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national Bureau of Standaras

Ubrary, E-01 Admin. Bldg.

NBS MONOGRAPH 113, VOLUME 1

Nationsi Bureau of Standards JUL 2 8 1972

: /120S

OS.

I to

Research and Development

in the Computer

and Information Sciences

U.S.

(ITMENT

OF

l/IMERCE

National

Bureau

of

tandards

Volume 1. Information Acquisition, Sensing, and Input—

A Selective Literature Review
NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

The National Bureau of Standards ' was established by an act of Congress March 3, 1901. Today,

in addition to serving as the Nation's central measurement laboratory, the Bureau is a principal

focal point in the Federal Government for assuring maximum application of the physical and

engineering sciences to the advancement of technology in industry and commerce. To this end

the Bureau conducts research and provides central national services in four broad program

areas. These are: (1) basic measurements and standards, (2) materials measurements and

standards, (3) technological measurements and standards, and (4) transfer of technology.

The Bureau comprises the Institute for Basic Standards, the Institute for Materials Research, the

Institute for Applied Technology, the Center for Radiation Research, the Center for Computer

Sciences and Technology, and the Office for Information Programs.

THE INSTITUTE FOR BASIC STANDARDS provides the centra! basis within the United

States of a complete and consistent system of physical measurement; coordinates that system with measurement systems of other nations; and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and

uniform physical measurements throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry, and commerce. The Institute consists of an Office of Measurement Services and the following technical

divisions:Applied Mathematics—Electricity—Metrology—Mechanics—Heat—Atomic and Molecular Physics—Radio Physics -—Radio Engineering -—Time and Frequency -—Astrophysics -—Cryogenics.'-

THE INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH conducts materials research leading to im- proved methods of measurement standards, and data on the properties of well-characterized

materials needed by industry, commerce, educational institutions, and Government; develops,

produces, and distributes standard reference materials; relates the physical and chemical properties of materials to their behavior and their interaction with their environments; and provides

advisory and research services to other Government agencies. The Institute consists of an Office of Standard Reference Materials and the following divisions: Analytical Chemistry—Polymers—Metallurgy—Inorganic Materials—Physical Chemistry.

THE INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED TECHNOLOGY provides technical services to promote

the use of available technology and to facilitate technological innovation in industry and Government; cooperates with public and private organizations in the development of technological

standards, and test methodologies; and provides advisory and research services for Federal, state, and local government agencies. The Institute consists of the following technical divisions and

offices: Engineering Standards—Weights and Measures — Invention and Innovation — Vehicle Systems Research—Product Evaluation —Building Research—Instrument Shops—Measurement Engineering—Electronic Technology—Technical Analysis.

THE CENTER FOR RADIATION RESEARCH engages in research, measurement, and application of radiation to the solution of Bureau mission problems and the problems of other agencies and institutions. The Center consists of the following divisions: Reactor Radiation—Linac Radiation—Nuclear Radiation—Applied Radiation. THE CENTER FOR COMPUTER SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY conducts research and

provides technical services designed to aid Government agencies in the selection, acquisition, and effective use of automatic data processing equipment; and serves as the principal focus

for the development of Federal standards for automatic data processing equipment, techniques,

and computer languages. The Center consists of the following offices and divisions: Information Processing Standards—Computer Information — Computer Services — Sys- tems Development—Information Processing Technology.

THE OFFICE FOR INFORMATION PROGRAMS promotes optimum dissemination and

accessibility of scientific information generated within NBS and other agencies of the Federal government; promotes the development of the National Standard Reference Data System and a system of information analysis centers dealing with the broader aspects of the National Measure- ment System, and provides appropriate services to ensure that the NBS staff has optimum accessibility to the scientific information of the world. The Ofl[ice consists of the following

organizational units: Office of Standard Reference Data—Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information ' —Office of Technical Information and Publications—Library—Office of Public Information—Office of International Relations.

^ Headquarters and laboratories at Gaithersburg. Maryland, unless otherwise noted; mailing address Washington, D.C. 20234.

- Located at Boulder, Colorado 80302. Located at 5286 Port Royal Road, Springfield. Virginia 22151.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE • Maurice H. Stans, Secretary

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS • Lewis M. Branscomb, Director

Research and Development in the

Computer and Information Sciences

1. Information Acquisition, Sensing, and Input:

A Selective Literature Review

Mary Elizabeth Stevens

Center for Computer Sciences and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D.C. 20234

ir. 1)'% , National Bureau of Standards. Monograph 113, Vol. 1

» * • Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Monogr. 113-1, 170 pages (Mar. 1970) CODEN: NBSMA

Issued March 1970

For sale by the Syperintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 (Order by SD Catalog No. C 13.44:113/Vol. 1), Price $1.50
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 70-603263
Foreword

The Center for Computer Sciences and Technology of the National Bureau of Standards

has responsibihty under the authority of Public Law 89—306 (the Brooks Bill) for automatic data

processing standards development, for consultation and technical assistance to Federal agencies,

and for supporting research in matters relating to the use of computers in the Federal Government.

This selective hterature review is one of a series intended to improve interchange of information

among those engaged in research and development in the fields of the computer and information

sciences. Considered in this volume are the specific areas of information acquisition, sensing, and

input, including the problems of character and pattern recognition.

Names and descriptions of specific proprietary devices and equipment have been included for the convenience of the reader, but completeness in this respect is recognized to be impossible.

Certain important developments have remained proprietary or have not been reported in the open

hterature; thus major contributors to key developments in the field may have been omitted.

The omission of any method or device does not necessarily imply that it is considered unsuitable

or unsatisfactory, nor does inclusion of descriptive material on commercially available instruments,

products, programs, or processes constitute endorsement.

Lewis M. Branscomb, Director

III

!

Contents

Page Foreword Ill

1. Introduction 1

1.1. General introductory considerations 1

1.2. Basic background considerations 2

1.3. A generalized information processing system 3

1.3.1. Automatic production control 3

1.3.2. Character recognition systems 3

1.3.3. An experimental ISSR system in the U.S.S.R 5

1.3.4. Implications of the generalized scheme 7

' 1.4. Specific background considerations 8

: 1.4.1. Plan of attack 8

1.4.2. Some general caveats 9

] 1.5. Scope and coverage of this report 10

I 2. Information acquisition, source data automation, and remote data collection 10

i 2.1. Basic operations and requirements 10

I 2.2. Source data automation 12

, 2.3. Measurements automation and feedback control 13

! 2.4. Remote sensing and data collection techniques 14

I

t 3. Communication systems and data transmission links 16

3.1. Communication links, services, and systems 16

! 3.1.1. Voice and digital data transmission 16

3.1.2. Graphic and facsimile transmission 17

J 3.2. Computer systems and communication networks 18

3.3. Store and forward techniques and delayed response 19

3.4. Technical problem areas 19

|j 4. Audio and graphic inputs 21

I 4.1. Audio signal inputs 21

' 4.2. Graphic inputs 22

' 4.2.1. .\lphanumeric inputs 22

j 4.2.2. Special symbol and diagramatic inputs 23

j 4.2.3. Graphic inputs and on-Une drafting 24

i 4.2.4. Pictorial and three-dimensional data input 26

j 5. Preprocessing operations and pattern recognition 27

j 5.1. Preprocessing operations: Image and information enhancement 27

\ 5.2. Property filtering and feature extraction 29

5.3. Optical character recognition 31

5.3.1. Midtifont character reading 31

5.3.2. Performance requirements and quality control 33

I 5.4. Recognition of handprinted characters, handwriting, geometric shapes, and line drawj ings 33

< 5.4.1. Constrained handprinting 34

5.4.2. Handwritten characters and handwriting 35

5.4.3. Shapes and drawings 38

5.5. Speech and speaker recognition 38

5.6. Other pattern identification and recognition areas 42

5.7. Some theoretical approaches to pattern recognition and categorization 43

6. Conclusions 50

' Appendix A. Background notes on research and development requirements in information

' acquisition, sensing, and input 53 Appendix B. Bibhography 151 V

1
List of Figures

Page Figure 1. A generalized information processing system 4

Figure 2. A generalized character recognition system 6

Figure 3. Areas of continuing concern, information acquisition 11 Figure 4. Areas of concern; information sensing, input, and preprocessing 21 Figure 5. Model typescript page at expanded scale 25 Figure 6. Two illustrative display formulas 25

Figure 7. Image enhancement for noise reduction 28 Figure 8. FOSCRIPT decoding criteria 34

Figure 9. Patterns for different speakers 42

Figure 10. Fingerprint pattern showing bifurcation and ridge ending 44

Figure 11. Material read by Soviet print reader 56

Figure 12. Automatic preparation of smooth sheet 64

Figure 13. Data processing shared by two computers 80

Figure 14. Dickinson hand-print embellishments 113 Figure 15. FOSDIC alpha-numeric marking document 114 Figure 16. Handwritten numerals, vector crossing technique 116 Figure 17. OpScan document 119

Figure 18. PAPA machine assembly 144

VI
Information Acquisition, Sensing, and Input:

A Selective Literature Review

Mary Elizabeth Stevens

Center for Computer Sciences and Technology

National Bureau of Standards. Washington, D.C. 20234

This report, the first of a projected series on research and development efforts and requirements

in the computer and information sciences, is concerned with a selective literature review involving the operations of information acquisition, sensing, and input to information processing systems considered

in generalized terms. Specific topics include but are not hmited to: source data automation and remote

sensing techniques, communication systems and data transmission links, audio and graphic inputs,

preprocessing operations upon input items such as image enhancement and property filtering, character

recognition, speech recognition, and various other aspects of automatic pattern recognition. Supple- mental notes and a bibUography of over 640 cited references are included.

Key words: Audio inputs; automatic pattern recognition; character recognition; communication

systems; data transmission; graphic inputs; image enhancement; remote sensing; source data automation; speech recognition.

1. Introduction

This report is the first of a series intended to provide a selective overview of research and

development efforts and requirements in the some- what overlapping fields of the computer and infor- mation sciences and technologies. The projected

series of reports will attempt to outline the probable

range of R & D activities in the computer and in- formation sciences and technologies through selective reviews of the literature and to develop a reasonable consensus with respect to the opinions

of workers in these and potentially related fields as to areas of continuing R&D concern for research

program planning or review in these areas. In

general, each individual report will be self-con- tained, and will provide notes in an appendix geared

to the order of sections in the text. 1.1. General Introductory Considerations

It is, of course, presumptuous, as Licklider*

and others have emphasized, to attempt to provide

directives for the course of research and development planning in so broad an area as that of the

computer and information sciences and technologies. Within the scope of Federal Government

responsibilities, however, and with particular

respect to the specific responsibilities assigned to the National Bureau of Standards under Bureau of

*A bibliography of all cited literature references, as well as other pertinent refer- ences of interest, is included as Appendix B. In addition, notes are provided in Appendix A for each of the discussion sections of this report. They represent selective samplings of corroborative opinions to be found in the literature, together with

additional specific examples and citations to specific research and development

efforts to which we have referred. See note 1.1. Appendix A.

the Budget Circular A-71 and Pubhc Law 89-306

(the Brooks Bill of 1965), it is not unreasonable to try to provide a framework for program review and

to pinpoint, so far as is practical, specific needs

and difficulties to be noted in selective reviews of

the literature and other appraisals of the state of

the art. Such clues may often indicate the desirability of further research and development efforts whether Federally conducted. Federally sponsored,

or independently initiated. There is also the desirability of bringing together,

in one place, a single perspective with regard to both current efforts and foreseeable future needs

for research and development in the computer and

information sciences, however biased that one

perspective may be. This series of reports is thus

intended to provide background material for the

identification of research needs as a contribution

to improved cooperation in the field. It is hoped

also that a "framework" for considering R&D

requirements in the computer and information

sciences and technologies such as is proposed here

may provide a continuing basis for annual reviews

of continuing progress in the field. In this introductory section to this first report, we will consider a few of the major background

factors; outhne the general plan of attack for the

projected series of reports; provide some general

caveats; discuss, with a few examples, a diagrammatic schema of a generalized information processing system which will form the organizational

framework for at least the first few of the reports in

1
the planned series; and summarize the scope and

coverage of the present individual report.

1.2. Basic Background Considerations

Machines, especially radical new developments in computer, communication, and information process- ing systems, have made possible revolutionary

gains in data acquisition and data manipulation

over time, over space, over human limitations of

reaction and responsiveness, over manuallyinaccessible conditions, and more especially over human limitations of span-of-attention, consistency,

and objective judgment.

When, in 1946. ENIAC was instructed to perform

baUistic computations (at high speed and great

accuracy), it was, in effect, substituting for many

human fingers on many desk-calculator devices.

In the early 1950's. computers could be used for payroll calculation, inventory control, accounting

and bookkeeping, and similar processes, where

the substitution was that of the machine for, roughly,

high-school level actions and judgments of clerical personnel. Today, the challenge is of at least an

order of magnitude greater: how can machines

substitute for, or at least provide effective aids to, the air traffic controller, the professional meteorologist and the laboratory scientist, the architect or city planner, the reference librarian, the student

or the professor?

Pressures of time-gap with respect to human

response-time (whether measured in fractions of seconds or in terms of mastering the U.S. Patent

Office backlog) dictate increasing use of machines.

Pressures of concern in the accuracy of strategic

forecasting, medical diagnosis, and predictions of

actions necessary to avert foreseeable disasters

(political, economic, social, ecological, and the like)

again indicate the importance of machine aids and

corrections to fallible and inconsistent human

judgments. Thirdly, there are the related pressures

to avoid duphcation of effort, to shepherd the utihzation of available scarce-manpower resources, and

to challenge the most effective output of creative

minds directed toward the most urgent problems

of our times.

The rationale for research and development in the computer and information sciences and tech- nologies is thus manifold. Among the currently

most critical considerations are the following:

(1) Increasingly, the problems and decisions

facing man impose conditions of organized

complexity,'^ multiple interdependence

of many uncontrolled and largely uncontrollable variables, a staggering number of

possible outcomes with their comparative

payoffs largely unknown, and limitations of

both available-response-time and human

span-of-attention.

(2) Steadily, the rate of technological advance,

and concommitantly that of growth in the

magnitude of problem factors to be resolved.

cuts into the available lead-time in which

laissez-faire applications or solutions are

practical.

(3) Exponentially, the recording of potentially

appHcable information, from telemetered

data captured in outer space through lab- oratory measurement recordings to published

literature and computer-controlled graphic

display of the probable consequences of

decision choices, continues to increase in volume and in bulk. For every accretion to the sum of recorded, potentially usable infor- mation, there are corresponding accretions

to the problems of location, selection, con- densation, and vahdation.

(4) Critically, in terms of resource utilization, we need today an increased use of potentially

available information to avoid replication of

effort, to avert false starts and blind alleys, or

to assist us by the suggestion of practical

tools, techniques, and theoretical methods.

We will also need increased release of human

intellectual capabilities from machine-do-able

tasks in order to free these capabilities for the

truly creative and/or prudent action-choices

that will still require human judgment and

valuation.

For these reasons, we have seen over the past

two decades the phenomenal growth of whole new

industries involving computers, communication and

control systems, and information processing technologies. For these reasons, there have been substantial research and development programs

established in industry, the universities, non-profit

organizations and private foundations, and Federal

Government agencies. Despite substantial progress

in many of these programs, however, there continue

to be many areas of research and development

requirements that are of major concern to the U.S. Government and in particular to the Federal

Council of Science and Technology and its Committee on Scientific and Technical Information

(COSATI).

Of particular concern in the United States as of

1967-1968 are the information processing system

requirements in the anticipated phenomenal

growth of multiple access networks and information processing utility systems, with concomitant

problems of shared data banks and the measures

necessary to protect privacy on the one hand, and

with high promise for on-line problem-solving,

machine-aided design, and machine-aided decisionmaking applications, on the other hand.

There are R&D requirements that stem from the

desirability of foresighted consideration being given

to probable future standardization or compatibility

efforts; there are R&D requirements that arise

because of current difficulties and bottlenecks, and

there are those that relate to fact-finding, hypothesis

formation, and experimental investigation in areas where we know so little of the underlying basic

phenomena that it is not clear whether automatic

2
information processing techniques could be feasibly

applied at all.' '' In addition, special R&D reqiiirements can be

foreseen in specific potential areas of application,

such as hbrary automation or question-answering

systems for the personal use of the intelligence

analyst. For example, we shall turn to a more detailed consideration of the problems of information

storage, selection and retrieval (ISSR) systems in other reports in this series. In the first reports,

however, let us discuss some R&D implications in system design requirements generally, with

emphasis on certain recent developments in infor- mation acquisition; input-output subsystems and

links to communication systems; processor subsystems and multiple access systems in particular;

storage subsystems; advanced technological

developments, and programming considerations

including the special problems of on-line instru- mentation and the mutual protection of cHents and

systems.

Any consideration of generalized research and

development requirements in the computer and

information sciences should obviously be based on one or more aspects of the fundamental infor- mation processing cycle — the acquisition of information; the processing of information to find,

fix. and focus significant features present; the

recording and storage of processed information

for subsequent use, and the selective recall or

retrieval of processed and stored information for use.Certain themes wiU be necessarily recurrent: (1) System design must become more and more inte- grated and more and more dynamic and flexible;

(2) Effective man-machine interaction at hardware,

software, and behavioral factor levels is an in- creasingly significant problem; (3) Programming

languages will require both more formal theoretic

and also more user-oriented development, especially

in the areas of man-machine dialog, parallel processing, multiprocessor systems, simulation, and self- diagnostic capabihties; (4) The essential interplay

of man-machine reaction requires that much more

must be realistically learned of man-in-the-system

needs, of human advantages, frailties and prejudices

in perception and apperception, and basic processes

in man or machine procedures for pattern detection,

concept formation and amalgamation, the tracing of

associative retrieval trails, and the application of both deductive and inductive inference.

1.3. A Generalized Information Processing

System

For preliminary purposes of indicating trends and

defining certain obvious research and development

requirements we provide in Figure 1 a generalized

function chart of information processing systems.

The intended generality of Figure 1 can be

illustrated by tracing through several examples of

information processing system apphcations. First

is a case of a relatively novel source data collection,

processing, recording, and response system.

Another example is a representative system

designed for automatic character recognition. The

third case involves both conventional and non- conventional techniques for the handling of recorded

scientific and technical information — the areas of

traditional Hbrary science, mechanized documentation, and information selection, storage, and

retrieval systems.

It may also be appropriately suggested that, in human analogy, information acquisition, sensing

and input operations are comparable to perception

and ingestion systems in the human; pre-processing

operations to digestive actions; processing to both

metabohc and communication functions; and

selective recall and output to effective psychophysical reaction to the real world.

1.3.1. Automatic Production Control

In a relatively recent example of automatic

production and control systems, the Bevercotes

Company in England has designed techniques to provide for coal mining operations under remote

control. Information acquisition, input and sensing

operations (such as those indicated in Boxes 1 and 2

of Fig. 1) will involve the use of a nuclear sensor that emits gamma rays. The backscatter rates can be

measured (preprocessing and processing operations in Boxes 3 and 4) to determine the thickness

of the mine walls around coal veins and the thick- ness of coal remaining in a given vein. Direct output

(Box 5 of Fig. 1) is to the automatic guidance control

of the cutters, with provision for stopping them just

short of the rock protecting the mine itself. Other

inputs are processed to provide automatic monitoring of methane gas levels and to adjust ventilation

equipment. Still other outputs (Box 14) go to human

operators who govern, by appropriate processing

specifications, the movements of hydraulic chocks

that follow the cutters and support the mine roof. (Electronics 38, No. 20, 213 (1965).)

This experimental production control system

design thus emphasises automatic information

acquisition (Box 1 of Fig. 1), sensing (Box 2), pre- processing (Box 3), post-processing by human

operators (Box 13), and outputs (Box 14) fed directly

back to the system itself as, in effect, processing

service requests (Box 7) which may be used to develop processing specifications, such as the

required amount of adjustments (Box 9) which are then "matched" (Box 10) with the actual processing

operations needed to effect the adjustments.

1.3.2. Character Recognition Systems

In the generalized character recognition case, information acquisition (Box 1) involves the receipt

of a carrier medium (such as paper or film) in or on which the character or characters to be read have

previously been inscribed, typed, or printed.

Box 2 of Figure 1, input and sensing, involves the

3
1. Information

Acquisition

2. Informationy

Sensing anc Input

3. Preprocessing

4. Processing

Operations

I > 12. Retrieval

r

1

1t

/ 7. Processing /

5. Direct

Outputs

13. Postprocessing

14. Outputs 7

15. Use and

Evaluation

T"

I

Client Service

Requests

9. Processing

Specifications

J

Legend: process flow

feedback flow

Figure 1. A generalized information processing system.

4
positioning and illumination of the carrier on which

the character is recorded and the physical sensing

of a source pattern — for example, by optical pro- jection to a bank of photocells. By preprocessing

operations (Box 3), such as integration over photocell

response to particular subareas of the total source

pattern image area, the sensed source pattern is transformed into an input pattern suitable for the

subsequent processing requirements of the system.

The processing requirements are usually in the

form of matching and "best-match" selection by

comparison with previously stored reference patterns

(exemplars of the sahent characteristics of the

various members of the character set to be

recognized by the system) or templates (which, in their simplest form, might be the photographicnegative images of the set of characters in a partic- ular font and type size). Such reference patterns (whether merely simple

templates or sophisticated pattern-property requirement listings involving syntax and context) serve

the function of processing service requests (Box 7) in our generaUzed representation. For example,

processing specifications (Box 9) in the photographic-negative mask-matching system may require

check for matching against "F" before "E" in a

sequentially processed match-decision procedure.

Other possibihties involve feedback to threshold

settings and the directed re-scanning and repetition of preprocessing operations to enhance signalto-background contrasts or to eliminate noise in the case of "O" and "Q" in either sequential or

parallel matching operations.

In a simple mask-matching system, the matching

operations of Box 10, Figure 1, require that the

suitably preprocessed input pattern will be optically

superimposed against the various reference patterns

and, when this input pattern coincides with its proper negative, light wiU be extinguished to a particular photocell. The resultant "blackout" (extinction of Light to the photocell), together with suitable means for identifying the particular pattern for which the coincidence occurred, can then be used

to effect appropriate posf-processing operations

(Box 13 of Fig. 1), such as to punch the appropriate

machine-language for the character so "identified".

These operations may also provide an output,

(Box 14), which may include the information that the

system was unable to decide as between two or more ambiguous input patterns. (It may be of

interest to note that such a character recognition

scheme was at least imphcity disclosed by Goldberg

as early as 1931.' '*) For later and more sophisticated automatic character recognition systems. Figure 2 illustrates how

the basic schema of Figure 1 may be expanded,

constrained, and made more specific in order to provide a generalized picture of automatic character

and pattern recognition processes. In many actual

or proposed systems for character or pattern recognition purposes, the importance of feedback with

respect to threshold settings (e.g., to reset the grayscale acceptance level so that more "gray" is sensed either as "black" or as "white") and pre- processing operations, especially those which affect local neighborhoods (or subsets of the source

pattern image areas) are of particular importance

and of significant concern for R&D efforts in this area; to be discussed in later sections of this report.

1.3.3. An Experimental ISSR System in the U.S.S.R.

Finally, although we shall consider information

storage, selection, and retrieval (ISSR) systems in detail in one or more separate reports of this series,

let us note a system combining optical char- acter recognition, (OCR) thesaurus look-up, semiautomatic indexing, and machine expansion and

reformulation of search query inputs, that is in experimental operation at VINITI, the All-Union

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of

the Academy of Sciences, Moscow, U.S.S.R.'-^^ Information acquisition at VINITI relies on the

submitted abstracts of scientific and technical

papers that are supplied by a corps of some 10,000

or more scientists and engineers throughout the

Soviet Union. Information input and sensing operations involve, first, a preprocessing operation in the

form of manual re-transcription of the original input

citations and abstract texts, using a somewhat

stylized font (Cyrillic) typewriter. The typed material is then read by optical character recognition

equipment and is fed to a computer for the experimental preparation of author and title indexes.'-^'' The input text has been limited, at least up until

late 1966, to bibliographic citations and short abstracts for approximately 25,000 documents in the

field of electrotechnology. The processing operations for this input material, whether manually

prepared in machine-usable form or automatically

read by the OCR equipment, involve operations of

analysis and indexing by computer using thesaurus

look-up to identify related terms, synonyms, and

the Hke, and also to provide word-by-word translation of document input to a numerically encoded

documentary language, which is that of a coordinate

descriptor search system, involving 3,500 de- scriptors at the present time.

A machine-based, 4,000-item, Russian wordstem dictionary is used. For each text word, the

appropriate stem is selected. Words not found in the dictionary are printed out, so that misspellings

and possible new words can be caught on manual

inspection. Print-outs may also be made of possible

beginnings of complex expressions (e.g., where

"installation" or "resistance" may be beginnings of

phrases rather than single words). If a word found

in the dictionary is not marked as being a possible

"complex" or "homograph", it is translated directly

into a concept code.

The documentary language used involves the

apphcation of concept-codes or descriptors as manually established. Its code structure directly in- corporates certain semantic relations, including

5
INPUT OF

-»\SOURCE PATTERN

I

7

WEIGHTING

I

I

FUNCTIONS

\ \ I SCANNING THRESHOLD

TRANSFORMATION

OF SOURCE PATTERN

TO INPUT PATTERN

<

TRANSFORMATION

OF INPUT PATTERN TO

FORMAT OF REFERENCE

PATTERN

SET REFERENCE

PATTERN SELECTION

5. INPUT PATTERN

s elements:

[S REFERENCE PATTERN

ELEMENTS

EI ^ > I MATCHING THRESHOLD -i

NO /e. ALL A

' ( REFERENCE I V PATTERNS ?y

YES

^- TRANSFORMATION

OF ELEMENT BY

ELEMENT MATCH TO

IDENTIFICATION

FORMULA

SET MASTER

IDENTIFICATION

SELECTION

iMo /m ALL \ r MASTER U I \

\

lpENTIFICATIONSJ/

'

ICATION

:rCATIONS

FEEDBACK

FUNCTIONS

RECOGNITION THRESHOLD

YES

12. SELECT

TARGET PATTERN

LANGUAGE

REJECTS

I

I T

TO FEEDBACK

FUNCTIONS

13. TRANSFORMATION

OF IDENTIFICATION

DECISION TO TARGET

PATTERNS

Z

14. OUTPUT OF

TARGET PATTERN

IT

Figure 2. A generalized character recognition system.

6
some hierarchical relations, between descriptors. In addition, manually determined hnks or connections between descriptors have been set up for

retrieval purposes. They have been tested by ex- perimental searches for the total list of descriptors

conducted independently but in parallel by machine

and by subject specialists, and they have been

subsequently refined for machine use on the basis

of analyses of noise, omissions, and desirable

improvements.

The retrieval logic depends upon these associational connections in the sense that, if a query term

does not find a direct match, then search is made

for match on related terms. If any descriptor in the

question finds no direct or related term match with

descriptors assigned to the stored item, the item

is not selected. Output of citation references for selected items

is in the form of two listings — those which the

machine considers positive responses, and those

which because of the tracings of possible associational connections to presumably related descriptors

are only probable responses. The machine also

prints out hstings of the connections that were

used in the search specification modifications so

that statistical analyses may be made as to the

extent to which proper use is being made of these

associational connections. Very prehminary results indicate that for 100 relevant documents in the

collection, about 55 are selected by direct match

and 25 by virtue of the pre-established connections.

It is hoped that the latter procedure can be improved

to 30 or 35 percent, to give up to 90 percent overall

recall.

1.3.4. Implications of the Generalized Scheme

Certain features of the information flow and

process schema of Figure 1 are to be noted in these

examples. It is assumed, first of all, that information processing systems of the future should provide

for automatic access from and to users at many

points. This imphes multiple inputs in parallel,

interruptability, and interlacings of computer

programs. Thus an obvious continuing research

need is for the development of sophisticated executive and monitor systems, to control tie-ins from

communication networks, to manage schedufing

and priorities, and to provide for efficient utihzation of system resources. Other major assumptions include the following:

(1) The overall system involves a hierarchy of

systems, devices and procedures.

(2) Processing involves multi-step operations,

each step of which may be bypassed, curtailed, or expanded on the basis of manmachine evaluation of tentative results achieved at a present or immediately prior

step.

(3) Multi-mode operation is possible, depending

on job requirements, prior or tentative results,

accessibility, costs, and the like.

It may often be desirable to record related i- formation in several different input sensing modalities in parallel. In particular, temporal interval

lapse-time data may be required for content and

diagnostic analyses of verbal protocols ^-^ but

also for "precise pin-pointing of time of occurrence

of events of an oscillographic record of an experiment regardless of the speed of the chart during the

recording." '-^ For mechanized documentation

applications in particular "Verbal, graphic, alphanumeric inputs and outputs are intermixed and

intertwined." (Licklider, 1965, p. 186.)

The concept of effective interface involves not only the prospects and the problems of man-machine

interactive collaboration but also those of a variety

and intermixture of information inputs (by voice,

drawing, keyboard, and so forth).' **** As in the case of a multiplicity of forms and types of inputs,

a generalized information system must also accom- modate a variety of output modes and output media,

whether as direct outputs (Box 5 of Figure 1) or

as outputs derived from subsequent search, selection, and retrieval processing (Box 14).

It will be noted, next, that suggested techniques

for a specific system may apply to more than one

operational box or function shown in Figure 1. Speech synthesis developments, for example, using

vocoder ' and other techniques, are primarily

directed to the output of artificially spoken messages, but, at the same time, R&D efforts in speech

synthesis may have a direct impact upon improvements in speech recognition appropriate to information input and sensing. This is an approach currently

being explored at Gunnar Fant's laboratory. Royal

Institute of Technology, Sweden, and by King and

Tunis (1966)'-^ among others. Similarly, in a given system configuration,

specific operations or processes may occur in dif- ferent sequences and several different ones may be

combined in various ways. Thus, for example,

questions of remote console desiderata may affect original item input, query or processing request

input, output, or user feedback. Further, the specific

solutions adopted may be implemented in each of

these operational areas, or combined into one, e.g., by requiring all inputs and outputs to flow through

the same hardware. Because of the difficulties in organizing the discussion of these reports, however,

the choice of the most appropriate place or places

to discuss a particular technique or topic has been

somewhat arbitrary. It is to be noted, in particular, that the separation shown as between "Information

Input and Sensing" (Box 2) and "Input of Processing Service Requests" (Box 7) is often, in a specific

system, an artificial distinction. Again, many of the processes can be iterative and

recursive at many levels. Thus, in the spectrum

analyzer developed by King and Tunis (1966) for their speech recognition experiments, the results of preprocessing operations (the instantaneous

outputs of a contiguously tuned bank of band pass

filters) become, in effect, inputs equivalent to

7
"Processing Service Requests". These are continuously compared (i.e., Box 10, Fig. 1, Matching

Operations) in order to locate the instantaneous

peaks in the envelope of the speech spectrum.'-^

The iterative, recursive nature of the process

flow in particular exemplars of a generalized system'

(Fig. 1) is especially to be noted in the Soviet ISSR

example. Thus, preprocessing operations (Box 3) occur first at the level of re-typing of input information, and then, within the optical character recognition part of the system, at the level of quantizing

the input pattern to a 32 X 32 matrix (of which about

300 black-or-white cells are actually used for recognition purposes). Additional preprocessing operations involve the detection of significant "information areas" and may also involve the re-initiation and modification of both preprocessing and rec- ognition processing operations. For example, there

may be re-scanning of special areas of the quantized

input patterns to decide between patterns that are near to each other in the sense of pairwise confusions. Such preprocessing operations may also be

applied in holding a given character recognitionidentification decision in store until the next character has been read, so that context-predictive

rules, based upon digram and trigram probabihty

statistics, may be applied.

Perhaps the single most important feature of the

generalized schema (Fig. 1) is the provision for threshold requirements under feedback control. Let

us consider, for example, some of the varied

threshold factors that might be applied to inputscanning operations for various types of items to be stored and subsequently retrieved. These might

include the following:

(1) The "purge" (or "stop"), lists used in keyword-in-context (KWIC) indexing to eHminate

"common" (and presumably "nonsignificant")

words from further processing.^''' Modifications (changes in threshold) may be applied on inspection of results either to restore words

previously eliminated, but later considered

as valuable access points, or to add words for general elimination because of the unmanageably large blocks of index entries that they

generate.

(2) Time-interval sampling of experimental sig- nals to reduce total volume of data to be

processed, to eliminate redundancy, and to "smooth" minor data variations.

(3) Minimum gray-scale level quantization of

graphic pattern input, such as printed or handwritten characters. Here, a particularly

sophisticated approach to feedback thres- hold control is suggested by the work of Rankin et al. (1965) on the syntactic analysis

of Chinese ideographs where "wellformedness" criteria are applied to reduce ambiguities

of character-component recognition or errors

of either transcription or encoding.

Then there is the further man-machine reactivity

discussed by Bauer: "Consider the input of data

which is relatively unstructured. The computer, of course, must finally accept and file the information

in a highly structured form so that it may be re- trieved efficiently. The computer can direct a pro- cedure which allows the human to input the data in the order and in the form which the machine can

accept." (1965, p. 19).

It should be noted, finally, that, in this and subsequent reports, when we discuss the systems

implications of Figure 1, we will in some instances

stress currently available examples, sometimes we

will be pointing toward foreseeable trends of future

application of advanced theories, techniques,

media, and devices, and sometimes we will emphasize current difficulties.

1.4. Specific Background Considerations

The specific background considerations in the

preparation of the projected series of reports involve

both questions of the plan of attack and of necessary

caveats which the reader should note. In particular,

problems of organization of a wide range of materials, on a wide variety of topics, and with considerable logical overlapping between topics, do

not appear to be soluble without many omissions,

without some necessary repetitions, and without

arbitrary allocations of specific topics and examples

of current R&D efforts to particular discussion

areas. For example, questions of boundary and contrast enhancement and property filtering in graphic

data processing applications will be considered

in the present report, but closely parallel operations

in mechanized documentation applications (such

as synonym reduction or homograph resolution)

will be deferred for reports dealing more specifically

with such areas of application. Similarly, many

of the R&D requirements affecting more than one

or two of the Boxes of Figure 1, such as programming languages, character sets, or advanced hard- ware developments, will be considered in a separate

report in this series.

1.4.1. Plan of Attack

There are certain obvious difficulties with respect

to the organization of the material for a series of

reports on research and development requirements

in the computer and information sciences and

technologies. These problems stem, principally,

from the overlaps between functional areas in which man-machine interactions of both communication and control are sought; the techniques,

tools and instrumentation available to achieve such

interactions, and the wide variety of application areas involved. For example, foreseeable applications range from astrophysical considerations of events that occurred many thousands of light years ago to investigations of on-going synaptic transfers

in studies of human neurophysiology. Beyond this are many diversified areas of applied technology

involving adaptive sensing, processing, and control

operations in many fields.

8
How can we order, much less appraise, the

massive body of experimental data and resultant

literature that is already pertinent in these fields? This is a major problem in itself. The material that has been collected and reviewed to date is so multifaceted and so extensive as to require organization into reasonably tractable (but arbitrary)

subdivisions. These are being grouped, first, in accordance with the diagrammatic schema of a generalized information processing system given

previously as Figure 1. The first few reports planned for this series can

therefore be quite clearly identified. In this first report we consider, selectively, current problems

and developments in information acquisition, sens- ing and input, and preprocessing operations with

respect to computerized information processing

systems (Boxes 1, 2. and 3 of Fig. 1). Next, we will be concerned with processor system management,

with the organization and storage of data (at possibly many levels of storage and access), and with

processing operations upon this stored data as such.

Discussion of outputs from and use of generalized

information processing systems will involve some

necessary overlapping of research and development implications in the input-output and proc- essing management areas. A separate report will be directed to some of the overall system design

operations with respect to Figure 1. Next, in view of widespread interest and concern, we plan to examine the domain of potential applicability of automated information processing tech- niques to the improved utilization of scientific and

technical information and recorded knowledge.

Then, a more detailed functional flowchart or schema of information processing operations as applied specifically to information storage, selection, and retrieval purposes will be discussed in one or more reports.

Other specific topics under consideration for inclusion in this series of reports include the current

status of Hbrary automation developments, the

problems of evaluation of information storage,

selection, and retrieval systems and subsystems,

and the questions of maintaining the integrity of

privileged files (i.e.. some of the background considerations with respect to the issues of privacy,

confidentiality, and/or security in the case of

multiply-accessed, machine-based files, data banks,

and computer-communication networks).

In general, the plan of attack in each individual

report of the series will be to give in relatively short and largely discursive text the topics of concern, supplemented by an Appendix of notes and

quotations, and another Appendix giving the biblio- graphic citations of quoted references. It is planned,

however, that there will be a comprehensive summary, bibliography, and index for the series as a whole.

1.4.2. Some General Caveats Since problems of organization, terminology, and

coverage have all been difficult with respect to the

preparation of a series of reports such as is planned,

certain disclaimers and observations as to the pur- pose and scope of this report, its necessary selectivity, and the problems of organization and emphasis are to be noted. Obviously, the reviewer's

interests and hmitations will emerge at least in- directly in terms of the selectivity that has been

applied.

There is. nevertheless, heavy rehance placed on

the experience and opinions of others, whether in- side or outside of the Federal Government, and

whether their projects are or are not supported by

Government contracts and grants. In general, controversial opinions expressed or impHed in any of the reports in this series are the sole responsibility

of the author(s) of that report and are not intended

in any way to represent the official pohcies of the

Center for Computer Sciences and Technology, the

National Bureau of Standards, or the Department of

Commerce. However, every eff^ort has been made

to buttress potentially controversial statements or imphcations either with direct quotations or with

illustrative examples from the pertinent literature

in the field. Thus corroborative evidence, largely

from the open literature, is adduced, generally, in terms of direct quotations in the notes of Appendix A. The author of the present report must apologize

for a necessary selectivity and for many inadvertent

omissions in coverage. It will be appreciated if specific omissions are called to our attention. It is to be noted that neither inclusion nor citation is intended in any way to represent an endorsement

of any specific commercially available device or system, of any particular investigator's results with respect to those of others, or of named project

objectives. Conversely, omissions are in no sense intended to imply adverse evaluations of products,

media, equipment, systems, project goals and proj- ect results, or of bibliographic references not included.

There will be quite obvious objections to our

selectivity from readers who are also R&D workers

in the fields involved as to the representativeness

of cited contributions from their own work or that of others. Such criticisms are almost inevitable.

Nevertheless, these reports are not intended to be

state-of-the-art critiques as such, but rather they

are intended to provide provocative suggestions for further R&D efforts. Selectivity must also relate

to a necessarily arbitrary cut-off date. This factor

is in itself an illustration of the limiting factors

that affect the problems of preparing state-of-the-art reports and critical reviews.

The present series of reports, subject to the fore- going limitations, is offered as a possible contribution to the understanding of the general state of the

art, especially with respect to long-range research

possibilities in a variety of disciplines, potentially

applicable to information processing problems.

The reports are therefore directed to a varied

audience among whom are those who plan, conduct,

9
and support research in these varied disciplines.

They are also addressed to applications specialists

who may hope eventually to profit from the results of current research efforts. Inevitably, there must

be some repetitions of the obvious and oversimplifications of certain topics for some readers,

and there must also be some too-brief or inadequately explained discussions of other topics for these and other readers. What is at best tutorial for one may be difficult for another to foUow. It

is hoped, however, that notes and bibliographic

citations will provide sufficient clues for further

follow-up as desired.

1.5. Scope and Coverage of This Report

In the area of information acquisition, sensing,

and input (Boxes 1, 2, and 3 of Fig. 1), which we

attempt to cover in this particular report, a selective

literature review has been conducted with emphasis

on the 5-year period from 1962 to 1967. Some additional coverage is provided through mid-1968 and

a few earlier references have also been included

where especially pertinent.

We will consider first selected problems of infor- mation acquisition in the areas of source data

automation, measurements automation and feedback control, and remote sensing techniques.

Next, there are a number of considerations involving

communication systems and data transmission

links as means of input to information processing

systems, including questions of services, networks,

and facsimile transmission and consideration of some technical problem areas. Direct audio and graphic inputs, including the

special cases of pictorial and three-dimensional

data processing, are next considered. Preprocessing

operations such as filtering and image enhancement

lead to topics of pattern recognition generally,

including optical character recognition, voice

recognition and speaker identification, and other

areas of potential application. Finally, some theoretical approaches to pattern recognition are considered as portending future advances in information acquisition, sensing, and input.

2. Information Acquisition, Source Data Automation

and Remote Data Collection

In the general area of R & D efforts affecting the

operations of information acquisition, sensing, and

input, we consider first, briefly, basic operations

and input requirements and then discuss selectively some of the problems of source data automation,

measurements automation and feedback control,

and remote sensing and data collection techniques.

2.1. Basic Operations and Requirements

Under the basic operations of information acquisition, input, and sensing we include such input items

as: Data collected at source, including that auto- matically collected at remote locations; laboratory

measurements, on- and off-line; control and feedback information; photographic, acoustic, magnetic,

light-pen, and other recordings of events and data;' auxiliary control signals; machine-usable data rec- ords; written records and reports; communication

system messages; documents, document surrogates,

and feedback commentaries; processing service

requests; search, selection, and recall requests;

instructions and data for revision, correction, and

updating of information; processing control specifications, and system operation and usage statistics. Areas of continuing R&D concern with respect

to the first process shown in Figure 1, that of Infor- mation Acquisition, are exemplified in Figure 3. First are the questions of the physical, environmental factors that affect observations, experimental

manipulations, and recordings of both physical

phenomena and various transactions in the human

social, cultural, political, economic, and ideological

world. Physical and environmental considerations

are reflected, for example, in the physiological and

cultural factors that aggravate the problems of

automatic speech recognition.

Then, in the medical, biological, and physiological

fields, there are systems for the sensing and trans- mitting of electrocardiographic and other data.^ * On-line or real-time monitoring and reporting of patient condition, not only for the critically iU,^ ^ but also for interchange of information between

cooperating institutions,^-^ is an important area

for further development and possible networking

apphcations.^^

Figure 3 exemplifies one of several possible methods of identifying and predicting R&D requirements in the computer and information sciences and

technologies. Thus, with respect to the problems

of information acquisition raised with respect to physically and environmentally restrictive conditions, we may look to continuing efforts in science

and technology generaUy for improvements in the

scope, accuracy, and effectiveness of physical

measurements. We may also count on developments and improvements by mathematicians and

statisticians in both the techniques and the evaluation of statistical sampling.* Problems and pros- pects for R&D efforts in the computer and infor- mation sciences, however, are more directly con- cerned with the questions of effective sensing

*It should be noted that, because of necessarily selective coverage in these reports, not all of the possible considerations shown in various figures and tables will be explicitly discussed in the text.

10
Areas of Continuing Concern

1. Information

Acquisition

Physical and

Environmental

Conditions

4— Availability

! Considerations

I ^— Data capture

I and collection

Physical measurements

Simulation

Remote access instrumentation

Statistical sampling

Resource analysis

Market analysis

Intelligence evaluation

Improved communication techniques

Improved dissemination techniques

Requirements analysis

Improved sensor capabilities

Sensor selectivity and filtering

Detection requirements analysis

Quality control of source data organization

Feedback-controlled re -scanning

Data

transmission

Improved transmission facilities

Error detection and correction

Improved data filtering and compression

Figure 3. Areas of continuing concern, information acquisition.

366-107 O - 70 - 2 11
techniques and with the development of remote

access instrumentation.

Problems relating to the availability of information dictate first the analysis of present and potential resources for its capture, recording, and use. Automatic information processing design requirements

with respect to information acquisition, sensing, and

input are of increasing concern because of the

rapidly growing trend to attach analog sensors and

transducers to computers. This enables the computer to be used for space vehicle control, process

control, medical research, and the like. For example,

telemetry monitoring of human reactions in unusual

environments is provocatively described in the

report of a 1966 panel discussion, covering, in particular, the monitoring of high-altitude climbers, the

study of head injuries to football players by radio- telemetry techniques and of electrocardiographic

reactions of spectators, as well as aerospace ap- plications (Nevison, 1967). In general, the areas of automatic production

control, numerically controlled machine tools,

and the like, will not be covered in this series

of reports. Several examples, however, are illustra- tive of three-dimensional data processing and

machine-aided design applications. In automotive

design, for example, proximity probes have been

used experimentally to measure the length, width,

and height of clay mockups of new models and the

measurements were then converted by computer to provide punched tape for the control of a drafting

plotter^-^, and electronically, sensed photographs

of automotive parts have similarly been converted

to numerical control tapes for machining.- *' We can single out certain of these areas of continuing R&D efforts of interest, but we will hope

to stress relatively new or novel examples (e.g., automatic or partially automatic remote sensing

and control systems) rather than the more conventional areas such as analog-digital conversion

techniques. We may note, however, such recent

contributions as the use of hybrid computers for the analysis of feedback control systems, with

special reference to the handling of non-linearities

in equations of neutron kinetics and heat flow as reported by Sanathanan et al, (1966). Let us consider next, a few of the current potentialities and implied research requirements for source data automation, remote data collecting,

sensing techniques, and tie-ins to communication

networks feeding input to automatic processing

networks.

