existence including its market position and branding.   Inability to establish good faith credentials to the market can lead to business failure.   It can tap useful business partners.   Local authorities and agencies that administer the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA) loans are the primary channels of the firm since it offer services for FHA and VA loans. The firm can be also referred by home sellers to their clients which can lead to a win-win situation for all parties.   The company and home sellers can develop their market while clients are provided with value-added services with the opportunity to get financial support.   REIT and landlords can also supply the needed campaign because they too necessitate home appraisal for investment decisions.   Although they are not included in the customer list of the company, citing the firm as cost efficient provider of mortgage services is a mechanism in better servicing the interest of their investors/ occupants. Publicity can also provide the necessary marketing medium.   It can advertise the company on a wider scale without the communication to several parties rather than single marketing agency.   As an alternative, the company can develop its own publicity by designing an advertising or promotional campaign.   Local newspapers can highlight the services offered, target market, average mortgage rate and service fee that are offered by the firm. This can create initial perception about its positioning (e.g. low-cost service provider).   Feedback is important in any campaign to determine if the market has gained perception similar to what the company intends to be.   In this view, it is important to include in the newspaper ad contact details such as telephone number, website and address.   Getting the feedback is important since being a low-cost service provider can create impression that the service is inferior to others offering higher prices. Target Markets Being a low-cost service provider, the firm is expected to attract the low-income segment and parts of middle-income segment.   This is concretized by the fact that the firm is offering a start-to-finish approach where clients can have full services from loan application, home appraisal and contract delivery.   The work-oriented lifestyle of these segments can receive significant benefits of this approach since they can save time, money and simplify issues associated with home purchases/ loan. Primary and secondary homeowners are also target market.   The former are inexperienced and the consultancy services can serve as guide in decision-making.   In the contrary, the latter are experienced but are in need of refinancing services as they find a more attractive loan contract from different lender or have changed their mind regarding their initial home purchase.   Acquirer of leisure properties are also target market because the company has a portfolio of different lenders who can meet the requirements of such loan. As FHA loans will likely consist of low- and middle-income segment, VA loans bring forth a new segment.   This includes retirees and at least fifty year old people or their widows who intend to marry again.   The service that can be offered to them is advisory particularly on issues such as enjoying â€Å"double† exemption for capital-gain tax in case of selling a home which subsequently mean getting the exemption first before remarrying.   Further, older people have less time to manage their properties particularly researching, monitoring and evaluation of economic trends. As a result, most of their decisions are based on experience and judgment.   The company can intervene in this case in offering valuable services to contribute the missing link of older people’s considerations.   Lastly, the company can attract potential market that places their investments in stocks, bonds and mutual funds.   With lowest fees and integrated service, real estate investment has relatively lower transaction costs than other investment choices. 4Ps and SIVA on Marketing Plan The market research provides information that will shape the products of the company as they require adjustment based on state-specific factors.   It also contributes on pricing the service as low-price services may not appeal to the local market making the current position less effective.   Therefore, necessary promotions that can add value to the service can be initiated.   In using each marketing medium, the company can increase its presence and market penetration to each state. It can rationalize the need for publicity and additional expenses for advertising depending on the market behavior and strength of local housing authorities in influencing them.   For example, if housing is strictly regulated or supporting mechanisms are minimal, the company may likely opt to use the media in increasing awareness and demand.   By determining target markets, the scanning done in market research and identification of potential marketing medium will be evaluated based the characteristics of the market.   Target markets is the most crucial part of the marketing plan because it simplifies consideration of the factors in general environment and marketing medium to those that are only significant in influencing market behavior. Satisfaction of the market is addressed when the company offers products and services that are relevant to their current needs.   This includes augmenting loopholes of local housing authorities in providing related services and incentives.   Their interests are activated by actively establishing business partners through local housing authorities, home sellers, REIT and other parties related to housing sector.   Word-of-mouth marketing is acquired.   The value for money regarding the services of the company is aligned to the income situation of its target market which assures an effective strategy.   On the other hand, well-off segment would see the low-price service as opportunity to get a second opinion and increase lender alternative.   Finally, convenience in accessing the firm’s services is supported also by various marketing medium. References Geller, L. (2002) Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing. New York: Oxford University Press. Hitt, M., Hoskisson, R. Ireland, R. (2003) Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization. 5th Ed. South Western: Thomson Learning. Kotler, P. (2003) Marketing Management.11th Ed, NJ: Prentice Hall. How to cite Marketing plan in mortgage services, Essay examples

Technical Analysis free essay sample

