Patent ID: 6327378
Filing Date: 2001-12-04
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
A method for recognizing one or more characters on a document and the like comprising the steps of:scanning said document with a device which is operable to generate a signal having a time varying amplitude represented by a waveform which is peculiar to the shape of a character being scanned;determining the amplitude of said waveform at a predetermined number of positions on a time scale of said waveform, representing one dimension of said character, to provide a set of sample values of the amplitude of said waveform;calculating the amplitude ratio value of a predetermined number of samples of a set by dividing each sample magnitude by the average magnitude of the predetermined number of samples of the set;determining the difference between selected ones of said sample amplitude ratio values with respect to an adjacent sample amplitude ratio value to generate a set of ratio difference values; andcomparing said set of ratio difference values to predetermined sets of ratio difference values, each of said predetermined sets of ratio difference values representing the identity of a character, to recognize the character being scanned.