2.2. Source Data Automation

There is first of all the question of the physical

relationships of the information processing equipment to the outside world, to people, and to othei

machines via a very wide variety of direct and in- direct communication and display devices. Obviously, such relationships with respect to data

processing systems design begin with the source

data. Both "source data automation" and "remote

data collection" have been significant systems planning concepts in business and management infor- mation processing applications over the past

decade.^''

The concept includes hardware possibilities that range from mark-sensing principles for Census-data

gathering and microfilming principles (as in FOSDIC

equipment for Census data-gathering and records

management 2-^^) or the taking of inventories of

stocks-on-hand, through both magnetic ink and

optical character reading devices, to the principle

of automating and integrating the entire publishing

cycle from typing of the author's original manuscript to computer-controlled typographic composition. ^-^^ The latter possibility includes not only

the preparation-publication cycle for journal articles and books but also of machine-derived byproducts

such as catalog cards, printed indexes, and abstracts.'^-^ In a theoretical sense, "remote data collection"

and "source data automation" might well be re- garded as synonymous expressions. In practice,

however, source data recordings that are collected

automatically at remote or generally inaccessible

locations fall within the area denoted by the first of these expressions and, conversely, "source data

automation" is typically taken to apply to manual

recordings of observations of data values — whether

by physical marking, embossing, hand printing,

keystroking, or alphanumeric reactive display operations. In a special sense, source data automation implies

the mechanization of information-carrying records

at the point of origin, as in automatic employee

identification and time-clocL recording systems.--*''

Another common method is that of by-product or dual language recording as in the generation of a punched paper tape with the necessary information

about a transaction produced automatically in the

proper machine processing code by the device that records the transaction.'^-'' Automatic character and symbol recognition

devices are obvious tools for source data automation where the information to be processed has been

pre-recorded in printed, typewritten, handwritten,

bar-coded, color-coded and other visible forms. For

example, the Honeywell data station accepts transfer of information from optical bar code readers - and IBM's System/360 provides for input from two

different optical character readers, as well as magnetic ink character recognition devices (Data

Processing Mag. 7, 290-302 (1965).) Some character

and pattern recognition processes may be apphed

directly on input, as in the sensing of optical

marks.^ A special feature of machine-controlled

pattern recognition capabiUties is represented by

the Myocoder system developed by Philco's BioCybernetics Engineering Laboratories.^-'^ Other suggested developments of automatic

recognition techniques include checking of labels

12
during packaging processes.^-^^ An interesting similar suggestion for computer systems management

is as follows: "What is needed is for the manufacturers to develop some system whereby an external

graphic label can be prepared and attached to the

reel and subsequently read by the tape unit. An

adhesive tape with reflective dots and dashes

encoded on it would be one possibility." (Lynch,

1966, p. 122).

System-performance monitoring applications of source data automation techniques are exemplified

by a Sylvania system, developed in collaboration

with the Association of American Railroads for the

automatic identification and inventory control of

freight cars.-

'^^ Source data collection for direct transmission to a central processor or processor network is also achieved by touchtone diahng and voice telephone

inputs.^ More typically, automatic source data

collection systems involve time clock and other

measuring and identification device inputs in a

variety of business and industrial apphcations. One

example involves collection and scheduled forwarding of work hour distribution data from physically

separate production facilities to a processing centei

for computer report generation.--'^

For another example, the source data acquisition

system under development for the U.S. Post Office

Department will Hnk more than 5,000 data gathering,

transmission and measuring devices in 75 major

post offices to two collection and processing centers. (Commun. ACM 10, No. 2, 132 (Feb. 1967).) In 1961, eight major members of the aerospace

industry established an informal study group on

data transmission. The needs for data transmission were surprisingly similar for different members of

the group. It has been reported that these mutually

recognized needs could be described in four

categories, as follows:

"a. Load sharing among major computer

centers . . . "b. Data pick-up from remote test sites (or from

airborne tests). In some cases real-time

processing and retransmission of results to the test site would be desirable.

"c. Providing access for Plant A to a computer

center at Location B. Plant A might have a medium-scale, smaU-scale, or no computer

of its own.

"d. Data pick-up from dispersed plants and

offices for processing and incorporation in overall reports. The dispersed points might

be in the same locality as the processing

center, or possibly as much as several

thousand miles away." (Perlman, 1961, p. 209.)

Other than for telemetry, data capture and

collection technologies, as of 1967, still predominantly require human observation, monitoring, and

recording processes, whether or not these processes

are aided by remote-sensing instrumentation.

Particular emphasis is placed upon the reporting

of observed measurements in machine-usable form

as close to the information or data source as

possible. This involves the reduction of observed

values, together with appropriate information

about the conditions of observation, to a messagelanguage that can be fed into appropriate data- transfer or communication links, transmitted, and

subsequently processed by automatic data processing equipment. Recording and input techniques

for these purposes will be considered in Section

2.4.2. Improved techniques of source data automation

and interrupt processing increase the potentialities

of data collection under machine control.'^ ^''^ including those problems of collecting data from

relatively inaccessible locations where conventional

instrumentation generally fails either because of

physical dimensions, interference with the phenomena being observed, or the fact that the phenomena

are occurring in the remote reaches of space.^ '^'' Similarly, in the electric utility industry increasing

attention is being given to combined computer/

telemetry systems.--'^

General-purpose data acquisition and control

systems, such as Digitronics Dial-O-Verter ^-'^ or IBM's 1800, can "monitor an assembly line, control

a steelmaking process or analyze the precise status

of a missile during test firing, [and] can gather

information at the rate of eight billion bits a sec- ond."

Next, centrally located processing systems may

accept digitally encoded input messages via a

variety of information-carrier recording and trans- mission channels. Such techniques typically in- volve both the recording and encoding of messages

at the source of transmission and decoding and re- recording at the destination. In many cases, several

levels of recording may be involved in order to step

up to progressively more stringent performance

requirements, e.g., as in increasing the speeds of

information transfer, through various stages, from

the very slow (several characters a second only)

rates of manual keyboarding to the many thousands

of characters per second rates acceptable to modern

computers.

2.3. Measurements Automation and

Feedback Control

A second type of example of source data automation and/or remote data collection is found in auto- matic measurement techniques that provide for dynamic capture of data and for the feedback control of on-going experiments or tests. --'^^ In the area

of laboratory measurements automation, McGee

and Petersen (1965), for example, discuss a microprogram control system for processing, display, and

output printing of information derived from input

data from CRT scanners, counters, pulse height

analyzers, telemetry converters, and the like.^-'^

13
Other projects for automatic measurement of filmed

data of nuclear particle events include an on-line

man-computer system at the University of IlHnois,- '^" and a system at Rutgers University.- -^ Other recent examples include the on-line collec- tion and analysis by computer of data derived from

nuclear physics experiments using the University of

Wisconsin's tandem electrostatic accelerator

(Commun. ACM 10, 385 (1967), work at the Brookhaven Laboratories of the U.S. Atomic Energy

Commission (Rabinowitz, 1968),2-2ia and at the

Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (White, 1968). In

addition, the CHLOE film digitizing system de- veloped at Argonne has been applied to spark chamber data (Hodges, 1968) as has the PIP device.^-^b

Another approach is that of PEPR (Precision

Encoding and Pattern i^ecognition).- -'*^ Another laboratory measurements automation

example is provided by an IBM system for crystallographic analysis.'-'^- The University of Manchester computing center also uses x-ray diffractometer techniques for on-hne measurements.--^

Cooper (1964) points out that while measurements

automation might be expected in x-ray diffraction

analysis where thousands of repetitive measure- ments of reflections must be made, automated

techniques are also being applied in complex

experimental situations with man-machine interaction.'-'^'* Cooper also cites the PEXRAD (Programmed Electronic X-Ray Automatic Diffractometer) designed by Abrahams at the Bell Laboratories

and work on neutron diffraction measurement and

analysis at Brookhaven.

Other examples of measurements automation

and feedback control include the following:

(1) Data Analysis by computer interfaced with

gas chromatograph equipment.'^^^

(2) Use of infrared radiometry to detect flaws in multilayer printed circuits.'- '^^

(3) A Public Health Service grant has been made

to design and construct a scanner-computer

for automatic observation and analysis of

medical and biological specimens to identify

micro-organisms and, further, for the computer to "direct the automatic petri dish

machine to spray penicilUn and a variety of

other drugs of the growing microbial colonies

in order to determine the drug sensitivities of possible disease-causing organisms

which are found." ^-^^

At the National Bureau of Standards, computer

scientists and engineers have worked on a variety

of measurements automation projects designed to

assist other agencies of Government and to serve

other R&D programs at NBS. In particular, they

have stressed a modular systems design program

in which various previously developed components

and sub-assemblies can be assembled in configurations dictated by different requirements in different areas of laboratory experimentation.^-^^

Again, at the Argonne National Laboratory, a

variety of laboratory measurement instrumentation

techniques have been developed. These include online interrupt facilities for users of the accelerators

and film scanning and track counting devices for analysis of data such as bubble chamber records.^-^^ Neilsen reports on radioactivity measuring instru- mentation techniques using audio input and

output techniques for transmission to and from the

laboratory and a computer system.^-^"

Earlier developments in telemetry; remote data

collection, data logging and transmission; auto- mation of laboratory measurement procedures,

and on-line processing of remotely sensed data

are being extended in many areas of experimental

application.^-^"^ One such area is that of the auto- matic control of experiments and tests, based upon

rapid transmission, processing, analysis, and feedback with respect to the input data. In particular,

"the value of rapid transmission and processing of

test data to allow decisions to be made while tests are in process has already been proven in the

development of jet engines and rocket motors." (Perlman, 1961, p. 210.)

It is also to be noted that "machine-collected data

are not only more accurate (being less subject to errors in reading, writing, or transcribing) and more

conveniently obtained, but make possible experiments that produce data too fast, too infrequently,

too irregularly, or over too long a period of time to be taken by a laboratory staff." ("Specialized Computational Equipment from General-Purpose Modules", 1967, p. 175).

2.4. Remote Sensing and Data Collection

Techniques

Current experimental evidence indicates many

potentially fruitful approaches to an extremely wide

diversity of source data automation applications,

with or without human monitoring and interaction. In addition, relatively direct sensor-processor link- ages are being explored, especially for photographic,

auditory signal, radar,^ '""' and other electromagnetic

sensing, recording and transmitting potentialities that are being investigated. A data logging example

is provided in a 1963 NBS project to develop and

test an automatic data acquisition system for hydrographic survey data, a high precision plotter to locate position fixes and to print out information on

the soundings taken, and a computer program to convert the position-fix data into earth coordinates

and then into x-y coordinates fed to the plotter.^-^*

An example of commercially available modular

data logging equipment is provided by Berkeley

Scientific Laboratories.^-^^ Mobidac, for another

example, is a mobile data acquisition system de- signed for use at remote test sites.^-^^ More recently, large-scale data collection arrays and networks have begun to emerge. These include

seismic arrays for the detection of earthquake and

nuclear tremors and a communication system

used for the monitoring of water pollution.^-^s

14
Meteorological observations are an important area

of application.--^^ Then it is noted that "the National Meteorological Service System and the

World Weather Watch are planning the real-time

data-acquisition system that will ensure continued

improvements in the future." (Aron, 1967, p. 65.)

Here again, system requirements for rapid processing of data received from multiple sensors and for real-time analysis of sensed data are emphasized.--^^'' Some of the more ingenious recent developments

in source data automation, processing, and control

include transmission of video photographs of Mars ^-^^^ and the use of a 7094 computer not only

to improve the quality of lunar photographs but

also to prepare three-dimensional contour maps of the moon's surface (see The Computer Bulletin

9, 62.) --^^ Nathan, (1968) discusses picture enhancement procedures for television images transmitted

from the moon and from Mars.

Hunt (1967) describes a laser system under de- velopment for the Air Force Cambridge Research

Laboratories in cooperation with NASA, involving

the reflection of laser beams from the lunar surface

for purposes of detecting small variations in the

motion of the moon and of measuring earth-moon

distances. ^-^^ Remote sensing techniques also under advanced

development include those using gamma rays, seismic waves and measurements of magnetic

and gravitational fields (Parker, and Wolff, 1965).

Among examples cited are multiband recon- naissance, infrared mappings of forest fire boundaries, and multi-frequency radar detection of

soil conditions down to 18 inches or more below

surface. '^-^^ An earHer paper by Cantrell (1964)

emphasizes that as a new remote sensing tool an

infrared scanning system can provide the geologist

with unique information about the surface features

of the earth. Similarly, remote infrared scanning

techniques may be used from spacecraft or satellite

to detect changing patterns of crops, coastal

hydrologic features, and urban populations.^-^^^

We note further that novel remote information

acquisition procedures such as detection of cre- vasses in snow-covered surfaces by infrared

measurements (Parker and Wolff, 1965) a radio-wave water prospecting system in the Soviet

Union 2-^', and measurements of the patterns of

light-reflecting properties of water and carbon

dioxide frost to be used with space probes of

Venus ^•^^) are merely scratching the surface of a

potential wealth of future applications involving

appropriate combinations of sensor devices;

communication links; pre-processing operations to

select, extract and enhance significant data, features

or properties; computer processing; efficient storage, and subsequent search and selective

recall, retrieval or reproduction.

Nevertheless, the very variety and ingenuity of these isolated examples suggests the importance

of systematic investigations, at the earliest possible

date, of overall source data acquisition requirements in a variety of subject fields for the foresee- able future and of both available and potentially

available instrumentation, devices, techniques, and

systems suitable for application. In particular, it is increasingly necessary to consider new research

and development efforts in areas where "space

flight and hostile environments now impose requirements on logical elements of adaptation and self- repair." (Swanson, 1966, p. 83.)

Space vehicle instrumentation and telemetering

as such we have perhaps somewhat arbitrarily

excluded from the general scope of this report.

Nevertheless, we note that "our ability to acquire

data is so far ahead of our ability to interpret and

manage it that there is some question as to just how

far we can go toward realizing the promise of much

of this remote sensing. Probably 90 percent of the

data gathered to date have not been utilized, and,

with large multisensor programs in the offing, we

face the danger of ending up prostrate beneath a mountain of utterly useless films, tapes, and charts."

(Parker and Wolff, 1965, p. 31.) Moreover, a continuing R&D requirement for adaptive sampling

techniques is noted.--'*-^ Thus R&D requirements for the future include

first the severe problems of sifting or filtering enormous masses of remotely collected data.--**^ Another indicated area for research in remote data

collection and source data automation is that "computer designers should search for a particularly

adaptable form of sense input, . . .. Say a sense organ which could perceive spatial outlines of solid objects from a distance." (Strom, 1965, p. 111.) A

special-purpose development in this direction is to be noted, however. Thus, Kroger reports on a helmet-mounted observation control system, in which ". . . polarized light sources and sensors

are used to determine the head position in three

rotational axes, locating the target in relation to the pilot and his aircraft." (Kroger, 1965, p. 269-270.)

In addition Parker and Wolff point out that "there

are great gaps in our knowledge of spectral emissivity and reflectivity for natural materials, especially at wavelengths outside the visible portion

of the spectrum. ..." Further, "right now, not enough is known about natural materials to be certain of the role radar can play in identification. . . ." (Parker and Wolff, 1965, p. 27.)

FinaUy we note that in the space-data collecting

area, for example, current new development considerations (to be discussed in another report in

this series) range from small physical size, compactness, integrated circuit, batch fabrication tech- niques and components with ultra high-speed

switching, storage, and read-out capabihties to fit the requirements of space-vehicle dimensional and

weight considerations, through 'fail-softly' or

'graceful degradation' provisions and multiprocessor

15
design to the experiments in optical interspace

message transmission tried out by Gemini VII with

laser beams.

As was indicated in Figure 3 and in several of

these examples, improved data transmission fa- cilities and both error detection and correction

capabilities are among the areas of continuing R&D

concern with respect to information acquisition,

sensing, and input. It is noted further that "a

variety of adapters are being provided to permit

the connection of computers to [communication]

lines of differing qualities. This permits the computer to be used as a message switching center and it also permits separated computing installa- tions to be hnked together into a giant multiprocessor." (Clippinger, 1965, p. 209.)

3. Communication Systems and Data Transmission Links

The information sensing and input area broadly

defined to include the typical physical relationships

between the machine and its environment obviously

involves the interconnecting links by which the

machine system receives both information and

processing instructions and then communicates

the results of the processing operations that it performs. Of particular interest is the development

of hardware and communication links suitable

for timed-shared and remotely accessed networks

and systems. For example, the July 1965 issue of the

IBM Journal of Research and Development provides

a sampling of research in the communications link aspects of such systems, with an overview by

Andrews (1965). The technical papers cover such

aspects of the problem as pseudonoise modulation

techniques that enable better performance in random-access communication systems where many

users communicate simultaneously without going

through a central control^' and questions of

codes for optimum trade-offs between error rates and speeds of transmission.

Under overall system design considerations for input to generalized information processing systems, we must obviously consider the R&D requirements

for improved and more versatile data transmission

and data communication systems.'^'^'^ Increasingly,

the computer and communication technologies are becoming interdependent. ^-^ In general, we will reserve consideration of communication-computer

system complexes, especially for multiple-access

apphcations, for a separate report in this series. However, in the sense of some of the areas of R & D

concern with respect to information acquisition, as shown in Figure 3, we will outline briefly below some

of the problems and prospects in communication

systems and data transmission links.

3.1. Communication Links, Services, and

Systems

Commercially available communication links of

various types provide transmission-input and

output capabihties for digital, voice, and even

graphic information items (e.g., facsimile trans- mission, closed-circuit TV). For example, in addition to the relatively well-established techniques

for the facsimile transmission of weather maps, we

note much more complex systems as: an Automatic

Map Compilation System^"* or the AutomaticPicture-Transmission recorder which transmits

standard weather maps in one mode of operation and

records direct transmissions from meteorological

satellites in another mode.''^''

3.1.1. Voice and Digital Data Transmission

Considering first the case of digital data and voice

transmissions, currently available services include

teletype, with both upper and lower case capabilities

promised for forthcoming models; voice grade

telephone lines for both data and voice transmission; ^"^^ broadband systems, and links via communication satellites. ^-^ In some cases, duplicate

transmission may be made over more than one type

of communication link, such as via microwave and

also by coaxial cable. '"^ In addition, there are a number of special arrangements such as private

telephone exchanges,''^ Wide Area Telephone

Service, and Telpak. ^" One example of the use

of the latter service is for data convertibility be- tween computers.

Then there is the Dataport, a terminal device that

is claimed to be capable of being 'plugged in' to any computer in the country. (Commun. ACM 9,

705, 1966). Increasing use is being made of Data- Phone, whether or not including automatic calling or polling mechanisms,'^ " and of Touch-Tone

telephones. Davidson (1966), has described an economical way to add alphanumeric input capability to the Touch-Tone keyboard. ^ A similar

approach is taken in the Tele-CUPL telephone

input time-sharing system at Cornell University.

(Conway and Morgan, 1967). When coupled to Auto- matic Calling Units, Data-Phone service allows

computer-to-computer transmissions without the

need for human intervention.'*'* Higher data rates

for Data-Phone services are now being offered.

'* In particular, high speed burst transmission of data

is provided for multiple users with Data-Phone

50. 3- The use of communication satellites for both data

and video transmission is becoming increasingly

commonplace. '' '*'^ McManis (1966) predicts sig- nificant gains in communication channel capacity

from further developments of synchronous satellites and from the use of lasers. '^ '^ Goettel, however, is somewhat pessimistic as to the time scale. "A fur16
ther step into the future, the laser, holds great

promise for both voice and data transmission. The

laser uses a beam of Ught to carry information.

Although a great deal of work has already been done

in this area, years of continued research remain

before an economical laser-transmission system

becomes a reahty." (Goettel. 1966. p. 193).

Other advanced communication developments

aimed at higher capacity, higher speeds, or lower

costs include pulse code modulation systems for voice transmission,^'^ milhmeter wave guide

techniques,^'' and improvements in microwave

technology. ^

'''^ Higher speeds of data transmission

via voice and data networks, sometimes accompanied by significant reductions in error rate, are

also under development. '' '^ The speed mark-up

for textual data transmission already demonstrable

is to be noted in contrasting a 1953 report of the

long-distance transmission of the text of Gone With

the Wind in a few minutes with new technology

that would make it possible to transmit the contents

of Webster's New Intercollegiate Dictionary in less than a second. ^ -^ In terms of communication system networks,

Swanson (1967) reports that the U.S. Army's

STR_\TCOM with an annual workload of approximately 60 million messages ties together various

agencies in more than 30 countries and provides

connections to other Government networks including Autodin (the automatic distal network)^-' and

Autovon (for voice communications), with plans

under way for greater use of communication satellites.^-- Increasing cooperation between Federal

and local governments is exempHfied in the case of

the National Crime Information Center system. ^-^ A further example of U.S. Government interest is the Federal Government ARS (Advanced Records

System) Data Transmission Network with tie-ins to teleprinter, facsimile, and other facilities as well as

public carriers. Telex, and the Autodin system. This

network is used extensively in support of social

security and medicare programs.^ -^ In the planning for the proposed EDUNET system

(interconnecting a number of cooperating universities and other educational institutions), the discussants considered a variety of communication media

from teletype to video, with the conclusion that each

type presented difficulties of cost, speed, technical

or administrative problems.^

-'^ In general, communication links for digital data

transmission are required for alphanumeric data

and for digitized forms of speech and television of

facsimile signals. ^ -^ In addition, there are increasing requirements for high-speed, but economical,

graphic and facsimile transmission capabiUties.

3.1.2. Graphic and Facsimile Transmission

Although facsimile transmission techniques have

been available for more than a century, it has only

been in the past dozen years that facsimile communication systems have been widely used,''-^^^

with emphasis upon use by the news services and

for weather map transmission.^ -^'' Crooks, reporting at the 1954 annual meeting of

the American Documentation Institute, cited the use of Times Facsimile equipment by the U.S. Air

Weather Network, the use by news services of

Mufax and Hogan facsimile systems, Western Union

capabilities for transmitting one lettersize page

between New York and Washington in 45 seconds,

a Japanese example involving 3,000 ideographs, the

Federal Reserve Bank system, and a publication

apphcation at McCaU's involving the transmission of raw copy from the publisher to the printer and the

return of proofs.^ -'' Ten years later, in 1964, Mayo predicted that the

economics of "rapid error-free transmission of diagrams, signatures, and tests will, I feel, substantiate the apparent high cost." (1964, p. 78). In

the following year, 1965, Gentle reported on a handwriting transmission system for both messages and

hand-drawn sketches.^-^ By 1967, handwriting

transmission combined with two-way voice communication could be demonstrated.^ -^ An interest- ing example of the use of regular telephone lines

for transmission of graphic information is provided

in a system for remote optical character recognition

proposed by Cogitronics Corporation. The system

involves desk-top scanners at remote locations and

a central recognition unit capable of handling multifont characters and on-hne correction.^ -"^ In addition, color facsimile transmission is now

available.^-^^"' Currently available techniques for graphic and

facsimile transmission include Long Distance

Xerography (LDX)^-3°, wide band services ^-^S Magnafax^-^2, Stewart-Warner Dial Datafax

equipment Muirhead developments ^-^-^ and

Picturephone as well as TV transmission.

Facsimile transmission links may be combined with

voice message capabihties.^-^* It is noted further

that "facsimile signals can be digitized and en- crypted for secure communications over telephone

lines." (Schatz, 1967, p. 3). As in the case of digital

data transmission as such, higher speeds of fac- smile transmission, e.g., of TV signals, are being

sought by means of digitahzation.^-^^ Facsimile

transmission of information or images stored in microform is also available. ^-^^ Three examples are

the Alden Electronic and Impulse Recording

Equipment ^-^^^^ the General Precision Microteleviser ^•^'^ and the Alden/Miracode system as used, for instance, by the hehcopter repair shops of

the Army Materiel Command.^-^^

Special purpose facsimile transmission networks

include those providing medical video information

to physicians; ^-^^^ those hnking libraries and other

information centers, and those involving cooperative use of educational TV circuits. ^-^^ The possible use of closed circuit TV mobile networks for a

variety of law enforcement purposes is also to be

noted.^-^^^ On at least an experimental basis, hnkages between cooperating libraries using closed17
circuit TV and other facsimile transmission techniques have been under investigation for some years. In particular, the development of cooperative

"telereference" services has been a continuing concern of the Council on Library Resources.

The CLR annual report for 1966 comments, however, as follows: "The demonstration of closedcircuit TV between libraries at the University of

Virginia in 1957-8 identified some of the problems.

A demonstration in 1966 involving Reno and Las

Vegas, Nevada, and Davis, California, showed

progress in some particulars since the earlier data

with further improvement still to be sought."

(Council on Library Resources 10th Annual Report,

1966, pp. 24-25).

In the Houston Research Institute studies (1964-

1965),^-^' it was found that facsimile transmission of

technical information was feasible via pipeline

microwave network links, especially for off-shift periods, but it was concluded that "the establishment of a facsimile transmittal system is not justified

until major improvements have been made in pres- ent library procedures for information storage and

retrieval." (Schatz, 1967, p. 10). Other recent library experiments in the use of

facsimile transmission techniques include those

conducted by the New York State public library

system and by the John Crerar Library.^-*^ For

library applications, however, a requirement noted

in 1953 — that for direct copying and transmission

from bound book pages — is still largely unsatisfied

today.3«

3.2. Computer Systems and Communication

Networks

Direct input to computer from remote locations

via communication links was first demonstrated by

Stibitz of Bell Laboratories in 1940, using a console

at Dartmouth to communicate over telegraph lines with a relay-computer in New York.^ *^ A second

example is to be found in several demonstrations

of SEAC results as transmitted to remote teletype

printers in Washington during early 1950. Another

example of NBS computer design and appHcation

dates back to 1954. At that time, a brief experimental demonstration of both a multiprocessor

network (through the interconnection of SEAC and

DYSEAC) and also of program time-sharing was

j-yf, 3.46 Overseas connections to computers via

radio teletype links became feasible within the next 10 years.^ "*^ Of increasing interest in this area, today, are multiple access systems involving on-line transmissions to a central data processing system from

remote locations. For example, the GE Datanet— 70

system involves a multiline controller "which can

handle simultaneously the access of up to 248

remote stations into the central computer via Teletype, voice grade and TELPAC—A communications

facihties." (Commun. ACM 8, No. 5, 343 (May

1965).) Although, in general, computer-communication complexes as used in university-oriented and

other multiple-access system, especially for re- search purposes, will be discussed in another report

in this series, a few additional examples may be

given here. Examples of U.S. agency networks indicate the

potential significance in a variety of applications.

First is the interagency rapid communications test link that transmits data via teletype and dictaphone

from survey ships operating at sea to the National

Oceanographic Data Center.^*^ On another front,

ARPA's Nuclear Test Detection Office is sponsoring

the development of a seismometer array and central

data processing faciHty for the detection of underground nuclear tests. (Maguire (1965).) A third

example is a Department of State proposal to link together officials stationed in the U.S., Canada,

and Mexico.^ '*^ Then it is noted that "in law enforcement a full scale nationwide system time shared

between Federal Government and state agencies is currently in operation. This system is a typical

example of a computer utility type appHcation of

data processing within the Federal-State-local

government complex." (Johnson, 1967, p. 14). Applications in business and industry include

first the air and space industries with, in particular,

airhne reservation services and computer load- sharing capabilities.^-^^ Banks,^-^^ insurance companies,^-^^ and hospitals ^-^^ are among the customers

for the newly emerging computer-communication

system complexes.''-^'*^ The communication industry

is itself exploring increased provision of computer

services to its customers.^-^^ At Case Institute of Technology, Univac 1004

reader/printers are "connected to the 1107 via a half-duplex telephone line with 201-A MODEM

units at each end. . . . Full error detection and

correction is provided. The telephone line can be

severed and reattached hours later without loss of

data. . . . Error detection is accomplished by a horizontal and vertical parity bit scheme similar

to that employed on magnetic tape. Error correction

is accomplished by retransmitting a message until

it is correctly received and a verification is correctly

returned to the sender." (Lynch, 1966, p. 119).

Certain current difficulties are to be noted, however. Special problems may arise in multipath

communication systems and systems where many

users communicate simultaneously with a shared

processor or data bank. In the latter case, for example, "high-speed digital data transmission is a vital requirement in many data processing sys- tems. The reasons vary widely and include (1) the

need for rapid processing of remotely gathered data, as in a satellite tracking and control system, (2) the

desirability of load sharing among remote processors

or files in large management information systems."

(Andrews, 1965, p. 226). This example loops back

to the need for improved communication techniques

generally. For example, a question of continuing R&D concern is: what can be done to increase the

18
rate of graphic transmission on voice communication

lines by several times its present rate? ^-^^ Questions less likely to lead to breakthroughs in the near future are exemplified by Baker's complaint

that "even though the slowest and noisiest loop in the system is the man-to-computer communications

link, httle research is being done to alleviate the

problem" (Baker, 1965, p. 430), and by consideration of the fact that "the problem of high-speed

communication of data between remote centers in an information systems network is largely unexplored. . . ." (Scientific Information Notes 6, 4, 11

(1964).) Nevertheless, increasing importance of computer-communication complexes, and remote

multiprocessor networks can be foreseen.^-^'' Mills (1965) points to some of the difficulties of the use of presently available communication hnks

with multiple-access systems, especially those

involving interchanges of graphic data displays. He

suggests that: "The transmission requirements for multiple-access systems probably cannot be met

by straightforward extensions of the services avail- able through the present common-carrier systems",

but that: "The message-store-and-forward concept,

together with techniques of multiplexing (i.e., timesharing communication channels, offer the most

promise." (pp. 237, 241).

3.3. Store and Forward Techniques and

Delayed Response

Delayed-recording outputs m^y thus hold the

promise of greater efficiency in priority scheduhng

and system utiHzation for multiple-access information processing facilities as well as at least the possibility of lower cost data transmission and facsimile

communication Hnks.^-^^^ Relatively early refer- ences in the literature include the discussion by

Genetta et al. (1960), of the RCA Autodata system.3-58 Helman et al., 1963, describe the ITT 525

equipment, a store and forward switching center capable of interfacing with both synchronous data

and start-stop teletype lines. "Dalcode" (Data Line

Combiner and Demultiplexer) is a Western Union

development.^-^^^ Advantages of store and forward

techniques include protection against message loss or interruptions of service. In a 1962 paper, Maass describes the possibiHty

of using a special type of TV set than can turn itself on at a predetermined time and record information

received onto tape that can be replayed at the

client's convenience. This possibility suggests that transmissions can be made over the regular net- works but in off-hour time and hence perhaps at lower cost. This investigator adds: "When you

consider the advantages of product or process

demonstrations in color, the possible apphcations

for this specialized communication form [off-hour

TV recorded for replay] develop rapidly." (Maass,

1962, p. 47).3-59 As another example, investigators at Standard

Telecommunications Laboratories, Ltd., have

developed a magnetic tape storage system to delay

transmitted speech, detect breaks or pauses and fill gaps in the telephone circuit usage with coded data,

IDAST (Interpolated Data And Speech Transmission). (Data and Control 3, No. 8, 11, 1965).

Delayed transmission is thus one possible solution

to some of the problems of speed and economy with

respect to communication hnks for input and output

transmission.

Other advantages of using store and forward

techniques are that they can be used in off hours,^ ^^^ they enable batching until there is enough data

accumulated to meet minimum transmission time

period requirements,^-^o and they allow both a permanent record for audit purposes and retrans- mission in the case of garbled transmissions.^ *'' Gains from delayed transmission, using a "burst"

technique, are exemphfied in Esso's transoceanic

message system where up to 2.500 words per minute,

in contrast to 100 wpm in leased teleprinter circuh

systems, are transmitted.^-^^ Then there is: "A trick devised by remote users

[which] is the method of linking to a dummy station

located in the system. Soon after being admitted

into the system, they begin the production type run

of the dummy station, and then quit the remote

station. When the remote user feels that his production jobs are completed, he can be readmitted into the time-sharing system, link to the dummy station,

retrieve his output and quit. Many hours of line charges have been saved with this method. There

are undoubtedly many other methods that can be

devised, and these should be investigated and

encouraged when savings in time and money will resuh." (Fiala, 1966, p. 164).

3.4. Technical Problem Areas

The science, technology, and theory of communication systems represent areas as broad and as

diversified as those that we attempt to cover

generally in this report. Examples of some of the

technical problem areas related to computercommunication networks may be mentioned briefly,

however.

Directly related to input/output transmission via

various communication links are questions of data

and message compression. Problems of high-cost

bandwidth requirements in communication links

for both pictorial and voice transmission processes

thus continue under R&D attack.^-^^^ Vocoding

techniques may be applied, for example, to achieve

efficient compression of speech while maintaining

adequate quality at the receiver station.^-^^ Relatively recent R&D work in this area is also exemplified by compression of words or seg- ments of speech into short time-slots,^-^^ by squarerooting of analytic signals of speech,^-^"*^ and by

studies of the losses of intelligibility of digitized

speech transmissions.^-^^ It is claimed by some that redundancy reduction, as for example by the use of

channel vocoder techniques, may potentially

reduce the bandwidth requirements for digitized

speech from 48,000 or more bits per second to 2,400

19
bps, or less.''-^^^ It is also to be noted that speech

compression techniques resuhing in speeded-up

speech playback are of value to certain special

types of information users — notably to students and

others seeking a rapid review of material and to blind persons using recorded books.^-^^ For textual message data compression, R&D

requirements may be exemplified by an ingenious

scheme reported by White (1967), in which com- monly used words or phrases are economically

encoded by dictionary lookup and short-code substitution, with a resultant reduction of transmitted

English-language message length of 50 percent or

better, ^-^ea In the picture-data transmission area, Huang and

Tretiak (1965) report experiments of their own and

of Schreiber and others on the reduction of redundancy in pictorial data transmissions. ^-^^ They

have used computer-simulation techniques, coupled

to CRT displays, to evaluate the degradation of picture quality when various redundancy-reduction

schemes are tried. These investigators have also considered problems of coding of digital color

pictures and of motion pictures. ^-^^ Earlier investigations in this area by Cherry et al. (1963) and by Kubba (1963) stressed run-length

coding and variable velocity scanning. Julesz

(1959) proposed the use of edge detection techniques

as a means for coding television signals and Gabor

and Hill (1961) investigated television band compression by means of contour interpolations. Inose and Yasada (1963) developed an experimental

encoder for compressed digitalization of video

signals. Another approach to compressed storage

of pictorial data is that developed by Pfaltz and

Rosenfeld (1967), consisting of describing an

arbitrary region as the union of "maximal neighborhoods" in terms of the centers and radii of these

neighborhoods.

A pseudo-random scanning technique developed

by Roberts (1962) preserves relatively good reproductibility at the receiver, with a reduced number of

gray-levels to be transmitted. ^

'"^^ In addition, such

transmissions lend themselves to some noiseelimination techniques '^''^^ and to encrypting.^-^*"^'

Predictive coding, where redundancy is reduced by

subtracting from a message those parts that can be

predicted from previously transmitted and received

signals (as discussed by Graham in 1958, ''•'^•"^^ has

been investigated, by Wholey (1961) for weather

maps, 3^"^ by Atal and Schroeder (1968) for speech

waveforms ^•^"'^ and by Lucky (1968) with respect to error control. ^-^^ Developments at Bell Laboratories involve an 8:1 reduction in data transmission requirements for TV

pictures, using a conditional replenishment technique. That is, after a first fuU frame has been sent

(with eight bits for amplitude at each sampled

picture point), thereafter only significant changes

need to be transmitted. Results of subsequent scans

are routed through a buffer of two-frame capacity

and replenishment occurs in accordance with

significant-change thresholds that vary with the

relative amount of motion in successive frames. ^-^"^ Also related to the communications link aspects of

generalized information processing systems are questions of error detection and error correction in messages transmitted via such links. Advanced

technological investigations may also be directed,

for example, to minimization of noise in TV trans- missions, by introduction of "noise only" and

"picture plus noise" redundancy such as has been

considered by Poppelbaum and Faiman (1968). ^ Redundancy to improve correct message reception can be achieved by various coding schemes

which can be subsequently processed not only to detect the occurrence of errors but in some cases to restore garbled messages. To a significant extent,

however, such error-detecting and error-correcting

codes increase the complexity of receiver-decoding

equipment and decrease the efficiency of use of the

communication channels themselves, or both. ^-^^ Franco et al. (1965) provide a review of relative ad- vantages and disadvantages and current developments with respect to this problem. ^''^ The question of the extent of error control coding

to be applied will involve clientele requirements ^^^^ including tolerances for delays, the desired data

rates and expected error rates, factors of channel

efficiency, characteristics of the transmission

medium,^^^ and special factors such as the protection of privileged communications.^-^'* In the latter case, special R&D requirements are noted by

Geddes et al. (1963) with respect to facsimile transmission.^''^ Finally, we note in this, as in many other areas

of information processing system design R&D

requirements, the incidence and effects of human

errors. Franco et al., point out that "in setting the

error rate requirement for teleprinter transmissions,

it is necessary to keep in mind that errors can be

introduced by the operators and terminal equip- ment. It is not profitable to specify undetected bit error rates which are more than 10 times greater

than the error rate of the information source, simply because the improvement will not be dis- cernible in the output error rate. Experience has

shown that operator-caused character error rates may be greater than 1 X 10-^." (Franco et al., 1965,

p. 130).

20
4. Audio and Graphic Inputs

If the process of item input and sensing is to be

speeded, improved, or made less costly by increased

use of machine techniques, then expanded and more

intensive research and development efforts in audio

signal input and graphic sensing, including pictorial

and three-dimensional data input, are required.

In Figure 4. we see the operations of information

sensing and input and of preprocessing of inputs

together with some of the areas of specific research

and development concern. First, inputs in the form

of auditory signals of various types wiU be required.

4.1. Audio Signal Inputs

Auditory signal inputs, to date, have largely been

Umited to touch-tone telephone techniques and to the use of telephone lines to carry meta-information

about other input items. Examples of references in the hterature to touch-tone and Data-Phone systems

used for direct input and processing include

Balkovic (1967), Conway and Morgan (1967), Dale

(1966). and Davenport (1965).^-^ Examples involving

audio inputs as developed in remote sensing and

data collection techniques have been noted previously (Sec. 2). Hogan i l966) provides a survey of voice input/output developments, concluding that the telephone

wiU become an increasingly important computer

1/0 device. A review conducted by Business Forms

International, Inc.. includes the prediction that "when the voice input is fuUy developed it will inaugurate the beginning of Uving in an area of complete convenience. Not only will the voice

method of input be used by business firms for busi- ness transactions, it will be used for many operations

not directly Hnked 'vnth business." (Business Forms

International. Inc.. 1967. p. 4.) MiUs (1967). Van Dam and Michener (1967). and

Lee (1968) are somewhat more pessimistic, however,

particularly with respect to the time-scale in which

2. Information Sensing

and Input

(Feedback

control of

thre shold

settings)

"I

Pre -processing

Operations

AREAS OF CONCERN:

r^ud nd graphic input

Pattern recognition

Speech recognition

Text processing

Executive and monitor programs

Remote inquiry stations

Criterial feature extraction

Image enhancement

Information enhancement

Error detection

Error correction

Graphical manipulation languages

Figure 4. Areas of concern; information sensing, input, and preprocessing.

21
speech and speaker recognition experiments might

be reduced to practice.^-^ A simple special-purpose

exception is noted, that of the experimental Cogitronics system which can ask a certain set of questions and can understand the answers "yes"^ or

"no".*-^ Beyond this, moreover, "when the technique reaches a stage where a spoken word or

letter can be translated to an impulse that uniquely

types out the required work, what will be the

efficiency, the freedom from errors, the stress imposed on the 'dictator' and what training will be

necessary? Research is needed on all these questions." (Van Gefifen, 1967, p. e). An interesting experiment involving acoustic

signal inputs is described by Neilsen (1965).^'* The area of application is that of radioactivity meas- urements instrumentation where the hardware

techniques combine use of a scintillation detector

and a sealer-counter at a remote laboratory to reduce

the number of detector pulses to be fed to computer

via a telephone data link and with simple codes and

timing indicia being transmitted via the telephone

dial.In the area of sonic wave measurements, we note

first that "in 1963, Bogert, Healy, and Tukey dis- cussed an approach to the detection and timing of

echoes. Later Noll successfully appfied these tech- niques [nonlinear filtering of convoluted signals] to the detection of pitch in speech waveforms." (Research Laboratory for Electronics, M.LT., Quarterly

Progress Report No. 80, 168, 1966). Another example

is provided by Douglas Aircraft studies of target

identification in terms of three-dimensional echo

reflections of acoustic energy. (Dreher, 1966).

Similarly, in Sweden, Dr. Wennerbarig of the Insti- tute for Acoustics is concerned with general

problems of marine acoustics, especially considering

problems of methods of detection, decision-making,

and the ehmination or reduction of noise emanating from sources other than those of primary

interest.'*-*^! The long-range possibihties for input-output in terms of natural or artificial spoken language wiU

involve close relationships between research in speech compression, speech synthesis and auto- matic speech recognition (see Sec. 5.5). In general,

the more sophisticated types of auditory signal

input, like many graphic input developments, will involve to a greater or lesser degree advanced

preprocessing and pattern recognition capabihties,

to be considered in Section 5.7 of this report. Thus,

"the problem in speech recognition is one of

identifying, within the total acoustic output of the

human voice or its mechanical reproduction, those

elements which are significant for communication."

(Garvin, 1963, p. 111).

4.2. Graphic Inputs

In the area of graphic inputs to generalized infor- mation processing systems, the questions of entry

of alphanumeric information are first to be noted.

Next, there are problems of machine processing of

information derived from special symbols such as those used in mathematical equations and in chemical and other types of structural diagrams. A

number of relatively new devices permit on-Une

drafting and direct entry of two-dimensional infor- mation into the data processing systems. In some

cases, the graphic input may consist of handprinted

or cursively handwritten characters, words, or

signatures. Automatic recognition of such input,

typically for a small, known "family" of users,"* **^ has been successfully demonstrated and some ex- amples are given in Section 5.4 of this report

Finally, in this area, we consider some of the

prospects for pictorial and three-dimensional data

processing.

4.2.1. Alphanumeric Inputs

First, graphic input requirements for generahzed

information processing systems may involve the

direct entry of hand-printed or hand-written infor- mation and the automatic extraction of words from

text. Entry of hand-drawn material may be by stylus

with X and y coordinates fed to the computer, or by light pen movements on the face of a console

screen. For example, Ught pen inputs have been

used since the early 1950's, notably with the M.I.T. Whirlwind computer and in certain military systems.^-^'' Special equipment such as an elastic diaphram switch device may be used. Another

handwritten character input example is the Data

Trend "MIMO" Hand-Print Model input-output

terminal for use in real-time on-line operation with

a data processor, where the user writes his message

on a platen with a special stylus. Teletype-tocomputer transmission is to be used."*-^ Automatic extraction of words from text was

apparently first proposed as a physical process

guided by manual selection in terms of a "fight

pencil" proposed by RCA and discussed at a con- ference on mechanized documentation held under

the auspices of the Welch Medical Library of Johns

Hopkins University in 1953. If the proposed "pencil" were to be moved across a page of text, words or phrases of interest could be picked up and recorded

so that, in effect, an underlining of words or phrases

could result automatically in machine-useful input

recordings. (A somewhat OrweHian prediction has

been made that in the future automatic word extractions from voice signals could result in further

invasions of privacy.) ^-^ More modern versions of the word-from-text

extraction concept are represented by the IBM

"Scanistor",^-^ the Institute for Scientific Information "Copywriter",^-^^ and by the Eccetron device

reported by the National Science Foundation as [j being in use at the Bureau of Geological and Mining

Research in Paris. (Current Research and Develop- < ment, No. 13, 1964, pp. 68-69). A future possibility ji has been suggested by recent advances in the tech- |i nology of coherent optical systems.'*-*'' In general, ii however, automatic word extraction operations c require given texts to be in machine-usable form.

22
Among the methods available for conversion of

such textual material to machine form are the

following:

(1) Initial recording of the material in dual

language form: that is, in a form legible to the human eye and simultaneously in a form

readable by machine, such as the hard copy

typescript and the punched paper records

produced by a tape typewriter.*^*^

(2) Manual re-transcription by various keyboarding operations such as a keypunch operation

to prepare punched cards, the use of punched

paper tape typewriters, or the use of steno- typing techniques.*^

(3) Scanning of the printed, typed, or handwritten

record by optical character reading devices

and automatic re-transcription into the desired computer-usable form.

(4) Various combinations of any of these methods,

as in the re-typing of original documents in a standardized font readable by available char- acter recognition equipment."*^^'

The state-of-the-art in optical character recognition, both practical and experimental, is promising,

but many challenges still remain (see Sec. 5.3 of

this report). Current success in terms of practical

apphcations is largely limited to those cases where

there is a high degree of control over character

input quality, where the character sets to be recog- nized are Umited (and often consist of specially

designed character fonts),*-^^^ and where the alter- native of key-stroking the input material is excessively costly in terms of available manpower and

time.'*^'' The latter factor is ironically emphasized

in those situations where it has been determined

to be desirable to keystroke the source data information using a typewriter with a type font amenable

to character reading equipment requirements and

I then to "read" such typed re-transcriptions by

1 machine.

