The repeatability of signatures

Signatures are the most widely used form of legally binding identification and authentication. The repeatability of a person's signature underpins its recognition and hence usefulness in everyday authentication situations. This study aims to assess the stability of a set of common features used for analysing signatures both within a single capture session and over time (multiple sessions). Secondly, the physical characteristics of signatures which result in the most repeatable performance for each feature are also analyzed. These results have implications for biometric signature verification systems and the document forensic field in that it gives an indication as to the stability of features leading potentially to improved performance and the types of features that should be analyzed given particular characteristics of the signature under investigation.