Technical analysis Prices of securities in the stock market fluctuate daily on account of continuous buying and selling. Technical analysts believe that stock prices move in trends and are never stable. Therefore, past prices and volume data provide indicators of future price movements and help in investment decisions. John J. Murphy, an  American  financial market  analyst, is considered the father of inter-market  technical analysis. Many fund managers and traders are skeptical about the usefulness of technical analysis mainly because there is no theoretical base and random walk for the stock prices. Therefore few research papers have been observed in order to know the applicability and profitability of technical analysis. LITERATURE REVIEW Technical analysis does not give the intrinsic value of a security, but use charts and other tools to identify patterns that can suggest future activity. Blume, Easley and O’hara (1994) showed how volume and prices can be informative and benefits traders who use information contained in market securities. We will write a custom essay sample on Technical Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Park and Irwin (2004) reviewed the evidence on the profitability of technical analysis by reviews survey, theoretical and empirical studies regarding technical trading strategies. Similarly, profitability in the US equity market was seen with the help of candlestick technical analysis by Marshall, Young and Rose (2007). Gomathi and Matheswari (2011) analysed the equity shares of SBI with the help of technical analysis to discover the trend in the future. Chitra (2011) also technically analysed selected stocks of energy sector in India and draw a comparison among them for the purpose of investing. STUDY Blume, Easley and O’hara examined the role of volume and trade information, employed to investigate how market clearing prices reflect underlying information and how traders learn from prices. To investigate they used simplified versions of models developed by Brown and Jennings and Grundy and McNichols that address the role of price data in technical analysis. They said that an agent can trade in risk-free and a risky asset and there is no exogenous supply of any asset. They investigated how technical analysis can be valuable to traders in an economy full of uncertainties. A trader who does not engage in technical analysis cannot fully infer current information from the current market statistics. The unique feature if their model was that volume captures the important information contained in the quality of traders information signal. Park and Irwin firstly used survey study by directly investigating market participants’ behaviour and experiences. The result indicated that most traders were unsuccessful in futures trading, regardless of their scale and knowledge. Apart from survey they used The Martingale Model which says that a sequence of price of an asset is a fair if it has unbiased price changes. Efficient market Models implies instantaneous adjustment of price to new information by assuming that current price impounds all available information. Noisy Rational Expectations Model assumes current prices do not reveal all available information because of noise. After the study it was observed models like martingale model and random walk model are not feasible and in contrast other model like noisy rational expectations models, disequilibrium model and feedback models there is profitable trading opportunities. They also studied technical trading system comprising a set of trading rules that can be used to generate trading signals like moving averages, chart pattern studies, channels (support and resistance) and filters. Conclusion drawn was that technical analysis has been widely used by market participants to determine price movement for time horizons upto 6 months. Candlestick technical analysis involves the consideration of relationship between open, high, low and close price. It has a short-term focus and profitability of candlestick trading strategies is tested using t- statistic and bootstrapping methodology. Marshall, Young and Rose checked the profitability of candlestick technical analysis using individual stock data for those companies that were included in the Dow Jones industrial index during 1/1/1992-31/12/2002. They assumed that a trade is entered at close on the day after a signal and ten-day moving average to determine the prior trend for bullish and bearish reversal patterns. It was found that candlestick trading rules are not profitable when applied to DJIA component stocks. Neither bullish or bearish candlestick single lines provided better market timing signals. Therefore, basing decisions solely on these techniques does not seem sensible. For technical analysis, Chitra analysed the daily price movements of the 10 power sector actively traded companies in NSE was absorbed for 3 years. For bets calculation, closing price of companies in NSE and closing value of NIFTY. Apart from beta, moving average and relative strength index tools were used. On the baisi of beta, moving average and RSI it was suggested that ONGC, TATA power, GAIL, CAIRN could be bought because higher net profits. Investors were advised to also take into account macroeconomic factors while investing. Gomathi and Matheswari undertook technical study of SBI stock to analyse price movement and forecast future trends with the help of charts. Fifty days Simple moving average, exponential moving average and relative strength index were used as tool to analyse the data for the time period Nov. 0- Apr 11. In the study it was found that investors should sell security when price has increased and buy whenever there is drop in price. CONCLUSION Technical analysis gives investor a better understanding of the stocks and also gives them right direction to go on further to buy or sell the stocks. It can be applied to any market with a comprehensive price history. Technical analysis or charting techniques is considered to be as a supplement to fundamental analysis of sec urities. It can offer great insight but if used improperly, they can also produce false signals Even though technical analysis is enough for making decision in stock market, simultaneous usage of both fundamental and technical analysis will reduce errors in forecasting future prices. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Prasanna Chandra, investment analysis portfolio management, 3rd edition, 2008. Research papers Blume L. , Easley D. and O’hara M. ,1994. Market statistics and technical analysis: the role of volume. The journal of finance, vol. 49, no. 1, pp- 153-181. Chitra R. , 2011. Technical analysis on selected stocks of energy sector. International journal of management business studies, vol. 1 issue 1. , pp-42-46. Gomathi T. and Matheswari R. , 2011. A study on technical analysis of SBI equity share. Golden research thoughts, vol 1 issue 4. Marshall B. R. , Young M. R. and Rose L. C. , 2007. Market timing with candlestick technical analysis. Website- http://ssrn. com/abstract=980583 or http://dx. doi. org/10. 2139/ssrn. 980583 Park C. and Irwin S. H. , 2004. The profitability of technical analysis: a review. agMAS project research report no. 2004-04. Website-   http://ssrn. com/abstract=603481