' This would appear, in principle, to be a backward

1 step in the light of modern technology. Yet it is faster than most alternative keystroking methods

, as currently available and the combined economics

may therefore be more favorable at the present

time.*'" Hopefully, such expedients will be of temporary duration, pending the advent of more

versatile character-readers and/or improved means

for initial generation of source data in machineuseful form.

Where the documentary input contains interI spersed graphic material as well as text, additional

i problems arise.* " For example, it may be required

i that manual pre-editing operations mark off areas

of the page which the character reading device is to ignore.*-'^ On the other hand, in the futuie we

1 may find input scanning systems capable both of

I recognizing printed or typed characters and symbols

and also of processing complex pictorial material.*- '^a

4.2.2. Special Symbol and Diagratnatic Inputs

Wigington (1966) defines "graphical input-output

as those forms of I/O in which are employed graphs,

pictures, charts and other forms of information

where the two dimensional positional relationships

of information elements have importance beyond

that of the ordinary formats of printed texts and

lists." (p. 86). It is noted further that "the acquisition

of data directly from graphical sources such as maps (for terrain, land-use data, etc.) is a developing

capability which is proving its worth to the planning

and design of transport facilities." (Breuning and

Harvey, 1967, p. 262).

Graphic information of a highly styhzed or schematic nature, such as electrical circuit or chemical

structure diagrams, should eventually be amenable

to pattern recognition techniques that can be

demonstrated, and at least the beginnings have been

made on problems of pictorial data recognition.

Diagrammatic representation of chemical struc- tures, circuit diagrams, word-association "maps"

and other two-dimensional complexes of information

are of obvious importance in man-machine inter- action operations. Burger points out, for example,

that the early work "of Opler and Baird in drawing

chemical structure diagrams on a computer controlled CRT gave much promise for the future

applicabihty of such devices." (1964, p. 2.) As of l967, however, the input of special symbols and

diagrams depend almost exclusively on the encoding

and digitahzation of the two-dimensional information, either by keyboard, light pen, or scanner

techniques.

Keyboard devices for such purposes have been

explored as in the Army Chemical Typewriter sys- tem,*"' studies at Monsanto*^* and at Redstone

Arsenal,* and in a system described by Cossum

et al. (1964). In the latter case, an optical scanner

looks for black areas, applies a feature detection

logic for symbol and character recognition, and

constructs and checks the connection table. Both

in this system and in the earlier Monsanto experiments, a degree of error detection is provided,

especially to check whether or not there is a well- formed structure with every element connected to

at least one other and with all connections recorded

in both directions.*-'^ Amann and Klerer (1966) report on a modified

Flexowriter device for two-dimensional input of

mathematical equations where the machine system

will subsequently recognize even badly formed

symbols*'^ and Klerer and May (1965) describe

the two-dimensional programming and other details associated with this device.* '^'^ Another system for on-line input and display of mathematical symbols

and equations is AMTRAN (/Automatic Mathematical Translation), described by Reinfelds et al. (1966)

and Clem (1966).*"''' A special terminal for keyboard entry of mathematical symbols has been

developed by the Oceanographic Laboratory,

Columbia University.*- '^'^

1 23
Hoffman (1965) discusses the use of the Army

Chemical Typewriter in the IDEEA (/nformation

and Data Exchange £'xperimental Activities) net- work and points out that, by interfacing the ACT

with a computer, error checks and preprocessing

such as data classification can be performed on

input of both alphanumeric data and symbol representations.''*^ Tate (1967) includes in a review of

developments in the handUng of chemical com- pound information references to modified key

punch devices to record structural diagrams

directly (Waldo and de Backer, 1959, and Horowitz

and Crane, 1961), modifications to tape generating

typewriters, and the INVAC-TT-200 structure typewriter that records directly onto magnetic

tape.^ '^ Bozman (1967) describes information control codes for encoding and decoding the use of "Typits" in the special typewriter designed by

Duncan and Weissberg at NBS, with apphcations

for chemical diagram inputJ*-^*' Later NBS developments are incorported in the "Document Image

Code System",''-^"^ as shown in Figures 5 and 6. Scanner input examples include investigations

by Meyer (1965), Ledley (1963), and again Cossum

et al. (1964).^-^' Many of these developments will be discussed in more detail in another report in

this series, in connection with character set requirements for both input and output. There are questions, however, as to the development of effective means for the regeneration in two-dimensional

form for display of chemical structure information

represented in linear ciphers, connection tables,

and other special notations. There is also the question of the further operational development of tech- niques whereby the chemist enters the two-dimensional structural information directly into the

machine.'*-^^

4.2.3. Graphic Inputs and On-Line Drafting

With respect to two-dimensional graphic data

inputs we note generally, of course, that analog-todigital conversion and hybrid analog-digital tech- niques are required in many applications such as the use of the sound spectrograph and the

automatic processing of electrocardiographic and

electroencephalic recordings. In this connection we note also that computer analysis of encoded

electrocardiographic and electroencephalographic

data has been the subject of a number of investigations over the past several years. By 1965, Bobrow

et al. (pp. 125-126) could report 93 and 94 percent

accuracies of electrocardiographic amplitude values

as measured by computer and could conclude that: "The computer actually provides a more precise

standard than does visual measurement. An auto- mated system can accurately identify and measure

the waveforms of an electrocardiogram." ^-^^ Klingemann and Pipberger (1967) emphasize that automatic techniques of EKG analysis are needed

because a large number of measurements and more

efficient classification methods are' not practical

without the use of computer facilities. A Japanese

example is provided by Okajima, et al., 1963.'*-^* Another illustration of progress in this apphcation

area is provided by Whipple et al. (1965) who dis- cusses an electrocardiograph analysis program

relating also to special communication networks,

that is, the use of frequency-modulated transmission

•of the data from the Massachusetts Memorial

Hospitals to a GE225 computer and teletype display

of the resulting diagnosis.''-^^ Stark et al. (1965) also report on remote access computer diagnosis of

EKG data. Man-machine interactive input of two-dimensional data typically involves the use of such devices

as the RAND Tablet ''^^ and commercially available

equivalent devices including Data Equipment Company's Grafacon 1010*-^^ Itek's EDM (Electronic

Drafting Machine) ^-^^ Sylvania's Data Tablet

or an IBM handprinting input device.'*^^^ At the IIT Research Institute, Chicago, the "Electrosketch"

is similar in function to the RAND Tablet, but it consists of "a small plastic knob or stylus which the user grasps and is free to move about the working

surface." (Cameron et al., 1967, p. 350). Simek and

Tunis (1967) describe a development also similar to the RAND Tablet, but using conventional paper and

pencil.4-29b

It is claimed that the III (Information International, Inc.) Computer Eye is a sensor and processor

capable of selectively measuring, inputting, and

processing a variety of graphic images. Suggested

apphcations of the III Computer Eye include microscope measurement and classification of biological

samples, digitization of drawings, maps, and

photographs, and measurement of the texture granularity and color of various materials.*-^" The IBM

Cartographic Scanner is used by Canada's Geographic Information System to develop maps of

land use.'*-^^^

Still other examples of techniques available for on-Une drafting and graphic input obviously include

the SKETCHPAD System at M.I.T.^-^oaa and the

"Light Handle" at the Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard University,*-^*"' as well as systems

developed by SDC Control Data Corporation,'*-3i RCA,'*-32 General Motors Research Laboratories,*-^^^ and Computer Sciences Corporation. At the National Bureau of Standards, the

MAGIC System (Machine for /Automatic Graphics

/nterface to a Computer) is used for a variety of

man-machine communication and display experi- ments. (Rippy et al., 1965).

Then we note that the "Eyeball" device developed

at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory provides for the digitizing of pictorial data for regeneration on computer output interspersed with text. (Conn,

1967), and that, in a Bolt, Beranek and Newman

system, "the visual pattern to be analyzed by the

system is drawn on the face of the computer CRT

display scope by means of a light pen." (Marill

et al., 1963, p. 27). Pictorial data input is described

by Ledley as follows: ". . . The computer must
y 0

S liMiPLE -CAPS

X

X

-

I =a

\

.

I . r

• irvtR-i

* * * L_i 1 X

1 2 3 4- 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 14 1? 1« 17 la 19 ZO %1 22

Figure 5. Model typescript page at expanded scale.

34

5

6

78

9

10

1112

1314

IJU

17IS

19 20

21 22

2324

25

2«2728

I = X

< ^ b • > d X

• / • X

2 1

• •

• ^ a

•

0

1 Z 3 4 7 < 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 i; K 17 18 19 20 21 22 X

Figure 6. Two illustrative display formulas.

25
then interpret the symbols and structural relation- ships of the drawing, in preparation for the final coding task. The picture scanning is accomplished

by a device called FIDAC (Film Input to Digital

Automatic Computer). Pattern recognition tech- niques are used for the structure and relationship

analysis." (Ledley, 1963, p. 201).

4.2.4. Pictorial and Three-Dimensional Data Input

Other areas of graphic input of current R&D

concern are for the pickup and processing of dia- grams, drawings, and photographs.^-^'' Rushforth

(1965) provides one example, among many, of pattern analysis, identification and classification by

computer as applied to aerial photographs. Ber- tram provides an example of mixed input requirements for such apphcations, that is, to provide such

pertinent camera data as the position and altitude

for each stereoscopic pair of photographs as taken,

the focal length, and the distortion characteristics

of the lens.^-^^ A scanner developed at NBS,

described by Moore et al. (1964) digitizes 9-inch

aerial photographs for computer analysis of stereo- graphic differences."*-^^ At Aeronutronics, a PDP-7

system will be used for film-scanning experiments

designed to test techniques for automatic detection

and analysis of data contained in aerial photographs.''-''*^^' Stereoscopic initial data recording and three- dimensional depth reconstruction by machine

processing and computational techniques is of

obvious significance in the automatic or semiautomatic analysis in such areas of application as

aerial photograph interpretation,''^^'^^ target identification,^-^^*' map or contour matching,'' -'^^'^ and

analysis of bubble-chamber data with respect to the detection of high-energy-particle colHsion

events.''-^'^'' As noted previously, McGee and Petersen report on a computer-controlled CRT scanner used to measure automatically bubble chamber tracks as recorded on film but applicable also to pulse height

analyzers, telemetry converters, and other data

collection systems. Also at the University of

Illinois, a relatively early computer program,

FILTER, was designed for recognition, separation

and measurement of star-type nuclear events.''-^^ The use of ILLIAC III as a processor of visual

information with appHcation to problems of cloud

pattern detection was described at an IFIP Congress

65 symposium. (McCormick et al., 1966.)''-''^^ Research and development interests in the area

of three-dimensional data input and manipulation

are exemphfied first by Sketchpad III, which is a computer program to facilitate the entry into the M.I.T. processing system of three-dimensional

drawings. (Johnson, 1963).''-37b Roberts (1965, p. 211)

reports that: "Sketchpad III extends the graphical

construction process to three dimensions by

enabling one to draw in any of three views on the scope, thus constructing a computer representation

of a three-dimensional drawing."

He suggests (p. 185) further that: "After a fist of three-dimensional objects has been obtained in some manner, it should be possible to display them

from any point of view. The sections of objects

behind other objects should not be seen, nor should

the back lines and construction lines of individual

objects. The three-dimensional display program

will do all this and more."*-^®

Roberts also briefly describes earlier work by

Julesz^-^^ on machine depth perception applied to binocular images. This is a procedure which shifts the two images to find the areas at different depths

using texture, rather than detected edges, to develop

this information.

An approach to two-dimensional scanning, data

analysis, and three-dimensional reconstruction is being investigated by Kirsch at the National Bureau

of Standards (Lipkin et al., 1966)''-^^'* Here there is a multi-level gray-scale scan applied to a series of

microphotographs of successive cell tissue slices which by their transparent nature give defocused

images that are out of their focal plane. A computer

differentiation program then enables the determination of proper plane for the image with respect to

its original locus in the tissue. In 1966, Roberts described the Lincoln WAND,

extending tablet principles to three-dimensional

input by the use of a hand-held receiver accepting

signals from four ultrasonic transmitters,^'"' and

Denil reported on an IBM development of a language

and three-dimensional light pen input technique

for computer-aided design applications. In 1964,

McDonough suggested placing an object between

two grids and using light beam reflectance measure- ments to determine the thickness of the object at various points.''^' A similar technique had been

proposed even earlier by Russian scientists. (Garmash, 1961).

Then we note that three-dimensional x-ray photographs may be used to measure automatically the

distances between components in a potted module

and in medical apphcations to measure the depth

of a bone infection.^^^ There are also important

three-dimensional aspects in machine-aided design

processes, especially in the aircraft and automotive

industries, for which far more progress is promised

in the near future. Proximity probes and a lightscanning measuring machine (Ex-Cello-0) have

been used to measure length, width and height of clay models. A proposed laser device would also operate as a fixed scanner above a movable table on which the model is mounted. However, Gomolak

reports: "Because of its coherent beam and resolution, the laser probe closely approaches measuring

with a true point . . .. Reported accuracy of this new laser machine is 0.0001 inch in all three coordi- nates (1965, p. 66)." 4.43 An idealized graphic input-output system, potentially capable of processing "three-dimensional curve and surface perspective projections into two i dimensions" is reported by Parker (1965, p. 100).

Certain developments in new technologies, such as those of holography (to be discussed in a later report

26
in this series) offer additional possibilities for

pictorial and three-dimensional data processing,

storage, and retrieval.^** For another example,

Okaya (1966) considers an automated method for three-dimensional data-gathering, in the case of

i single-crystal crystallographic diffraction studies.

As of today, it is feasible to scan graphic and

I photographic input and convert the initial twoj dimensional and grayness level information into

I digital form which in turn may be reproduced as a

j' reasonable facsimile of the original, either for trans-

'I mission purposes (most spectacularly in the case

I of Surveyor's color photographs of the moon's

surface), for purposes of digital storage, and for purposes of further computer processing as in the case of qualitative pattern recognition, that is, situa- tions where certain pattern transformations are

I performed either to obtain desired end-products

directly or to facilitate further processing, recognition, or classification.^-^^^ In addition, advanced

experimental work includes the automatic analysis

of three-dimensional scenes, even although repre- sented in two-dimensioned forms. Examples include

the Cyclops I experiments at Bolt, Beranek and

Newman (Marill et al., 1963),^"*^ work by Rosenfglj 4.45a gj^j j^aj^ai and Randall'* '*^'' an experimental program described by Evans (1964),'' '*^ and

current research under Minsky at M.I.T.''-*^

However, techniques of automatic pattern detection and recognition of two- and three-dimensional

data are as yet highly experimental and much

further research and development must be pursued

before they can be advanced far enough for practical

applications. Most of the techniques that are being

explored for automatic pattern recognition are

highly dependent upon efficient preprocessing

operations. These operations typically include the

extraction of significant or criterial features; image

and information enhancement processes designed to reduce noise in the input pattern, to eliminate re- dundancies of the input signals, and to sharpen

selective areas such as either edges or "skeletons"

or, in another case, the "medial axis transformation"

of a pictorial pattern to be described, identified, or

classified.''^^

5. Preprocessing Operations and Pattern Recognition

Closely related to the problems of character,

shape, and pattern recognition for information

input and sensing are operations upon the input

patterns that are sensed, which we show as pertinent

to Box 3 of Figure 4 (p. 21). These include image

improvement operations such as boundary and

contrast enhancements; noise and redundancy

reduction as in stroke thinning; extraction of saUent

or criterial features and the development and use

of property filtering techniques.

There are. for many applications, important

requirements for noise and redundancy eliminations,

for filtering, and for feature extraction operations as

close to the data source as is possible.^-^ That is, "a

reduction is necessary, for otherwise the tasks

involved merely in obtaining input data in a suitable

form for processing in concepts become over- whelming—the field of visual pattern recognition is a vast one in which certain problems have baffled the experts for years, and in which breakthroughs come slowly." (Strom, 1965, p. 110). Then there are processes designed to reduce or eliminate background noise, as by the use of infrared or ultraviolet scanning techniques that will sense only the printed

characters to be recognized on paper forms that may have been overstamped or subjected to extraneous superimposed noise such as dirt, coffee stains and the like.^-^

5.1. Preprocessing Operations, Image and

Information Enhancement

Contrast enhancement in optical character recognition developments is often achieved by a quantization process in which subareas of the input pattern

are checked against threshold values in accordance

with which it is determined that the particular

subarea is "black" or is "white" (or, in other cases,

the determination is in terms of some set of specified

gray-scale levels). In other cases, however, analog

values are first processed ^-^ because, for example,

of Nadler's argument that black-white quantization

of a character 'rivets the noise to the signal',^'^^

and that therefore as much processing as possible

should be done on the raw video signal before

quantization.

Boundary and contrast enhancement preprocessing operations are of particular importance in input

patterns involving multilevel gray scale. For one

example, boundary and contrast enhancement

techniques developed at the National Physical

Laboratory, Teddington, England are being applied

to pictorial data processing of fingerprint and

chromosome patterns. These preprocessing tech- niques are based on Fourier transforms resulting

from apertures placed in the plane of an imaging

lens to suppress selected spatial frequency components. The basic pattern to be processed is in the

form of a photo transparency, illuminated by a laser or other monochromatic light source whose col- limated output is brought to a focus by a lens, which

re-images the input, via various Fourier plane and

band limiting stops, to a processing-image plane

such as a TV camera, whose video signals may then

be fed to pattern-processing or recognition system.

Demonstration photographs for output results for chromosome photographs show both outUning

effects (elimination of areas of relatively constant

gray-scale density by low-frequency-component sup27

366-107 O - 70
pression) and reduction of noise and fine granular

structure (by suppression of high-frequency components).^* Similarly, with respect to a multispectral imagery program at the University of Michigan,

a primary goal "is to see if the information content

in the multiple channels can in some way be

processed and combined electrically to produce

an image with enhanced target-to-background

contrast." (Parker and Wolff, 1965, p. 24). Preprocessing operations of various types such as reduction of solid black areas to their outlines, were

developed for pictorial data processing applications

at the National Bureau of Standards in the mid-50's.

(Kirsch et al., 1957). Extensions and further development of these techniques have been carried out by Moore (1964) with particular reference to quantitative analyses of photomicrographs with the scanner on-line to the computer. More specifically,

photographic material can be read directly into the

computer, subjected to various logical manipulations

and analyzed mathematically for 20 numerical

parameters.^-^^ Schreiber et al. (1968) indicate, for another example, that pictures, including printed

material, can be reconstructed from efficiently

encoded contour information.^

In a 1966 survey. Hart points to two major types

of preprocessing operations for information en- hancement as "dimensionality reduction" (where

the pre-processors are designed to reduce the

computational load on the processor in its decisionmaking by taking a large number of measurements

and reducing them to a smaller number) and

"feature extraction" (where the purpose is to make

only those measurements that are likely to provide

a great deal of information about the pattern). In this survey. Hart covers slightly more than 50

papers and reports concerned with the theory

and application of preprocessing techniques

in pattern recognition.^-^

Preprocessing operations designed to enhance

the information content of an input pattern typically

involve either reductive transformations and

normalization, or both. Thus, in optical character

recognition, stroke width normalization may be

applied.^-^^ One example is a development at International Computers and Tabulators, Ltd.,

where one, two, or three cell widths in the input

pattern are processed through logical networks

to provide a three-cell stroke output. For photointerpretation appHcations, it is reported that "another recent processing operation, known as phototone, consists of the edge enhancement of an aerial photograph. The enhanced image is then

added to the image to produce a more legible

photograph; the total process can be considered

as a type of pre-emphasis filter." (Tobler, 1968,

p. 267). Image enhancement for noise reduction

as developed by Gattner and Jurk (1963) is illus- trated in Figure 7.

It may occur that the information enhancement

and noise reduction processes are interdependent

to a high degree. Thus, if a small black area is

y X

X XX XX XX XXX yy xxxxx

X X X xxxxxxx

X X XX

XX X X X

X X y

X X XX yy

X X X X X X y X XX XXX XX yyxxxxxy XXX XX xxxx yx

X X X X XXXX XX

X XX xxx xy

y X XX xyx xy XXX XXX xxx XX

XX XXX xxx XX XX X X xxx yx XXX XX XXX XX XXX XXXXXX

a Origiml image b Scanned image ( Character after reduction converted into black- of noise and-white picture

Figure 7. Image enhancement for noise reduction.

sensed in the lower right-hand vicinity of an input

image otherwise probably identifiable as an upper- case "O", there are very real questions as to whether contrast enhancement and reductive

operations should be performed (in the case

that the black area is a flyspeck or other accidental

noise) or whether, on the contrary, gray-levelthreshold settings should be relaxed (in the case

that the black area results from broken connectivity

for a defectively printed "tail" of uppercase "Q").

Rabinow points out, moreover, that "an 'O' and

a 'Q' may only differ by 5 percent in area, but

the difference in electrical output between the

correlation circuits can be made to be 30 percent,

or more." (Rabinow, 1966, p. 23). Similarly, in speech analysis and synthesis

research, Liljencrantz (1965) reports of a filter bank speech spectrum analyzer developed at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm,

that the band-pass filters in the bank "can be

set in a number of different combinations of center frequencies and bandwidths. In this way it is possible to make a gross analysis for orientation

as well as detailed analysis with a high resolution

in either frequency or time." (p. 1). The appropriate interaction between noise

elimination and information enhancement operation

should obviously be subject to control by systemfeedback inputs and threshold setting. Another

obvious example is height-and-width-parameter

re-scanning in the case of character recognition

techniques that are intended to discriminate

between upper- and lower-case inputs and between

ascender and descender indicia, whether for individual character or for specific character-string

sequences.'^-''''

Consider the feedback mechanisms involved

,

in a gross scan followed by a more refined scan

.

pattern upon the detection of certain pre-designated

indicia. Such indicia may include the "finding"

of a fiduciary mark and the subsequent alignment

of the detail scan to follow a tilted page or line : (FOSDIC),^*' the "first-finding" of a black line of type or print as the scan comes up from the

bottom of an envelope in an early Farrington reader

28
I for postal addresses,^ and the adjustable scan

I focus-defocus settings based upon relative heightwidth determinations of an initial character of an address-line.'^-^ Image enhancement operations may also depend

upon feedback factors with respect to neighboring

cells of a given cell in a quantized graphic input

matrix. That is. a black cell may be retained as "black" in an improved image according to the

I number of orthagonally adjacent cells that are

similarly black, or it may be erased if a majority

of its immediate neighbors are "white". Thus,

such operations may serve both to thicken or

fill in a black hne, area, or character stroke and

simultaneously to smooth rough contour edges

' and to eliminate small areas of apparent noise.^-^ Distance transformations, based upon such local neighborhood operations, have been explored by

Rosenfeld and his associates, among others.*

Detection of clusters, edge or boundary enhance-

! ments or their converse — skeletonizing, and

noise ehmination or smoothing— are all possible

applications of these preprocessing techniques

I for pictorial data.^-'° For example, Rosenfeld

I and Pfaltz (1966) describe sequential operations

, that label components of a given subset of pictorial data and compute distances from every

picture element to this subset. In terms of the

! distance function, a "skeleton" subset can then

be defined that serves to minimally determine the

i] original subset.

I 5.2. Property Filtering and Feature

Extraction

, Tou and Heydorn (1967) emphasize that the

preprocessing operations which reduce dimenj sionality have as the goal the minimization of entropy — that is, to provide transormations from

J many to few dimensions or properties, selecting

( those most discriminatory for one class as against

[ all other classes.^ " Similarly, Hughes and Lebo

; state that "the term 'feature' implies a combination

of two or more measurements which, taken together,

describe some pattern aspect relatively invariant

within one class, but with a different characteristic

set of values outside that class. A feature is a set

' of two or more measurements taken as a vector

' measurement pair." (Hughes and Lebo, 1967, p. 19).

I Extraction of criterial features, feature detection,

j and determination of class-membership properties

have the objective of isolating and identifying the

I most salient characteristics of input data in terms

I of pattern recognition or categorization requirej ments.'^"^ However, as Hart remarks, "there

j is no good conceptual framework in which to view

I attempts at feature extraction, and consequently

a success on one special problem seldom sheds

light on a solution to a slightly different problem."

, (Hart, 1966, p. 29). Chen (1966) suggests that

i' *A comprehensive study of pictorial data processing by Rosenfeld (1958), was

unfortunately received loo late for discussion in this report.

recursive ieature-ordering will have significant

advantages^"'' and Chu and Chueh (1967) claim

that if a sufficient number of well-selected features

is used in character recognition, the error probability

of a Bayes decision function can be made arbitrarily small. Among the many techniques for feature extraction

that have been investigated are those of stroke

direction encoding, edge and corner detection,

detection of "lakes" (fully enclosed white areas)

and "bays" or "inlets", and the use of other topological properties of input patterns.'' *^ Schultz

(1963), for example, has expanded the number

of such features previously included in patented

systems of this type and has included the use

of contextual information to separate alphabetic

from numeric characters.

At Siemens in West Germany, for another

example, the recognition philosophy is that of

the extraction of criterial features from character

shapes, largely independent of character size,

location in the input image field, and, to some

extent, orientation (Gattner and Jurk, 1963). Noise

reduction is first appHed to eHminate isolated

noise and to smooth ragged edges. As early as 1958, a computer program involving the application of majority logic to a small, sliding submatrix (as in some other local neighborhood pre- processing operations) was developed. The features

(or "form elements") used include determinations

of convergence or divergence of character strokes. Ledley's "Bugsys" procedures are a special case in which it is desired to locate and trace the

features essential to pattern detection for digitalized

photographic input data.^ Then, at the M.I.T. Research Laboratory for Electronics "a character-recognition procedure for the identification of letters and numbers in newsprint has been developed. The approach is based

upon automatic tracing of the outer black-white

edge of each letter. After nonlinear smoothing, of

the 'gear backlash' type, the horizontal and vertical position-coordinate waveforms are processed to detect the sequence of horizontal and vertical changes of direction, together with low-resolution

information on the spatial locations where such

changes occur. The result is a 30-bit code word from

which the letter is identified by look-up in a stored

list, in which there may be several different code

words associated with the same letter." **

Criterial feature techniques that combine various

topological properties and stroke direction clues

developed at a relatively early date include those of

Grimsdale et al. (1959) to determine the number,

size, curvature, relative length and orientation of

constituent segments of character patterns, Sherman (1960) with respect to recognition of handprinted characters, and Frishkopf and Harmon

**Quarterly Progress Report, Research Laboratory for Electronics, No. 80, RLE,

M.LT., 218 (1966) (further references are given to: J. K. Clemens, "Optical Character

Recognition for Reading Machine Applications", Ph. D. Thesis, Dept. E.E. M.I.T., Sep. 1965 and H. Teager, "Multidimensional Visual Information Processing", Conf. Ad- vances Biomedical Computer Applications, N.Y. Academy of Science, N.Y., June

3-5, 1965).

29
(1960) with respect to constrained cursive handwriting. (See also, Sec. 5.4 of this report.)

Current projects under Steinbuch at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, further exemplify

the importance of preprocessing operations in dif- ferent areas of automatic pattern recognition. First,

investigations of automatic processing of pictorial

data contained in aerial photographs are under

^j^y 5.13a jj^g objectives include the location of

streets and the recognition of objects such as vehicles and the determination of their coordinates.

The scanner provides a variety of scanning modes

and varying resolutions, under programmed control,

including line scans, point scans, rotating a spot of

variable diameter around a point, and the capabiUty

of illuminating a line on the screen and rotating it so that intersections with small, fine lines are detected.

In the detection procedure, the presence of

parallel lines is first looked for at relatively low

resolution and then within the indicated area vehi- cles are looked for with high resolution. The scan- ning system preprocessing capabilities include an

analog-digital converter to process 64 levels of

gray-scale information. Preprocessing operations

include evaluation of density gradients, detection

of contrast boundaries by detecting phase of signal

and determination of boundary directions.

Preprocessing operations of feature extraction

may also provide means for some degree of data

compression for either storage or transmission.

Thus, "the ability to reconstitute patterns from

features suggests a means to transmit a set of

high-resolution photographs over a low-bandwidth

channel. ... If the total number of features

for any set of patterns is less than the total number

of retinal ceUs, then the feature-detection technique can be a means for achieving bandwidth reduction

in an image-transmission system." (Block et al., 1964, p. 83). For another example, at M.I.T., "the nonhnear

processing of pictures, for elimination of all features

other than the principal edges, is being investigated.

The aim is to simplify pictures to the extent that

tactile display and perception of the principal edge

patterns becomes practical." It is reported however,

that "edge extraction, which involves processes

related to spatial differentiation of the picture

intensity function, is a nontrivial operation,

especially for noisy pictures. Edge extrapolation

and smoothing, which are desirable operations

from the standpoint of noise elimination, place

the problem in the realm where general patternrecognition considerations become important."

(Quarterly Progress Report, Research Laboratory

for Electronics, No. 80, M.I.T. 219 (1966).)

Minsky (1962), considering the case of visual

pattern recognition with respect to the more general

area of so-called 'artificial intelligence', has grouped

together both interdependent and independent

feature extraction possibilities in a listing of the

operations and transformations thai may be useful

in the search for relative invariance for various

interesting sets of patterns. These he classifies

as: local transformations, including local averaging,

edging, and recognition of particular local con- ; figuration or feature extraction; global or holistic transformations, including translation, rotation,

expansion, contraction, filling in of hollow figures,

location of optical center of gravity, and operations

to determine connectivity; and "functionals",

or operations that count or encode, such as 'blob' counters, moment of figure with respect to a given

point, slope of line, distance between two points;

and other transformations such as projections onto

a line or axis, or the mapping of a pattern perimeter

along some reference axis. The search for relative invariance includes investigation of area-preserving

transformations, shape-preserving transformations,

image enhancement, contour projection, contourdirection sequences, and selection of criterial features. In many of these areas of development, an im- . portant R and D objective is to identify those criterial features that are relatively invariant under trans- formations of size, location in the input image area, and orientation. One approach is that of "autocorrelation".^^* The CYCLOPS machine at the

National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, England,

is an electronic version of the earlier Parks tech- nique for detecting criterial areas in character auto- correlations as originally realized in an optical sys- tem by Clowes (1962). Analog techniques are used

to carry gray-scale information along to the recognition logic. Extraction of criterial features of this type in the case of whole words or multicharacter

sequences is exemplified in the work of Clayden

and Parks (1966), also at NPL.^ i^ Other character recognition techniques that have

been experimentally developed, such as that of

Alt (1962), provide considerable invariance to size,

rotations, or placement in the input image field. Hu (1965) also has proposed the use of moment

invariants for recognition. These moments are derived by a summation of products of the density

distribution and the distance from an arbitrary

axis.^^^^ Various optical techniques have been

exploited for such purposes, including the derivation of the Laplacian function or Hilbert transforms,^-^^'' as well as several variations on the use of

Fourier transforms, although al a relatively high

processing cost.^-^^^ From these examples, it is evident that character

and pattern detection and recognition techniques

are of interest with respect to the current state of , the art in the computer and information sciences on at least a two-fold basis. First, such techniques

offer automatic means of sensing, transcribing, and

re-recording of data values or textual interpretative ! statements as originally marked in a prepared for- mat for marksensing, visually encoded as by means ! of a bar or color code, or handprinted, drawn, typed

j or printed as alphanumeric characters and other

graphic symbols. Secondly, insofar as these tech30
niques incorporate adaptive or self-organizing fea- tures, they are themselves fruitful areas for the

development and application of advanced research

principles.

5.3. Optical Character Recognition

The area of automatic pattern recognition R&D

effort that has had the greatest practical application

to date is that of optical character recognition

(OCR), especially for relatively limited or standardized fonts and character sets. Looking first to the

techniques for the automatic recognition of printed,

typed, or machine-embossed alphanumeric characters, considerable progress is to be noted in the

field of the limited-character-set category. Several

hundred optical character reading machines of

this limited type are now in operation, largely for commercial data processing apphcations such as insurance premium billing, credit card accounting

and subscription renewals.^-^^ Some 14 to 15 commercial suppliers offer OCR equipment in the United

States alone.^-'^^ However, it is noted that "the scope of applications for character readers is currently hmited

primarily by their inabihty to read a variety of

different fonts, by their poor performance on

handwritten documents, and by the lack of standardization within the industry. Consequently, considerable development effort is being put into these

areas, as well as into improvements in reliability

and speed." (Feidehnan and Katz, 1967, p. 0210:30).

The special case of retyping to a specialized font has been mentioned previously (Sec. 4.2.1).

5.3.1. Multifont Character Reading

On the other hand, there are potential breakthroughs promised in the relatively recent operational installations of variable-format-page-reading

and multifont machines. Devices incorporating one or both features include both the pioneering

and the more recent Farrington machines,^'^

Recognition Equipment Inc.'s "Electronic Retina

Character Reader".^^* and Philco's multifont

page reader.^ '^ Huntley (1964, p. 94) cites reject

rates for two operational alphanumeric page

reader installations as 1 in 100,000 and 6 in 100,000.

Among the advantages to be expected from multifont page readers are capabilities for reducing the

amount of proofreading required in the preparation

of manuscripts and other copy,'^-^** and for various

decentralizations of input preparation operations. ^-^^ Other important developments in multifont page

reading are the operational IBM 1975 Optical

Page Reader,'^^ the experimental Link Page

Reader developments at the Link Division, General

Precision, Inc.,^-^'' and laboratory investigations

at Sylvania.^-^"* Earlier investigations of muldfont

possibilities at IBM included the development

of computer programs for the design of recognition

logics to be applied to multifont inputs, including

two Cyrillic fonts (Kamentsky and Liu, 1963).

The Control Data 915 variable-format page

reader was designed for use with the recommended

optical character font (upper case) of the American

Standards Association but Hustvedt (1967, p. 3) notes that "the CDC reader Rabinow is now building

for Bank of America will operate with the loosest

possible constraints of a controlled operation ... it is expected to read the output of all typewriters

the bank owns and with very little or no constraint on format and other variable factors." A recent Japanese entry in the multifont field may also be

noted: the Toshiba OCR developments are directed

to the reading of six or more stylized fonts and

handwritten numerics.

In general, however, it is still reasonable to assume that: "The multiple font recognition

problem is probably the most intriguing challenge

of character sensing. When requirements for large quality tolerance, and cost compatible with

value, are added to this problem, basic recognition

philosophy, as well as the means for implementation,

must be re-evaluated." (Greanias, 1962, p. 145).

Nevertheless, multi-font optical character readers

are in use by or on order for such U.S. Government

agencies as the Social Security Administration

the Army Finance Office, the National Security

Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Li- brary of Congress, and the Rome Air Development

Center. In addition, a special Philco reader for Zip code recognition is being tested by the U.S. Post Office Department.^-2* The versatility of auto- matic character readers is still quite limited, however, both with respect to the number of fonts that can be processed without extensive manual handling ^-^^ and with respect to format differentiation

for inter-mixed input of varied type items.

Thus, a continuing R and D requirement in the area of information sensing and input is the development of more versatile, large vocabulary, multifont

page readers.^ '''' In a survey of the OCR field re- ported in 1966, Feidelman concludes: "The char- acter recognition field is relatively new, with much

work to be done on improving equipment perform- ance and developing character readers at lower

cost. Consequently, it is in an active state of de- velopmental flux that can be expected to continue

for several years. In the near future we can expect

to see the multi-font capability in aU standard char- acter readers. Further away, possibly in five years, character readers able to read handwriting should

be commercially available. By that time, we can

expect to see the character reader replacing punch

cards as the primary computer input medium."

(p. 52). For obvious reasons, it would appear likely that commercial interests in R & D in the computer and

information sciences are now and will continue to be largely oriented to those areas which promise the

relatively largest continuing markets. Multifont

page-reading automatic character recognition tech- niques may therefore be expected to be achieved

for a wide variety of preformatted schedules and

31
reports used extensively by business and industry

or as required by Governmental practice, yet such

developments are unlikely to be extended to the

typical page of a scientific or technical journal, in English; much less to those printed in Russian,

Japanese, or Chinese.

Programmed scanning and directed re-scanning

as preprocessing operations are becoming available

for certain types of character recognition requirements, such as the processing of variable formats

when several different forms are inter-mixed.^-^^ Further, "with a stored-program controller, the

system can determine three very important things

during a single reading pass: (1) Whether or not there has been a mistake in data preparation, (2) Whether or not there has been an omission in data

preparation, and (3) Whether or not the machine

has read the data correctly. Also, the system can

edit, accumulate, balance, verify check-digits,

check parity, and condense data to provide easier access and reduced storage costs. Exception documents can be marked and sorted during the single

reading pass, and details can be printed on a pe- ripheral printer so that corrections can be made

easily." (Philipson, 1966, p. 128.) In other potential applications, incoming textual materials may be scanned for the occurrence of certain key words or phrases which are then used

for mechanized indexing or for preliminary routing

or classification. This example is analogous to the rough sorting of incoming mail, where a pre- liminary distribution by subject-matter or field-of- interest is made by mailroom personnel. In some

operations, machine detection of certain marks

or symbols, other than the text, can be used in selective retranscription or re-use of data, such

as the reading and retranscription of those portions

of teletype messages that have been bracketed

by a human editor. Similarly, recognition of special symbols may

be made to result in self-adjustments of the reading

process such that the detection of underlining

by the machine may be used to cause the machine

to skip the reading of symbols that are underlined.

Conversely, the reader equipment may be designed

so that it reads only underlined material, such as the specific words in a patent text indicated by

an analyst as those to be converted to appropriate

code symbols for subsequent mechanized search.

However, much remains to be done before recognition equipment can successfully "read" a typical

documentary page.^-^^

How is a machine system to be given the necessary detailed instructions that will enable it to distinguish in automatic page reading applications

between the same symbol (such as ".") being

used as a punctuation mark terminating a sentence,

as a denotator of an abbreviation, or an indicator

of numeric fractions? ^-^^ A printed page may

also contain subscripts and superscripts, special

symbols, and graphic material such as mathematical equations, chemical structure diagrams.

charts, drawings, and photographs. In such cases,

a temporary solution may be to provide certain

manual preprocessing steps such as the sorting

of material by font type or the masking out of

graphic material and of footnotes appearing in small point size. There are also many unresolved problems in- volved in the development of suitable rules so that machine techniques can be used to distinguish

between title, heading, or page number and the

text itself, author's name in a cited reference and

the title of the reference cited, and so forth. Auto- matic recognition of discrete characters at input is difficult enough for character and font vocabularies

of adequate size for text-processing purposes

in any case, but Garfield (1965) points to "fantastic

syntactic problems even if the machine has a uni- versal multifont reading capability. For example,

in the citation, J. Chem. Soc. 1964, 1963, which

number is the year and which the page number?

These are not trivial problems." (p. 189).

A particularly severe variant of this problem

arises in the processing of texts involving inter- mixed languages, alphabets, and meta-textual emphases. The problem of subclass within a pattern

class is especially acute in character recognition

applications involving mixed alphabet input, where

either many-to-one or many-to-many identification

transcription is required. Thus, it may be required

to recognize the character shapes "A", "a", "a",

and "H" as all identifiable and transliteratable to ASCII code 10000001 (= 'A'), or it may be required

to separate the Greek and Cyrillic from the Roman

versions of the same character as separate identifi- cation classes. The problem is aggravated by the

fact that the existence of orthographic identity in character shapes does not necessarily imply identity

of character denotation. Consider that the mix is Cyrillic and Roman. When does the input character

pattern "H" denote 'H' and when 'N'? or "C",

indicate 'C and not 'S'? The current state of the art in optical character

recognition thus leaves much to be desired other

than for routine, massive operations involving large

volumes of simple, format-controlled messages and

records, which typically utilize limited, specialpurpose, standardized fonts and character sets. Beyond the questions of multiple fonts and large

character repertoires are problems of recognizing

noisy and degraded characters.

It is to be emphasized that "there is no known

shortcut to optical character reading, stylized fonts

included. The real problem is reading degraded

material, not different or stylized fonts." ^-^^^ Vander

Lugt et al., point out further that: "In the design of

any practical system, one must know how the sys- tem performs when the input characters are noisy.

Three kinds of noise are considered: changes in the

signal size, changes in the signal orientation, and

changes in the signal quality." (Vander Lugt et al., 1965, p. 131).

32
5.3.2. Performance Requirements and Quality Control

The problem areas of continuing concern therefore include those of paper handhng, quality control and performance monitoring, dealing with

noise and with degraded characters, reject handling, and error detection and correction techniques.^-^^ First, paper handling represents a major

factor in OCR equipment cost and a constraint on

the speed of automatic reading.^^^ Quality and

performance control efforts include the further

development of measurements of print characteristics ^-^^ such as ink smudge and bleed,^-^'' or of

light stability,^-^^ and of instrumentation such as the Kidder optical character tester,^^''or the Optical

Print Quality Monitor of International Computers

and Tabulators, Inc^^"

The need for extensive quality control measures

in OCR applications is further attested by Hustvedt

as follows: "The day of successful, economical

optical character recognition is here, as several

hundred operating installations attest. In all successful operations, however, control is exercised

over the preparation of documents to be scanned."

(Hustvedt, 1967, p. 2.) Controls are also required in the selection of good quality paper and in minimizing the effects of careless handling.'"*' Paper with extraneous

material likely to interfere with clear imprinting,

or even with watermarks, should be avoided if possible.^ ''^ The system planner considering

possible OCR applications must next consider

the quahty controls available in terms of hne and

character registration tolerances both for the

input items and for each of the equipments under

consideration.'^-^^ In experiments reported by Vitale (1965) the

objectives are to obtain figure-of-merit micasurements on sampled characters both to determine

degrees of degradation and to determine what

error and reject rates might be expected if recognition logics were adjusted to given levels of noisy

printing. Uffelman et al. (1967) have investigated

the character- and stroke-dependency of noise.^ '^^ However, it has been pointed out that "unfortunately, procedures for handling rejected and error documents are quite necessary at present. In aU fairness, it should be noted that most causes

of rejects are due to the source document rather

than the OCR device. Nevertheless, one must

consider the entire operation with its good and

bad documents against the present operation."

(Auerbach Corp., Source Data Automation, 1967,

p. 3-133.) Moreover, while the IBM 1975 multifont

reader operating at Social Security can read

between 50 and 60 percent of typical inputs, "any

improvements in the portion read must come

from improvement in the preparation of reports

by employers — a difficult matter." (Hustvedt,

1967, p. 3). The factors that are critical for the development

of performance specifications for any given application of automatic character recognition techniques are directly related to the objectives that are to be served in that intended application.^-^^^

Similarly, the operational requirements for a character recognition device are related to the characteristics of the situation in which it is to be applied

and to the standards of reference selected for performance measurement. The evaluation of a given character recognition system is therefore

directed as much or more to these factors as to the logical and mechanical characteristics of the

system or device itself. For example, in such massive paperwork activities as the keypunching of individual wage earnings

data from employer tax returns for social security

accounting, a steadily increasing work load may

rapidly outstrip available manpower. There may

be a high rate of turnover among personnel who

perform the necessary keyboard operations, and

a high training and replacement cost. In such

situations the basic management objective in looking toward automatic reading devices is to meet present manual output standards for an

increased volume of work. That objective would

then be of greater significance than increasing

the speed or the accuracy or decreasing the cost

of the transcription operations, although obtaining

these latter advantages would also be desirable.

Overall system requirements that determine

what factors wiU be most significant in evaluating

automatic character recognition techniques for a particular application involve the various stages of data origination, transmission, receipt, input to the

reading-recognition process, output, storage, and

subsequent use.'^-^^'' In any specific case, the per- tinency and weight to be assigned to the various

factors must be determined by thorough fact- finding and analysis of present and desired conditions and procedures. In general, possibilities for maintaining high quality input, limiting the size of the vocabulary, handling carrier items efficiently,

and meeting realistic reliability requirements, should

outweigh questions of a position-dependent as versus shape-dependent recognition logic, of per- missible reject rates, and of speed or rate of recognition. In particular, the accuracy of the recognition

system output cannot be expected to exceed the

accuracy of the data or information as it is initially

generated and initially recorded.

5.4. Recognition of Handprinted Characters,

Handwriting, Geometric Shapes, and Line

Drawings

In terms of continuing experimentation there are

a number of R & D requirements with respect to many other areas of potential application of optical

character recognition techniques. The case of constrained handprinting may be noted first. The most

rigorous constraints are those involved in handprinting the character within a specified area (such

as a preprinted box) but with arbitrary embellishments as in a patent issued to Dickinson and

33
© ©

Cr ©

FOSCRIPT SCANNING FORMAT

Figure 8. FOSCRIPT decoding criteria.

Wheeler in 1941 ^-^s or in a FOSDIC development.^ 46

It is to be noted that, in the latter case, since the

FOSCRIPT scanning technique scans only for black

in specified areas outside or inside the guide-line

boxes (as shown in Fig. 8), these need not be in a separate color of drop-out ink, as is the case in most

of the other constrained handprinted or handwritten

character recognition techniques.

