Over the past few years, I've developed a system for evaluating text more objectively based on mathematical values assigned to letters so they can be searched and sorted by the software rather than through human guesswork. It takes into account letter forms, pen thickness, degree of connectedness, letter spacing, line spacing, slant, proportion of descenders/ascenders, and a few other factors.
As I mentioned, the project ended up being much bigger than I originally anticipated because I wanted to do it right rather than simply looking through the scripts and making a subjective evaluation.
I felt it was worth doing because when I first looked at the VMS, it looked to me like the differences in hands was more than simply someone writing at a different time with a different pen (which is significant because it suggests a group project and common knowledge of the writing system) and I wanted to confirm or deny this impression through careful research.
As I mentioned, the project ended up being much bigger than I originally anticipated because I wanted to do it right rather than simply looking through the scripts and making a subjective evaluation.
I felt it was worth doing because when I first looked at the VMS, it looked to me like the differences in hands was more than simply someone writing at a different time with a different pen (which is significant because it suggests a group project and common knowledge of the writing system) and I wanted to confirm or deny this impression through careful research.