Characterization of right-handed and left-handed objects

Many natural shapes have chirality (or handedness): for instance our hands have a right-hand version and a left-hand version, the two types being mirror images of each other. In chemistry, for example, molecules and crystals are classified as having chirality D or L. Interaction between molecules is dependent on their chirality, and chirality may determine chemical characteristics. For instance, only glucose of D-chirality is sweet, while glucose of L-chirality is tasteless.
* We study the notion of chirality for two dimensional binary shapes, and introduce measures to test whether a shape is symmetric, and if not whether it is left-handed or righthanded. The measures are based on boundary analysis, and perform well even when digital images of left-handed shapes differ from the mirror images of right-handed shapes. Such situations may occur due to natural variations and digitization errors. The measures can also successfully treat partially occluded shapes, and provide indications on the change of chiral-* ity as resolution changes.