5.4.1. Constrained Handprinting

Typically, constraints involve the use of restrictive guidelines to control variations of size in characters

as printed, including, for example, ascenderdescender lengths relative to other characters; the

requirement that characters be drawn as closely as possible to an exemplar shape (e.g., "4" rather than

see also Fig. 16, App. A, p. A. 116), or arbitrary

centering and "crossing" requirements, as about

preprinted dots, and combinations of these controls.-^^^^ The acceptability of such constraints to typical users must of course be considered.^ '*^*' Then there are techniques that involve what might

be termed critical area or vector "crossings" detection, e.g., that character strokes cross or do not cross superimposed lines or do or do not occur in certain

arbitrary areas of an image field. These techniques

have been investigated with particular reference

to constrained hand-printed characters, as developed, for example, at IBM (Johnson, 1951) and at Bell Laboratories (Dimond, 1957).5 ''7

In developments at Standard Elektric Lorenz,

Stuttgart, West Germany, Dietrich has also made

some investigations of possibilities for recognizing

constrained handwritten numerals, to be inscribed

in boxes with two preprinted dots, in a manner

similar to the IBM and Dimond techniques. Then

there is a patent issued to Vernon and Walsh (1962)

which considers the use of a six dot and a 'forbidden

area' constraint for handwritten characters.^ ''^ Somewhat closely related to some of these dot- constrained techniques, especially those involving use of the sequence of stylus movements for identification purposes, are several systems for on-line input of graphic patterns, specifically including handprinted or handwritten characters.^-^^^ Groner (1966), for example, reports a relatively

simple recognition scheme together with con- venient editing features.^ Earlier investigations

in this area include patents issued to Crane (1964)^-^*' and Harmon (1964),^^^ and work by Roberts ^-^^ and others at M.I.T. and in cooperating organizations such as Mitre Corporation and Bolt, Beranek,

and Newman.

34
On-line handprinted or handwritten character

(or word or signature) recognition techniques are

of increasing importance in many man-machineinteractive experimental operations. One recent example is the "SH.A.PE SHIFTER".5.52a Another

example is to be found at S.D.C.^-^-'' (It should

be noted, of course, that many of the techniques

involving stylus, light-pen. or equivalent on-Une

input are highly dependent upon the sequence

of character or word or signature formation and thus

are not generally transferable to other handwriting

recognition apphcationsl.

Commercially available equipment in the constrained hand-printed area is represented by

IBM with a sales check appUcation as early as 1965 ^-^^ (and more recently the 1287 reader has

been introduced: °-^}, and by Recognition Equipment. Inc.,5-^^ Information International. Incor- porated (III),^-^^ Philco and CDC.^-^' and the

Optical Scanning Corporation.^-^^ A capabiHty

for recognition of handprinted numerics has also been claimed for the Cognitronics ROCK {Remole

Optical Character i?ecognition) development

previously mentioned. (See p. 17 and note ^^^^). The REI equipment, in particular, combines

high-speed multifont type^NTiter or handprinted

alphanumeric recognition at high speed with high

speed sorting of input documents. An entry by

Toshiba in Japan has been noted previously (see

p. 31 and note ^-^). For another example, at OHvetti in Italy, the

basic recognition concept being investigated

involves a multi-topological system for the detection of line directions, connections, intersections

and relative positions of intersection as appHed

not only to the ISO styhzed A and B fonts but

to handwritten numerals as well. A distinctive

feature of the Ohvetti approach (i.e., in contrast

to multifont techniques involving shifting from

one font to another) is claimed to be the capabiHty

of handhng a family of fonts, so that the system

can recognize characters var\"ing as to pitch,

I size, stroke widths and edge tolerances.

( Other present or potential suppHers of OCR

' equipment who have considered appHcations to constrained hand-printed characters, include

Sylvania,^-^^ Farrington.^-^'' Bull ^-^^^ and work on

^ possible Zip Code applications by Burroughs. Control

• Data (Rabinow). and Philco-Ford ^-^^ as well as by

j NCR.'-^- but, in general, it is to be noted that:

I "Some of the techniques currently being investiI

gated in connection with hand written documents

are curve tracing, detection of selected features,

1 and context recognition . . .. Although a number

of companies are working on the problem, most

' of the work has been kept confidential." (Feidelman

and Katz. 1967, p. 0210:31).

5.4.2. Handwritten Characters and Handwriting

Stylus and light pen input techniques for the

direct entry of handprinted or handwritten information have been mentioned previously (Sec. 4.2). Here, we are concerned with the property filtering

and recognition techniques. Pioneering approaches

to the recognition of relatively unconstrained handprinted or hand-written characters by Selfridge

(1955. 1956). Dineen (1955), and Clark and Farley

(1955) stressed the problems of extracting the

significant features from a background of noisy or

irrelevant detail. In simulations of machine recognition of handdrawn characters they specifically

developed various types of filtering of the source

pattern in order to extract such features, especially

the detection of edges and corners. Later developments at M.I.T. have included the work of Doyle,

Sherman. Roberts, and Teitelman. among others. In a 1965 survey of automatic recognition of handwriting. Lindgren covers the work of Earnest,^-^-^

Frishkopf and Harmon, and Mermelstein and Eden,

Doyle (1959) provided an early example of computer

simulation of a scheme for the recognition of largely

unconstrained handprinted alphabetic characters,

using 28 criterial features. The machine simulation

of the technique resulted in computer recognition,

which was correct approximately 87 percent of the

time, of "sloppy" handprinted characters.

The emphases in this program were on parallel

processing of the observed against the master

identification formulas and on derivation of probabilities of occurrence of the results of criterial feature

tests by extensive testing with samples of the char- acters to be recognized. The handprinted characters, whether "teaching' samples or unknowns

to be recognized, were constrained by the frame

within which they were printed but otherwise were

often badly formed and noisy. Further investigations

of the frequency with which a given character was

confused with some other showed that many of the incorrect recognitions were for character pairs

CA', 'H") where the source pattern would be almost

equally ambiguous for a human reader.

Sherman's investigations (1959) were concerned

with the problems of recognition of hand-printed

characters, especially the search for character

invariants where the source patterns may vary in

size, slant, registration, rotation, and the like. Since the use of hoUstic templates would be impractical because of the enormous number of possible combinations of pattern parameters, Sherman

turned to the field of mathematical topolog>% with

particular reference to gi-aph theory, for his criteria of recognizability. The use of graph theory enables

the encoding of a given pattern in the form of a con- nection matrix. The rows and columns of this connection matrix correspond to the nodes of the

graph, while its elements correspond to the number

of connections or Hne segments between the nodes.

However, the connection matrix in this form would

not discriminate between characters having 90°

or 180° ambiguity, or otherwise having topological

equivalence (e.g., "S" and "2"). In Roberts (1960) experiments models of adaptive

networks were investigated with respect to recogni35
tion of the same handprinted characters used in the Sherman tests of the quasi-topological method

for character recognition.^-^^ Other hand-printed

character recognition experiments of interest in- clude those of Highleyman (1961, 1962),5-63a Spinrad

(1965)563b and Vossler (1962)f-63c and BriU

(1968).5-63d To date, the most common approach to feature- extraction recognition of relatively unconstrained

handwritten characters has involved some form of

contour-foUowing or of extraction of angles, slopes,

and directions of junctions and disjunctions of con- tour strokes.^-^^^ For example, at IBM, in a handwriting reader system, "the flying spot actually traces the outHne of the character it is looking at. These tracings are converted to voltage wave forms

internally. These wave forms are then compared

against statistical probabihty tables that were generated in conjunction with Tufts University [from]

unconstrained handwriting samples .... About

100,000 numerals were fed into the system, and

reliabihty and accurate reading of about 98? per- cent was developed." (Merz, 1964, p. 84.)^ 63f

Kuhl's (1963) approach, involving an angular

mapping transformation derived from contour fol- lowing, resulted in 95 percent correct recognition

of several hundred hand-printed numerics and

upper-case block letters.^^^ At the British General

Post Office Research Station, computer simulation

investigations of the recognition of handwritten

alphanumerics have been carried out using a tech- nique that encodes directions of connections from

a matrix cell for quantized, thinned character stroke

with respect to its eight nearest neighbors. (Deutsch,

1966).

Variations on contour-foUowing techniques have

been or are being used.^-^*^ In discussions of a paper

by Sprick and Ganzhorn (1959) at the International

Conference on Information Processing, several

techniques were described. For example, Elkind

obtained 85 percent accuracy in experimental rec- ognition of handprinted block capitals by deter- mining slopes of character hues, dividing the slopes

into three categories, and determining the number

of incidences for each category per character. Work

at the Dahlgren Proving Ground has also been re- ported in which curve tracing was employed, but

the input pattern elements consisted of indications

of horizontal and vertical motion and of transfers

from one mode to another.

A variation of contour following that is nonreentrant was used in a prototype reader for handwritten numerics at Rabinow Engineering, a subsidiary of Control Data (Holt, 1964). Greanias et al. (1963), for numerics only, used a helical scan to trace large segments and a small circular scan to examine detail.^-^^ A principal difference between

the Greanias developments at IBM and the Control

Data approach is that, in the latter case. Holt's "watchbirds" involve the use of conventional scan- ners and tracking circuits that record beginnings.

joints, sphts, and ends of hues together with their

positions relative to one another.^-^^^ Marill and Green (1960) have used a variation

of a vector crossing scheme in a proposed model

of pattern recognition as apphed to handwritten

characters. In this scheme, involving in effect a polar scan where the vectors dissect the image

field at 45° intervals, they measure the distance

along each radial vector from the edge of the field until the first character portion crossing is detected.

Kelly and Singer (1960) have also investigated means for obtaining characteristics of curves, for character recognition purposes, by measuring

distances from the center of gravity with respect

to radial vectors. Various operations to reduce noise by local averaging, to standardize line widths, to extract

criterial features, and to ascertain the relative location and size of such extracted features, are exemplified in the system described by Bomba.^-^^

This has been tested on handprinted samples

of 34 alphanumeric characters, using a scanner developed by Highleyman and Kamentsky (1959)

and simulation on an IBM computer.

Sometimes not only features but relationships

between the features are required to be detected,

as in Sutter's 1960 patent for recognition of handwritten numeric characters, such as the following:

"The initial stroke of the symbol or numeral

is inclined downward toward the right. . . . "Within the second zone there is a scanning

fine on which a second pulse occurs, this pulse

being later in time than the first pulse or, in other words, there is a stroke to the right of

the stroke being followed, . . . In Unger's SPAC, or "Spatial Computer" (1958), a rectilinear network of logical modules was

proposed in which each module has direct contact with its four immediate neighbors, and in which

all modules simultaneously receive an identical

command or instruction from' the master control

unit. Programs have been written and tested to simulate SPAC in the recognition of handprinted

alphanumeric characters and in the detection of

L- and A-shaped features in sets of randomly

drawn patterns.^^^^ For character recognition

operations, the Unger technique consists first in smoothing, image enhancement, and clean-up

operations. These operations fill in holes in other- wise black areas or small indentations in otherwise

straight edges, they eliminate isolated "black"

cells including those that create small protrusions

from an edge, and under certain conditions they

fiU in missing corner points.

For 34 alphanumeric characters tested, 34

features or properties were used by Unger for discrimination. These are primarily features that can be detected by contour-tracing (horizontal

cavity open above, vertical cavity open to the right, for example), but the fist includes some relative- position-dependent and proportion-dependent

properties as well, such as "leftmost point of a 36
vertical cavity open to the right lies in the upper

two thirds of the figure", and "height of the left leg

of a V-shaped figure less than half the height of the

right leg." Although the processing operations are

carried out simultaneously and in parallel over the

entire image field, the choice of the 'next step',

given the outcomes for any one operation, follows a decision-tree structure. Fritzsche (1961) has further

considered applications of the basic Unger approach.

Other character recognition experiments involving hand-printed characters include those at the

Astropower Laboratory.^ ®" and those of Fischler,^-®^

Lewis,^ ®^ Minneman,^ Spilerman,^ '' Uyehara,^ "- and Weeks.^ '^ among others. A particularly difficult case is indicated by reports of experiments in recognizing hand printed Chinese characters at Purdue University.^ '^ An approach to the recognition of handwritten Katakana characters (table of

Japanese word-syllables), which are composed of

nearly straight strokes, has been described by

Noguchi et al. (1967).

Another variant on raster-interception techniques,

such as those of Weeks, is provided by Glucksman,

who proposes that characteristic locations of types

of interceptions can be utihzed for recognition of

multifont characters, including those that are handprinted.^ "^^ An approach also somewhat

similar to that of Weeks is reported with respect

to developments for handprinted character recognition in the U.S.S.R., where iterative scanning

processes are applied to a normalized rectangular

matrix covering the input character image, with

changing inclinations of 'vertical' rows and correlations with each of the reference patterns are obtained for each scan. For computer simulations

of this technique. 20 persons contributed 50

handprinted characters each and the results were

that "from the total of 1,000 characters about 96

percent were correctly recognized." (Kovalevsky,

1966, p. 567).

"Learning" models such as the various Perceptron models, those developed in Steinbuch's laboratory at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe,

Gamba's 'PAPA' devices, and Conflex I, have been

designed primarily to test various theories with

respect to simulation of human processes of

perception and concept formation or to artificial intelligence problems, rather than with respect

to the development of practical character readers.

These will therefore be considered briefly in Section 5.7, on theoretical approaches to pattern

recognition and characterization.

A number of R & D efforts directed toward pattern

recognition and classification problems in general

have involved the use of handprinted characters for

tests and demonstrations. Among the many possible

examples we note the following:

(a) McLaughhn and Raviv (1968).5^''b

(b) Chen (1966).-^^^

(c) Prather and Uhr (1964).5-7'''* (d) Chow and Liu (1966).5-7«

The problem of automatic signature identification

is also being explored, for example, at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, where an off-line input device permits conversion of either light-pen

input or microfilm images to magnetic tape. The

account number of the presumptive writer is known

and the problem is to identify the signature for rec- ognition purposes.^-^^ Studies reported by Mauceri

(1965) involve on-line verifications of signatures to prevent highly expert forgeries, and include considerations of relative acceleration and pen-towriting-surface contacts.^•'^^ Marzocco (1965) has

investigated the automatic identification of first-name

signatures. ^-^^^ Longer range R&D concerns involve the problems of cursive handwriting in general. The original

research approach at Bell Laboratories involved

input from the writer via a captive stylus so that X

and Y coordinates were automatically generated by

his pen. The first significant feature detected in

this system was that of relative vertical extent within

or beyond a baseline and a parallel guide line above

it. A rough first sorting then provided groupings of

characters with ascenders, those with descenders,

those with both, and all other characters. A second

criterial feature was the presence or absence of

retrograde strokes. Abrupt changes in slope (or 'cusps') were also detected as were the presence or absence of loops or near loops and special marks

such as the dot of the "i" or the cross-bar of the

5.77 Appropriate combinations of these criterial fea- tures can be used for letter-by-letter recognition of handwritten words where the word can be seg- mented so as to locate its letter constituents with

reasonable accuracy.^ "^ Frishkopf and Harmon

(1960, 1961) also considered possibifities of rec- ognizing the handwritten word as a whole, again

emphasizing that the highly variable and nonessential details of a particular source pattern

should be eliminated as far as possible and that the significant features should be isolated and

preserved.^-^* D. A. Young in 1960 suggested the automatic

input and recognition of handwritten computer

programs, and current investigations along this

line include work at the Technische Hochschule,

Karlsruhe, with respect to handwritten words as used in ALGOL programming. Also under investi- gation at Karlsruhe are techniques for the automatic

classification of handwritten characters, involving

consideration of various methods of determining the

discriminating criteria as derived from large samples

of characters. The methods used are similar to those suggested by Kamentsky (1961) ^''^^ and by

Uhr and Vossler (1961), and Simplex methods

are also being tried. An integrated scanner-computer system can be used to simulate linear classi- fying networks and to investigate automatic classifi- cation techniques under feedback control.^-^^ Eden and HaUe (1960) have discussed both the

synthesis of cursive handwriting and its analysis,

37
finding that 18 strokes appear to be discriminative

for well-formed Latin scripts. Neisser and

Weene (1960) have also studied human recognition

performance, using the same handprinted upper

case letters used in the Sherman machine experiments, to determine types of error, overall accuracy,

and confusion data. Mermelstein and Eden (1964) have based their

handwriting recognition experiments upon analyses

of the intrinsic hand movements that are involved

in writing cursive script. Words were segmented

into strokes and the strokes were recognized in terms of the statistical probabihties of their belonging to pre-selected classes. ^-^^ Still other examples

in this area are provided by current investigations

at MIT,5 «i by Simek and Tunis (1967)5 si ^ by Teixeira and Sallen (1968).5-8"'

5.4.3. Shapes and Drawings

Techniques being developed for automatic

character recognition should also eventually be

applicable to the recognition of simple geometric

shapes and of schematic stylized graphic material

such as is found in line drawings and electrical

circuit or chemical structure diagrams. The potentialities for automatic recognition of graphic infor- mation specifically include the problems of machine

encoding of chemical structures. The Perkin-Elmer

Corporation, which has been active in pattern

recognition developments for blood-cell identifi- cation, has also explored the problems of machine

recognition of chemical structure diagrams.

Investigations in this latter area by Cossum et al. (1964) have been mentioned previously (p. 23). The first approaches to machine recognition of

simple shapes in hne drawings had already been

demonstrated in the 1950's, for example, by Shepard

(1959) , Harmon (1960), Hodes (1961), and Singer

(1961) among others. At the Western Joint Computer

Conference held in Los Angeles in May 1961,

Uhr and Vossler (1961) reported additional results from a pattern recognition program, including

recognition of outUne drawings of shoes, chairs,

and comic strip cartoon faces. Fain (1960), a Soviet

scientist working in the field, has been reported as investigating possibihties for recognition of three- dimensional object by a technique involving

possible projections in terms of a grid mask.

Questions of machine-usable techniques for shape-recognition in the abstract (e.g., triangles as

vs. squares, regardless of size or of position in the

input-image-plane), have been explored by Harmon,

(1960) , Unger (1958, 1959), Deutsch (1955), Stevens

(1961), and Glucksman (1965), among many others. Harmon, in particular, developed a special device

for Gestalt-type recognition of line drawings of

circles, triangles, squares, etc. With the use of a dilating circular scan, similar transformations

are obtained for geometrically similar figures,

with variations of source pattern size being trans- lated into time-of-arrival changes in the derivation

of the input pattern. Topological relationships are preserved under rotation. The problems of detect- ing relatively invariant features for the recognition

of geometric shapes have also been attacked, both

by criterial features extraction and by "parapropagation" techniques.^-s^ In general, however, continuing R&D requirements for automatic character recognition progress

require increased attention to: esoteric alphabets;

hand-printed characters other than the numeric

set alone (and, here, for improved efficiency for the numeric case such as Zip-coding); cursive handwriting for both automatic signature and word

identification; the further exploitation of contextpredictive techniques; and detailed fact-finding

investigations as well as experimental development

of format differentiation and field-content-identifi- cation procedures.^-s^^

The automatic recognition of cursive handwriting

shares with automatic speech recognition, moreover, difficult problems of segmentation.^-^^'' The

problems of automatic speech recognition comprise a particularly difficult area of pattern recognition R&D requirements for other reasons as

well.5-82c

5.5. Speech and Speaker Recognition

Some of the difficulties of automatic speech

recognition relate to the physical, physiological,

and psychological phenomena of vocahzation;^-^^'^ others to cultural phenomena, such as broad varia- tions in the evolution of spoken languages and the

continual emergence of dialects at many levels,^-^^ and still others to differences which occur for one and the same speaker.^-^^^ In the first category, that of physiological factors,

marked differences are found as between male and

female speakers. ^ In the second category, it is noted that "another difficulty arises from the dif- ferent dialects in common use. Here the same words

or phrases spoken by different talkers will have

different phonetic content. Thus transliteration

from a sequence of phonetic elements to English

words may involve complex linguistic structure." (David and Selfridge, 1962, p. 1098). The converse

of this problem is that of homonyms — words that are pronounced the same although they have dif- ferent meanings and may be spelled differently,

such as "bear" and "bare". Thus Hogan remarks:

"Problems of recognition from continuous text and

the linguistic resolution of acoustic ambiguities

(e.g., two, too, to) are problems that will be with

us for a long while." (Hogan, 1966, p. 93.)

Investigations into the possibihties for automatic

speech recognition began early at the Bell Telephone Laboratories (David, 1958, cites unpubfished

work of Kersta in 1947 and of Gait in 1951 with

reference to recognition of spoken numbers from

sound spectrograms ^^^), at the University College

of the City of London (Fry and Denes, 1956, 1958)

and at M.I.T.^-^^^ Early work in automatic recogni38
tion of spoken digits includes the investigations of Davis et al. (1952) and Sebesyten (1962). At the

NPL Symposium on the Mechanisation of Thought

Processes, held in Teddington, England, in 1958, a recognition device was demonstrated that served,

in effect, as a phonetically operated typewriter.

Other approaches to a phonetic typewriter principle

include work at Kyoto University, Japan (Maeda and

Sakai, I960: Sakai and Doshita, 1962, 1963), and at RCA (Meeker and Green, 1961; Meeker et al, 1962).

A vowel recognition technique, using clustering

methods for the classification of presumably rep- resentative samples, is described by Dammann

(1965) 5.85b Continuing R&D efforts in the United States in speech analysis and recognition are exemplified by

projects at the Air Force Cambridge Research

Laboratories (Petrick and Willett, 1960), at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Forgde and

Forgie, 1959), the University of Michigan (Peterson,

1963, 1966), and work at Philco-Ford,'-*^'^ among

others. Other Japanese examples include work at the Electrotechnical Laboratory, Kokusa Deusin

Denwa Company, Tohoku University, and the Electric Wave Research Laboratory.^^^ Further British

efforts in the field may be exemplified by work re- ported by Lavington and Rosenthal.^ Some recent European examples wiU be discussed below. It is to be noted that a 1966 review by Bhimini et al dis- cusses both speech analysis and recognition problems in the context of man-machine systems.

In terms of experimentation and instrumentation

difficulties, there is first the question of analytical

equipment available to detect and measure the

properties and characteristics of speech in a given

speaker's utterances, and there are secondly the

problems of adequate sampling to set up a comprehensive basis for recognition of many vocalized

sounds and many different speakers. ^-^^ Also, it has been noted that "the acoustic power available

for speech recognition appears to be rather small. The significant fact here is that this small percentage

tends to be masked by the rest." (Garvin, 1965, p. 112.)

The effectiveness of preprocessing operations

such as is so important in character recognition

is thus at least equally critical in speech recognition.

For detection and extraction of criterial features

in speech, there has been frequent use of filter bank analyzers -^^^ and sonograph equipment

which provides a continuous record of frequency

and amplitude as against time. ^-^^ A sound spectrograph developed at the Communication Sciences

Laboratory, University of Michigan, incorporates

special features including the automatic marking

onto the spectrogram of time, frequency, and

ampHtude scales. (Dunn et aL, 1966). In general, "feature detection performs a trans- formation on the primary measurement space,

with the intention of producing a secondary

measurement space in which the effects due to . . . distortions are largely normahzed out." (King and

Tunis, 1966, p. 70). However, there is much less agreement among speech recognition workers

(and in fact there is much continuing controversy)

with respect to the choice of which features in speech are significant and discriminating. The

1963 remarks of Garvin and Karush are largely

still pertinent today: "The phonetic substance of language clearly lends itself physically to both

reproduction and measurements, but very few of

the parameters required for the recognition of the

linguistic content of the acoustic signal have as yet been found." (p. 369)

One of the most obvious attacks on problems

of mechanized speech recognition is that of the

measurement and anlysis of "formants".^-^** However, while it has been argued that "the success

of speech synthesizers based on Dudley's model

has adequately demonstrated that it is the fre- quency spectrum (specifically, the energy concentrations in the frequency domain, or 'formants')

of the speech waveform . . . that is the information

carrier" (King and Tunis, 1966. p. 67), various

investigators are not convinced that formants

are good measures for use in automatic speech

recognition systems. ^-^^ David and Selfridge (1962, p. 1098), point out

that typical recognition techniques use either

"spectral templates or parametic property lists",

giving as examples formant locations, overall

intensity, and voice-unvoiced status. Earlier,

David had suggested that the appropriate parameters of speech analysis should be functions of

the voice pitch and that "pitch detection is fundamental to the whole problem of speech analysis,

and quite likely to speech recognition as well, for a variety of talkers and pitches." (1958, p. 307.)

Gold (1962) has investigated computer programs

for pitch extractions from recorded speech. Reddy

(1967) describes a computer process that deter- mines pitch periods by the recognition of the

peak structure of the speech waveform. This work at Stanford University, supported by ARPA, should be

useful in speech analysis since changes in the pitch

of a sound contain information about phrase

boundaries and points of stress. Moreover, it is claimed that "more intelligible and higher quality

speech can be obtained in speech communication

using Vocoders by transmitting pitch information

along with the bank-compressed spectrum of the

sound." (Reddy, 1967, p. 343. Further references

are to Flanagan, 1965, and Schroeder and David,

1960). Elsewhere, Reddy (1966) has considered some of the problems of segmentation of speech

sounds.

The approach of Kusch (1965) at the Telefunken

Laboratories, Ulm, West Germany, is based on the

assumption that the formants (or characteristic

frequencies) do not provide sufficiently reliable information for speech recognition because of

frequency displacements of sounds from one

speaker to another. Instead, Kusch is concerned

with the derivation of characteristics from both

39
the fine and the coarse structures of the con- tinuous speech signal.

For the recognition of spoken numerals (where,

in German, a number of different pronunciations

are found), Kusch first uses two coding matrices,

the first for detection of sound groups specified by

the binary formulas for presence or absence of

high amplitudes at five time intervals. The second

coding matrix relates the detection of presence or absence of sound-group indicia to the identification

of the 10 spoken numerals, in either German or English. It is claimed that, for well pronounced

digits and for small differences in sound intensity,

the equipment gives excellent automatic recognition.

However, in colloquial speech, many sounds rnay be pronounced indistinctly, too loudly, or too softly,

often with large differences in sound intensity occurring within a single word. Therefore, the one component is divided into two parts with low and high

sensitivities respectively. In tests to date, for experiments with 37 male and 37 female speakers, an overall average recognition accuracy of 87

percent was obtained without adjustments of the

equipment for the different speakers, and without

compensation for wide variations of natural sound

intensity and wide spreads in pitch. A second set of experiments involved normalization of the sound

intensities to the same level and achieved improvement in average recognition accuracy to 93 percent

correct automatic identifications.^^'

Von Keller (1966) at the Technische Hochschule,

Karlsruhe, has also explored several alternatives,

including frequency analyses, autocorrelation, and

zero crossings of the speech wave. He points out

that the measurement of formants automatically

involves difficulties because they tend to lie be- tween the lines of the frequencies. He is therefore

concerned with first zero crossings of autocorrelation functions for the first two formants. Other

aspects of the zero crossing analysis approach in- cludes determinations of the time intervals between

zero crossings on the speech wave curve and the

number of such crossings that fall within certain

time intervals. At the Institut fiir Phonetik und Kommunikationsforschung. University of Bonn, under the general

direction of Ungeheuer (1965), developments for speech analysis and recognition include phase

spectrum analyses and derivation of auto-correlation functions of fricatives in the initial position;

equipment to measure width of intervals between

zero crossings for clipped speech. A system of Ungeheuer's design is used to separate high and

low frequency components, to integrate filter out- puts every three seconds, and to provide output

results to an X-Y oscillograph. A prototype word

recognizer was begun in 1962 and demonstrated at the ICA Congress in Belgium in 1965.^-^^ Sakai and Doshita (1963) also make use of zero- crossing analysis, using the phoneme as the basic

recognition unit. They report satisfactory recognition with respect to Japanese monosyllables as being

at the 90 percent level for vowels and 70 percent

for consonants with some exceptions. ^^^'^ In the U.S.S.R., also, it is to be noted that "auto- matic machines discerning sounds of speech, are being designed with the aim of searching general

peculiarities of the spectrum that are retained after various transformations." (Ivanov, 1961, p. 15).^-^^ A spoken-word recognizer involving adaptive fea- tures is also under development at the Standard

Telecommunication Laboratories in England. (Hill, 1955) 5.95 Returning to the United States, relatively recent speech recognition research is to be noted at the

Communication Sciences Laboratory, University

of Michigan (Peterson, 1966), the National Cash

Register Company (Otten, 1965), Lockheed's Palo

Alto Research Laboratory (Bhimani et al., 1966),

and elsewhere. Tappert (1966), uses computer

simulations to investigate neural models of the

speech recognition process, incorporating preproc- essing operations that detect time sequences of

features. In an ONR-sponsored project at Columbia

University the objective is to investigate problems

of automatic speech recognition and synthesis with

emphasis on spectrum analysis using Gaussian

filters and subsequent computer processing of the

data. (Harris, 1966.)

A correct recognition rate in the 90 percent range

has been reported by King and Tunis [1966] for different male speakers using limited, arbitrary

vocabularies of 15-30 words (i.e., those used in a

specific programming language).^-^^ However, we may emphasize the fimited nature of results in speech recognition research and development to date by noting that these authors claim: "It may

be concluded that the techniques investigated in

this work are adequate for achieving a forced

decision recognition rate of at least 98 percent over

a range of male speakers and for arbitrary vocabularies of up to thirty words." (King and Tunis, 1966,

p. 78 (underlining supplied).) Petrick and WiUett

(1960) claimed similar accuracy for a vocabulary

of up to 83 words. A demonstration model of an

adaptive recognition device, "Cynthia IH", successfully recognized up to 25 words after training

with a particular speaker. (Lesti, 1963).^"^'' By

contrast, it is suggested that "no serious forecast

about computer systems in the 1970's can omit

voice recognition systems with several-thousandword vocabularies." (Diebold, 1966, p. 297).

Voice recognition, recognition of cursive handwriting and the isolation of particular characters or shapes in multiple-pattern or noisy background

share problems of both segmentation and re- integration. For example. Davies points out that one

of the more difficult problems of speech recognition

resembles that in machine stenotype recognition

where it is necessary to go to the level of syntactic

analysis before word separations can be made.

(Davies, 1962, p. 67). Then we note that "as K. N.

Stevens succinctly puts it, 'the segmentation

problem is the fact that you can't segment'."

40
(Lindgren, 1965, p. 51). [based on private communication].

Garvin points to "the very difficult speechrecognition problem of recognizing the boundaries

of stretches within a semicontinuous signal" and,

further, that "the natural vocal signal is semicontinuous. That is, the number of physically observable breaks in the continuity of the stream of

human speech is much smaller than the number of

discrete elements into which the signal may be

decomposed in either alphabetic writing or linguistic

analysis." (Garvin, 1963, p. 112-114).

In addition, phonetic signal strings raise special

problems of segmentation and of junctures (or

interruptions to the continuity of a stream of

speech). It is therefore suggested that: "Linguistic

and acoustic research on the phonetic characteristics of junctures will undoubtedly make significant

contributions to this aspect of speech recognition."

(Garvin, 1963, p. 113).

Thus, the input to direct machine processing

of spoken messages, for other than a severely

restricted vocabulary of approximately two dozen

words, awaits considerable further research and

development effort in the area of automatic speech

recognition. In particular, it can be emphasized

that "a practical device should be capable of

automatically segmenting a continuous stream

of speech, correcting for the individual's speech

characteristics and dialect patterns, and recognizing

the information content of the incoming speech

signal." (Bhimani et al., 1966, p. 279). In speech recognition, also, as in sophisticated

types of character recognition and in graphic

pattern recognition generally, there are continuing

research requirements for the design of appropriate

measurement spaces ^-^^ and increased appreciation

is developing that many of the problems will not

yield to solution until far more attention has been

given to underlying semantic and contextual

factors. ^-^^ Specific research requirements are suggested by King and Tunis (1966, p. 78) as follows: "Other areas which require additional work include

the problems of word segmentation, and discrimination of voiced, unvoiced, and mixed speech

from background noise." To these problems

Bhimani et al. (1966) add those of time normalization of speech.

We note again possible avenues to cross-fertili- zation in the fact that in many language-dataprocessing operations (to be discussed in a later report in this series), the problems of determining

proper segmentation as between word roots and

affixes are often critical,^-^^ but may yield to the same types of solutions as may be developed for speech recognition and the recognition of cursive

handwriting. King and Tunis point to stiU another

continuing research difficulty as follows: "Transformations that will eliminate the effects of variations in speed of talking and other differences in format structure between speakers must still be

found." (King and Tunis, 1966, p. 78).

The converse of the latter point (that is, to find the speech characteristics peculiar to a given

speaker), is required in the case of automatic

speaker identification which is a special, limited case of voice recognition. Thus, at the University

of Bonn, Ungeheuer's system provides the capability for photographing the different domains for movements (on the X-Y display) of coordinate

positions specific for different speakers and of

the characteristically different vowel triangles

(see Fig. 9). Further processes involve separations

of the first and second formants by density distribu- tions of zero crossings, and determinations of the

number of zero crossings per 3-second intervals,

giving other plottings. Using such data, it is possible

to identify speakers independently of the text uttered, and significant differences between

professional imitators and the public figures whose

voices they are imitating can be shown graphically.

A related problem is that of speaker or "voice

print" identification when the speakers are uttering

certain code words. Tillman (1965) has analyzed

100 to 200 classes of sonograms of a particular word

as uttered by 10 different speakers in order to detect

differential features, particularly those of a general

nature. Then it is noted that "Prestigiacomo at Bell Labs has produced contour spectrograms that show relative intensities that do not show up on

the conventional spectrograms. These relative intensity patterns are claimed to be the clue to individual speaker identification." (Lindgren,

1965, p. 127).

EarUer investigations at the Air Force Cambridge

Research Laboratories suggested a possible pro- gram whereby "an unknown speaker says his word

into the computer and obtains one of the following

types of responses: 'That was John Jones speaking

the digit three; I don't know who you are, stranger,

but you spoke the digit two, I don't have the slightest

idea who you are or what you said; speak more

distinctly and repeat your word again, please'."

(Petrick and Willett, 1960, p. 15). Another example is provided by investigations

at Scope, Inc., which stress the importance of

nasals. The approach uses 25-element vectors to represent spectra of 30 different speakers with

respect to a 50-word vocabulary. Test results to date show 45 percent recognition accuracy for single test utterances ranging up to 93 percent for 10 utterances. Pierce points out that "progress is being made in the automatic identification of

speakers by voice, as a substitute for a handwritten signature, and this could play an important

part in banking and other credit transactions."

(Pierce, 1966, p. 148).

A commercial approach to the solution of voiceprint identification problems is represented by

the recent purchase of Voiceprint Laboratories,

Summerville, New Jersey, by Farrington Manufacturing Company.^-^""

A 3-year program to explore the use of voiceprints in criminal identification has been initiated

41
Abb. 2: Sprecher S Abb. 3: Sprecher Kr

by the Justice Department in cooperation with the

Michigan Department of State Police. s-'"*"' We note of course that to identify a new "sample"

of handwritten signature or vocal utterance of a password or impression of a fingerprint as being

sufficiently "like" prior samples as to warrant

access, for example to privileged files, is theoretically far less of an R & D problem than to detect

and identify patterns of speech, or fingerprints, or cursive handwriting, as such.

5.6. Other Pattern Identification and

Recognition Areas

The difficulties with respect to the automatic

pattern identification of fingerprints relate on the one hand to the extreme complexity of these

patterns and on the other hand to the very large

numbers of patterns on file (i.e., typically, in the

tens of millions) against which an input pattern or

set of patterns is to be searched. Some relatively recent approaches to problems of fingerprint

identification are represented by the work of

Gafifney at IBM, Cuadra at System Development

Corporation, and Wegstein at the National Bureau

of Standards, among others. Other investigators

include Fulton,^

i**"'' Trauring, ^ ^ooc Emden,5 iood and Hankley and Tou.^-^""'^

At the Argonne National Laboratory, the CHLOE

equipment, consisting of a flying spot scanner under

the control of a small general purpose computer,

has been used for experiments of machine classifica- tion of fingerprints (Shelman, 1967).^-^*'°'^ The achievement of rotational invariance in finger-

.

print scanning and processing by optical or holo- graphic means is discussed, for example, by Marom,

1957 5.ioog and by Horvath et al, 1967.5iooh The

continuing interests of the F.B.I, in this area of

pattern recognition are discussed by Voelker.^-*""' Semi-automated systems are also to be considered,

as in the case of the New York State Identification

and InteUigence System (Kingston, 1967).^-^*"'^ Gaffney, of the Federal Systems Division, IBM,

has developed a method of encoding fingerprints

based upon information about bifurcations (ridge

splits) for processing against a similarly encoded

5.101 Y\ie SDC project is similarly concerned with

ridge characters but in the context of man-machine

interaction in the process of location and identification.^'"^ In terms of continuing R&D concern, it is well to note the following comments by Cuadra:

"Various researchers concernea with the auto- mation of fingerprint identification have been

exploring quite different approaches to the problem. Some are attempting to use fine details of

42
the fingerprints, automatically identified by opti- cal scanners, as the basis for fingerprint descripI tion; some propose to use automatically derived

I measures based on the slope of the ridges in various areas of the print; and some are attemptI ing to derive measures based on the fingerprint

pattern as a whole. What is significant about all

this work, little of which is described in the open

literature, is that there has not yet been sufficient research to provide a rational basis for choosing

a particular approach."' (Cuadra, 1966, p. 8,

I underlining supplied.)

' The approaches of Freedman and Hietnanen at Bendix s ^oza ^nd Wegstein (1968) at NBS are also based on minutiae of the fingerprint pattern, specifically ridge ending and bifurcations (Fig. 10), and

with constellations or groupings of these minutiae.

Descriptors corresponding to the identification of

constellations are computer-generated and degreeof-match scores can then be computed for the same

and different fingerprint patterns. An important

advantage of this technique is that identification

|| can be achieved from minutiae occurring in only a portion of the total print pattern, so that searches

based on chance or latent partial prints may be

successful.^-'"-'' Hankley and Tou (1968) are investigating tech- niques involving elementary spatial filtering, image

enhancement operations to close ridge gaps or to separate contiguous ridges, and topological encoding

of features detected in the center region of a single

print. These investigators point out that "the chief

obstacle to automatic fingerprint processing is print quality. Even good quafity fingerprints are

subject to a variety of imperfections. . . . Most

common are ridge gaps, usually caused by skin

folds, and contiguous ridges, which may be caused

by spreading of ink (or skin oils) due to finger pressure, by particles on the skin, or in the worst

cases by excessive inking or by smearing during

rolling of the finger. •^•'"-^ Somewhat less bothersome

are light prints, thin ridges, and excessive pore

structure, which appear as dotted or perforated

ridges. Print processing must also allow for damaged

or scarred fingers." (Hankley and Tou, 1968,

pp. 417-418).

Then there are some areas of R & D concern with

respect to relatively less obvious applications of

pattern recognition techniques. Some quite exotic

examples include recognition of plant species from

leaf venation patterns,•^ '"^ terrain and cloud cover

analysis,^ the recognition and identification

of audio waveforms in coughing,^-'''^ the recognition

of printed sheet music,-^^ or even the rumps of

migrating baboons! ^-'"^^ In addition, various other

types of "pattern" detection, identification, analysis,

and, in some cases, generation are to be noted in various types of musicological, as in literature, research.^- '°^'' For example, for purposes of structural analysis of atonal music, Forte (1967) manually

encodes music scores in a special notation.^

The application areas of electrocardiographic and

electroencephalographic analysis have been

mentioned previously.* Additional examples are provided by Weihrer et al. (1967), who discuss

computerized electrocardiographic analysis

developments at the Instrumentation Field Station

of the Public Health Service.'^ '""' European examples

include the work of Sneddon at the University of

Glasgow 5 ajj(j Karlsson at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.'^ '"** Related medical data

processing appHcations include x-ray and radio- isotope interpretation,'' "'**'* phonocardiographic,-' "'-' and radiocardiographic analysis.'' "" Ledley et al. (1968) have used machine analysis to prepare mitotic

indexes (i.e., measures of the extent of cell

division).^- ""^ We also note the case of pattern detection in seismic recordings (Rosen, University of Uppsala,

for example), and that pattern recognition in the case

of bubble chamber data has been reported at the

Centro ItaHano di Studi ed Esparienze in Milan.

(Swanson, 1966, p. 9). However, it is to be emphasized that "bubble chamber picture scanning

defines a context for visual data processing and

pattern recognition in which the concepts 'prototypes' and 'images' become virtually meaningless."

(Narasimhan, 1966, p. 167). Particularly difficult are requirements for three-dimensional data

processing and for "scene" analysis such as have

been explored in the CYCLOPS 1 project at Bolt,

Beranek, and Newman^'", and in continuing work

by Minsky and others at M.I.T.=^ Looking forward, in the area of automatic pre- processing operations upon input, we can foresee

increasing development and use of techniques of automatic analysis as applied to graphic, auditory,

three-dimensional, and other types of source data

inputs. This area will thus include extensions

and improvements to character and pattern recognition methods and equipment, to developments

and extensions of voice recognition techniques,

and to continuing research in the areas of pattern

recognition, detection, and identification. Wooster

suggests that "the most exciting step of all will come when we are able to study pattern recognition

in text. . . . How does a scientist realize that a piece of work in, say, psychoacoustics contains the

clue to solving his problems in cloud cover

analysis?" (Wooster, 1964, p. 13).

5.7. Some Theoretical Approaches to Pattern

Recognition and Categorization

Finally, in the area of preprocessing operations

and pattern recognition we may consider a few of

the problems and prospects for automatic pattern

detection and pattern classification. There are problems of both pattern detection (emic analysis or classification concentrating upon similarities among events or sequences of events) and of

pattern differentation (etic classification).^"^

•See p. 24.

366-107 O - 70 - 4 43
Figure 10. Fingerprint pattern showing bifurcation and ridge ending.

44
R&D attacks on the problems of pattern identification and detection, generally, have to do with the

problems of automatic means for the detection of memberships in classes,''"''^ based both upon

properties that are similar for members of the same

class and upon properties that differentiate between

members of different classes.'^-^^^'' Observed properties of both types may be considered to define a multidimensional or metric space in which distances

between given property vectors of different input

patterns can be used to separate one class from

another. For example, questions of feature selection,

feature effectiveness estimation, and various measures of distance between pattern vectors in n- dimensional feature space in terms of recognitionerror probabilities are explored by Fukunaga (1968).

For another example, work by Bledsoe (1966) concerns the mathematical treatment of problems

in multicategory pattern recognition operations.

A continuing R&D question is the extent to which

hardware considerations may dictate the measure- ment space.''""'

Secondly, there are both practical and theoretical

problems with respect to the choice of the properties to be measured and used in defining the

recognition space. The methods involved may

range from designation of probably significant

features on the basis of intuitive, a priori grounds

to extensive computer analyses of the similarities and differences among many samples of each of the

various classes to be recognized. A generalized

consideration of measures of similarity in terms

of pattern classification tasks of various types is provided by Baker and Triest (1966).

Next, there are the theoretical problems of

minimizing the number of property measurements

to be made on input patterns (reduction of the di- mensionality of the recognition space) and of

optimizing the discriminating power of the set of

properties that are retained.'' "-^ Important in this area of theoretical pattern recognition research is the increasingly recognized need to use machine

techniques for the systematic evaluation of possible

criterial features held in common by exemplars of

members of useful sets or classes.' "^ An important

example of recursive random generation of feature- detection operators for automatic character recognition is provided by Uhr and Vossler (1961).

Representative of relatively recent approaches to solution of some of the problems in this area is an ONR-sponsored program at Information Research

Associates, Inc. Objectives are to determine those

feature, property, or character extraction techniques

that will best exploit differences between classes,

that will exhibit minimum sensitivity to variations

within a pattern class, and that will be of maximum

efficiency as class distributors.'^ "'^ The RADC-supported program of Cooper at Sylvania Electronic Systems has as its objective

the development of "a mathematical theory of

pattern recognition, with present emphasis on tech- niques for performing nonsupervised 'learning'

with efficiency, tractabiUty, and generality, and with

minimal amount of prior information." (Cooper,

1966, p. 1).=^ "8 At ti^g Ballistic Research Laboratories, U.S. Army Materiel Command, investigations

have included problems of pattern separation by

linear programming techniques (Taylor, 1967) and

consideration of mixtures of variates as a separate

class in pattern recognition problems. (Sacco, 1967).

Adaptive principles and feedback mechanisms

are employed to a greater or lesser extent in most

of these techniques. In the simplest systems,

involving mask- or template-matching, adaptation

is especially to be found in training sequence or 'teaching sample' procedures in which a number of

exemplars of each character in the set of characters

to be recognized are analysed in terms of the

particularly discriminating or criterial areas of each

proposed mask, so that these areas may be differentially weighted for optimum discrimination between

the various members of the set. To the basic adaptive mechanism based upon sample data there

may be added other decision-functions, such as those designed to minimize risks of misrecognition.

(Chow, 1959, various references, and others).''- The most obvious criterion of choice for a minimal

set of properties or features would be the application of information theoretic considerations.^ "^'' Liu (1964), for example, considers the problem of

generating weighted area correlation masks for alphanumeric character recognition. The solution

proposed uses an information-theoretic measure

to identify "high-information" points from among

all retinal points, and a random selection procedure

for picking out five to seven points at a time from

among the high-information points. The mask ele- ments are assigned plus or minus values in such

a manner as to maximize the value of the information measure. The final selection of recognition

logics . . . "is made on the basis of a distance measure between classes." (Hart, 1966, p. 15). Unfortunately, for practical applications, such

patterns of interest as character shapes and sounds

of human speech reflect a variety of other factors, some of them of physiological or even aesthetic

origin which do not necessarily accord with the

requirements of information theory.^"^'^ For

example, in the Roman alphabet, the upper-case

character "O" is distinguished from the upper-case

"Q" only by the presence or absense of a descender

tail. In the Cyrillic, the characters "Schah" or "Schahchah" are similarly distinguished, but both

characters are wider than the normal character

matrix requirements.

For such reasons as these, information theoretic

considerations do not necessarily apply to optimal

design of character recognition techniques. These

reasons are, in effect, additional evidence of the current lack of techniques to isolate, discriminate

between, identify, and use effectively, patterndiscriminatory and selection criteria.

45
As has been pointed out, "Estimation is basic to pattern recognition

where a class of observation waveforms or vectors describe a pattern. This is because the number

of classes, the statistics for each class, and the a

priori class probabilities are in general unknown.

Both supervised estimation (where samples are

classified) and unsupervised estimation are important. One reason unsupervised estimation is important is that the performance during operation can improve if and only if unsupervised

estimation is utilized." (Monds and Carayannopolis, 1968, pp. 9-10).

Chow and co-workers have suggested that the

detailed structure of a recognition system can be

systematically derived in the functional form of

probability distributions.'' "*'* The nearest neighbor

dependence method goes beyond the assumptions of

statistical independence.^-"*'^ The recognition net- work consists of three levels: a layer of and/or

gates, a set of linear summing networks in parallel,

and a maximum selection circuit. Formulas for the

weights of the recognition parameters are derived

as logarithms of ratios of conditional probabilities.

These formulas then lead to a procedure for esti- mating weights from sample characters which are then used in subsequent recognition. (Chow, 1965).

Other measures proposed include the use of

statistical decision and probabihty theories. ^"'^ As previously noted, some techniques under continuing investigation involve systematic searches

for features of properties that remain relatively

invariant under translations of magnification,

rotation, or translation in the input image area.-^ '-" For example, Giuliano et al. (1961) developed a computer simulation program based on the measure- ment of the first ten moments of the character

pattern, normalized as to position and scale, and

on discrimination by means of a distance-measuring

algorithm to give quantitative measures of similarity

between characters. They concluded that the ex- perimental system showed reasonable discriminating power in the presence of print disturbance

in addition to being insensitive to variations in positioning, scale, line thickness, or heavyness of

print which, in this system, are compensated for by

normalization.

In the area of pattern detection and classification research, an obvious possibility is the investigation

of adaptive systems. Techniques of continuing R&D interest include the use of statistical in- ference methods and the use of learning models.

Both techniques have been studied, for example,

by Kanal et al. (1962) for potential applicability to recognition of underwater sounds, speech with

respect to a limited class of utterances, transmitted

complex wave forms, and multifont character

recognition.

Statistical inference methods may generally be

based on various statistical association techniques

that provide measures of similarity derived from

co-occurrences of properties among the members of

a presumptive class. A continuing R&D requirement is indicated by the fact that apparently not enough is known as yet about the comparative

efficacy of various statistical association formujjjg 5.121 Qf which more than 50 can be identified,^ ''^ and that finding a suitable method for making comparison represents "a very sticky problem."

(Baker, 1965, p. 153).

Maron suggests that "it would be useful to strengthen the theories (which presently are not always clear) behind some of the current techniques

in order to provide logical justification for their

preference (over alternatives); i.e., to have some

measures of the goodness of alternative association

techniques." (Maron, 1965, p. 12). Adaptive pattern recognition systems based

upon learning models and "forced learning"

procedures are another important area of continuing

research and development. For example, Greenberg

and Konheim describe experiments in the computer

generation of separating hyperplanes, on 32X32

scanner output for training sequences of alphanumeric typed characters, with error rates for test characters ranging from 0.7 percent (original typing)

to 1.7 percent for inputs including carbon and Xerox

copies. A second experiment on similar training and

test data, with comparable results, generated binary

search separations. "Here linear functional were

formed to successively split the alphabet into two

groups, each of those two more, and so on until individual letters were identified. Linear separability was demonstrated." (1964, p. 306).

Historically, the first investigations into adaptive

or self-organizing methods of pattern detection and

recognition are exemplified by Uttley's "conditional

probabihty machine" experiments, where the device

"learns" to detect and follow black-white boundaries.

(1956, 1958, 1959) Gamba's learning-recognition

systems (the "PAPA" devices) are based on a

criterial-crossings technique, where the interactions

sought between input patterns and stored reference

patterns are those of intersections of the input

image with a pre-established intermediary pattern. In this case, a configuration of random lines is produced by a computer-based pseudo-random

generator, and associational or probabilisticinference weights are built up from a training

sequence of sample "characters" in terms of subunits of the random configuration. Specifically,

the "features" or "properties" of the input image

that are extracted include such possibilities as whether the total number of intersections are even

or odd, the number of intersections in the first half of the image area as compared to those in the

second half, whether more or fewer intersections occur to the left of the center of gravity of the

input image than those occurring to the right,

whether there are more or less than n intersections,

and so on.^-^^^ In the United States, pioneering efforts in the area of self-organizing are usually associated with

46
the "Perceptron" research begun by Rosenblatt

in 1957. Extensions of this technique by Rosenblatt

and his colleagues and by other investigators go

to multi-layer devices capable of feature extraction

and to multiple levels of training and "learning".

For example. Block et al. (1964) describe a pro- cedure for adjusting the associational weights

(built up as a result of reward-punishment feed- backs) in the first layer of a two-layer Perceptron

model in such way as to improve detection of

significant features, without regard to the manner

of training and weight adjustment in the second

layer as related to desired responses.^-^^* At M.I.T.. Minsky and Papert are concerned with similar

problems (1967).

Adaptive majority-logic schemes are represented

not only by multi-layered Perceptrons, but also by the Conflex devices of Scope, Inc.,^ '^^ and by

developments at the General Post Office in Great

Britain.5-126 Kovalesky (1965) and Barus (1962, 1966)

have been concerned with nonlinear transformations

realized when the association units have many

inputs during the "teaching" process.^ '^^ A "learning" model for a machine system to recognize three freehand characters ("S", "R",

and "I") has been developed at Stanford Research

Institute. These techniques are also being considered for application to the classification of cloud photographs and to problems of speech

recognition and speech intelHgibihty. (Hall, 1964). At Bolt, Beranek and Newman, an ONR-sponsored

project involves the design of a pictorial input

• system and research in character recognition,

including work on handwritten characters and

simple pictorial diagrams. (Strollo, 1966).

A large number of additional examples might also

,j be cited, including Hughes Aircraft's 'Multivac'

*l (Multi-VarianX Adaptive Computer) which has been

used experimentally to recognize alphanumeric

characters, to play simple games, and to diff^erentiate between diff'erent kinds of sounds,^-*-** the Minos 11 at Stanford Research Institute and the ISODATA

1 (iterative Self-Organizing Data /inalysis Technique

[ A) procedure for its use,-^ or CHILD (Cognitive

f //ybrid /nteUigent Learning Device) at the Informa1 tion Processing Laboratory, Rome Air Develop-

' ment Center.^ "** Bonner (1962) describes a multi-level program to

I derive or enhance automatically recognition logics

j for determining the significant properties of samples

] of the various members of the population to be

discriminated. The method involves: "1) Use of

' nonexhaustive heuristic algorithms to find 'valuable' properties ... 2) Employment of various devices

to make the requirements expected of heuristic

method (1) less stringent. These include a method

of dividing a problem into a number of simpler

problems equivalent to the original problem . . . and

a decision process which can operate effectively

without requiring properties of very high 'value'."

(p. 353).-^ Bonner's program, further, takes

properties found to have "high" and "good" values

for some but not all samples, or "good" for some, but

not "high", and to convert them to "high and good

for all" by logical combinations of "and" and "or",

(p. 356).5-'32 Of particular interest to future automatic pattern

recognition capabilities, therefore, are experiments

aimed at developing methods for adaptive extraction

of significant features or properties of sample

patterns, especially where those properties Ukely

to be most useful in discriminating between members

of different pattern categories are not known, or are not well-known, in advance. In such cases, a

training sequence of representative or sample

patterns may first be used. A continuing R&D

requirement of a fact-finding nature is, therefore,

for studies of the true representativeness of samples

and of the appHcability of results based upon such

samples to real-life situations. Beyond these questions are serious technical problems as to the extent

to which classes are in fact separable and/or of

whether such classes as can be separated constitute

useful or meaningful groupings of their respective

members.^- '^-'^ In adaptive systems using linear threshold decision elements,^-^^^ iterations with varying pattern

samples over time either produce convergence to optimal system performance or else the lack of convergence indicates that these patterns are

linearly inseparable. Problems of linear separability, then, are important areas for further in- vestigations of useful classes of patterns or sets of

pattern property measurements.'' '^^ Similarly, for the areas of automatic classification or categorization generally and for those applicable

to documentary items in particular, it has been

suggested that "the most fruitful approach to automatic classification research is not so much

in the development of new models for classification as in investigation of how useful classes of objects

are to be efficiently constructed from large

universes." (Lehmann, 1964, p. 5-1).

There are several major causes of difficulties with

respect to overlapping and non-separability of

classes. The first and most obvious is the incidence

of noise in the case of inputs from the real world.

Then there are problems of irreducible ambiguities

between input patterns, whether because of additive

noise or multilation or because of the fact that the

character was poorly formed to begin with, as in most handwriting examples.

Then there is the problem of the use of context

to resolve problems or ambiguous or indeterminate

pattern identifications. We shall, in general, reserve discussion of context expectancy and context- predictive-analyses to later consideration of natural

language processing techniques and problems (in another report in this series), but we note here that,

with respect to automatic speech recognition "the same spoken form may well correspond to more than one written form, and this ambiguity then has to be

resolved by context searching, which is a syntactic

operation analogous to its equivalent in machine

! 47
translation" (Garvin, 1963, p. 114), and that "even

with very legible handwriting, machines are bound

to make mistakes, which they will need contextual

information to resolve." (Lindgren, 1965, p. 105).

Some other examples of the importance of context checking for purposes of resolving ambiguous

possible pattern identifications were given in the

1961 NBS state-of-the-art report on automatic

character recognition. (Stevens, 1961). Dictionary

lookup techniques have been proposed by Bledsoe

and Browning (1959) and Baran and Estrin (1960),

among others, and have been disclosed in a Rabinow

patent.^-^^^ Further considerations were raised by

Alt (1961), and extensive investigations have been

reported by Thomas and Kassler (1967).

An intriguing use of context is provided by an IBM experimental system for automatic reading of

natural language text, involving cluster-seeking to identify the distinct types of characters encountered

and a cryptogram-decoding procedure involving

pre-stored digram frequencies and permutedidentification letter translation frequencies.^- '^'^'^ Edwards and Chambers (1964) simulated a recognition program, introducing noise by random

number generator with respect to Alt's calculated

moments to provide distorted moment values to the

point where erroneous or ambiguous identifications

would be made. "The same program was then rerun by inserting the digraph statistics. In the latter case

the computer narrowed the choice down to two or more letters, using the distorted moment values.

It then noted the letter it had identified, correctly

or incorrectly, immediately preceding the letter under investigation and picked the letter of those

under consideration which was most likely to succeed the preceding letter." (p. 468).

Edwards and Chambers note human use of context to correct nosiy characters, e.g., C-W must

be either COW or CAW if it occurs in English text. They continue: "While it would no doubt be difficult to 'teach' a computer enough facts to perform this type of reasoning, there is good data available on

the occurrence of digraphs or combinations of two

letters in the common languages." (p. 465).

The use of digram and trigram frequency statistics has also been proposed by David and Selfridge

(1962),5 i37 Harmon (1962),5 i37a Sebestyen and Edie

,1954)5.138 Steinbuch and Piske (1963),-i38=' Sakai

and Doshita (1963) for Japanese speech recognition,^-'^*^'' and the Astropower Laboratory 1964

report, among others. An intriguing example is presented by Carlson (1966), where a computer

technique was developed to replace garbled characters in genealogical records based upon trigram fre- quencies for proper names.-^ '^^ An accuracy of better than 90 percent error correction is claimed.

Other proposed techniques for context checking

and error correction in the case of ambiguous

characters and "misspelled" words, combine

digram or trigram frequency statistics with dic- tionary lookup procedures ^ issa qj. cyclic permutations of the input text.^-^^^'' In a system investigated by Vossler and Branston (1964), combining a small dictionary (3,737 words) and digram data,

special algorithms were proposed which would

"collect in groups all words which were similar in most of their letters but yet differed from dictionary

words. Such an algorithm might group together the

garbled words: CAMBODIA, CAMBIDIH,

CAMEODIA, CAMEOOIA, CHMBODIA. By de- termining the most frequent letter in each position

the de-garbled word CAMBODIA can be constructed." (Vossler and Branston, 1964. p.

,D2.4-7).-''''^^- Another intriguing example of context checking

is in the case of recognition of chemical structure diagrams.^ ''**' In general, however, an Auerbach

survey has concluded: "Context recognition will certainly involve an enormous increase in the

storage capacity and logical capabihties of character readers, but this may be justified by the increase

in efficiency that can be attained. However, the

economics of context-recognition readers will remain highly speculative until considerably more

development work has been undertaken."

(Feidelman and Katz, 1967, p. 0210:32). Similarly,

"although the syntactic, semantic, and higher

order constraints on the language would seem to be

applicable to our problem, we do not yet have any

very good ideas on how to use them." (Earnest,

1962, p. 462).

Another factor that may be considered in an ambiguous identification decision is that of expected

single character frequency. That is, where the

results of input-pattern-to-reference-pattern matching are ambiguous, final choice may be made

on the basis of the character that occurs more fre- quently, for a given language and subject matter

source. An example of considerations of this type

is reported by Blokh (1960).

Chow (1957) considers the case where previously

determined noise statistics (specifically including

the ways in which various characters and noise are frequently combined) are used to determine the

conditional probability density with respect to a corrupt and noisy input pattern. Moreover, by

associating the derived conditional probabilities

with estimates of loss or risk involved in the substi- tution of a specific character for another. Chow

suggests a means to optimize the recognition

system performance by minimizing the risk-cost. Finally, in the area of theoretical approaches to pattern recognition that we have reviewed, there

are the problems of automatic detection of "classes"

whose definitions and extensions are not known in advance — that is. the area of automatic categorization.5 '^•'^ In this area, a number of techniques

have been experimentally investigated for a variety

of applications, e.g., factor analysis, discriminant

analysis, and clumping or clustering methods.^-

A taxonomic approach to automatic classification

is exemplified iDy Tanimoto (1958, 1962). (We wiU

defer discussion of some of these techniques to a

later volume of this report in connection with docu48
ment grouping and automatic indexing applications,

briefly discussing here only the latter technique).

First. Le Schack provides some useful definitions

and distinctions: "A particular case of the classi- fication problem is considered here. The basic raw

data are estimates of the pairwise similarity be- tween members of the population. It is desired to identify subsets in which the members are so

similar to one another, and so dissimilar to non- members, that it is most useful to consider them as a

unit. This process has been termed 'clumping' or

'clustering'. It is clear that an exact formulation

of the clustering problem must be in terms of

optimization; for the goal is the best balance be- tween loss of precision, which is the inevitable

consequence of representing each individual by

the typical or average characteristics of his cluster,

and gain in economy, which is the result of replacing

many individuals by a few clusters." (1964, pp. XIV-3).

Further, "the intuitive notion of perfect clustering

is best explained by considering a population of elements which can be partitioned into nonoverlapping subsets, such that within each subset there

is a nonzero linkage between each pair of elements,

but no hnkage between a member of the subset

and an element which is not a member. To generalize to the idea of strong clustering, assume that we are able to distinguish between strong and weak

hnks; the definition is then modified to read:

. . . Within each subset there is a strong linkage

between each pair of elements, and at most a weak

linkage between a member of the subset and an element which is not a member." (Le Schack,

1964, XIV-3).

It is to be noted first that the linkage or connection

strengths are derived between items on the basis

of the degree of similarity or association between

them such as the sharing of some number of com- mon properties. Thus, for example, "it is appropriate

to take as a connection measure the 'Boolean nearness'; that is the connection between two objects

is the number of columns in which their rows agree."

(Needham, 1961, p. 9). Initial work on clustering techniques assumed

that the clusters would be known in advance.^ '^' The clumping techniques of Kuhns, Parker-Rhodes

and Needham of the Cambridge Language Research

Unit (CLRU), however, are largely addressed to the

finding of unknown clumps. ^ ""^ Then we note also

that "Bonner, Hyvarinen; Rogers and Tanimoto;

Firschein and Fischler; Glazer; Stark, Okajima, and

Whipple; Jakowitz, Shuey and White; and Ball and Hall have considered the problem of unknown

clusters." (Mattson and Dammann, 1965, p. 296) ^-^"^'^^ Computer programs to apply clumping techniques

to the properties of a variety of objects have been

used in experiments in automatic classification of archaeological artefacts such as pottery vessels and

shards both at CLRU and elsewhere.-^ Also at CLRU an experiment was conducted with respect

to classification of medical symptoms, with promising results in terms of selection of clumps corre- sponding to recognized diseases with the notable

exception of Hodgkin's disease. In the latter case, however, it was noted that "patients show a chaotic

collection of symptoms, some being practically

complementary. The only unifying characteristic

is that there are a lot of positive symptoms. I can

scarcely conceive of a clump definition that would

be likely to group these patients; I am unsure whether this is a reflection on clump theory or on

Hodgkin's disease." (Needham, 1961, pp. 44-46).

Techniques of automatic classification or cate- gorization based upon the clumping methods of

Parker-Rhodes and Needham have continued under

investigation, notably at the Linguistics Research

Center at the University of Texas.^ '^^ Dammann

reports on the use of clustering techniques for ex- periments in voice recognition as follows: "Within

the limitations imposed by the number of points

within the clusters of the sample space, this experiment resulted in the satisfactory separation of eight

unknown clusters of complex patterns in an arbi- trary sample space, identified aberrant samples,

and suggested an output code." (Dammann, 1966,

p. 88). Karlsson and Arvidsson at the Royal Institute

of Technology, Sweden, have applied cluster-seeking

techniques to EKG recordings.

A marked increase of interest in cluster-seeking

is to be noted in the recent literature, in the broadened areas of application being explored at CLRU

(Sparck-Jones and Jackson, 1967), and in proposed

practical applications for "autonomous" text-read- ing machines (Rabinow and Holt, 1966; Casey and

Nagy, 1968).5'«^

The selection and retrieval systems in which

statistical associations between text-word-association frequencies, index term associations, and

document-document associations may be implemented to offer additional possibilities of useful

clusterings.^'''^

Present constraints on the practicality of the

application of clumping and other techniques for automatic categorization and classification include

those of computational requirements, memory

requirements, adequacy of sample size, problems

in the manipulation of large, sparse matrices, and

questions of whether the material does in fact lend

itself to meaningful partitionings. Thus Doyle re- marks: "As to the future of research in automatic

classification, we can certainly predict that it is going to be very interesting and productive. As to

its application, the future is less bright — the immediate future at least. The major barrier is that of expense. The required cluster analysis and document grouping techniques are characteristicaUy

voracious in consumption of computer time."

(Doyle, 1964, p. 29). Beyond cost are questions of computational

capabihties adequate for the handhng of realisti- cally large universes. It is further to be noted that "certain combinatorial problems are beyond the

capacity of even the largest and fastest computers."

49
(Hayes, 1963, p. 284). Then, with respect to realisti- cally large universes of items to be categorized or

classified, the following "main point to be made

is that theoretical elegance must be sacrificed to computational possibility: there is no merit in a

classification program which can only be applied

to a couple of hundred objects." (Needham, 1963,

p. 8).5146 Finally it is to be noted that over-simplifications

of pattern categorization problems are to be found

in various analytical approaches to problem solution. For example: the usual assumptions of independence

and/or normality crop up continually to restrict the

usefulness of the results obtained. "One is reminded

of Tukey's injunction to the effect that "what is needed is not optimal solutions to carefully formulated, ideal problems, but merely 'good' solutions

for nonideal situations." (Hart, 1966, p. 11). An unfortunately not-well-coordinated thinking

still persists in the areas of character, voice, and

other types of pattern recognition. Thus, in Kovalevsky's words: "Designers of reading devices

and speech-recognition systems sometimes were

not interested in theory, and mathematicians dis- regarded applied problems. This resulted in a number of important tasks being left unsolved."

(1965, p. 42). Another point to be observed is that, despite the

wide differences in the language used to describe

particular recognition techniques, there is a far greater commonality of approach among different

systems than might be suspected at first glance. Of

particular promise for progress in automatic tech- niques for categorization, generally, therefore, are

possibilities for increasing convergence of pattern

recognition and pattern detection techniques in many fields.^ "Pattern analysis, as provided in the proposed

system, can be used to discover relationships which

pertain to vast bodies of data which would be almost

impossible to obtain through any known manual

techniques. Intelligent use of pattern analysis

should assist in evaluating new trends in crime,

testing new approaches to the administration of

criminal justice, and discovering patterns of structure and activity of criminal and special

organizations." (Geddes et al., 1963, p. 266).

Future prospects for even more sophisticated and

complex pattern detection and pattern classification techniques in a wide variety of fields can certainly

be foreseen. Examples of areas of continuing R&D

challenge are as follows:

(1) "The pattern recognition problems of the

future are apt to involve a tremendous

latitude of variation in the patterns. Design

by humans will be difficult because of the large

amount of data that must be manipulated.

Computers will have the abifity to handle these

data and can do so if we can tell them how."

(Bonner, 1962, p. 353).

(2) "Research in this area [information recognition] is needed to acquire knowledge of such

subjects as: the interrelationship between the

analytic and Gestalt aspects of visual-pattern

recognition; how and what subsets of point

stimuli are perceived as unitary entities; the

figure-figure, and figure-background separation

mechanizms; and the meaning of the direction

and hmitation of attention." (Office of Aero- space Research, 1965, p. 26).

(3) "It has been shown, then, that any talk of an

ideal adaptive language teaching machine

must remain premature until a number of

serious problems have been solved. It is clear

that most of these problems are inherently

theoretical rather than technical: their solution

is tied to the development of a complete and

satisfactory theory of language and of speech.

The consideration of what is involved in developing such a machine highUghts the

complexity of language. Fundamental is the

fact that language allows a great deal of

redundancy, but any specific speech event

contains only a selection of those features. Thus, speech recognition depends on using

those features that may be present to decide on those that are absent. It is, for instance,

possible to understand speech in the presence

of considerable noise provided that syntactic

and semantic information is available to the

listener; but specification of exactly what this information is has proven to be extremely

difficuh." (Spolsky, 1966, pp. 494-495).

6. Conclusions

As we have seen in the preceding Sections of

this report, research and development efforts in the

broad area of automatic pattern recognition are of

particular importance to the improvement of infor- mation sensing and input processes. This area extends from successful techniques for magnetic

ink and optical character recognition to research

investigations of potentialities for automatic detection and classification of cloud formation patterns

and to theoretical developments with respect to

questions of linear separability, determinations of

membership in classes, and the hke. Other problems

under attack include those of voice recognition,

automatic detection of patterns of interest in electrocardiograph and bubble chamber data, and

simulation of observed human or animal perception

phenomena.

The scope of the field of pattern processing

research is indeed surprisingly broad. The term

"processing" is chosen deliberately in order to

50
beg terminological controversies with respect to pattern "identification," pattern "classification,"

and pattern "recognition," as variously used in the

hterature.^-^ In the pattern-processing R&D area, we are concerned either with the identification of a given input pattern, or with the meeting of membership-quaUfication requirements for a pre-established

class of patterns, or with the properties or features

that a given input pattern shares or does not share

with some one or more classes of previously en- countered patterns; and with the determination of

which properties or features of some set of patterns

significantly distinguish them from other possible

sets or classes. Input problems for automatic analysis of text (to be considered in a later report in this series)

involve questions of multifont, exotic alphabet, and

multilevel character recognition and difficulties in more advanced techniques for speech recognition

and for pattern recognition generally. Thus, as Wyllys points out: "When character readers reach

that level of development [multi-font page reading

of a typical scientific journal], it wiU be possible to utihze the positional and editorial features of printed

text — e.g.. paragraphing, sub-heading, captions,

italization, and capitalization — to furnish clues for automatic abstracting and other purposes." (Wyllys,

1963, p. 7). Pattern recognition as an area of R & D concern

is directed to the identification or the detection of

arbitrary patterns, some of which can be visually

perceived (such as photographs^ charts, textual patterns and three-dimensional real-world objects)

and others which require nonvisual perception such

as speech and electromagnetic signals. Character

recognition is considered as a specific case of

pattern recognition and is often dealt with as a separate field of investigation because of the

emphasis that has been placed upon it. Much of the

effort to date has been limited to the development of

print readers which are usually limited to small

alphabets, single font, and often with a specially

designed type style. In addition, computer experiments have enabled

demonstrations and simulations of much more

sophisticated pattern recognition schemes including

at least elementary target pattern detection, electro- cardiograph analysis, some automated photo inter- pretation, cloud pattern detection, detection and

tracing of bubble chamber tracks, limited speech

recognition, recognition of contrained handwritten

and some limited identification of words in cursive

handwriting.

Research requirements in the area of pattern

recognition were summarized for a Task Force of

COSATI in 1965 by Davis and Stevens, substantially

as follows:

1. Character recognition — mcXxiAmg conventionalized shapes and symbols, as in chemical

literature, circuit diagrams, flow-charts, and

the like.

a. For the printed character reading

systems:

(1) Research on format clues — e.g., to skip interspersed graphics, to ignore page numbers and short

titles, to differentiate between

period, decimal point, and the like,

prior to multi-format, multi-font

page reader design and application.^-2

(2) R & D efforts on the difficult alphabets not likely to be tackled

by commercial interests: CyriUic,

Arabic, Chinese, etc.®-^ Special

problems to be investigated include

the common European practice of

spreading out the letters of a word

or proper name in lieu of italization.'^'* (3) Development of error-detecting,

error-correction techniques for in- put likely to be noisy or difficult,

e.g., RCA and NBS-Chinese con- text-checking operations.

b. For conventionalized symbols, we need:

(1) R & D investigations to provide for

size, translation, rotation and other

symbol invariances.

(2) Development of "picture-language

equivalence", e.g., how to name

shapes that have been recognized;

for example whether, given the

name, we can find a corresponding

symbol or shape.^-^

(3) Research concerned with two-dimensional well-formedness, e.g., for structural and circuit diagrams, also

for character-components as in Chinese ideographs, and two-dimensional grammars.

2. Pattern recognition — mcluAmg speech, EKG,

EEC, star plates, cell tissue, microphotographs,

regularities in signal sequences, Stenotype

records, Morse code signals, maps, drawings,

gray scale images, photos, three-dimensional

objects, and so on.

a. Research on limited multi-speaker speech

input, e.g., dictation of data from instru- ment observations.

b. Research on programming languages and

compilers for manipulation of two- and

three-dimensional graphic data.

c. Research and development of automated

photointerpretation, specifically including

photomicrographs.

d. Research and development on acoustic

and speech analysis, recognition, and

synthesis.^-®

e. Research on techniques of recognition

of three-dimensional objects, on derivation of dimensional data, on reconstruction of two-dimensional representations of three dimensional objects, on normalization of perspective drawings.

51
3. Word and item patterns detection and recognition:

a. Research on patterns of citedness, citing- ness and of overlap of indexing terms

previously assigned to co-cited items.

b. Research on patterns of word co-occur- rence with sample assignments of cate- gory names, descriptions, etc., of prior

term-term or word-term associations in the collection, and automatic indexing

based thereon. This includes devices such

as ACORN for display of patterns auto- matically detected.

c. Content analysis, e.g., of verbal protocol

records using both clue-word and temporal patterns.

4. Automatic categorization and determination of

membership in classes:

a. Research on mathematical theories of

determination of membership in classes,

linear separability and threshold logics,

factor analysis, and the Uke.^-^

b. Research in automatic classification and

indexing, where syntactic and semantics

are not involved and where it is equally

applicable to properties or attributes

other than words or text.

c. Research on detection of patterns of signals embedded in noise.

5. Research and development of adaptive systems

and techniques for pattern recognition.

6. Research and development of self-organizing

systems for pattern recognition.

7. Research and development of techniques of

simulation of human behavioristic modes of

pattern recognition including experiments in automatic deductive and inductive inference,

and concept formation.

For the long term, the combination of scanner developments, languages for pictorial data processing, and a "syntactic structure" and "context expectancy" approach will be important for applications such as patent searching where information

is found in drawings as well as in text.^-^ More

generally, such research points to the handling of a wide variety of information where the meaning or message is conveyed as much by two-dimensional

arrangements, orderings, and juxtapositions of

symbols as by the identification of the symbols

themselves.

Looking forward, in the area of automatic operations upon input, we can foresee increasing development and use of techniques of automatic analysis

as applied to graphic, auditory, three-dimensional,

and other types of source data inputs. This area

will thus include extensions and improvements to character and pattern recognitions methods and

equipment, to developments and extensions of

voice recognition techniques, and to continuing

research in the areas of pattern recognition,

detection, and identification.

52
Appendix A. Background Notes on Research and Development Requirements

in Information Acquisition, Sensing, and Input

In this Appendix we present further discussion and background material intended to highlight and emphasize currently identifiable research and development requirements in the broad field of the computer and information sciences. A number of illustrative examples, pertinent quotations from the literature, and references to current R&D efforts has been assembled. These background notes have been referenced, as appropriate, in the text of this report.

1. Introduction

1.1 In a provocative and challenging discussion

of a research team's findings with respect to a

desirable mechanized documentation system of

the future. Licklider (1965. p. 40) states: "the reason

for setting forth such a plan is not to guide research

and development, which would be presumptuous,

but to provide a kind of checkHst or scorecard for use in following the game. If the technology should

take care of most of the items in the plan but fall behind on a few. then it might be worth while for an agency interested in the outcome to foster special

efforts on the delinquent items."

1.2 "Information processing systems are but one facet of an evolving field of intellectual activity called communication sciences. This is a generic

term which is applied to those areas of study in which the interest centers on the properties of a system or the properties of arrays of symbols which come from their organization or structure rather

than from their physical properties; that is, the study

of what one M. I. T. colleague calls 'the problems of

organized complexity'." (Wiesner. 1958, p. 268).

The terminology apparently originated with

Warren Weaver (1948). Weaver noted first that the

areas typically tackled in scientific research and

development efforts up to the twentieth century were largely concerned with two-variable problems

of simplicity; then from about 1900 on, powerful

techniques such as those of probability theory and

statistical mechanics were developed to deal with

problems of disorganized complexity (that is, those

in which the number of variables is very large, the

individual behavior of each of the many variables

is erratic or unknown, but the system as a whole

has analyzable average properties). Finally, he

points to an intermediate region "which science

has as yet little explored or conquered, where by

contrast to those disorganized or random situations

with which the statistical techniques can cope, the

problems of organized complexity require dealing

simultaneously with a considerable number of

variables that are interrelated in accordance with

organizational factors."

He says further that "these new problems, and

the future of the world depends on many of them,"

will require science to make a third great advance

that "must be even greater than the nineteenthcentury conquest of the problems of simplicity or the twentieth-century victory over problems of

disorganized complexity."

1.3 Some examples are as follows: "One field of science now moving forward at a rapid pace can

be singled out as offering unusual scientific and

economic challenge. This is the broad area of infor- mation manipulation. Included are the broad areas

of information theory, computation and communication. To the basic scientist there is presented the

question as fundamental as the nature of light or

gravitation, namely, what is information; what is knowledge; what constitutes consciousness of exist- ence; are there immutable laws of the physical

universe governing the nature of information and

knowledge as yet undefined and perhaps unsus- pected that await discovery in the next 5 decades?"

(Bowie, 1962, pp. 609-610).

"One difficulty in the endeavor to match mechanical to human behavior ... is that it is far from

clear what sort of activity counts as recognition of

a pattern by a human being. It is not clear conse- quently what sort of behavior is to be duplicated or approximated by mechanical devices.

"Although some investigators seem aware of this problem, there is little evidence of any sustained

attempt to sharpen our understanding of human

pattern recognition. The deficiency at point is not the admitted lack of a comprehensive psychological

theory of recognition, but rather the lack of a clear description of what humans do in various situations

which normally would be taken as instances of

pattern recognition." (Sayre, 1962, p. 27). "The next fifty years wiU see electronic information processing systems brought to a stage of so- phistication comparable to that of today's electronic

communication systems. This will require two

things. In the first place, the basic principles underlying the brain's method of digesting information

53
must be discovered and translated into simple

electronic systems. This is as necessary as our

simple theory of electromagnetism was for developing detector, amplifier, and transmission systems.

In the second place, capacity for electronic storing

and processing of information, on a scale equal to that of the human brain, must be developed. The

electronic information handling systems of the

future will be able to receive information in visual

and auditory form, just as humans do." (Van

Heerden, Proc. IRE 50, 621 (May 1962).)

"Concern with meaning introduces a parameter

ignored in the simplifying assumptions of communication theory. Such Air Force problems as automatic

abstracting and indexing of scientific papers, infor- mation storage and retrieval, mechanical translation,

and even automatic distribution of messages depend

upon a deeper understanding of the meaning of

meaning than has heretofore been necessary or

possible. This understanding may even come from

such esoteric fields as analytical philosophy,

epistemology, and taxonomy." (Wooster, 1961, p. 17).1.4 Goldberg, in his 1931 U.S. Patent, disclosed

this principle as applied to statistical operations

such as selecting and counting particular records

identified by some specified combination of indicia,

for example, various alphabetic and numeric

symbols. In a suggested embodiment he visuaHzed

the records as being stored on a positive photographic transparency and a 'search plate' with the

negative images of the selection criteria processed

as follows: "If the transparency containing the various statistical indications is now run through the machine

in such a manner that the negative coincides with

the transparency a complete coincidence impenetrable to any light or heat radiation will only be

possible in one defined case; this will only occur when the negative bears exactly the same characters, marks, figures, etc., as the transparency in question, the only difference being that in the

negative these records are light on dark ground,

while in the transparency they are dark on light

ground. A certain combination has thus been picked

out of a large number of others with extra-ordinary

speed and reliability hitherto not obtainable. In order to obtain the coincidence of the negative with

the transparency they can be either brought into contact (direct superposition) or be projected one upon the other (optical superposition); the latter method being more advantageous as the mechanical

features of the machine are simplified."

1.4a For example, "for automatic input of documents to an automatic IRS, the descriptor type

language without grammar is used. Chernyavsky

and Lakhuti . . . apply the first approach rigorously; the text of a document (a short abstract) is compared word-by-word with a descriptor dictionary

prepared in advance (the subject being that of

Electrical Engineering), in which the significant

words are grouped together in equalizing classes

(i.e., sets of words which are synonymous or related

in meaning), each of which stands for one descriptor; the result will be a set of descriptors forming

the search pattern of the text in the IRS concerned.

The difficulty here is to distinguish the homographs,

but the experience has shown that this difficulty is well resolved by lexical analysis of the context environment of the homographs." (Mikhailov,

1968, p. 35). 1.4b "Laboratory of Electromodeling (LEM) of

the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical

Information (VINITI) of the Academy of Sciences of

the USSR. Development of a reading automation was

begun here in 1959. The operational reader . . . reads typewritten texts and inputs them to a Ural-4 computer." (Stephan, 1967, p. 5). "An operational automation for reading typewritten texts and inputting them to a Ural-4

computer to solve a number of problems of an

information processing nature has been developed

in the Laboratory for Electromodeling of VINITI,

under the Academy of Sciences of the USSR . . . "Pattern recognition in the operational reader is based on a method . . . for comparing the pattern

under investigation against a set of fixed image-field

regions which yield invariant descriptions of patterns

in binary or any other coding system. The information distinguishing areas were called distinguishing

fragments and the method, correspondingly, the

fragment method . . . "The technical implementation of the fragment

method, developed in the Laboratory for Electromodeling, has made it possible to devise an analysis

unit by extremely simple means. The unit for storing

the fixed symbol variants (that is, the fragments)

is a ferrite matrix in which the fragments are in- scribed in the form of output-threaded core

wirings . . . The device turns out to be small,

simple, and reliable in operation . . . "A coded description of the character being

scanned, selected from the matrix of fragments, is fed into the decoder which contains code descriptions of all characters of the set being examined and

previously obtained as a result of statistical processing of large masses of observed characters in an

actual reading device and digital computer system.

The encoded description of the symbol is compared

with all the encoded descriptions of symbols in the

decoder, and a minimal signal is obtained on the

decoder bus for the character most closely corre- sponding to the encoded character. The index of this bus is transmitted to the output unit, where this index, with the aid of an encoder device, is trans- formed into Ural—4 machine code and is then relayed

to the computer's memory and onto papertape (for monitoring purposes) . . . "The reader's speed is determined by an electro- mechanical system of character scanning and the

operational characteristics of the ferrite-diode

modules; at present, the rate is 10 characters/sec."

(Avrukh, 1967, pp. 20-23).

"Three cabinets painted in traditional computergrey stand in a small room of the Laboratory of

54
Electromodeling . . . this is the reading auto- maton.

'"In the first cabinet there is a page of typewritten

text on a revolving drum. A greenish band of light

from a cathode-ray tube shines down on a line. To

the side is a photomultiplier whose eye is focussed

on the line running under the band of light. Scanning

the letters, the ray of Hght is constantly transmitting

signals to the photomultiplier: 'white, white, black,

white . . These signals transformed into electrical pulses enter the second cabinet which is tightly

packed with an intricate hgature of varicolored

conductors connecting ferrite and semiconductor

elements.

"There are frames covered with an openwork

screen in the cabinet and there are miniature ferrite cores at the intersections of small wires. In several

places the screen has been 'darned' by additional

intersections of small wires. The electrical pulses

from the first cabinet are stored and analyzed in this screen-matrix. The automation has features

stored in it by which it is possible to describe any

typewritten alphabetic character. One or another

combination of features allows the machine to recognize the letter being read. "The complex cobweb of electronic circuits in the third cabinet examines the results obtained by

the recognition matrices in the second cabinet.

Here the final determination is made as to which

letter has been read. From here the letters are fed

by cable into the memory of a Ural-^." (Koltovoj,

1967, pp. 38-39).

An actual example is shown in Figure 11. It will be

noted that the font uses large-sized and well-spaced

upper-case alphabetic plus numeric characters.

Styhzation has been applied to narrow some characters that are normally wider than others, to add a small connecting bar to the character 'bl' and to accentuate punctuation marks. A relatively poor

print quality may also be noted, leading to obvious

variations of stroke thickness and to problems of correct discrimination between members of some

character subsets. To date, over 2,000,000 characters have been read by optical character recognition equipment and fed to a computer for experimental author and title index preparation.

1.5 For example, in work at the Wilham Alanson

White Institute by Jaffe and his colleagues. "Jaffe

il also indicates the necessity for analyzing nonverbal

as well as verbal behavior. For this purpose he and

his coworkers developed an automated device for the extraction of time-sequence behavior in the

I transaction between cHent and therapist (Cassotta,

Feldstein and Jaffe, 1962) . . . the new device per- mits the recording of time-sequence data (not actual

1 content) from microphone inputs to punched cards

without manual intervention." (Ford, 1963, p. 5).

t 1.6 See account of the Chrono-Log Model 3,000

1 Oscillographic Time Code Generator, Data Proc.

i Mag. 7, No. 2, 54 (Feb. 1965).

1 1.6a Thus, "this is the era of the interface,

especially the custom interface. The industry is

I willing to couple anything to everything including

\

people, analog and digital computers, and a large

variety of input-output devices." (Ware, 1965,

p. 472.) Ohlman, looking forward in 1963, suggested

that "another interesting possibihty is audio inter- rogation and reply, involving telephone lines and

tape recorders . . . Any combination of these modes

is possible — a store might be interrogated orally and

a reply obtained visually, etc." (Ohlman, 1963,

p. 193). 1.7 "In 1936, Dudley [1936] invented the vocoder,

a device for compressing the bandwidth of speech

signals in order to transmit them over channels

of very limited capacity. The vocoder measures the

speech power in a number of frequency bands

and transmits these measures as signals over a

series of narrow low-frequency channels (Fant and

Stevens, 1960). At the receiver the speech is re- constituted by modulating the spectrum of a broad

band source in accordance with the frequency

region and amphtude of each of the measuresignals derived from the original speech. Normally

this reconstituted speech signal is presented

acoustically for a listener. Ahernatively, vocoded

speech signals can be displayed visually or

tactually." (Pickett, 1963, p. 2.) "The first computer application was probably in the design of the so-called 'vocoders'. The vocoder

is a telephone system that utilizes long distance

transmission hues with greater efficiency than

conventional systems. At the sending end, the vo- coder extracts and transmits only certain features

of the speech wave picked up by its microphone.

At the receiving end, it uses the transmitted infor- mation to reconstruct a simphfied version of the

original speech wave. The transmission economy is achieved by not transmitting the whole sound wave

but only those parts of it that contribute to speech

perception. As we do not fully understand the

essentials of the speech process, we are not always

sure which features to extract or how to extract them. A wide variety of circuits has therefore been

tried in attempts to achieve acceptable vocoders."

(Denes, 1966, p. 250).

1.8 They report: "A more promising 'measure- ment space' for speech recognition is suggested

by a consideration of a theoretical model for the

generation of synthetic speech sounds." (King and

Tunis, 1966, p. 66). 1.9 "The equipment consists of a voice spectrum

analyzer acting as online input to an IBM 1620-11

digital computer system. The basis of the spectrum

analyzer is a contiguously tuned bank of bandpass

filters whose instantaneous outputs are continuously compared in such a way as to locate the

instantaneous peaks in the envelope of the speech

spectrum. The output of the spectrum analyzer is a binary coded representation of the peaks of the

envelope of the frequency spectrum as a function

of time; it serves as input to the IBM 1620." (King

and Tunis, 1966, p. 65). See also Section 5.5 of this report. 1.10 In KWIC indexing, the texts of titles are prepared for input to the computer and this text
p

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56
is then processed against the stop Hst in order to eliminate from further processing the more common

words, such as "the," "and," prepositions, and the

like, as well as words so general as to be useless

for indexing purposes, such as "introduction" or "progress" or "preliminary," which will, however,

be printed out in the title as it appears in the final index. In the original proposals of the late H. P. Luhn

for KWIC indexes, he stressed that "since significance is difficult to predict, it is more practicable to isolate it by rejecting all obviously nonsignificant

or 'common' words, with the risk of admitting

certain words of questionable value. Such words

may subsequently be eliminated or tolerated as

'noise'. A list of nonsignificant words would include

articles, conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliary verbs,

certain adjectives, and words such as 'report',

'analysis', 'theory', and the like." (Luhn, 1960,

p. 289).

2. Information Acquisition, Source Data Automation, and Remote Data Collection

2.1 "A new system from 3M allows EKG's to be

transmitted and viewed at long distances in seconds.

Heart data is transmitted via telephone or trans- mission lines to a Model 1260 recorder. The images

are displayed on the unit's CRT where they can be

viewed at once or photographed by a microfilm

processor camera." (Data Proc. Mag. 9, No. 6,

10 (1967).)

"An FM data transmission system was designed

to transmit a fetal electrocardiogram utilizing the

normal telephone circuits." (Hagan and Larks,

1963, p. 147.)

"The major work in the medical field in 1965 took

place in three areas: machine-aided record keeping,

machine-aided physiological analysis, and machineaided medical communication. Vallbona, Caceres,

and others are trying to use detailed physiological

data derived either directly from sensor or indirectly

from sensor tracings as suitable input to a medical

computer system. Caceres utilizes a recording cart or remote telephone link to go directly from the EKG

leads to the computer, while Vallbona telemeters

the physiological data to a paper tape punch from

which cards are prepared that are then fed into the computer." (Baruch, 1966, p. 258.)

2.2 "A computer system using an IBM 1620-

1710 for high speed monitoring and real time reporting on critically ill patients . . . [has been developed

by the Shock Research Unit, USC School of

Medicine at the Los Angeles County Hospital.]

The system currently accepts analog signals from

11 transducers on the patient's body . . . Additional information ... is obtained by manually

entered data." (Rockwell et al, 1966, p. 357.)

"Greanias [1965] points out that 'primary data

from the patient himself may be processed by the

computer . . . on-line. . . . The on-line data

such as electrocardiographs and respiration rates can be automatically monitored by the computer

and directly fed into storage without human inter- vention.' He mentions one of the earliest projects

to develop an on-line system for direct patient

monitoring, being carried out in the Shock Research

Unit of the University of Southern California's

School of Medicine and the Los Angeles County

Hospital under the direction of Dr. Max H. Weil.

'The primary measurements are processed by a remote computer, and the measured and derived

variables are printed out on an output typewriter

in the ward, and displayed on a screen at the

patient's bedside'." (Davis, 1966, p. 248).

"It appears there is a need for hardware assist- ance in caring for the critically ill in order to reduce

human error and to provide permanent records and

displays which the human senses are not trained to assimilate entirely. This would provide for better care of patients as well as production of hard-copy

records." (Brown et al., 1967, p. 77.)

"Valid statistics on physiological processes re- quire substantially more data than can be manually

recorded. As a result, many separate biomedical

instruments, as well as integrated physiological

monitors, are being built to collect useful data. An

ultimate, but difficult, objective is the use of real- time data-acquisition systems to provide patient

data that can be analyzed for immediate use by the

attending physician." (Aron, 1967, p. 65.) 2.3 "There is need for the monitoring of patients

for intra-hospital use, but also for network use in terms of exchange of information (with other

hospitals) on techniques, etc." (Brown et al., 1967,

p. 77.) 2.4 "In a broader sense, telephone telemetry

may help to interconnect research laboratories and

even universities, making possible that degree of inter-university cooperation which seems indicated

in this epoch. Several of Marquette's neighboring

universities have expressed great interest in this

field [telephone telemetry of low-level biologic

signals] and a regional net, including at least four

states, is planned." (Hagan and Larks, 1963, p. 150.) 2.5 "In an experiment for the Chevrolet division

of the General Motors Corp., the Boeing Co., used

computer graphics last year to run off sketches of

Chevy's Sting Ray . . . Proximity probes re- portedly were used to measure the length, width

and height of a clay mockup. These coordinates were then punched into cards and fed into a computer. Punched tape was made and used to run a numerically controlled drafting machine, or engineering plotter . . ." (Gomolak, 1964, p. 65).

57
2.6 "The General Electric Co., reports . . . that

it has provided the Ford Motor Co., with an experimental NC system for making automobile parts.

A model of the part is photographed and an

electronic system converts the photos into a numerical control tape, which controls the machining of

the part." (Electronics 38, No. 20, 25 (1965).

Other examples are as follows: "In a steel fabri- cation detailing application, the computer accepts

basic design criteria and determines the exact dimensions of steel members, how they should be

cut, and the size of the connecting members. The

number of bolts and lengths of welds to be used to interconnect members are determined.

"The CONSTRUCTS (Control Data Structural

System) seeks out possible obstructions and con- nection problems, and automatically provides

special solutions as required.

"Once calculations have been completed, full- sized drawings are produced on a plotter." (Bus.

Automation 12, No. 7, 55 (1965).

"An advanced concept in the calculation and

transmission of machinability data was demonstrated by GE's Metallurgical Products Dept.

Machinability problems were posed to a remote

GE-225 computer via a Datanet—760 terminal.

Near-instantaneous answers on recommended

feed, speed and carbide tool grade for turning operations were displayed on a TV monitor." (Data Proc. Mag. 7, No. 11, 12 (Nov. 1965).)

"An integrated computerized system has been

developed at the Sun Oil Company for the production of isometric drawings with accompanying bills of material, requisitions, purchase orders, and cost estimates for piping configurations. ... A signifi- cant feature of the operation is a single input sheet

initiating the process whether it be for the entire

procedure or only part of it. These procedures can

produce fabrication sketches for piping fabricators

and/or construction site personnel. They will yield cost estimates for cost engineers as an aid in the

evaluation of material, line size or configuration

changes for a single drawing or any combination

of drawings describing a section of the plant or the entire plant. Requisitions are provided for ordering material and updated lists of the status of items ordered are produced for project engineers.

The purchasing department by writing a cover

letter can use the requisition as an appendix and,

thus, produce a purchase order. The material

inventory control group at one of our refineries can

use output cards from this system to interrogate

their computer as to the inventory status of items

being requisitioned. In an integrated system such

as this, justification and advantages accrue from the

integration over and above any of the single components. In this paper the discussion will be limited

to the isometric drawings and bills of material

phase of this system." (Aicher, 1967, p. 134). 2.7 "In commercial data processing systems

where there is a strong profit discipline, the cardinal

rule is 'Capture data at its source — Capture it

only once — Use it, and use it, and use it'." (Kroger,

1965, p. 267).

"It is hard to conceive of a great expansion in management information systems unless there is a breakthrough in source data automation." (Voltin, 1967. p. 8). 2.7a "The Bureau has developed a new model of \ FOSDIC (Film Optical Sensing Device for Input

to Computers) to assist the Bureau of the Census

in processing the data to be received from the 1960

decennial censuses. This electronic machine

' rapidly reads microfilmed census documents and

transcribes the data on magnetic tape for direct

input to an electronic computer. It was designed by

M. L. Greenough and C. C. Gordon of the NBS i staff and E. S. Stein of the Bureau of the Census.

"The central element of FOSDIC III, like its

| predecessors, FOSDIC I and II, is an electronic

scanning assembly. Light from the screen of a cathode-ray tube is focused upon the microfilm \ image,, and the transmissivity of small, discrete areas on the film — corresponding to the handwritten marks on the original document — is measured with a photoelectric cell. By moving the elec- j, tron beam around on the face of the cathode-ray \ tube, any selected area of the image can be ex- j amined. Control of the position of the illuminated ' area, and interpretation of the signals from the

j photoelectric cells are functions performed by the j associated electronic circuitry. Through positional 1 control, or scanning, the point of light travels in

j prescribed manner from one point to the next in I turn. Since there is only one electron beam in the

cathode-ray tube, the scanning over the image is serial in its time sequence. Then, as soon as one image is scanned, the film is automatically ad- vanced to the next frame.

"FOSDIC can read off any part of all of the in- formation on a document, depending on what the

programer instructs the machine to do. The instruc- ; tions are in terms of the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the index mark next to the desired

information. Program control is through a plugboard

into which the detection logic has been wired."

(FOSDIC III to Assist in 1960 Census, 1959).

"A key factor is . . . FOSDIC, or more properly,

Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers, i This equipment transforms microfilm pictures of ; special paper forms into impulses on magnetic tape

. . . One FOSDIC sheet takes the place of a dozen

punched cards and FOSDIC can process 100 of these sheets, in the form of microfilm images, in one minute." (Census Bureau Slashes Record

HandHng Time, 1964, p. 32). A related development, FOSDIC IV, is designed

for programmable scanning of the microfilmed

images of punched cards: "An improved model of

FOSDIC . . . has been completed by the National

Bureau of Standards for use with the computers

of the National Weather Records Center ... FOSDIC IV reads data on past weather conditions I

from microfilms of punched cards from the Center's

archives. The machine performs logical operations |
on the data it reads and also selects certain data to be recorded on magnetic tape for later input to

digital computers." (FOSDIC IV Reads Microfilmed Weather Data for Computer, 1967, p. 63). 2.7b "With advancing technology, input from

authors may be in machine-readable form or may

be converted directly to this form by scanners.

Electronic display and Hght-pen techniques seem

likely to play important roles in composition and in making editorial corrections and also in the trans- mission of stored information to users." (American

Institute of Physics Staff, 1967, p. 372). 2.8 "A record from a relatively simple input

typing operation can be processed to form a multiplicity of high typographic quaHty, complex output

products . . . This procedure allows the primary

record to be processed into a variety of secondary

products, regardless of their typographic forms. A

computer processing system has been developed to produce the primary journal typesetting tape, an

author index typesetting tape, and an abstract

journal entry typesetting tape." (Buckland, 1965,

pp. 2-20). 2.8a "Miller Electric Co. uses Control Data 180

data collectors on the shop floor of its plant in Appleton, Wis., to capture data in punched tape.

The collectors are portable and have self-contained

punches. Data on production status and attendance

is entered into the devices by the people who work

on the welders and welding equipment which Miller

sells. Plastic identification cards' are used to input

employee identification. Pre-punched cards identify

each part being manufactured, dials are used

by the employee to enter variable information, and

a clock module automatically records time of input on the tape." (Menkhaus, 1967, pp. 33-34).

2.9 "Automatic data collection (ADC) implies

the recording, in machine-readable form, of the

pertinent data about a transaction at the time the

transaction occurs. Some data collection systems

collect and record the transation data in machinereadable form for later batch processing, while

others feed the data directly into real-time computer

systems to provide up-to-the-minute information for operational decisions." (Hillegass and Melick,

1967, p. 50). 2.10 "Honeywell's modular, multipurpose Data

Station can optically scan documents, read punched

cards, print at high or low speeds, and punch and

read paper tape and is designed as a remote terminal

for Honeywell 200 and 2200 computer systems . . . The optical scanning unit reads up to 50 documents

a minute imprinted in a special bar code." (Data

Proc. Mag. 7, No. 2, 47, 1965). 2.11 "Hewlett-Packard Co., Redwood City,

Calif., unveiled its desk-top optical mark reader . . ." (Commun. ACM 9, No. 6, 468 (June 1966).) British examples of optical mark reading equipment include an ICT (International Computers and

Tabulators, Ltd.) device and the "Autolector" of English Electric, Leo.

"The Leo-Parnall Autolector is an automatic

optical scanning device which reads both computer

printed and hand marked forms directly into a computer." (Dig. Comp. Newsletter 16, No. 4,

26 (1964).

2.12 This technique "changes electrical impulses

into numerical values. These numbers are fed into a computer which then examines the series of numbers to produce a standard pattern for each motion.

The pattern can then be used to design control

circuitry for complex movement patterns." (Bus.

Automation 70, 12, No. 10, (Oct. 1965).)

2.13 "Techniques are being developed in several

laboratories which will permit the use of optical

character recognition in industrial control appHcations, for example checking labels on bottles during

packaging processes and material control on assembly lines." (Daniels, 1967, p. 10). 2.13a "Kartrak . . . utilises an unmanned,

weather-proof, trackside scanner which sends out beams of white light and receives coloured reflected

light from strips of durable reflective material.

The strips, attached to each car, are arranged to form a colour code representing the identification number of the car and its weight when empty."

(Data and Control 2, No. 12, 9 (Dec. 1964).)

"Automatic car identification adopted nationwide by America's Railroads. Thomas M. Goodfellow, president of the Association of American

Railroads, has announced the adoption of industrywide automatic car identification system to monitor

the 1.8 million freight car fleet. The KarTrak auto- matic car identification system, selected by the

AAR, is designed and manufactured in Bedford,

Mass., by the Commerical Electronics Division of

Sylvania Electric Products Inc. "Major components in the new system are a trackside electronic 'scanner' made by Sylvania

and the 3M Company's 'Scotchhte' reflective sheeting. Strips of reflective sheeting are coded by

color and design in such a manner as to represent

numbers to the scanner. A light beam from the scanner 'reads' numbers from bottom to top. The

retro-reflective sheeting 'bounces back' numbers

to the scanner which feeds them into a centraHzed

computer. The system works at train speeds of up

to 80 MPH and is unaffected by weather conditions.

The system makes possible instantaneous location

of any freight car in the country.

"The TeleRail Automated Information Network

(TRAIN) recently estabhshed by the AAR will be

tied in with the nationwide ACI system and the

advanced information systems of individual rail- roads. TRAIN, based at the Association's Washington headquarters with computer hnks to all Class I railroads, wiU provide the AAR Car Service Division

with complete reports of car locations by railroads

and car flows through principal rail gateways, and

wiU permit more rapid distribution of the equipment to meet shipper needs for freight cars." (Computers and Automation 16, No. 12, 61 (Dec.

1967).

366-107 O - 70 - 5 59
2.14 Davenport (1965) summarized some of the

advantages of this technique as follows:

III

I "(1) Cost is relatively low, only two or three times

{| that of an ordinary telephone.

I! (2) The remote input station can be used interI changeably for either voice or data transI mission.

(3) The keyboard is as easy to use as a small

adding machine.

\ (4) The station can be connected to both local

{ and long-distance telephone facilities.

I I (5) The input device can be portable and capable

;j of sending from any phone jack.

' (6) Transmission can be either to paper tape

and card punches or on-line to a computer.

(7) Effectually real-time operation can be

' achieved at low cost."

I 2.15 "The data that is accumulated and stored is

j information relevant to flow of work and accumulated

charges in a production facility. The information is

j entered by workmen at numerous data collection

I devices in the time keeping and production areas,

j I The production facilities are physically separated

I I by several hundred miles from each other and

ill corporate offices but because of the competitive

I nature of the business it is important to provide

|j: status reports three times daily. The amount of

II data accumulated at each facility during an eightIj hour shift, including material purchase requisitions,

|]| distribution of hours worked by product and stock

I status, adds up to 100,000 characters of information.

|li This data is accumulated during each eight-houi

l|! shift and then transmitted from each facility one

|j| at a time. Actual call time for each facility at 200

[! characters per second is nine minutes. The five

I

j facilities can be polled in less than one hour to

1 I provide a computer compatible tape to start a com-

! I puter report cycle." (Hickey, 1966, p. 177).

i; I 2.15a We note with Clippinger that: "There is a

'

! steady trend to move the computer interface with

ii

j data collection closer and closer to the source.

I The use of interrupt processing makes it feasible

j! to process these data as collected, to keep files updated, using a negHgible amount of computer

time." (1965, p. 209).

2.15b Moreover, it is noted that "if current

jj!

! trends continue, the system and circuit designer

]j

i will have to solve many new problems associated

! • with an extremely low-temperature environment,

jl j This environment occurs in space but there are

j many terrestrial applications for devices requiring

I

j low temperatures — masers, lasers, parametric

amplifiers and infrared detection devices." (Allen

and Niehenke, 1965, p. 75.) 2.16 "The electric utility industry's first inte grated computer/telemetry system ... at the PubHc Utility District No. 1 of Chelan County,

located in Wenatchee, Wash. . . . The telemetry

and data collection system is under direct computer

control . . . Important on-line programs include

load frequency control, actual and estimated en- croachment, telemetry control, pondage accounting.

scan, log and alarm, spill calculation, and operator's

information programs." (Computers & Automation

14, No. 7, 38-39 (1965).)

2.17 "A new data-message communications

system is now being marketed nationally by

Digitronics Corporation . . . The 600 Dial-O-Verter,

collects information from many remote sources and

automatically separates the computer-bound data

from the message traffic." (Commun. ACM 9, 782

(1966).)

"Digitronics is currently marketing three distinct product lines, each of which represented roughly

one-third of the company's bookings of about $8

million last year. These three lines are: • The Dial-o-verter line of communications

terminals; • The Data-verier line of data acquisition and

transmission devices; and • A component line consisting of paper tape

readers and spoolers.

"The Dial-o-verter fine is oriented toward the

transmission of large volumes of data over the public

telephone network or a half-duplex leased voiceband line. The Data-verter line is designed for comparatively lowcost, low-speed collection and

transmission of data using specialized components.

The devices in the Digitronics component line are

sold primarily to other manufacturers of data

processing equipment." (Axner, 1967, p. 45). 2.18 See Data Proc. Mag. 7, No. 2, 41 (Feb.

1965). Further, "the IBM Hardware Monitor is an example of a general data acquisition system seeking to capture a continuous stream of events for

off"-hne analysis." (Estrin et al., 1967, p. 647.)

2.18a "Data analysis is preceded by data acquisition. During analysis, intermediate results are the basis for the proper choice of strategies, during

acquisition, for the choice of experimental conditions. Proper conditions for an experiment may be

short-lived, hence the need for interaction must be

recognized while the experiment is still in progress."

(Lockemann and Knutsen, 1967, p. 758).

"The PACE (Precision Analytical Computing

Equipment) System provides one solution to the

analytical data processing needs of industry. PACE

is a computer-based system which automatically

and simultaneously processes the electrical signals

generated by a variety of analytical instruments.

Therefore, the system can be put on-fine with: (1) chromatographs; (2) mass spectrometers; (3) i spectrophotometers; (4) NMR spectrometers; and , (5) physical testing machines. . . . The data reduc- i tion program examines, classifies and reduces the } 'raw' input data from each instrument into a compact form. The condensed data contains just the \ information needed to characterize the particular j instrument." (Lichtenstein, 1966, p. 10). | "A digital data recording system that automa- | tically converts signals from laboratory instruments . into computer language is available from Beckman

Instruments, Inc., FuUerton, Calif.

I
"The versatile system readily translates output

from a variety of atomic absorption, ultraviolet and

infrared spectrophotometers into digital form. Output can be visually displayed or recorded punched

paper tape, magnetic tape or standard IBM cards.

Identification data may be introduced and recorded

by the setting of 10 thumbwheel, parameter switches.

"The system can be economically expanded as

users' needs increase. Eight operating models are

available. Up to three encoders may be used simultaneously, permitting wide latitude in the handling

and calculating of analytical data. "Capabilities range from the simplest digital

recording of ordinate values on manual command, to automatic and simultaneous recording of ordinate

and abscissa data while detecting and recording

spectral peaks and valleys." (Computers and Automation 16, No. 11, 60 (Nov. 1967).)

2.19 McGee and Petersen, 1965, p. 90. The

immediate objective in their research has been the

automatic measurement of bubble chamber tracks

previously recorded on film. "PEPR is a computer-controlled CRT scanner

used to automatically measure bubble chamber

tracks which have been recorded on film. The PEPR

cathode ray tube defocuses the electron beam into a

short line segment whose angular orientation and

location can be independently controlled by the

system . . . "Control of any CRT scanner would be similar to the PEPR scanner. In other data collection systems,

counters, pulse height analyzers, telemetry converters, etc., may all serve as sources of input data. The controller output registers may be used for a

variety of external control purposes as well as data

sources for display and printing devices." (McGee

and Petersen, 1965, pp. 82-90).

2.20 "The on-line man-computer system is employed in the measurement on pictures of nuclear

particle events obtained from high-energy accelerator experiments . . . An operator guides an

ingenious light sensitive measuring device, SMP

(Scanning-Measuring Projector), across an image

of the film projected onto a flat table. The SMP

device transmits a stream of measured data to the

CSX-1 computer for validation and analysis . . . Through a question and answer procedure controlled by the computer, ancillary data are fed con- cerning the nature of the vent, the film number, the

operator number, etc. ... A calibration procedure is performed to measure fiduciary marks on the film . . .

. . . The measurement of three separate stereo- scopic views of the same event is conducted."

(Brown, 1965, p. 82. [U. IlUnois]

"A second pattern recognition computer using a

cellular organization has been proposed by McCormick and coworkers for particular use in analyzing

photographs of particle tracks obtained from spark

chambers and bubble chambers used in high

energy physics. The pattern recognition computer

requires a "Pattern Articulation Unit" (PAU) for preliminary processing of photographs and a Taxicrinic Unit (TU) and Arithmetic Unit (AU) to provide summary information on photographs and

complete their analysis. The PAU is of cellular design and reduces input images to idealized line drawings or graphs and has been designed in some

detail. The TU and AU are computers of more

conventional design and have not been described

in detail. We shall describe the PAU as a device

having properties similar to CAM. . . . "The PAU contains a network of identical

processing modules organized on a 32 by 32 grid.

A one-bit principal register (PR) with each module

is capable of accepting the contents of any of its eight nearest neighbors. The set of PR's forms a two-dimensional shift register whose contents may

be shifted in any of eight directions. Associated

with each PR is a "stalactite" or multibit memory

register which communicates only with the PR.

Logical transformations may be performed in parallel on contents of stalactites under central

control, the transformations being identical for all stalactites. Local logical transformations involving

points in a discretized binary pattern and their nearest neighbors are performed by first shifting

neighbors in each PR, shifting them down into

stalactites, performing transformations on stalactite contents and finally storing results in the PR."

(Fuller, 1963, p. 25). 2.21 "The Physics Department of Rutgers

University will use a PDP-6 computer for ele- mentary particle analysis. The Rutgers System

will evaluate the photographic record of an experiment on four film-scanning machines. Two will search for useful tracks and two will define their

locations by positioning crosshairs along and at the ends and vertices of a track in each of three

views." (News and Notices, Commun. ACM 7,

557 (1964).)

2.21a "The work ... is based on the use of a mechanical flying spot digitizer to automate the

initial scanning and measurement steps. The in- creasing volume of bubble chamber film being

produced at many high energy physics laboratories

around the world makes some form of automation

essential. Two experiments currently in progress at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia

University . . . [use] the flying spot digitizer . . . on- hne to an IBM 7094 computer." (Rabinowitz, 1968,

p. 159).

2.21b "There are specific instances of productivity improvement by automating a normally human

graphical interpretation procedure. One example is PIP, a spark chamber photograph interpreter. Scanning and interpretation of 5000 frames per hour was

possible, as compared to 50 frames per man hour."

(Wigington, 1966, p. 88). 2.21c "PEPR ('Precision Encoding and Pattern

Recognition') is a device proposed in 1961 by Pless

and Rosenson for the scanning and measuring of photographs of events in bubble chambers. It uses a high precision cathode ray tube connected on-line

61
to a computer." (Watts, 1968, p. 207). [Reference is to an internal M.I.T. report dated Feb. 1961].

2.22 A computer-controlled x-ray diffractometer

(CCXD) system developed and operated by the

Thomas J. Watson Research Center (IBM) provides

structural information on crystalline materials.

(Cole and Okaya, 1965, p. 32): "This advance in the

speed of crystallographic analysis was achieved by

making all necessary x-ray measurements auto- matically with an experimental system, developed

by scientists at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research

Center two years ago. Under the control of an IBM

1620 computer, the crystal is turned so that the

x-rays are reflected by different planes of atoms in the crystal and the intensity of the reflected x-rays is measured. The system is run 24 hours a day, without

supervision. The computer is operated in a time

sharing mode, so that it can perform many preliminary computations while the experiment is in progress."

"Several years ago after a crystallographer had

joined the staff at the IBM Research Center, the

question arose as to how best to get the data for him that he needed in order to work at a high pro- fessional level. The solution seemed to be to auto- mate an x-ray diffractometer, an instrument which

could produce the needed data, and finally, the nature of the data taking task seemed to indicate

that the instrument should be on-line to a computer

for real-time feedback and instrument control. An

IBM 1620 computer was rented, the control program

written, and the system has been in steady operation

since late in 1963." (Cole, 1966, p. 1). "The data taking and justification is not the only

computer oriented part of the crystallographic

work. The data analysis, the determination of the

atomic positions from the diffraction data, involves

extensive calculations. And finally, with the output

increased as it has been, the graphic display of

intermediate calculations and the drawing of the

views of the molecular configuration become bottle- necks if use is not made of computer plotting. Thus

computers play a role in each step of these experimental studies." (Cole, 1966, pp. 2-3). See also Cole et al, 1963, and Abrahams, 1963. 2.23 "Special peripherals can be on-line to the

jobs . . . The Manchester Installation has an x-ray diffractometer and an audio I/O device in this category." (Morris et al., 1967, p. 68.)

2.24 "The surprising thing is the trend to auto- mation in the research laboratories, you find it in those experiments that are characterized by large

numbers of repetitive measurements . . . But

you find it also in experiments that are characterized more by complexity than by repetitiveness. There

the hub of the automation comes in the analysis of the data — it's done on line, in real time, most

often with a small computer located right at the

experiment and, in fact, incorporated into it. The

analyzed data are displayed before the experimenter

and guide him in the performance of experiments

that otherwise would be too big for him to handle."

(Cooper, 1964, pp. 20-21).

2.25 "GasChrom-8, a new computer-based

system for analysis of data from multiple gas chromatographs, has been announced by Digital

Equipment Corp., Maynard, Mass. The new

system includes the company's latest general pur- pose computer (PDP-8/I), a specially designed

chromatograph interface, easy-to-use conversational

software and Teletype.

"Other types of instruments can be connected

to the computer using interfaces available from

Digital Equipment Corp. Specially developed

software packages, designed for the PDP-8/I,

extend the computer's capability to serve other

instrumentation such as mass spectrometers, NMR

spectrometers and a variety of other instruments.

"The new system detects peaks and shoulders,

calculates peak areas and peak retention times,

allocates overlapping peak areas, corrects for baseline drift, and calculates component concentrations. It also identifies peaks, applies responsive

factors, and types out a complete analyses report

immediately after a run is finished. In addition,

GasChrom-8 allows parallel operation of a strip

chart recorder and attention switching." (Computers

and Automation 17, No. 4, 63 (Apr. 1968).) 2.26 "Small defects in multilayer printed circuit boards can be swiftly and accurately repaired — but

first they have to be found. To pinpoint such

common faults as short and open circuits, the

Autonetics Division of North American Aviation,

Inc., has developed a computer-controlled, infrared

radiometer that scans and analyzes a board's

thermal radiation pattern." (White and Jones,

1965, p. 96.) 2.27 "The objective of the unique and ambitious

program is to construct a high speed electronic

scanner-computer for automatic 'visual' observation and analysis of medical specimens and bio- logical system." ("PHS Grants . . .", 1965, p. 8.) Further details of the project plan under the direction of Glaser of the University of California are

as follows: "With this automatic system it is believed that identification of the causative organism

and determination of their drug sensitivity or resist- ance can be made much faster and with higher

reliability than is possible with present hospital

techniques. It is expected that essentially the same

techniques will be useful for monitoring levels of contamination of food, water, and medical supplies

where it is important to know how many living

organisms are present and of what kinds." ("PHS

Grants . . .", 1965, p. 8.) 2.28 "The systems assembled at NBS auto- matically obtain and record data from unattended

experiments at rates up to 50 datum points a second.

The system can also be programmed to vary experimental parameters, such as voltage or wavelength."

("Transistorized Modules for Data Logging Systems", 1966, p. 42.) See also Stein (1966).

62
2.29 "Argonne National Laboratory's CDC 3600-

based system represents user-manufacturer co- operation for adaptation to local needs. ANL is modif>-ing CDC's SCOPE system to use the 826

disk for scheduling and handling input/output

functions. AXL developed programs that link a cathode-ray-tube display and camera recorder to the system for recording graphic and tabular data. ANL's Standard Peripheral Processor, a 160A

package, includes an ANL modification for introducing a microwave link for high-speed data trans- mission. The Processor allows tape-to-tape trans- mission in either direction and tape-to-printer

transmission from the user to the computer system.

A data link from an ASI-2100 computer allows real- time interrupt to users of the 4.5 MEV and 12 MEV

Tandem Van de Graaff accelerators. ANL's

PALLETTE is a computer-controlled device that counts tracks made by subatomic particles in a

fine grain photoemulsion. A hybrid computing

system recently installed joins two PACE analog

computers to a PDP-7. The hybrid enables analysis

of dynamic systems that yield discrete and con- tinuous data. CHLOE, an automatic film-scanning

system, digitizes data from bubble-chamber

photographs and oscilloscope traces. The system

is being evaluated for fingerprints, radiological

photographs, optic nerve signals, galactic shapes,

etc." (Swanson. 1967. p. 37.) 2.30 "Tt thus appears that standard radioactivity

measuring instrumentation land ihis is intended

only as an example) encodes information in a form

that can be transmitted to and processed by the

computer in a simple, practical and very inexpensive

way." (Neilsen, 1965, p. 635.)

2.30a "Multiple graphic display drivers, radar

scanning equipment, map digitizing devices and

earthquake sensor arrays are typical examples of data acquisition or distribution systems. Data are received from sensors, formated and stored in mass

storage for acquisition, and then prepared for distribution. Periodically, data are transferred

from mass storage to other media. Here there is one basic function — to compile data — but as many

processes as there are independent sensors or

distributors." (Gaylord, 1968, p. 27). "Current efforts to increase the power and

sensitivity of radar observations, to reduce processing time and enhance picture resolution, and to significantly improve microwave and data processing

hardware will no doubt have major effects on the

future of radar astronomy.

"Tn the data processing area, the immediate goal

is obvious: to develop total display systems capable

of permitting the continuous display of radar data. This, together with the need for solutions to the

special problems imposed by planetary observations

and the constant search for better resolution, should

provide enough work to keep researchers busy for a long while." (WcUs, 1967, p. 32). 2.30b "The first real indication that radar probing might yield significant information on the moon

came in 1946, when the United States Army Signal

Corps first succeeded in bouncing a signal off the

lunar surface. Even then, some of the advantages

radar might have over optical methods were evi- dent. For example, certain quantitative changes in the polarization and absorption of reflected signals

resulting from transmissions at different wavelengths might give us insight into the depth, and

even the nature, of the surface layer; extremely

accurate determinations of range and surface fea- tures, as well as of lunar periods and possible un- expected perturbations, might be made; and perhaps

of greatest eventual value since neither distance to the target nor atmospheric conditions constitute

major problems, the methods developed for studying

the moon could be readily adapted to planetary use."

(Wells, 1967, p. 26). 2.31 See Meissner et al., 1963. Figure 12 illus- trates the process flow for the automatic preparation

of "smooth sheets" (i.e., charts containing substantially all the readings from a particular survey

trip). Digital recordings of the data collected

include information on the sounding in feet or fathoms, including the phase number for the echo

sounder; a serial number identifying the reading;

the time of the reading: the position fix data; the

heading of the ship, and data entered manually,

such as the ship's draft, tide corrections, and sound

velocity. 2.32 "A new system, caUed the Laboratory

Data Collector and General Purpose Interface, was

designed to provide a reliable, flexible and yet

inexpensive digital data acquisition and recording

capability for those who must collect, record, and

process digital data from laboratory instruments

or other sources, and record this data in digital form.

The standard system allows the interfacing and

control of a wide variety of digital output devices

and instruments with almost any digital data recording device or direct computer interface. It eliminates

the need for a new expensive "black box" for each new or different connection between such devices

that becomes necessary in a laboratory or digital

data acquisition system. The Laboratory Data

Collector can be programmed and operated by

laboratory technicians in a few simple steps, and

does not require the experience of a computer

programmer. It also allows automatic identification

of data and automatic formatting and separation of data samples. It has built-in error checking and

maintenance features which guarantee the validity

of data processed and allows rapid repair of the unit

by the technicians if this becomes necessary. The

basic Laboratory Data Collector unit which will interface standard analog-to-digital converters and

digital voltmeters, and control punched paper tape

or incremental magnetic tape units, sells for 16,400.

Various options including built-in analog-to-digital

converters, digital multiplexors, digital data compressors, and digital clocks can be provided on a modular basis. Berkeley Scientific Laboratories,

Berkeley, Cal." (Computer Design 5, 68, Feb. 1966).

63
SHIPBOARD

ADDITIONAL

INFORMATION

r

PUNCHED

CARDS

LOCAL J

OFFICE ^

TRANSDUCERS

ENCODERS

INDICATORS

DATA

MONITORING

PERSONNEL

I

DATA LOGGER

TYPED I 1 RECORD J

BOAT

SHEET

y. i. PAPER TAPE

DATA CONVERSION

GEOGRAPH'L POSITIONS AND

PROJECTION COORDINTS

COMPUTER

PREUMINARY

SMOOTH SHEET

\

INSPECTION

\

>

PRECISION

X-Y

PLOTTER

APPROVED CARDS

1 /

FINAL SMOOTH SHEET

y J

TO CENTRAL OFFICE

AUTOMATIC PREPARATION OF SMOOTH SHEET

Figure 12. Automatic preparation of smooth sheet.

64
2.33 "An improved mobile data acquisition

system was designed for maximum flexibility in obtaining data and producing computer compatible

tapes at remote test sites. This completely portable

system allows engineers to easily check operating

conditions in industrial or scientific equipment in isolated plant locations or in the field. Inputs repre- senting pressures, temperatures, strains, flow rates,

speeds, and other variables are recorded at rates up

to 20,000 samples per second. The recorder is an

integral part of the system, called Mobidac, the

system accepts fifty low-level analog inputs, seven

high-level analog inputs, and two digital inputs

which may originate either internally or externally.

Patch panel programming permits selection of

either binary or BCD formats, any one of several

data acquisition rates, and allows high-level and lowlevel inputs to be intermixed in the program sampling sequence. Lower sampling rates than those

obtained by subcommutation are available by

start/stop recording. Nixie displays are provided for read-out of data and for record count. Data values

are recorded in gapped or gapless format for direct

analysis by a computer. System Engineering Labs,

Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla." (Computer Design 5,

74 (Feb. 1966).)

"An improved Mobidac (mobile data acquisition)

system designed for maximum flexibility in obtaining

data and producing computer compatible tapes at remote test sites has been introduced by Systems

Engineering Laboratories Inc. Inahe portable sys- tem, inputs representing pressures, temperatures,

strains, flow rates, speeds and other variables are recorded at rates up to 20,000 samples/sec."

(Information Display 3, 63 (Mar/Apr. 1966).) 2.34 "The Large Aperature Seismic Array

(LASA) project is being planned as a real-time

data-acquisition system for detecting and evaluating

earth tremors (earthquakes or man-made tremors)."

(Aron, 1967, p. 65.)

"Montana Array. This network is used for detection of earthquakes and nuclear explosions by

linking together 525 seismic detectors covering an

area of 30 thousand square miles. Large quantities

of information are sent to M.I.T. for processing.

One reel of magnetic tape is generated every 10

minutes." (Brown, et al., 1967, p. 20.) See also Maguire, 1965, and Press and Brace, 1966. "The large aperture seismic array, or LASA . . . is a system of seismometers, signal transmission

facilities, and signal processing hardware designed

to provide a greatly improved detection and identifi- cation capability for remote seismic disturbances

(teleseisms) of small size. Figure 1 shows a map of

the area around Miles City in eastern Montana

where the experimental LASA has been installed,

and it indicates schematically the disposition of

the 525 seismometers over the 200 km aperture,

as well as the 500 miles of open-wire telephone

line and 275 miles of microwave faciUties that provide the signal transmission. . . . Each seis- mometer is at the bottom of a 200-ft deep hole.

at the top of which a solid-state parametric pre- amplifier is located. Buried cable connects groups

of 25 seismometers into clusters or 'subarrays' ....

In a concrete vault near the center of each subarray

a Subarray Electronics Module (SEM) multiplexes

and digitizes the 25 seismometer outputs into a

single bit stream which is then transmitted to the

LASA Data Center in Billings by means of open

wire and microwave circuits, terminated at sending

and receiving ends with suitable ModulatorDemodulator (Modem) units. At the Data Center

the bit streams from the 21 subarrays are combined,

processed by digital computer, and the results appropriately displayed or transmitted to remote

locations for further processing." (Green et al., 1966,

p. 328).

2.35 "The Advanced Record System is being

used in connection with remote sensors to monitor

water pollution in certain rivers on a 24-hour-a-day

basis." (Johnson, 1967, p. 20). 2.36 "The AMOS (Automatic Meteorological

Observation Station) systems have been developed

in a cooperative program between the National

Bureau of Standards and the U.S. Weather Bureau

for the purposes of storing and processing weather

data gathered at a number of remote stations."

("The AMOS IV Computer for a Prototype

Automatic Weather Station, National Bureau of

Standards, Tech. News Bull. 45, 13-15, Jan. 1961).

"Plans are currently being generated for a dedicated network to process nationwide weather

information which includes file maintenance for subscriber query. Messages are periodically

received from a worldwide weather sensing network.

The computer will format incoming data according

to preprogrammed needs of a subscriber and will also maintain an updated data base so that subscribers may randomly query the center for the

latest weather at any point in the world. Although

this network is presently planned as a limited access system, expansion of the service to total government operations thru general purpose communication facilities is foreseen." (Jacobellis, 1964,

p. N2. 1-3).

2.36a "There are a variety of potential apphcations for a real-time analysis system. Examples are

air traffic control using Doppler radar techniques,

Doppler radar measurements of meteors or terrestrial orbital objects, vibration measurements during

non-destructive testing, and medical monitoring

during intensive care or surgery. In many other

applications rapid availability of results from a number of data sensors is needed for efficient operation, as in seismic exploration." (Larson and

Singleton, 1967, p. 665).

2.36b A few details from the Mariner mission to photograph the Martian landscape are as follows: "Spacecraft Mode 4 was Television Playback.

Mode 4 consisted of approximately 40,000 words,

or 240,000 bits of information per picture. The

television format contained a 31-bit PN se- quence . . ., then 30 bits of identification foUowed

65
by 200 6-bit elements for each TV line. Two hundred

TV lines constitutes 1 complete picture." (Gianopolos and Curl, 1966, p. 38). 2.37 "Scientists at the California Institute of

Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, using an IBM 7094 computer, have been able to improve the

quality of the most recent photographs of the

moon's surface by a factor of two . . . "Each picture [from Ranger VII] is made up of

about 90,000 points and there are about 64 possible

shades of gray for each point. The signals are re- corded on magnetic tape and fed into the IBM

computer in digital form. The computer then plays

a brightness-level matching game . . . It is possible

for the computer to correct smudges in the picture

where signals were not picked up evenly. It does

this by comparing one scan line with neighboring

lines and correcting the extreme variations caused

by the electromagnetic interference. After the

computer has processed the information, a visual

image is recreated by a film reproducer." (The Computer Bull. 9, 62 (1965). See also Data Processing 7,

267 (July 1965).)

2.38 "Two experiments are under consideration, one ranging, the other photographic. For the ranging

experiment, a 10-joule ruby-laser pulse is trans- mitted from the ground through a special-purpose

telescope with a 1.5-meter aperture. It is returned

from the lunar reflector back through the same

telescope to a photomultiplier . . . For the photography experiment, a 40-joule laser signal is trans- mitted through the special-purpose telescope but

it is returned by the reflector to a separate generalpurpose telescope . . . displaced approximately

1.5 km to the east of the transmitting telescope.

This displacement compensates for relative trans- verse velocities between the earth and moon. "There are many uses for precise information on the range to a specific point on the lunar surface.

For example, laser observations throughout ' the

lunar libration cycle could give independent checks

on the moon's mechanical figure and provide observations useful in calculating an improved physical

ephemeris of the moon. Such observations could

also provide an independent check on the earth's equatorial radius, and on lunar theory dealing with

the eccentricity of orbits." (Hunt, 1967, pp. 5-6).

2.39 For example, "the idea behind multiband

reconnaissance is that by comparing two or more

photographs of the same object made in different regions of the spectrum we may learn something

about the object we could not learn by studying

the tonal values on just one photograph . . . "Infrared mapping of large forest fires . . . "The U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment

Station . . . [used] a radar at four different fre- quencies (as well as with other sensors like gammaray spectrometers) to analyze soil conditions as

far down as 18 inches." (Parker and Wolff, 1965,

pp. 23, 26, 27). 2.39a "The quality of near-orthography, coupled

with the great speed of spacecraft, makes it possible

for earth scientists to have up-to-date base maps,

to include distributions of dynamic features, and

to readily assess changes in distributions by comparing repetitive coverages." (Fischer, 1968,

pp. 45-46). "In the study of vegetation the presence of the

high, near-infrared reflectance spectrum — a fundamental feature of leaf moisture in all healthy plant

growth — enables sensors of various types to define

the vigor of growth. The visible and near-infrared

regions, combined with the time of the seasons, enable the crop type and vigor to be predicated

with high precision." (Lyon, 1968, p. 46). "At the national and international levels, hydrologists are initiating studies in the use of remote

sensing and data relay for a wide range of hydrological purposes . . . Current studies indicate

that present space technology can provide substantial benefits. These include basic studies of the hydrologic cycle, snow and ice mapping, real- time communications of ground-based hydrological

data, survey of coastal hydrologic features and large

lakes, and remote sensing of soil moisture." (Bock,

1968, p. 46). "Purdue University engineers, working in the

NSF-funded LARS (Laboratory for Agricultural

Remote Sensing) program, have developed remote

sensing and pattern-recognition techniques which

can be used to gather information on crops from

the air. The system entails sensing and recording

of infra-red reflections from plants and could be

used with a low-level satellite (such as a Tiros)

equipped with a spectrophotometer and a tape

recorder. From the tape input, the computer

recognizes signal patterns and maps the area, designating, for example, what crops are grown in each field. This technique reportedly could be

modified to aid such projects as water and oil explorations, planet fly-bys, and icecap and drought

investigations." (Datamation 14, No. 5, 113 (May

1968).

It is noted also that: "Aero Services and Spectra

Physics are incorporating a gas-laser ranging device

and a barometric-pressure transducer into a system

that has demonstrated a capability for accurately

profiling the surface over which the aircraft is being

flown . . ." (Parker and Wolff", 1965, p. 30) and that

". . . the U.S. Army Electronics Laboratories . . . reported sounding through 1500 ft. of cold ice from

low-flying helicoptors with a . . . pulsed radar

system . . ." (Parker and Wolff". 1965, p. 28.)

2.40 ". . . Theories pertaining to crevasse

detection have been substantiated by infrared

measurements over snow surfaces in Michigan

and in the Arctic, and an airborne technique has

been devised for finding snow-bridged crevasses

that often cannot be seen by visual means." (Parker

and Wolff. 1965, p. 20.) 2.41 "Long radio waves are helping prospectors

search for water in arid regions of the Soviet Union.

The system, developed at Moscow State University,

operates on the principle that damp ground absorbs

66
radio waves better than dry ground does." (Electronics 38, 216 (1965).) 2.42 "Graphic 'fingerprints' of water frost and

of carbon dioxide 'frost' have been obtained in recent measurements at the NBS Institute for Basic Standards ... by H. J. Keegan and V. R. Weidner . . . The fingerprints — clear patterns of

the light-reflecting and absorbing properties of the

two types of frost at wavelengths in the infrared

region of the spectrum — wiU be checked against

infrared spectra to be obtained from Venus in future

space probes." (NBS Tech. News BuU. 50, 20

(1966).)

2.42a "Adaptive sampUng is a means by which

the sampling rate of a given sensor can be adjusted

to correspond to its information rate . . . Most of

the time present telemetry systems greatly over- sample the data. In nearly aU cases, the samphng

rate is set on the basis of the fastest expected

response from the source and not on the basis of

the quiescent or normal value. However, to match

the sampling rate to the data activity would require an extremely complex machine and to date a

practical mechanization has not been developed."

(Kortman, 1967, p. 133). 2.43 "Much of the work [with AFCRL's Experimental Dynamic Processor DX-1] has been to find better techniques for on line control of real time

data filtering operations. Associated programs are carried out in network theory, mathematical analysis

and pattern recognition." (Mazzarese, 1965, p. 69.)

"What is needed is a means of programming our

sensors to provide the interpreter only with the data

he needs for his particular purpose." (Parker and

Wolff, 1965, p. 31.)

2.44 "The miUtary is becoming increasingly

interested in multiprocessors organized to exhibit

the property of graceful degradation. This means

that when one of them fails, the others can recognize

this and pick up the work load of the one that failed,

continuing this process until all of them have failed." (Clippinger, 1965, p. 210.)

"Systems are designed to provide either full service or graceful degradation in the face of failures that would normally cause operations to cease." (Bonn, 1966, p. 1865).

"From our experience we have concluded that system reliability in the medical community must

provide for several levels of failure, leading to the

term 'fail-soft' rather than 'fail-safe'." (Baruch,

1967, p. 147).

"On-line systems are stiU in their early development stage, but now that systems are beginning to work, I think that it is obvious that more attention

should be paid to the fail-safe aspects of the

problem." (Huskey, 1965, p. 141).

3. Communication Systems and Data Transmission Links

3.1 "A type of pseudo-noise modulation has been

developed recently for use in random-access communications systems. Here, many users may

communicate simultaneously without going through

a central switch or control . . . Code-division

multiplexing using pseudo-noise modulation is . . . [a] technique in which each transmission is modulated with a code that identifies the user and to which the addressed receiver is set to respond."

(Andrews, 1965, p. 227).

3.2 "Two basic types of codes are found suitable

for the burst type errors. The first is the forwardacting Hagelbarger code which allows fairly simple

data encoding and decoding with provisions for various degrees of error size correction and error

size detection. These codes, however, involve up to 50 percent redundancy in the transmitted information. The second code type is the cyclic code of the

Bose-Chauduri type which again is fairly simple to encode and can detect various error burst sizes with

relatively low redundancy. This code type is relatively simple to decode for error detection but

is too expensive to decode for error correction, and

makes retransmission the only alternative." (Hickey,

1966, p. 182.)

3.2a "The ever increasing utilization of computer complexes from remote sources imposes a new

dimension to the almost overburdening task of

systems design. Remotely accessed systems require

a tight integration of communication services and

equipment in order to effect a system which is both

efficient and responsive." (Hittel, 1966, p. 395). 3.3 ". . . Many workers in both communications

and data processing have come to reaUze, in the course of making further progress, that the two

fields are becoming more interdependent. . . . "The most obvious bases for such interactions

have been the physical extension of data processing

systems and the increasing complexity of traffic in, and control of, communications systems . . . "The major areas of interaction [communications

and data processing systems] can be identified as

(1) high-speed digital data transmission, (2) digital

modulation techniques, and (3) computer-controlled

communications." (Andrews, 1965, p. 226).

"Data processing systems and communications

systems are being created in such a fashion that it is no longer easy (nor proper) to differentiate be- tween the two." (Frankhn, 1965, p. 182.)

"Both a single computer utility and a network

involve a conjunction of two fields, computer tech- nology and communications technology." (Pyke,

1967, p. 163).

"Although data transmission predates electronic

data processing by more than a hundred years, the

blending of the two technologies is a relatively new

art; a demanding one with few practicing specialists.

Each of the various aspects of an information gathering, processing and transmission system — hardware,

software, communication channels, forms, etc. — has

67
its share of specialists. But the man knowledgeable

in all phases of the blended technologies is still a rare individual." (Menkhaus, 1967, p. 30). "Western Union estimates that within five years some 60% of all computers will be tied into the

nation's communication networks. . . . "The Bell system predicts that eventually half of

the information transmitted over its network will be data. . . . "Data transmission Hnes thrust the common

carriers to the forefront as prime candidates for entry into the information utility field." (Irwin,

1966, pp. 22-23).

3.4 "The Automatic Map Compilation System,

developed and operating at Thompson RamoWooldridge, abstracts terrain altitude information

from aerial photographs by correlating the imagery

appearing on stereo pairs, and outputs contour

information and new photographs in which the

imagery appears in 'true' orthographic projection

position." (Bertram, 1963, p. 108).

Further, "the input data for a given compilation is in the form of a pair of aerial photographic trans- parencies together with pertinent camera data; i.e., position and attitude of camera for each trans- parency, focal length of camera and distortion

characteristics of the lens. . . . "The Automatic Map Compilation System . . . outputs a chart showing the altitude contour inter- vals over the stereo area and a new photograph in which the imagery has been moved so as to appear

in correct orthographic projection position to a selected scale. The system utilizes a combination of

digital and analog techniques to achieve the required

accuracy and speed of operation . . . "Data printout takes two forms: (1) An altitude chart exposed by computer control of the brightness

of one scanner in accordance with the measured

altitude. Three brightness levels are used in a rotary

sequence to show successive contour intervals; (2) A

new photograph exposed by reproducing the image

picked up by one of the photograph scanners and

imaging it appropriately on the photosensitive film sheet." (Bertram, 1963, pp. 105-107).

3.4a "The dual-mode Automatic-PictureTransmission (APT) recorder . . . has the unique

capability of being able to receive transmissions

from meteorological satellites, but between satellite transmissions it can be switched over and operated

as a standard weather-map recorder at 120 rpm and

166 lines per inch. It presents and prints out a large

display in sepia-tone on a special Alfax paper . . . Transmission can be received over land lines or via

radio with an appropriate converter." (Bliss, 1966,

p. 3). 3.4b "Data sets are available from the common

carriers for use with a wide range of standard communications facilities. Among the most widely used

are the Bell System Data-Phone 200 Series Data

Sets, which permit use of the pubhc telephone

network for data communications at speeds of up to 2,000 bits per second. In addition, several other

companies (such as Collins Radio Co. and Lenkurt

Electric Co.) manufacture data sets for use with

private communications facilities or, in some cases, with leased common-carrier facilities." (Reagan,

1966, p. 66). "DATEL. This is a new international data

transmission service being offered by ITT World

Communications Inc. DATEL 100 is a full-duplex

100 bits per second facility. DATEL 600 can be used

for 600 to 1200 bits per second transmissions.

Additional DATEL services are being made

available." (Hittel, 1966, p. 397). 3.5 Thus, "the operational Intelsat I (Early

Bird) and Intelsat II satellites and associated earth

stations that comprise the present commercial

satellite communications system provide a capacity

of close to 720 voice circuits between major earth

stations. All but a limited portion of the inhabited

globe is now within the line of sight of a commercial

satellite relay. In addition, it is expected that by

1968, with the operation of Intelsat III, a truly global

"

international satellite communications system will exist." (Martin and McKee, 1967, p. 63).

, "... A series of demonstrations last June in |, which an RCA computer and the Relay I comj munications satellite were used to transmit news [; copy between the U.S., England, and Brazil. In some of the experiments, the 301 computer justified li type lines, and the resulting signals were fed directly

into linecasting machines." ("The (R)evolution in

j Book Composition . . . IV", 1964, p. 71.) "The heart rate, brain waves and sleep pattern of , a U.S. Marine patient in a hospital near Tokyo were

transmitted to Houston by satellite yesterday in a i demonstration of how medical data can be sent around the world.

"The data was sent from the Marine's bedside at i Camp Drake Hospital in Japan to Intelsat, a satellite , in orbit 22,300 miles above the Pacific. Signals from ^ the satellite were relayed to a U.S. receiving station j at Brewster Flat, Wash. j "The demonstration was arranged for the Na- , tional Telemetering Conference. It was believed to , be the first time that several medical measurements

on the same person have been transmitted simultaneously by satellite. ,( "Regular telephone circuits fed the signals from ' Brewster Flat to the conference here and to com- ji puter centers at the U.S. PubHc Heahh Service in j Washington, D.C., and the University of Texas. "The demonstration showed that the best medical ,i care group potentially can be extended to any person i in the world by bringing his data to any physician i or to a computer for analysis, said Dr. Fred Vogt. ] "Vogt, department chairman of biomedical engi- ; neering at the University of Texas School of Bio- J medical Sciences, said the cost someday may be as t little as 110 to have a patient's records displayed to ; any medical expert anywhere.

"Dr. Cesar A. Caceres of the U.S. PubHc Health

Service suggested that hospitals begin thinking j about computers to watch patients in surgery. He |i 68
noted the development of tiny electronic instru- ments to monitor such medical functions as heart- beats and mental activity.

"The principles and techniques employed to monitor astronauts in flight can be used effectively

to monitor patients undergoing surgery. Caceres

said." (The \^ ashington Evening Star. Apr. 10,

1968, p. A. 18). 3.6 '"Dual routing, using both microwave and

cable, can be used to improve the rehability of any

telecommunications systems, if required. This has

been successfully accomplished by the Power Authoritv of the State of New York and others." (Eldridge,' 1967. p. 179.) 3.7 For example. O'SuUivan (1966) describes

Raytheon's private telephone branch exchange for varied use of several different commercially avail- able time-sharing services.

3.8 "A service provided by one of the common

carriers is called WATS which stands for Wide

Area Telephone Service. This provides for a flat rate for some number of calls from one point within one of several sizes of geographical areas. It is possible at some point to show that the cost of the

flat rate is less than the cost of some number of

individual calls. The use of the automatic subscriber

calhng feature of the A-1200 allows this decision to be made anytime, because the central terminal

places aU poU calls. The remote stations normally

do not initiate calls although provision is in the

equipment for them to do so. The frequency with

which the central terminal poUs subscribers auto- matically can be selected on the console." (Hickey,

1966, p. 178.)

3.9 "Telpak Service. Telpak is a private line service that provides communications capacities of various sizes suitable for large-volume point-to-point

transmission of voice, data, or other forms of communication. Telpak capacities can be arranged so

that they constitute a group of voice channels suit- able for use for voice or data communications or a group of channels suitable for use with teleprinter

equipment. The Telpak capacity can also be used

as a single large channel for high-speed data services

such as magnetic tape, computer memory and

facsimile transmission." (Goettel, 1966, p. 197.)

"Cost of a telegraph channel in a private line is 11.10 per mile per month: in Telpak, it is about 10

cents." (Thus. 1967, p. 63.) 3.10 "A new compatible communications adaptor .. . that permits UNIVAC 1004 and 1005 sys- tems to be used a high-speed data communications

terminal with non-Univac computers . . . The new DLT-9 uses the 4-out-of-8 code and format at synchronous data transmission rates of 2000 and

2400 bits per second. A higher speed model of the

DLT-9 operates up to 40,800 bits per second using

a TELPAK service." (Commun. ACM 9, No. 9, 707 (Sept. 1966).) 3.11 "The first major Data-Phone business

installation was made for Firestone Tire and

Rubber Co. in October, 1958. Using data sets

sending up to 200 words a minute, the company

has centraHzed much of its general accounting

by transmitting payroll and similar information

between distant points." (Marks, 1964, p. 16). "Another approach ... is the Data-Phone.

Currently the Associated Press is transmitting

justified stock market copy all over the United

States. This is on the wire minutes after the markets

close in New York." (Blondeau, 1963, p. 89). "There also are DATA-PHONE data sets avail- able that automatically estabhsh calls for the

transmission of data between business machine

terminals without the aid of any operators. This

is possible by using a device called an Automatic

Calhng Unit. When directed by the associated

business machine, this device automatically dials the telephone call. These units are capable of

diahng telephone calls by using the conventional

rotary dial technique or the new Touch-Tone

diahng system." (Goettel, 1966, p. 195.)

"There are conditions which require extensive

data manipulation such as pay-roll transactions,

while others involve very little calculation at all but consist primarily of a message store and

forward operation. Some of the machine aids

to communications include scheduled automatic

calhng or polling of remote transmitters from a central console, with automatic error detection

and retransmission. In other cases the hardware

does httle more than prepare a magnetic tape

in computer usable form that is then mailed to the central site." (Hickey, 1966, p. 176). 3.12 "The touch-tone telephone, already in service in many localities, is finding ever-increasing use as the key ingredient of low-cost data collection

and management information systems . . . "There are several outstanding advantages of

using touch-tone telephones for gathering data:

1. The cost of each transmitting station would

be only two or three times that of an ordinary

telephone.

2. The station can be used interchangably as

a telephone or as a data transmission device.

3. It is as easy to use as a 10-key adding machine.

4. It can readily be connected to any existing

telephone system, local or long-distance.

5. It is easily made portable, and can send from

any phone jack.

6. It can transmit to a wide variety of machines,

ranging from paper-tape or card punches

to computers.

7. It approaches real-time performance at the

lowest possible cost.

8. Its apphcations can range in size from a small in-plant system to a complex nation-wide

network." (Davenport, 1965, p. 36.)

"With touch-tone telephone, people can call a computer and, after the initial connection has

been made, use the caUing buttons as an input

keyboard to communicate unambiguously to the

computer, thereby temporarily bypassing the

69
very difficult problem of speech recognition. With

computer-generated speech, we can foresee the use of touch-tone telephone sets as the only remote

terminal device for large and complex information

retrieval systems." (Lee, 1968, p. 333).

3.13 "A 12-button version of the new pushbutton

telephone might be used in a rather simple way as

a mixed alphabetic-numeric input device for modern

computer systems, without interfering with its ordinary use in placing telephone calls." (Davidson,

1966, p. 27.)

3.14 "Bell System's Data-Phone service now

enables business machines transmitting at speeds

up to 2,000 bits-per-second (about 2,700 words-perminute) to converse with one another without any

human intermediary. Operating in conjunction with

Bell System's 801-type Automatic Calling Units, the

201A Data-Phone data set now is compatible with

computer-to-computer transmission as well as with

machines that transmit punched paper tape, magnetic tape, and card media. With this new feature of

the 201A Data-Phone data set, companies with

several branch offices will be able to poll these

offices automatically over the regular telephone

switched network for sales, production, and other

information. By making such polls in off-hours,

companies will be able to take advantage of lower

evening telephone rates and also reduce the trans- mission traffic which their telephone service must

handle during regular hours. The typical equipment

configuration would consist of an automatic calling

unit and a data set at the headquarters location

and a data set at each branch, along with the busi- ness machines. The telephone numbers of the loca- tions to be polled would be stored in the computer

system. Bell Telephone System, New York, N.Y."

(Computer Design 5, 69, (Feb. 1966).)

"Data phones now available for switched tele- phone networks provide approximately 2,000 bits per second of [display] data, but within the near

future this rate may be approximately doubled . . ." (Haring, 1968, p. 38). 3.14a "Innovations are also being planned to improve the effectiveness of our existing plant to carry data signals. For example, a new DATAPHONE data set, capable of transmitting 3,600 bits per second over the dial telephone network, is now

in the technical trial stage and will be available in the near future. A similar data set has been

developed for private line service, but this one is able to handle 7,200 bits per second. Even higher

speed versions are being planned for later on."

(Quirk, 1967, p. 521.)

"A new data set is being developed to permit

substantially higher bit-rates on voice grade lines than is possible with the presently available data

sets. One arrangement intended for use on the net- work will operate at 3,600 bits per second with

simultaneous 150 bit per second reverse channel.

On private-line voiceband circuits, the data set

will operate at 4,800 bits per second, and there is a possible extension to 7,200 bits per second. These

increases in speed have been made possible by two

techniques. First the digital information has been

efficiently packed into an analog signal format well

matched to the channel (a technique called multilevel vestigal sideband). Second, compensation for distortion introduced by the channel has been made

possible by the appHcation of automatic adaptive

equalization. In addition, the application of a simple

but efficient forward-acting error control method

well suited to the noise statistics of the channel is possible on an optional basis. The redundancy asso- ciated with it reduces data rates by about one-sixth,

but it improves the average error-free interval by

factors from one-hundred to one-thousand. The

costs expected to be higher for these data set arrangements than for those operating at lower

speeds, but studies show that many systems with

long-haul requirements will find the additional

speed economically attractive." (Simms, 1968,

p. 23.)

3.14b "At the wide band of the data spectrum we find requirements for the transmission of

occasional high speed bursts of data — to update

computer memories, to load-share a computer

or just for back-up in case of computer failure. While these and other apphcations need wideband

channel capacity, they can't justify the costs of fuU-time wideband private lines. Recognizing this need, we are now introducing on a trial basis a

service called DATA-PHONE 50 -a 50 kilobit per second common user switched service. Initially, it's being offered in Chicago. Additional

trial offerings may be made in other cities in the near future." (Quirk, 1967, p. 521).

3.14c "Score, carrying Signal Corps electronics

in an Atlas pod, went up in December, 1958. Although Score is best known perhaps as 'Eisenhower's Christmas Card', the first voice trans- mission from space achieved with its delayedrepeater capability, it also provided real-time

relay. Score spanned the continent as a real-time

system, and also carried some 140,000 words

of delayed-repeater ('Mail Bag') traffic before

re-entry. Its eight-watt output at UHF served

ground stations based on the then-current missile

telemetry technology." ("Communicating by

Satellite", 1966, p. 8). "Through the advent of the communications

satellite techniques modern communications

technology has made it possible to have rapid,

adequate, and secure communications throughout

the world." (Johnson, 1966, p. 99). "Satellite communications technology offers the potential of essentially unlimited wideband

communications." (Johnson, 1966, p. 100).

3.15 ". . . Synchronous satellites with the

capacity of 80,000 voice telephone channels or 160 one-way television channels, available to and

from rooftop antennas without complex switching

arrangements . . . "Coherent light from lasers will provide a revo- lutionary increase in the volume of communication

that can be sent over a single pathway." (McManis,

1966, p. 28). 70
"Television signals have been transmitted over

I infrared beams from diodes and diode lasers

i\ of GaAs. Of course the objection to the infrared

I laser for transmission stems from its atmospheric

i absorption properties, which make it a fair-weather

device. We may consider the possibility, however,

of transmitting the radiation through tiny hoUow

waveguides . . . with laser diodes as repeaters,

such an arrangement may provide the basis for a large-capacity communication cable." (Lax,

1965, p. 72). "To accommodate this expected volume, the

capability of existing channels — wire, cable,

microwave and satellites — is being upgraded

and new channels are being added. Bell, Raytheon,

General Electric, International Telephone and

Telegraph Co., IBM and others are experimenting

with laser beams as possible data-carrying channels,

'l There's a rumor that IBM will demonstrate the

1 use of light beams to transmit data during the

international fair in Canada this year. Guesses

' as to when this technique wiU emerge from the

I laboratories to be applied to everyday use, on a

! significant scale, vary widely — from three to 15

years." (Menkhaus, 1967, p. 37). 3.16 "A second development which promises to be useful in the future is a pulse code modulation

I system now being introduced for voice transmission.

' This system digitizes a number of voice channels

, and places the resulting information from each

Ij channel in a time division way on.a single one and

] one half megabit per second channel. In the future,

i this high speed data channel may provide a lower

I cost form of high speed data transmission and may

J make possible a high speed facsimile system of a

j more economical type. However, much work re-

' mains to be done in this area." (Wier, 1965, p. 107.)

"The advantages of planned, systematic innovations are demonstrated by the BeU System's TCarrier program. We are now installing T-1 digital

' carrier systems to meet growing communications

f needs — both voice and data. These systems, by

using pulse code modulation, can transmit up to 1.5

\ megabits per second or 24 simultaneous voice calls over two regular twisted cable pairs. We are adding

these facilities wherever the needs warrant it. ToI day these digital systems are available only in

'I selected locations, but eventually a large part of

• f our plant will be of this type. Even higher speed

'

I digital systems are now being developed. A 281

• megabit per second T-type facility is planned for

' I 1971." (Quirk, 1967, p. 521.)

^ ' 3.17 "Scientists view the millimeter wave guide

as another interesting potential means of trans-

^

I mitting data and telephone conversations. The wave

J guide is a precision-built hollow tube capable of

^

! carrying a wide spectrum of radio waves. Its po-

' ; tential for data transmission is great, but the devel-

^ j opment of this type of transmission channel is still

^ I some years away." (Gentle, 1965, p. 93.)

. i 3.17a "The transmission technology has developed over the years in areas associated with the

categories of distance over which it is applied.

Local loop transmission connects subscribers to the common carrier wire and repeater centers and

local exchanges up to 15 miles in distance. Tributary transmission spans up to 150 miles to larger centers or tributary exchanges. Medium haul trans- mission extends over distances spanning continents.

Long haul covers up to 5,000 miles of transmission

between continents." (Kaplan, 1968, p. 121.)

"The microwave technology for tributary and me- dium haul transmission has permitted increases in data carrying capacity through the use of extended

radio spectrum and digital modulation methods.

Digital baseband microwave systems are capable of

transmitting data time division modulated at a

rate more than an order of magnitude greater than

conventional microwave frequency division modulated. As an example, a modern type microwave

system operating within a 30 MHz channel bandwidth in the 6 GHz carrier band has the approximate capability as shown in Table II. The micro- wave analog transmission system has a greater

capacity for analog signals," (Kaplan, 1968, p. 121.)

"The advancing technology in transmission has

been in the direction of large capacity digital

baseband systems. Digital baseband microwave

and T-systems are important advances, allowing

greater than an order of magnitude increased

data transmission capacity over conventional

frequency division subdivided channels. The

high data rate systems should contribute significantly to reduced transmission error rate and

costs. The application of these wideband data

systems ought to be accelerated because analog

transmission can be included as economic users on some of these high data rate faciHties." (Kaplan,

1968, p. 129).

"The advancing digital multiplexer and modem

technologies are making it possible to more effi- ciently use the existing standard voice, base group, and super group carrier channels for data communications. The data communication switching

systems of the future are expected to be a hybrid

combination of a computer controlled circuit switch and a message store and forward system.

Efficient time division multiplexing systems can

be extended to perform concentration and switching,

obviating the need for complex, relatively unreliable electromechanical hardware in the data

communication exchanges. The store and forward

operation, depending on the speed and length of

message, might involve storage for one bit or one

or two characters, in which case the system will function as a circuit switch, or it might store a block of characters or the entire message itself. Programmable common control equipment can

be used to flexibly provide the convenience and

load leveling services." (Kaplan, 1968, p. 129). 3.18 "ITT World Communications is working

on a high speed overseas voice-data communications network. Speeds up to 9,600 bits per

second . . ." (Data Proc. Mag. 9, No. 6, 60 (1967).)

71
"Experimental work is under way on the trans- mission of more bits per second over existing

long-haul coaxial and microwave systems." (Pierce,

1966, p. 154).

"The ADEM concept has been successfully

demonstrated for data modem operation over schedule 4B quality channels at data rates of 2400 and 4800 bits per second. The modem error

rate of better than 1 in lO'^ at 4800 bits per second

represents a two order of magnitude performance

improvement over presently available modulation

techniques, most of which require manual equalization of the channel prior to data transmission.

Manual equalization of a channel is a lengthy

and cumbersome process which is not at all amenable to the practical operational environment and

does not compensate for variations in channel

characteristics during data transmission. ADEM,

on the other hand, provides initial data equalization

automatically within seconds and continuously

maintains this equalization throughout data trans- mission." (Northrup et al., 1968, p. 8). "MILGO Electronic Corp., received a $1.8

milHon contract from University Computing for a specialized version of its narrow-band high

speed data transmission set. Modem 4400/48."

(Data Proc. Mag. 9, No. 6, 60 (June 1967).)

"General Electric Company has announced its full-scale entry into the digital communications

business with the unveiling of eight new data trans- mission products. The 'DigiNet Series' is the trade name for the broad new family of solid state data

sets to be manufactured and marketed by the

General Electric Company's Communications

Products Department, Lynchburg, Va. "The new family of products will be used to translate computer and business machine language into special radio and telephone signals for long-distance

transmission, and then reconvert them at the other

end. The series includes voice speed desk sets which permit computers to call automatically and

'talk' to other machines; acoustic couplers for con- necting portable teleprinters by telephone to central

time-sharing computers without special wiring; and

high speed devices for sending computer information long distances via microwave or satelhte. "The product line covers speed and bandwidth

requirements ranging from 300 to 230,000 bits per

second. The DigiNet 100 and 200 Series operate in single voice channel circuits offering various options

of speed from 300 to 2400 bits per second, simplex

or duplex, direct or acoustically coupled, with or without a reverse signalling channel. The DigiNet

400 and 500 Systems operate at bit rates of 50,000

to 230,000 bits per second with means to get these

signals over single wire pairs to local exchanges

where they can be picked up to be carried further

within a multiplex group or supergroup." (Computers and Automation 17, No. 1, 58 (Jan. 1968).)

3.19 "A few years ago, a transmission system

referred to as 'Ultrafax' conferred even greater

distinction upon the complete text of Gone With the

Wind by transmitting it from Washington to New

York within a few minutes. " (Fussier, 1953, pp. 225-226.)

3.20 "Another trend emphasizes the development of new types of communication channels.

These channels not only will have the advantage of making higher speeds available, but also will reduce

the cost of data communication channels. One sys- tem currently being developed will be capable of transmitting 220 million bits per second. This ex- \ tremely high rate of transmission is more fully

appreciated when one realizes that such a speed

would make it possible to transmit the entire contents of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary in less than one second. Of course, there are few users who would generate a volume of data sufficient to ; justify this speed. But there would also be benefits

| for smaller users. This new type channel would ' mean that more data messages could be carried on ' one channel with no increase in circuit cost. It ^ would enable the communications common carriers \ to use their channels more efficiently for common ' user circuit arrangements." (Goettel, 1966, p. 192; see also Gentle, 1965, p. 93.) j! 3.21 "The AUTODIN telecommunications [ system, developed to meet the data needs of the ! Department of Defense, has been called 'a unique ' marriage between data processing devices and P communications facilities in a computer-conj trolled system.' AUTODIN represents a joint {? effort of Western Union, RCA, Teletype Corporation

| and IBM; the latter three were selected as sub- [I contractors to furnish equipment to Western Union.

This equipment in AUTODIN switching centers

routes data with requisite speed and accuracy

over transmission paths to the correct destinations,

j Conventional wire, radio, ocean cables and micro- wave beam facilities are all at the disposal of the

world-wide network." (Marks, 1964, p. 14).

'' "Autodin {AutomsLtic Digital A^etworks). World- * wide in scope, used by the U.S. Government for ' defense purposes . . . Automatic switching— ' uses common carriers; also Autocon, uses voice ' network." (Brown et al, 1967, p. 20). " 3.22 "Today's communications load is twice

as heavy on the Army Strategic Communications

Command (STRATCOM) as it was in World i War II; about 60 million messages were trans- 1 mitted in 1965. The STRATCOM network extends ? into more than 30 nations and connects with systems

of the Department of Defense (DoD), Department

of State, other federal agencies including Civil j Defense, AUTOVON (automatic voice network), k AUTODIN (automatic digital network), and satellite « systems. AUTODIN has six switching centers j in the United States; three others are planned , in the U.S., three in Europe, and seven in the i Pacific, including Alaska and Panama. The DoD , expects shortly to realize limited communications i' capability with the Initial Defense Communi- > cations Satellite System. The system has benefited (, from NASA and Communications Satellite Corp., f (j 72
experience and will be used instead of commerical

systems only for unique and vital and national

security needs. In discussing DoD's decision

to proceed with its own system, Lt. Gen. Starbird

itemizes some of the stringent factors imposed

on military as distinguished from civilian systems:

survivability, reliability, flexibility, remote-area

mobility, and security." (Swanson, 1967, p. 19). 3.23 "The new FBI National Crime Information

System operates on line in real time so as to complement computerized systems already in operation or planned for local and state law enforcement

agencies." (Johnson, 1967, p. 15). "January 27, 1967, marked a major milestone in the history of law enforcement. On that date the

complex electronic information system known as

the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC)

became operational in a testing or pilot phase. For

the first time local. State, and Federal government

agencies throughout the nation were linked in one

computerized network to serve a common need . . . "Low speed leased lines are used for the initial phase of the system. These lines, handling trans- missions up to 135 words per minute, Unk each

terminal agency directly to the center's computerized file. One or more lines are assigned to each

terminal device so that no contention factor exists. Each terminal is able to communicate directly and

immediately with the NCIC computer. A constant

polling of these terminals is conducted, and re- sponses to all messages are made on a 'one for one'

basis, with no buffering or queuing of incoming or outgoing messages . . . "Terminals now in use range from IBM Model

1050 and teletypewriter Model 35 devices to computers of various makes including the RCA 301,

IBM Model 7740, and Univac 418. With respect to the latter terminals, direct computer-to-computer

interfaces exist, and the terminal computers are in turn serving numerous remote terminal devices con- nected to their own systems. By using this arrange- ment, the local remote devices can communicate

with the NCIC computer through the terminal

computer . . . "There are presently over 260,000 active records

in file. These can be roughly broken down into 115,000 stolen vehicle and license plate records,

95,000 stolen gun records, 30,000 stolen article records, and 20,000 wanted person records . . . "The system is operational 7 days a week and 22

hours a day with limited down time. Transactions

with the NCIC computer, entries and inquiries, are approaching 10,000 a day . . . Responses are averaging less than 15 seconds from the time the last character of the incoming message is received until the first character of the reply goes back to the

transmitting terminal . . . Actual incidents tiave

' demonstrated that an inquiry from the street by

radio or phone to a dispatcher at an NCIC terminal can be answered back to the street in 90 seconds."

(NCIC Progress Report, 1967, pp. 2-5).

3.24 "A nationwide voice and data network

has been established to support Social Security

and Medicare. Computer services have been

interlinked with Federal Telecommunication

System communications network so as to provide

rapid transmission and processing of information

in this area." (Johnson, 1967, p. 17.)

". . . About 225 million words per year between

the [725] field stations and Baltimore . . . Each

field station is equipped with a Model 33 (or 35)

teletypewriter(s), with automatic transmitters,

that transmit or receive at 100 words per minute.

The field originated traffic is concentrated by

the ARS Message Switching Computer and written on magnetic tape at either Romney or Berwick,

or both. From here it is sent via high speed, dedicated circuits to Baltimore, where it is received on magnetic tape ready for input to the Social

Security Administration's computer without

conversion." (Johnson, 1967, p. 18). "A nationwide network is in operation to support

the flow of information required in Medicare and

Social Security. This system does not yet provide

for the most advanced time sharing techniques,

like time service and direct access, that has been

incorporated into the law enforcement medium.

Further improvements are sure to come." (Johnson,

1967, p. 14.) "The Social Security Administration also maintains magnetic tape to magnetic tape transmission

systems from the National Blue Cross Headquarters

to Baltimore." (Johnson, 1967, p. 18). 3.25 "The various communications media

(e.g., digital signals, voice and facsimile messages,

one- and two-way video) were extensively considered. Each medium presents its own difficulties in cost, time schedule, and technical and administrative problems." (Brown et al., 1967, xiv). EDUNET listings of available communications

services show voice grade 4kc rates at 2000 bits per second; dial network with 2400 bits/second on private lines; Telpak A, C & D ranging from

48 kc to 1 mc rates and from 40,800 to 500,000

bits/second; "Half video" at 2 mc and video at 4.5 mc. (p. 31), the T-1 carrier with 1.5 milhon

bits/second for short distances such as the local campus and the T-2 carrier at 6 million bits/

second. (Ibid, p. 32). 3.26 "The digital communications channel

must transmit many kinds of messages including

alphabetic and alphanumeric data (teleprinter),

computer-to-computer data and digitized forms

of speech, television and facsimile." (Franco et al., 1965, p. 130).

3.26a "Since its inception, facsimile communication has not been exploited to any great degree.

Early development of facsimile was hindered by more successful means for communication and by

the lack of techniques that were not available until after World War II. Facsimile communication today

is stiU secondary to digital communication, but some knowledgeable people in the communication

73
field refer to facsimile as a sleeping giant. Facsimile

originated in 1842 when Alexander Bain, a Scottish

physicist, developed an electrochemical recording

telegraph. This rudimentary system functioned by

swinging a pendulum across metallic type; contact with the type caused an electric current to flow over wires to a remote swinging pendulum synchronized with the first. Chemically treated paper, positioned beneath the pendulum, produced a brown

stain when an electric current passed from pendulum to paper. Bain's facsimile was widely used in the United States, but was dljandoned because of

the rising demand for electromechanical printers,

which provided a faster means of communication

and were simpler to operate. The widespread use

of telegraph equipment also decreased the popularity of facsimile." (Axner, 1968, p. 42). 3.26b "The Westrex development program for

this type of equipment was begun in 1956 when

The New York Times asked for machines to trans- mit a 10-page special edition from New York, N.Y.,

to San Francisco, Calif., every morning during the

Republican National Convention in August of that

year. One hour a day was allowed for transmission.

Video facilities were obtained from the American

Telephone and Telegraph Company to test stability

and continuity through 300 microwave repeaters

for extended periods. The facilities were eminently

satisfactory and work was started on the equipment

to generate and record the signals." (Shonnard,

1962, p. 176).

"Japanese newspapers are now using this highfidelity facsimile system. It is ideally suited to their needs because of the thousands of intricate fine detailed characters or ideographs that make up

their written language." (Shonnard, 1962, p. 176).

"The equipment is now transmitting newspaper

pages from Tokyo to Sapporo, Japan, a distance of

about 600 miles, and on May 27, 1962, The Wall

Street Journal began use of this system to transmit

pages between San Francisco and Riverside, Calif. According to an article appearing in the newspaper's

May 29 Pacific Coast Edition, 'The Journals printed

at Riverside were exact duplicates of the Pacific

Coast Edition of The Wall Street Journal prepared

by conventional methods at the Journal's San Francisco plant. The two printings cannot be told apart, even on close inspection'." (Shonnard, 1962, p. 178).

3.27 "The United States Air Weather Network

transmits weather maps over land lines and radio

to approximately 600 locations, including some

foreign installations. These maps are 18 X 12 inches

and are used by the Air Corps, the Navy, the

Army, the Weather Bureaus, the commercial

airlines and by several miscellaneous commercial

users. This equipment is furnished by the Times

Facsimile Corporation, and the recording medium

is Times-Fax paper. "A similar network of about 100 recorders is operated in Canada. The equipment is Mufax,

manufactured by Muirhead & Company, Ltd. in Great Britain. The paper used is electrolytic paper

manufactured under license of Faximile, Inc., the patent holding subsidiary of Hogan Laboratories

"Time and Life use this 18 inch Mufax recorder

to transmit last minute page proofs and corrections

between their editors and printers.

"The most exacting use to which facsimile is now being put is the transmission of pictures by

the three U.S. news picture agencies — Associated

Press, United Press and International News

Service. These services offer facsimile in place

of Wirephoto, Telephoto and Soundphoto to television stations for the reception of news

pictures ... i "The AP now used Mufax recorders, UP and

INP use Hogan recorders manufactured by General

Electric. All three use Hogan Fax paper, and

electrolytic recording paper ... , "For its own use Western Union also has developed a high speed facsimile system which transmits

telegraph messages between New York and ) Washington, and perhaps now between other i points, at the approximate rate of one standard

letter-size page in 45 seconds.

' "The recording medium used by Western Union [i is Teledeltos paper ... | "One present use for facsimile has implications |, that may interest you. Jiji Press is a Japanese j' news agency specializing in financial and business r news. This organization has been licensed under

Hogan patents and — in cooperation with Kyodo,

j the leading general news agency — is producing f facsimile for the transmission of news. Now all

j the 3,000 or more ideographs that make up the

Japanese alphabet can be utilized and users will be freed of the stringent limitations placed on them

by the Japanese typewriter and the teletype . . . "The Federal Reserve Bank transacts millions

of dollars in business over fax circuits with member

banks; a large utility transmits charts and tabular

information from plant to control headquarters;

p a large suburban bank with many branches connects \ these branches for the exchange of credit infor- mation, bank balances and for signature veri- fication; a department store is connected to its warehouse . . . "Publishers (for example, McCalls with editorial

offices in New York and printing plant in Dayton, , Ohio) will send raw copy from editor to printer, j get galley proofs back by fax, correct the faxcopies

and re-transmit these back to the printer, get , page proofs, correct and return them — all over

a telephone line." (Crooks, 1956, pp. 41-42).

, 3.28 "Handwriting transmission terminals trans- | mit written messages or sketches over communica- t tion lines . . . "The message originating at the transmitter is written with a ballpoint pen on regular paper. As , the pen moves on the paper, varying tones are gen- erated and transmitted by means of the data set over I a communication line to the receiving data set and . its associated receiving business machine. There

the tones are interpreted and the receiving pen ,
reproduces the handwritten copy." (Gentle. 1965,

p. 129.) 3.29 "Sylvania's Educational Communication

System Model 100 is a good example of the application of transmission methods to special cases. With

the ECS-lOO, information may be distributed over telephone Hnes to any terminal-equipped remote

) location, using graphic illustration and two-way

audio conversation. As the user handwrites with an

electric "pen" on a 6" X 8" writing frame, the pen's

position is encoded into electrical signals and then

transmitted over the telephone line. The graphical

information is received at the remote locations,

decoded, and displayed (in real-time as it is being

written) on a direct-view storage tube." (Van Dam

and Michener, 1967, p. 201.) In addition, we note that: "Bolt Beranek and

Newman (BBN) has introduced and demonstrated

a new Teleputer System, a man-machine communication system capable of transmitting graphical

information over ordinary telegraph and telephone

lines, utilizing novel coding and logical techniques,

j Bandwidth compression of an order of magnitude

has been realized in display generation, permitting

normal telephone communication lines to handle

16 or more independent displays simultaneously.

Both alphanumeric and graphical information, in the form of Hnes, drawings, functions and arbitrary

forms, can be communicated simultaneously in two

directions between the user and the computer."

(Information Display 3, 64, Mar./Apr. 1966).

3.29a "Cognitronics Corporation has announced

development of a remote optical character recognition system that solves data processing problems

I with accurate and efficient conversion of information into computer language. The system is called

Remote Optical Character Recognition (ROCR).

ROCR uses a small desk top scanner reached at remote locations and connected by ordinary teleI phone lines to a powerful central recognition unit

i capable of converting multifont data to punched

paper tape, magnetic tape, or punched cards.

I '"The system visually signals recognizable charj acters and permits their manual insertion while

j data from other readers continues to flow. Computer

program validity checks of the document being read

ehminates the search through the input for incorrect

data. "The entire system operates under computer

control in a timesharing mode. This enables all operations such as facsimile transmission, recog-

} nition, error corrections, vahdity checks, data

formation, as well as output creation to flow without

I time delay.

"Images of characters on a document are transI mitted to the central recognition system over

I regular telephone Hnes. The use of a laser Hght

j source in a high resolution scanning system assures

' quality document facsimile in rehable character

recognition.

'"The remote unit sends a line by Hne analog

signal to the converter of what is scanned, using

a bandwidth-saving coding system which cuts down the transmission time. Recognition is then

performed centrally where such problems as multi- font and hand-printed digit recognition can be overcome.

"Cognitronics' method of on-Hne correction

permits unidentifiable characters from one scanner

to be held at the converter until corrected, while

processing from other readers continues. When

a character is unrecognizable, it is automatically

displayed on the screen of a video unit at Cognitronics service center." (Commun. ACM 11,

No. 7, 532 (July 1968).)

3.29b "Most facsimile units presently marketed

are capable of transmitting colors as varying

shades of black and white." (Axner, 1968, p. 46). "A new portable telephoto transmitter has been

developed [Rudolf Hell] with which color photographs can be transmitted to the editorial offices of press agencies. The dimensions of the picture

drum are adapted to the picture size of the Polaroid

Land Camera. The main advantage of this new

transmitter is the separation of the three basic

colors, and the transmission in an uninterrupted

3-stage process over telephone lines. This equipment

also permits the transmission of black and white

photographs in one scanning process, or the

scanning of color photographs which have to be

pubhshed as black and white pictures." (Bliss,

1966. p. 3). 3.30 ". . . Xerox Corporation's work in facsimile . . . LDX, which stands for 'long

distance xerography' . . . The equipment, at the output end, is much like our Xerox 914 or 813

copier. The input, however, may be some distance

away, up to thousands of miles away, if neces- sary . . . We propose, in order to produce high

quahty, that we scan the original document at approximately 200 lines per inch.

"The LDX system is presently designed for

full-size originals at the transmitting end, but

it is a straightforward design job to provide means

to accept the input in the form of microfilm."

(Mayo, 1964, pp. 77-78).

"One of the projects at the University of Cahfornia's Institute of Library Research involved

the use of Xerox LDX facsimile transmission

equipment in library apphcations. Morehouse &

Shoffner report that 'the LDX system appears

to be capable of providing rapid, high-quality

transmission . . . from one Hbrary to another,

with elaspsed time for each transaction averaging

2i hours instead of the week or more now typically

required' although they find cost to be prohibitive

at current service levels. The authors find great

potential for LDX to expand access to existing

large central collections of serials, by estabHshing an LDX network that would serve several smaller

hbraries, each of which would have to retain small

collections of only the most frequently used titles." (Markuson, 1967, pp. 277-278.)

". . . the adaptation of Long Distance Xerography (LDX) to computer input/output. LDX takes

366-107 O - 70 - 6 75
bit-by-bit raster scan information (131 lines per

inch) and converts it to graphical information on

standard paper, at a maximum rate of 768 lines of characters a minute. The main advantages of this output system are that no limit exists on the char- acter set and that graphical information can be

printed directly. However, the low speed — slower

than a high-speed impact printer— and high cost ($550 per month for the printer and $1050 per month

for the computer adapter) make it economically

feasible only in special cases." (Van Dam and

Michener, 1967, p. 191.) "In order to explore advanced facsimile systems

operation and to provide the corporation with a very

rapid communications system, Xerox has installed a telephone-dial-controlled, 10-station LDX network

in its own plant. The network spans a third of the

continent, tying together New York and Chicago."

(Bliss. 1966. p. 9.) 3.31 "High-Speed Facsimile. The high-speed

transmission of graphics is now practical with the use of wideband communications service. Considerable work is also under way to enable the trans- mission of high-speed facsimile over regular

voice-grade channels. Although a technological

breakthrough is first required it is conceivable that documents and pictures will someday be trans- mitted over such channels in less than one minute

per page." (Gentle, 1965, p. 92.)

"One promising development is Western Union's

Broadband Switching Network, which provides a dial-up broad-band system on a toll basis that services 39 major cities." (Berul, 1968, p. 31.)

3.32 "Xerox's Magnafax Telecopier, another

facsimile device using normal telephones for trans- mission, is portable, since it contains an acoustic

coupling mechanism like those described previously.

Because it is only slightly larger than an office typewriter and weighs less than 50 pounds, it can be

carried easily. 8i"xH" documents can be trans- mitted in six minutes. The copier is a continuousscanning facsimile transceiver; light reflected from

the document is picked up by photocells and con- verted into frequency-modulated audio that is trans- mitted through ordinary telephones. At the receiving

end, the document is reproduced by pressure

changes of two mechanical styli that make contact with a special carbon-backed paper. This paper- pecking method of reproduction, while not as

reliable as xerographic copying, is quite inexpensive." (Van Dam and Michener, 1967, p. 200.)

"... A Magnavox-developed system is about to be marketed by Xerox for remote facsimile repro- duction via acoustic coupling to ordinary telephones.

You place your telephone receiver in a cradle next

to this Magnafax machine; it operates on audible

beeps at a reproduction rate of 6 min/page."

(Herbert, 1966, p. 37.)

"A portable facsimile machine that delivers

the message over any distance by telephone . . . the Magnafax 840 .... The paper is electronically

scanned and its contents converted into a series

of tones that are picked up by the telephone

handset . . . claimed that an 8^X11 inch letter, on any kind of paper, can be transmitted and

received in six minutes." (Electronics 38, No. 24,

26 (1965).)

"Plans call for the use of Magnafax machines,

manufactured by Magnavox, with transmission

by telephone circuit between the University of

Nevada library at Reno and the University of

California library at Davis. In a second phase

of the experiment, transmission between Reno

and the University of Nevada's branch at Las

Vegas is planned.

"The experiment is expected to yield information on techniques and on the quality of reproduction

of material transmitted and its adequacy as a

substitute for the inter-library loan of books,

periodicals, and other material." (Lib. Res. & Tech.

Serv. 9 , 461 (1965).)

3.32a "Stewart-Warner was the first company

to develop and market a facsimile system to operate over switched voice facilities using the

Bell System 602A Data Set. Since it is now possible to 'dial a picture' by either long distance

or local telephone, at regular voice rates, this system has been widely accepted and is especially

attractive to subscribers of the Bell System WATS

service." (Bliss, 1966, p. 6). "The Stewart-Warner Dial Datafax equipment

includes the Dial Datafax transmitter and receiver;

both devices are specifically designed for use on

the public telephone network. Both units employ

vacuum-tube construction and require a minimum

warmup period of 30 seconds." (Axner, 1968, p. 52). 3.32b "A special version of the Muirhead

K-300 automatic photofacsimile receiver has been

developed for use by the National Aeronautics

and Space Administration (NASA) in the reception

of APT pictures from Nimbus and TIROS weather

satellites." (Bliss, 1966, p. 4). "Muirhead and Company, Ltd., has a . . . device, called the Mufax Courier 500, that can

transmit an 8i"Xll" page in approximately two

minutes." (Berul, 1968, p. 31). "The prime conclusion to be drawn from the

large number of line tests carried out is that page

facsimile transmission is a workable system

over all the common forms of 'group' telephone

circuits . . . The performance of exchange

lines as local ends for facsimile working in the

relatively high frequency band employed is also encouraging. Most of the prospective users of

page facsimile equipment are situated within a short distance from the local carrier terminal."

(Phillips, 1962, p. 13, 16). 3.33 "In the first place, the experimental use of

a telephone combined with a picture service is being

explored in Picturephone. Here, using a 500 KC

band, a 275-/line TV picture is being sent between

selected locations. Such a unit could be useful for the retrieval of printed documents, provided a restricted field of view is employed to limit the

amount of information sent in any frame, thus
making it possible to obtain suitable resolution.

The realization of a completely satisfactory service

of this type, however, awaits the arrival of a switching system to provide service on a common user

basis." (Wier. 1965, p. 107.)

3.34 "Facsimile equipment normally requires a Schedule 2 telephotograph channel. For a small

additional terminal charge, the same line can be

used alternatively for voice messages." (Alden,

1964, p. 11.) "In recent years, facsimile has been directed

toward business applications as an important alter- native to data communications. A key to the future success of facsimile in the business world is the

Bell System 602 Series Data-Phone Data Sets which

enable the public telephone network to be used for low-speed facsimile communication. These units were introduced by AT & T in 1962." (Axner, 1968,

p. 43.)

"Western Union has also developed its own fac- simile equipment employing a special dry recording

paper called Teledeltos. Teledeltos paper resulted

from Western Union investigations to produce a recording paper that did not require processing

after recording. In addition to AT & T's facsimile

channels. Western Union inaugurated facsimile

service for photographs and telegrams over its own

circuits. Both common carriers, at present, offer wirephoto service for the press in addition to voiceband and broad-band facsimile channels for busi- ness use." (Axner, 1968, p. 43.) 3.35 "An experimental pulse -code modulation

system that transmits 224 million bits per second

over coaxial cable has been developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories. The system converts television,

voice, and data signals into a stream of digital pulses

capable of being transmitted over transcontinental

distances. Signals can be taken from the digital

stream and new signals can be added as desired

along the route. "Designed to handle various combinations of

signals, the experimental system can handle the

transmission of 144 Tl signals, equivalent to 3456

voice channels. (Tl is the Bell System's commercial

pulse code modulation system, which has a capacity

of 24 voice channels on a 1.5 million-bit-per-second

pulse stream.) Alternately, 46 Tl line signals, one

television signal, and a "master-group" signal, comprising 600 frequency multiplexed voice channels,

may be simultaneously transmitted on the 224-

million-bit-per-second line." (Computer Design 5,

20, Feb. 1966.)

3.36 "Microfilm Transmission. A requirement

has developed during the last few years for trans- mitting images that are recorded on microfilm

records. Work has already progressed in this area, and a few terminals of this type are available

today." (Gentle, 1965, p. 92). "Facsimile scanners are available which operate

with microfilm chips or slides; hence can be used

to transmit microfilm records and reproduce them

in enlarged form at remote locations." (Schatz,

1967, p. 3.)

"The Alden ALSPEED 18-inch system can be

operated over dial telephone networks, 3-kc voice

conditioned networks, and 16-kc bandwidth

networks such as the Western Union Wide-band

or the AT & T Telpak A-3. At the high speed

of 960 lines per minute, it can be operated over

a 32-kc band similar to the Western Union Wideband circuits or the AT & T Telpak A or A-2 . . . This equipment has been operated both land-line

and microwave circuits. A special feature of the

system's flat-bed scanner is the expandable head

that accepts drawings up to 60 inches wide and

scans 18 inches at each pass. . . . "The 35-mm microfilm ALSPEED scanners

transmit directly from 35-mm microfilm aperture

cards to ALSPEED 18-inch recorders when both

are operating at the same system speed. The

line advance on this recorder is 96 lines per inch,

and the comparable or corresponding advance

of the microfilm is 1360 lines per inch. . . . "The Alden 16-mm microfilm scanner has the

capability of looking at any one of 2,000 frames

on a 100-foot reel of 16-mm film. The image on

the selected frame can be recorded on a facsimile

scanning head for transmission to any distant

point for printout on an Alden 11 -inch facsimile

recorder." (Bliss, 1966, p. 2). "Further complicating the picture is the virtually limitless choice of input/output equipment (terminal

devices) available to the user. Devices most com- monly used are those which handle perforated

tape, punched cards or magnetic tape. But, computers are 'talking to each other' in increasing

numbers — nearly all third generation machines

have this capability. Display/keyboard terminals,

in which data appears on a TV-like screen, are becoming more common. Facsimile transmission

is winning acceptance, although devices for this purpose are not numerous. Xerox, Stewart-Warner

and Alden Electronics are in the market now. Bruning Div. of Addressograph Multigraph is poised to enter it, as is Electronic Transmission

Systems Inc. Transmission of microfilm images

also is possible. Alden and Eastman Kodak have

jointly developed a system for that purpose, and

3M has one under development." (Menkhaus,

1967, pp. 30-31).

3.36a "Alden Electronic and Impulse Recording

Equipment has developed a number of facsimile

units that can be linked directly to an automated

microfilm retrieval system. The transmission speed

of the system ranges from 4 minutes down to i minute for an 8i" X 11" page, depending upon the

type of communications channel used." (Berul,

1968, p. 31.)

3.37 "Using TV, microfilm may be viewed at dis- tances of several feet or several miles, for use in both airborne and fixed station environments. The

Microteleviser accepts any film image, magnifies it to the desired size, and — when coupled with an

automatic microfilm retrieval system — allows a remote operator to select a microfilmed document

77
and view any area at the magnification desired."

(GPL Division, General Precision Inc., press release

of August 24, 1965.)

"General Precision, Inc., Pleasantville, N.Y., has

been working for a number of years on equipment

designed to transmit microfilm images by closed

circuit television. Earlier equipment allowed a user

to view remotely any portion of an aperture card

image with a wide choice of magnifications. The

latest version shown at the 1965 Western Electronic

Show included the GPL TV Printer which allows

the user to take a hard copy of whatever he is viewing on the screen." (Veaner, 1966, p. 208.)

3.38 "Transmission devices can now be linked

directly to microfilm retrieval systems, and thus

provide a hardcopy alternative to closed-circuit

television. The Alden/Miracode system, which

integrates Alden's Alpur-Fax facsimile system with

Kodak's Miracode automated microfilm retrieval

system, scans documents in the microfilm viewer

and transmits the information via telephone lines

(at a rate of three minutes per page) to make hardcopy at remote locations. In this manner the re- trieval and transmission of documents is made

almost completely automatic. The Department of

Defense's Engineering Data Systems Project uses Alden/Miracode to make engineering drawings and

component descriptions in the central library avail- able at remote locations. The Army Materiel Command's hehcopter repair ships also use this system

to ensure realtime distribution of parts lists and

drawings from a central microfilm storage library

to the repair shops within the ship. An entire instal- lation of both the Alden Facsimile transmission

system and the Miracode retrieval system costs under $100,000; a modification of an existing Miracode system costs less than $65,000. Receiving units can be furnished for $90 per month, plus 25c for an

8i" X 11" page. The Alden system can also be

easily interfaced with other automatic retrieval systems." (Van Dam and Michener, 1967., p. 200.)

3.38a "Fifteen . . . universities with television

production capabihties produce medical video

tapes. Video tapes are transmitted to scrambled

TV receivers at scheduled times for the remote

physician." (Mayeda, 1967, p. 9.) 3.39 "Smart et al., have reported on the ex- perience at UCLA School of Medicine with encoded

two-way medical television used for continuing

education of the physicians in 15 hospitals. By

questionnaire, the participating physicians agreed

thai there was a good-to-excellent future for tele- vision in post-graduate medical education. The

authors claim for their method 'most of the advantages of closed-circuit television [privacy of medical

communication and an audience which can be

measured, evaluated, and controlled], as well

as the cheap, potentially wide coverage of opencircuit television.' They note that the development

of inexpensive videotape records permits the

hospital to replay the programs whenever they

wish." (Spring, 1967, p. 328).

"In the field of education, educational television

. is leading the way in the development of nationwide

systems." (Johnson, 1967, p. 14). 3.39a "CCTV can be provided with two-way

audio-video — multiagency use of long lines between

points would then provide TV circuitry to be

used for highway surveillance and education

between insitutions or schools, crime detection,

law enforcement training, disaster damage assess- ment, etc. Only organization of agency time on

line is required. The night hours might well provide

Freeway Rest Stop surveillance or on highway

point watch. Criminal suspect viewing by picture

could bring the far near. Live, direct or taped

picture for delay send or file requires only line time scheduling. Inexpensive camera and video

tape records might be in every law enforcement

vehicle. Ready pictures of damage or accident

could be directed to central office at any time.

The actions of a law officer at the point of a stopped, on highway, suspect could be video recorded from

patrol car, on every case if desired. Unused closed

circuit TV time on long line could transfer any

action for file or staff viewing. The door is open

to many possibilities." (Penterman and Casey,

1967, p. 88). 3.40 " 'Telereference' is a name, coined by

the Council, to designate a system for consulting

card catalogs by television . . . [but] less expensive

equipment is necessary . . ." (CLR 2nd Annual

1958, pp. 13-14).

"On October 2, 1957, a proposal was submitted

to the Council on Library Resources by a manufacturer of closed-circuit television equipment

for design and construction of a prototype, remotely

controlled, catalog card viewing system. The

proposed 'Telereference' system would permit

a researcher to view catalog cards in a central

catalog from a remote location by the use of closedcircuit television and a remotely controlled card

manipulator." (Bacon et al., 1958, p. 1). "The University of Nevada Library has received 3 a grant . . . from the Council on Library Resources, » Inc., for an experiment in the library appHcation i of telefacsimile . . ." (LC Inf. Bull. 24, 389 (1965).) i "The Council has made a small grant to the I Institute of Library Research, University of Cali- fornia, to enable it to plan an experiment with i telefacsimile in comparison with interlibrary ? loan." (CLR 10th, 1966, p. 49). t 3.41 ". . . The Houston Research Institute ... ^ has begun a study to determine the usefulness

of existing facsimile transmission systems for communicating technical information . . . Use

will be made of the extensive microwave trans- mission network employed by the petroleum

industry for the conduct of its business . . ." (Scient. Inf. Notes 6, 4, 11 (1964).)

3.42 "As a prelude to these networks, the New

York Times announced an experiment using fac- simile transmitters that fink the New York Public P Library with the State Library in Albany. Before the

78
end of the test in July 1967, 25 libraries will have

been included. The New York Legislature allotted $700,000 to the test. Library patrons could request

through their local library up to 12 pages of material

at 25c per page transmitted from any of the participating libraries. The experiment was part of New

York's reference and research resources (the "three

R's") program. This plan, as described by Nyquist,

includes the development of a coordinated state- wide reference program that will include the aca- demic and research Hbraries in the state. It also includes various phases of library automation, and

a study of the research libraries which have subject

strengths that could be incorporated into a state- wide network." (Hammer, 1967, p. 408.) 3.43 "Each 'on-system' group was connected

with the Project Staff at the John Crerar Library

by a facsimile system. The facsimile system was

leased from the Dictaphone Corporation." (Rath

and Werner, 1967, p. 59.)

"The facsimile system transmits a letter size page in six minutes over lines leased from Illinois Bell Telephone Company. The original must be a

flat copy, and therefore material from books and

journals must be reproduced before transmission.

The output from the system is on a continuous roll of light-weight paper. Although the output paper is moist before transmission, it is dried automatically

during transmission and can be trimmed for permanent storage." (Rath and Werner, 1967, p. 59.) 3.44 "What is required here is^ machine with a

reliable automatic page turner, which would trans- mit hundreds of pages, perhaps, in a few minutes."

(Fussier, 1953, p. 226.)

"The essential feature that is missing from currently available machines is the ability to scan

directly from the pages of a bound book. Fortunately,

several manufacturers are making progress in this area and new developments are forthcoming."

(Schatz, 1967, p. 19.)

". . . The inadequacy of available page-turning

equipment has already been found to be limiting

in the case of the interlibrary televising of book

materials in the University of Virginia project . . ." (Council on Library Resources, 2nd Annual Report.

1958, p. 24.) 3.45 "In 1940, George Stibitz demonstrated for the first time the remote operation of a relay-type

computer from a console at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, over telegraph lines to a computer in New York." (Commun. ACM 9, 49

(1966). See also. Remote Control of the Computer,

letter to the editor by T. C. Fry, Elect. Eng. 73,

297-298 (Mar. 1954).)

"The Bell Telephone Laboratories operated some

of their early relay computers with remote consoles,

and so deserve the credit for the first 'time-sharing'

system." (Samuel, 1965, pp. 4, 8.) 3.46 Stevens, 1955. Figure 13 illustrates the

general scheme of what was probably the first multiple-access, time-shared program to be demonstrated. "The first computer-tie-up (known to this

author) was implemented by personnel of the NBS

in 1953-1954, where a cable link was made between

the SEAC and the DYSEAC." (Nisenoff, 1966, p

1824.) ^ ^

3.47 "An experiment conducted between

Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Cambridge, Mass.,

has shown that a large, complex computer can be

operated by a distant user via a radio teletype

link. Civil engineers from the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology and from the University

of Buenos Aires carried out the unique experiment,

using commercial radio teletype facilities from

Buenos Aires to RCA Communications, Inc.,

in New York City. There, the channel was patched

into the Western Union Co.'s commercial Telex

system to put the researchers in Buenos Aires

into direct contact with a time-shared IBM 7094

computer at M.l.T. in Cambridge. At the same

time, some 20 other persons also were using

the computer from consoles located at remote

stations around Cambridge and linked to the

central machine through telephone lines. "Previous experiments have been conducted

in which the time-shared computer has been

used from as far away as Edinburgh, Scotland,

and Oslo, Norway. But in those experiments,

connections were through commercial wire and

cable systems. The Buenos Aires experiment was

the first in which a radio link was used." (Computer Design 4, 8, June, 1965.)

"International data communications provides

a plethora of opportunities. One dramatic example

of what already is being done is the link-up of stock

brokerage offices in Hong Kong with a master

computer center operated by Ultronic Systems

Corp. in Pennsauken, N.J. Information on American

stock and commodity exchanges is transmitted

to Hong Kong from New Jersey via the Ultronic

satellite computer in Montreal, Canada, through

transpacific cable. If there were limitations to the

amount of international traffic that could be handled

by carriers, these will undoubtedly vanish with

the use of earth satellites in microwave channels

and the addition of new transoceanic cables."

(Menkhaus, 1967, p. 37). 3.48 ". . . An inter-agency rapid communications test link [teletype-dictaphone] has been

established for transmission of data from survey

and research ships operating in the tropical

Atlantic ... to the National Oceanographic

Data Center . . ." (Scient. Inf. Notes 8, 2, 13

(1966).)

3.49 "Informatics Inc. . . . will implement an Automated Inquiry System under a contract awarded by the Department of State. This system

will operate in an online, multiprogramming

environment and will enable Department officials stationed in various cities in the United States,

Mexico and Canada to interrogate specialized

information files maintained on large, direct access storage devices." (Commun. ACM 9,

401-402 (1966).)

f

3.50 "On December 15. 1965. Lnited Air Lines

contracted for what is believed wiU be the largest online computerized information system in the busi- ness world. It A\"ill be built around a centralized

complex of three Lnivac 1108 computers that will be accessible by some 2000 cathode ray tube input

'

output devices on a nation-wde basis with one

second response times. The system will be designed

and built by the Lnivac Division of the Sperr>" Rand

Corporation, and represents an overall investment

of S56 million for Lnited."" iPorter and Johnson.

1966. p. 74.) "The airline industry was among the first to use

real time processing in conjunction "ssith a national

communications network. The distribution, volume,

and pace of their business left them little choice.

The main function of the system is to process reservations. The result is that any reserv ation clerk can

provide accurate information on the availability of

a particular flight and confirm a reserv ation for that

flight within seconds. The hub of their system is a

centrally located digital computer. The computer

is accessed by one or more multipoint voicebandwidth lines. Each point on the Hne has a high-speed

data set and an interchange terminal. The inter- change terminal interfaces the high-speed hne to many telegraph hnes. A teleprinter device termi- nates the telegraph Unes at each reserv ation counter

and serves as the input/output device."" iBalkovic.

1967. p. 155.) 3.51 "In the aerospace industry, load sharing

among a company's computer centers can generate

very large daily transmission volumes, in some cases on the order of 50 reels of IBM low-density magnetic tape, or more." (Perlman, 1961. p. 209.1 "XAA (North American A\iation). Lsed for load- balancing via broad band microwave of multiple

computers (7094"s). Transmission is at the rate of 62 thousand ch/sec."" (Brown et al., 1967. p. 21.)

"Organizations that have two or more computers

in geographically separated locations may find it advantageous to connect them by means of communications links. This permits more effective utihzation of each of the interconnected computers

because the slack time in one computer"s schedule can be used to help smooth out the peaks in another s. ReUabiUty is greatly enhanced because

the communications links make it easy for one or more computers to take over another computer"s

workload when a breakdown occurs. The data flow

pattern in this class of application is bidirectional:

input data and results are transmitted between each

pair of interconnected computers, and the volume

of data flow depends upon their relative workloads

at any given time."" (Reagan. 1966. pp. 22—23.)

3.52 "Systems operated by different companies

could be interconnected in such a way as to appear

to their customers as an integrated computer

network. Commercial banks form at present a network of this kind." (Fano. 1967. p. 35). "A central 40-miUion bit memory stores unposted

interest, customer balances, and other information

for each savings account. Proper information

is visually displayed to the teller and updated

by the teller within seconds, thus providing new

and improved customer service. Branch office

tellers are served from the home office by a data- phone link."" (Bowers et al.. 1962. p. 101 1. 3.53 "Metropolitan Life is operating what could

ultimately become the world"s largest commercial

information processing network, a S15 million

system . . . will link 900 field offices with a Honeywell H-1800 in New \ork and one in Canada . . ."" iData Proc. Mas. 9. No. 6. 3 June

19671.1 "One of the largest installations now serving

business is in use by Hardware Mutual-Sentry

Life Insurance group. The company is speeding

transmission of information from 34 branch offices

to its data processing center in Stevens Point,

'^isc. providing faster and better service to customers. Hardware Mutual reports that Data- Phone service is saving the firm more than SI milhon annually in operating costs. . . . "An even larger system of data transmission is now being developed for Metropolitan Life Insur- ance Co. This titan has contracted with Honeywell

Electronic Data Processing for a setup to link its ^ eUesley HiUs. Mass.. headquarters with its more than 800 district offices. "By providing on-line communications from

each district office directly to its central electronic

office each day. the system is planned to permit

Metropolitan Life to maintain up-to-the-minute

premium, loan and insurance records of its 29

miUion pohcyholders.'" (Marks. 1964. p. 16 1. "Met Life's 800 district offices are being equipped

with desk-size communications consoles consisting

of: a Honeywell optical code reader, a control

and adapter unit, a Teletype teleprinter (with

page printer, keyboard, paper tape reader and

punch), a Tally high speed paper tape reader,

and a data set. District offices in the Boston area have been phased into the system and new offices are being added at the rate of three a week."'

iMenkhaus. 1967. p. 34 1. 3.54 "One of the most ambitious shared

EDP systems was estabHshed by a group of hospitals in Minnesota in cooperation with the Minnesota

Hospital Service Association (Blue Cross). . . . private telephone hnes . . . . model 35 . . . tele- typewriter . . . Data Phone sets . . . Hone>'^vell H-200 communications computer."" ("Hospitals

Share . . ."". 1967. p. 13). 3.54a "L.S. industrv" is recognizing, at an ever- increasing rate, the advantages of company-wide

data communications networks and of the closely

related concepts of real-time data processing

and integrated management information systems.

Although only about 1 per cent of the computers

sold in 1965 were finked to a data communications

system. 'S^'estern Lnion has predicted that 60

per cent of the computers likely to be sold in 1975

wUl be so linked. A. T. & T. expects that the

81
volume of information transmitted in the form

of digital data will eventually equal the volume

transmitted by voice." (Reagan, 1966, p. 20). 3.55 "ITT Worldcom has won FCC approval for a computer-based switching service that will sort, store, and route messages and data between the U.S. and other countries for subscribers to the

company's privately leased international circuits . . . Rate is one cent per 220-character message. Center

of the system, called Automatic Retransmission

Exchange, is a dual ADX 7300 computer at World- com headquarters in New York City. Like Western

Union, the ITT subsidiary has long-range plans for offering computer services through the network."

(Datamation 12, No. 11, 88, Nov. 1966.)

3.56 "Although graphic transmission may be

sent on a wide range of frequency bandwidths, with

the lowest and slowest a 3-kilocycle voice bandwidth, Mr. Stafford reported that a technological

breakthrough in the near future might increase the

rate of graphic transmission on voice communication lines by two, four, or even eight times its present rate." (LC Inf. Bull. 25, App. 288 (1966).)

3.57 "When wide band communications become

available on a practical basis, the concept of many

interconnected computers as a single multiprocessor

will be even more appropriate." (Clippinger, 1965,

p. 209.)

"With modern communication links in their

present accelerating stage of development, it cer- tainly appears that remote multicomputer networks

will be common by the end of the decade." (Wagner

and Granholm, 1965, p. 288.)

"Over-all, the outlook for computer communications complexes is one of increasing importance

to the realization of national objectives and to the

effectiveness of government at Federal, State and

local levels." (Johnson, 1967, p. 21.)

3.57a "The distinguishing characteristic of a message-switching network is that messages are stored and forwarded. The originator transmits a message into the switching center at his own speed,

with no waiting for a direct connection. As soon as

this input transmission is completed, the sender is free to send other messages, thus realizing maximum utilization of his input channel. Meanwhile,

the network takes on the responsibihty of relaying

the message to its destination when channels be- come available." (Shafritz, 1964, p. N2.3-1).

"Present-day 'hard copy' written-text military

communications networks are slow-speed store-andforward systems. Long-time intermediate storage

is used at the switching nodes to improve high-cost

long-line-circuit usage. When the traffic volume

arriving at the intermediate switching center from

the many feed points is greater than the output

circuit can handle, messages must be backlogged."

(Baran, 1964, p. 5.) 3.58 "AutoData is an automatic, fully transistor- ized store and forward message switching system.

It is designed for use in common user communication networks in which message traffic in digital

form may be relayed throughout the world. When

the message switching system is used, many

advantages may be obtained, some of which are: • Economic utilization of communication facilities • Automatic transfer of messages through the

network • Effective utilization of communication facilities operating at different data rates, with different codes, and with different coordination pro- cedures • High degree of message protection all with • Building block expansibility to provide in- creased service as required.

"The design features of the system are presented

by first describing the configuration of a communication network, then explaining the basic

switching center functions, outlining them in system

design considerations, and finally reviewing the

flow of messages through a typical switching

center." (Genetta et al., 1960, p. 365).

3.58a "The Dalcode is a multiplex system in operation for over a year. It is a Western Union

acronym that stems from the equipment use as a data line combiner and demultiplexer. Similar

types of equipment have been produced by other

manufacturers. Basically the system accepts

asynchronous characters from TTY units and

higher speed terminals and multiplexes them

onto one synchronous data stream. It may be

regarded as a wired program type store and forward

system that operates on a single character per

input line rather than on a message basis." (Kaplan,

1968, p. 128).

"The characteristics of the communication for interconnected computer systems are such that the

information will be transmitted in real time with a minimum of delay and it shall have characteristics

of store and forward systems since it deals with

message flow. Ideally, the system should have the

best features of both message and circuit switching

systems: negligible waiting time that favors the high

priced human, and an efficient message interface

to favor the high priced computer." (Kaplan,

1968, p. 128).

3.58b "The ability to handle several kinds of

terminal equipment makes message switching

particularly valuable in the integration of existing

systems into major networks. Subscribers are not

limited in their communications, nor is a highspeed device ever forced to keep step with a slower

one. Finally, the techniques of store-and-forward

service insure against interruption of service or loss of messages, and facilitate monitoring of the switching service and evaluation of its operation."

Shafritz, 1964, p. N2.3-4).

3.59 "Television offers some very interesting

possibilities for speciaHzed communication . . . Most speciahzed use of television has been in the

form of 'closed circuit' transmission, utilizing

coaxial cables. Because of its cost, use has been

limited to very selective audiences located in a 82
limited number of broadcast centers. Ho-vvever. future developments in cable design may make it possible to utilize standard telephone cables for closed circuit transmission. . . . "A special type of television set . . . is in limited use at present. It turns itself on at a pre-set time

and records the program on tape . . . Recently,

the president of one of the major television net- works told me that this approach is technically

possible right now." (Maass. 1962. p. 47). 3.59a "For example, leased lines may currently

carr\' little or no traffic at night: these lines could

be used for the transfer of data during the slack

hours at no increase in the present cost of communications facilities other than for switching,

termination, and terminal devices. Lse of present

facihties requires close coordination between the

company personnel responsible for general communications and the personnel responsible for data

communications. The local common-carrier communications consultants should be contacted for help in determining the ways in which existing facilities can best be used or modified for data communications." (Reagan. 1966. p. 24l. 3.60 "In another area, the trend toward higher

speeds wiU also affect the operation of some busi- ness information systems. ^ ith a higher rate of

transmission, less circuit time per call w"ill be re- quired. \^ hen a large volume of information can be

transmitted over a hne in a very short length of time, the minimum time period foY the call is fre- quently not fully used. In such instances users may

find potential savings in storing and batching messages until enough data exists to fill the minimum

calling time." (Goettel, 1966. p. 192). 3.61 "In any event, even with private lines there

is stUl some advantage to storing or batching the

data at the remote terminal and keeping the final transmission of that data under control of the central

terminal. One such advantage is the possibiUty of retransmission of the data when reception is garbled. Another is the advantage of permanent

record or audit trail which the magnetic tape storage

of the A-1200 affords at the remote site. Still another advantage is that by storing the data at remote sites and allowing the central terminal to

initiate and control the transmission, we eliminate anv scheduling or user querv problems." iHickev,

1966. p. 178). 3.62 "Instead of operating a continuous tele- printer circuit, traffic will be allowed to accumulate

to, say, 15.000 to 20,000 w^ords and then a normal

telephone call put through, probably four or five times a day. The messages will be sent at up to 2,850 wpm. using phase-modulation, in sessions

lasting about 10 to 15 minutes. This 'burst" tech- nique is confidently expected to prove considerably

cheaper than the use of leased teleprinter circuits working at 66 or 100 w pm. About 25 milhon words of routine plain-languages will be transmitted by Esso

across the Atlantic during 1965. This would have

required 4.300 hours of teleprinter operation, but

with the new equipment can be handled in 172

hours." (Electronics '^'eekly. May 26. 1965. p. 8). 3.62a "Noise is the great enemy of bandwidth

compression schemes. .Any device which measures

picture detail must do so in such a way as to dis- criminate between true signal and noise, perhaps on some statistical inference basis." (Cherrv et al.

.

1963. p. 1508). "In an automated information storage, retrieval and transmission system, encoding of images by

linear scanning, as in ordinary facsimile, is not generally satisfactory. It may take too much time on the communication channel or (depending on the

trade-off of time and bandwidth i may require a very large memory for storage. Since most document

images have considerable redundancy, code compression can profitably be introduced to minimize

the time-bandwidth product. Although savings of the

order of ten to one hundred are possible, the factor

in practical coding systems is much lower (roughly

three to five) because signal distribution properties

vary so much from image to image. The practicability of code compression depends upon the

structure of the total system, particularly upon

the availability of processing logic and processing

buffer memory. It should be possible to develop an optimum code compression system for each class of

documents — typescripts, drawings, photographs,

etc. K a prescanning device could determine the

kind of document being processed, the logic could

then switch to the appropriate compression coding

system and much greater economy would be

possible. Before w"e can design such an adaptive

system, we must know the types of documents to be

classified, develop means of automatically identi- fying each class, and select the best code-compression scheme for each class." (Dodd and Vi'ood. 1968. p. 60). "It has been shown that for two-dimensional bandlimited functions, such as those imaged by an optical

system, there are in general an infinite number of

diff"erent optimum scan patterns that >ield data

sufficient for the reconstruction of the original

picture. The scan patterns involve the sampling

of the intensity and its directional derivative at equally spaced points along the direction of scan

with the scan lines themselves parallel and equally

spaced. The word optimum here means that the area density of points sampled is a minimum."

(Montgomery. 1965, p. 206). 3.63 "It has been estimated that the information content of the digital voice signal is as low as 50 bits per second. Direct digital encoding of an

analog speech signal by sampling, quantizing, or pulse code modulation techniques requires a bandwidth of 56.000 bps. ^ ith fixed channel vocoding

techniques, the bit rate required to transmit . . . [speech] in digital form with adequate scores on

intelligibility, articulation, and speaker recognition

tests, has been reduced to 2.400 bps. There are other

vocoding techniques which will eventually reduce

this bandwidth still further to 1.200 bps. and even 83
to 300 bps but with markedly reduced quality."

(See Franco et al., 1965, p. 130).

"The use of vocoder techniques enhances coding

efficiency and permits reduction, by a factor of 10

or more, of channel capacity necessary for speech

transmission . . . The reduction of the required

channel capacity facilitates computer input/output

operations and permits a larger quantity of speech

signals to be stored and processed in a given

computer." (Rothauser, 1966, p. 455).

". . . Many speech-bandwidth compression sys- tems have been developed, such as vocoders,

amplitude or frequency limiters, and formant

coders. These machines do not recognize speech;

what they do is transmit sufficient verbal clues so

that a human listener can piece together the lin- guistic content of the utterance." (Lindgren, 1965,

p. 116).

3.64 "A process has been developed in IBM to compress words or segments of speech into 500-

millisecond time-slots. Words having a time duration greater than 500 milliseconds are placed in 2 or more time-slots or tracks." (Urquhart, 1965, p. 860).

3.64a "Results of the present simulation demonstrate the practicabihty of a speech transmission

system based upon analytic-signal rooting. In the

present instance the system has been implemented

for a square rooting of the input signal, and a conse- quent 2-to-l saving in transmission bandwidth.

Roots higher than the second appear feasible with

concommitant bandsaving.V (Schroeder et al., 1967, p. 401).

3.65 "Tests to determine the loss of intelligibihty of digitized voice transmissions show that an

error rate of 2 X 10^^ is tolerable. In fact, over-all speech quality does not degrade significantly until the error rate exceeds 5x10"-." (Franco et al., 1965, p. 131).

3.65a "Certain economies of storage can be

achieved by the use of the channel vocoder mainly

because of the redundancy of human speech . . . By the use of this technique it is possible to store reconstructable digitized speech so that approximately twenty-four hundred bits represent one sec- ond of speech. This is a considerable saving in space

over the minimal 24,000 bits and the desirable

48,000 bits." (McDonald, 1966, p. 53). See also note 3.63. 3.66 "Compressed speech, a method of increasing the rate of speech, and expanded speech, a means of lengthening normal speaking rates were

demonstrated by Leo Levins of the American

Foundation for the Blind . . ." (LC Inf. Bull. 25,

App. I, 425, (1966).) "It will be possible, for example, to make the

computer pronounce aloud any word upon which

the subject maintains fixation for more than one

second. It would be interesting to find out whether

quick feedback of this general sort can accelerate

children's learning." (Quarterly Progress Report,

No. 80, Research Lab. for Electronics, M.I.T.,

425, 1966).

"A conference on compressed speech, sponsored

by the Division for the Blind . . . The method

may be used by students as a review technique

and by blind persons to increase their reading rate appreciably when using recorded books." (LC Inf. Bull. 24, 674, (1965).)

3.66a "The encoder operates by looking up

segments of the input text in a stored dictionary

that contains commonly occurring words and

phrases as well as letters and letter combinations.

The encoder obtains the longest possible character

match between the input text and a dictionary

entry and sends out a code designation for the

selected entry. On the average the code designation can be specified with fewer binary digits than the

entry itself, and thus a compression of the input

text is obtained . . . An important feature of this type of encoding is that no information is lost, but the time required to transmit a page of text

will vary with the amount of compression achieved."

(White, 1967, p. 390).

"For the present encoder simulation, the initial dictionary contained 400 of the most frequently used

English words and 200 commonly occurring digrams

and trigrams were taken from lists that were tabulated for cryptographic purposes." (White. 1967,

p. 394).

"The simulation of a dictionary encoder indicates

that a printed Enghsh compression of 50 percent is realizable for a broad type of English language

text when using a 1000-entry dictionary." (White,

1967, p. 396).

3.67 "To get a digital picture with quality comparable to that of commercial television pictures, one needs about 500X500 samples and 6 bits (64

levels) for each sample: hence 1.5x10'' bits per

picture. Since the bandwidth required of a channel

increases with an increase in the number of bits one has to send through it, one would like to reduce

the number of bits needed to transmit a picture.

"Schreiber's synthetic highs system took ad- vantage of the fact that the human eye tends to emphasize edges (abrupt changes in brightness) in a picture but is relatively insensitive to the amount

of changes in the brightness over edges: on the

other hand, in areas where the brightness changes

slowly, quantization noise is easily discernible.

Therefore, edges and the slowly varying parts of a picture were treated differently." (Huang and

Tretiak, 1965, p. 48). "Schreiber implemented a real-time system of

edge detection in one dimension along a scanning

line, run-length coding the edge location and

magnitude, and then generating a 'synthetic

highs' signal from the edge information. The

synthetic highs signal was added to a low-pass

signal to give a good-looking output picture with a reduction in bandwidth by a factor of four." (Graham

1967, p. 337). "In Schreiber's system . . . the edge information was sent by run-length coding (essentially, the

magnitude and the position of each edge point were 84
' transmitted). A reduction of 4:1 was achieved with

rather good received pictures.

"A picture coding scheme investigated by Huang

could be considered as an extension of Schreiber's

system to two dimensions ... A set of basic points

(e.g.. one out of every sixteen samples . . .) were

transmitted for all picture frames. These points

essentially constituted the low-frequency part of the

picture. In addition, extra edge points . . . were

sent for each frame. Whether any given point was

an edge point or not was determined by a threshold

function which depended only on the basic points.

Therefore, if the transmitter and receiver agreed on

the threshold beforehand, the positions of the edge

points need not be sent. At the receiver the blanks were filled in by linear interpolation.'" (Huang and

Tretiak, 1965, pp. 49-50). [Illustration shows good

quality at 7:1 reduction].

"Huang studied the subjective effect of pictorial

noise. The main goal was in finding out how the

objectionability of a two-dimensional low-pass noise

depends on its bandwidth.

"Cunningham investigated several systems of

transmitting monochrome motion pictures . . . Besides introducing temporal filtering as a bandlimiting process, the systems transmitted picture

sequences by correcting a fixed fraction of the pic- ture sample points during each frame transmission

j| time. The results indicate that a saving of 6:1 in

!' bandwidth is possible using such methods." (Huang

andTretiak, 1965,p. 52). "In the search to reduce the required channel

capacity an obvious procedure is to attempt to reduce the number of picture samples. If this reduction is accomplished by selecting samples

either at random or according to some regular

system which takes no account of the properties of

the picture, then all that has been done is to ex- change channel capacity for picture quality. While

this is a perfectly acceptable procedure a more

interesting effort is to attempt to reduce the number

of transmitted samples without reducing the quality

ll to the same extent as the procedures mentioned

i' previously. When this is the goal the problem divides

itself into three parts: the selection of the points

to be transmitted, the coding procedure for trans- mitting the required information about the points,

and the decoding procedure by which an image

may be produced from the received information.

In this paper, we describe an approach to this problem in which the points along the outlines or contours in the picture are transmitted. . . . "The gradient approach was first suggested by

Schreiber and later simulated on computer by

Graham. Here a point is considered a contour

point if the magnitude of the gradient at that point

exceeds a certain threshold. In addition to gradient

information at the contour points, a two-dimensionally low-passed version of the picture is also transmitted. At the receiving end, the gradient

information is passed through an appropriate

two-dimensional linear filter to give rise to the

high frequency part of the picture, which is then

added to the low-frequency part to form the recon- structed picture. Graham transmitted the gradient

information by following the contours. For each

continuing contour point, he transmitted the

changes in contour direction, gradient direction,

and gradient magnitude using a Huffman code.

From the probability distributions of these quantities, he estimated that compression ratios of 4

to 23 (depending on picture complexity) could be

achieved on 256X256-point, 6-bit (64-brightness

level) pictures. Graham's reconstructed pictures were of good quality except that some of the texture information in the original were lost. Work is now in progress at M.I.T. to try on the one hand to increase

the compression ratio of this scheme by curvefitting the contours, and on the other hand to improve the quality of the reconstruction by the

additional transmission of texture information."

(Schreiber et al., 1968, pp. 1, 5). 3.68 "Other experiments aimed at reducing the

redundancy in motion pictures, and at the optimum

coding of digital color pictures.

"The research program of this group [Picture

Processing Research, RLE, MIT] has been to in- vestigate schemes for reducing bandwidth required

for transmission. It was realized that in order to solve this problem, it is necessary to better understand how the human observer perceives the image,

what features of the picture are important, so that a

collateral interest of the group has been to investi- gate ways of mathematically representing pictorial

data, of finding out details of what features of the

picture are important." (Huang and Tretiak, 1965,

pp. 45-46).

"If the received picture is to be viewed by humans, then one can take advantage of the properties

of human vision. Here, the purpose is to distort the

picture in such a way that the distorted picture can

be described by a smaller number of bits, yet the

change is not noticeable to human viewers." (Huang

and Tretiak, 1965, p. 48). 3.69 "Briefly, a run-length may be defined as a continuous segment of the signal over which some

stated property may be considered as constant,

within stated criteria." (Kubba, 1963, p. 1518).

"This 'reduced' signal . . . consists essentially

of a continuous sequence of run-lengths over which

the video signal is assessed as being of 'constant' brightness (or other parameter, if desired) by the

Detail Detector according to criteria built into that detector." (Cherry et al, 1963, p. 1508).

"Visual communication signals, generated by

conventional scanning techniques as in facsimile

and television systems, make very poor use of the

bandwidths allocated for their transmission."

(Kubba, 1963, p. 1518).

"Variable velocity scanning provides an excellent, accurate means for reconstructing pictures at the

receiver. It also leads to a relatively cheap receiver."

(Cherry et al.,1963,p. 1508).

85
3.70 "The design and the characteristics of an

experimental encoder for digital transmission of. video signals [using a unity bit coding method]

are described . . . The experimental results show

that considerably good reproduction of video pic- tures is obtained with sampling frequency as low

as 30 Mc . . ." (Inose and Yasada. 1963, p. 1524

(abstract).)

3.70a "The human eye objects much more to noise with strong structure, such as quantization

noise, than to random noise. Therefore, a smaller

number of quantization levels can be tolerated, if means can be found to transform quantization noise

to random noise. An example is the method of

Roberts, who added pseudo-random noise to a picture before quantization, and later at the receiver

subtracted the same noise from the quantized

picture. It can be shown that by this maneuver the

quantization noise is transformed into random

noise with the same rms value. This method gives

acceptable pictures with only four bits per sarnple."

(Huang et al., 1967, pp. 332-333).

3.70b "Since the noise contained in the pictures

from the Roberts method is random and independent of the signal, it can be reduced by some averaging process, such as the snow-removal technique

of R. E. (^raham . . . Although Graham's technique

by itself does smear the edges in a three-bit Roberts

picture, with the additional information (about 0.1

bit per sample on the average) on edge points, a picture almost as good as the continuous original can be obtained." (Huang et al., 1967, p. 333).

3.70cl "Pseudo-random scanning can also be

used for cryptographic purposes." (Huang et al., 1967, p. 334).

"The so-called pseudorandom scanning . . . can

be used for secrecy transmission. In pseudorandom

scanning, the scanning beam hops from point to point in a seemingly random fashion. However,

the transmitter and receiver scanners are synchro- nous, so the receiver scanner can reconstruct the

picture. The coordinates of the successive scanning

points are specified by a sequence of pseudorandom

number . . . Anyone who does not know the

particular pseudorandom sequence will not be

able to reconstruct the correct picture even if he

should intercept the one-dimensional signal."

(Huang, 1965, p. 60). 3.70c2 "A system is described for digital en- coding of continuous information sources based on

quantizing the difference between the original

continuous signal and a predicted version thereof, as opposed to quantizing the original signal itself." (Graham, 1958, p. 147, abstract).

3.70d "Statistics were gathered on the number

of times each of the 2'- different neighborhoods of

black and white elements was followed by y= B

and the number of times by y= W.

Examples:

B B B B B

a) B B B B B

W W y. A white element would usually occur in the y

position, following this neighborhood.

w w B w w

b) w w B w w

w w y- A black element would usually occur in the y

position following this neighborhood." (Wholey,

1961, p. 99). "For each of the different neighborhoods, a unique

prediction y is determined as the color which is most

likely to follow the neighborhood (on the basis of the

statistical survey). We thus obtain a 'prediction

function', a table in which each of the possible neighborhoods 'predicts' (i.e., is paired with) the color of

y which is most likely to follow it." (Wholey, 1961,

p. 100). "Now each matrix representing a picture is paired

(in a one-to-one fashion) with an 'error matrix' which

indicates the elements y of the picture matrix for which the prediction function gives an incorrect

value. In order to make possible a uniform prediction procedure, the picture is treated as if it were

surrounded by a white border two elements wide.

For each element y in the picture matrix, the actual

color of y is compared with the color predicted by

the function above, on the basis of the neighborhood of y. If the colors are the same, then a 0 is stored in the corresponding position in the error matrix; otherwise a 1 is stored there . . . "The error matrix (which under ideal conditions

should contain a small percentage of I's) is now

coded by some process like run-length coding (which

gives the number of O's between successive pairs

of I's). . . . "To reverse the process and obtain a picture from

its code number, we first obtain the error matrix

from the run-length code. Then, the output of the

prediction function for each successive element of a new picture matrix is compared with the corre- sponding element of the error matrix. The color pre- dicted is entered in the new matrix if the corres- ponding element in the error matrix is a 0; if the

corresponding element is a 1, the other color is entered." (Wholey, 1961, p. 100).

"Our experiment was made on weather maps, in view of mihtary requirements for efficient storage

and transmission of information of this type. . . . [Average compression coefficient for 10 maps =

0.38]. "Greater compression (i.e., a smaller average

compression coefficient) is expected for the high- j, resolution data which might be required in a military or commercial display device, since the high-resolution data would tend to be smoother and the proportion of errors, therefore, to be smaller." (Wholey,

1961, p. 100).

86
II 3.70e "The aim of efficient coding methods is to

I reduce the channel capacity required to transmit a

I signal with specified fidelity. To achieve this objecI tive, it is often essestial to reduce the redundancy

of the transmitted signal. One well known procedure

I for reducing signal redundancy is predictive coding.

I In predictive coding, redundancy is reduced by

I subtracting from the signal that part which can be

I predicted from its past. For many signals, the firstj order entropy of the difference signal is much

: smaller than the first-order entropy of the original

i signal; thus, the difference signal is better suited to memoryless encoding than the original signal. PreI dictive coding offers a practical way of coding signals

:i efficiently without requiring large codebook mem-

! cries." (Atal and Schroeder, 1968, p. 1).

j "Previous studies of predicitive coding systems

i for speech signals have been limited to linear preI dictors with fixed coefficients. However, due to

'j the nonstationary nature of the speech signals, a

I fixed predictor cannot predict efficiently at all times.

For example, the speech waveform is approximately

I periodic during voiced portions: thus, a good preI diction of the present value of the signal can be

based on the value of the signal exactly one period

earlier. However, the preiod varies with time, and

I the predictor must change with the changing period

i of the input speech signal. In the predictive coding

system described below, the linear predictor is

I adaptive; it is readjusted periodically to match the

j time-varying characteristics of the input speech

j signal. The parameters of the linear predictor are optimized to obtain an efficient prediction in the

I sense that the mean-square error between the pre- dicted value and the true value of the signal is minimum. . . . "The study reported here shows that predictive

coding is a potent approach to digital encoding of

jj speech signals for high-qualtiy transmission at

|| substantial reductions in bit rate. Unlike past speech

coding methods, the predictive coding scheme de- scribed here attempts to accurately reproduce the

' j[ speech waveform rather than its spectrum. Listening

' f tests show that there is only slight, often imperceptible, degradation in the quality of the reproduced

speech. Although no detailed investigation of the

'

|| optimum encoding methods of the predictor

" J parameters was made, preliminary calculations

^

I suggest that the binary difference signal and the

predictor parameters together can be transmitted

at bit rates of less than ten kilobits/second, or sev-

^ I eral times less than the bit rate required for PCM

I encoding with comparable speech quality." (Atal

'

I and Schroeder, 1968, pp. 1, 7). 3.70f "The philosophy of predictive systems has

been widely studied for its application in bandwidth compression of telemetry data and of tele- vision; for example, see Kortman, Davisson, and

O'Neal. In these examples the error samples

are quantized and transmitted by pcm. Because

of redundancy, that is, predictability, in the source

data, fewer digits per sample (and consequently less

bandwidth) are required for transmitting the error samples than for transmitting the original samples

for a given fidelity of reconstruction." (Lucky,

1968, p. 550).

"When noise is added in the transmission channel

there is some probability of the received digits being

incorrectly detected by the slicer. Even though the

transmitted power might have been substantially

reduced by the redundancy removal, the probability

of an initial error is identical to that of a full power

system. Once an error has been made, however,

the probability of making subse{[uent errors is increased because of the incorrect symbol being

used in redundancy restoration. Thus, errors tend to bunch together in the reveived data. Besides increasing the average probability of error

this error propagation considerably complicates

the problems of error control in the entire system."

(Lucky, 1968, pp. 561-562).

3.70g "It is intuitively evident that there is much

more correlation between TV picture elements in the frame-to-frame time dimension than there is between adjacent elements in a single frame. By

using delay lines, sufficiently long enough to contain

a complete frame, and high-speed digital logic to compare and operate on elements from frame-toframe, it is possible to take advantage of this fact in picture coding.

"Early experiments showed that simple frame

repeating could be used to reduce the rate of picture

transmission, avoiding flicker by displaying each

frame several times before replacing it with a new

frame. Still better was replenishment of a fraction

of the picture elements in each frame, thus avoiding even the jerky motion characteristic of the cinema,

but leaving some peculiar small area patterns

around rapidly moving elements of the picture."

(Mounts, 1968, p. 28). 3.70h "The on-line Fourier Transform is used to eliminate periodic noise from long distance televi- sion transmissions by noting that this noise gives

rise to a striation of each frame and that this stria- tion corresponds to a constant Fourier Transform,

independently of translation in the input plane.

Sending a sequence of frames containing respectively 'noise only' and 'video plus noise', it becomes

possible to subtract out the noise portion of the

transform and to display a cleaned up version of

the incoming signal. . . . "A spatial filter is located in the back focal plane

of the first lens where the Fourier Transform of the

picture on the crystal is formed. Filtering of the

video is accomplished as follows; The remote camera transmits alternate frames with its shutter

closed and open, so that at the receiver the incoming

information is of the form 'noise only' followed by

'picture plus noise.' The noise frame is inscribed on

the crystal which is briefly illuminated (during vertical retrace) by a burst of laser Hght, thereby forming the noise spectrum in the Fourier Transform

plane where the spatial filter is located. The filter is adaptive in the sense that it can store this informa87
tion (or some approximation to it) for one frame. At

the end of the following (picture plus noise) frame

the crystal is illuminated again, and from its Fourier

Transform the filter 'subtracts' the spectrum of the

previous frame. The difference is reconstructed by

the second lens and the resulting image, picked up

by the vidicon, is displayed on a monitor." (Poppelbaum and Faiman, 1968, pp. 1-2). 3.71 For example, "any attempt to increase re- dundancy by coding implies an increase in channel

bit rate for a fixed user information rate. But, as the bit rate is increased, the basic error rate of the

channel usually increases. This means that any

improvement in output error rate gained from the

additional code redundancy, could be partially or completely negated by the deterioration of the

channel error rate." (Quarterly Progress Report

No. 80, Research Laboratory for Electronics,

M.I.T., 195(1966).)

3.72 . . Decoder complexity increases drasti- cally as one strives to approach channel capacity

(100% efficiency) for a fixed error rate. Furthermore,

. . . for a fixed efficiency, operation at low output

error rates also demands high decoder complexity.

The search for ways to overcome this equipment

barrier has been a motivating force in the development of techniques such as sequential and threshold

decoding, low density parity check codes and error detection with automatic request to retransmit in- formation received in error." (Franco et al., 1965,

p. 130). 3.72a "Many communications equipment manufacturers can provide error detection and correction

(EDC) equipment. The sophistication of these devices varies and so does the price. Most systems

correct errors through retransmission, but there are some which make possible error correction without

retransmission; generally, the latter are more ex- pensive. The potential trouble an error could create must be weighed against the cost involved in pre- venting the error in the first place." (Menkhaus,

1967, p. 35). 3.73 "Two considerations affect the selection

of the most appropriate error-control code. The

first involves the requirements of the user, the toler- able delays, error rates, data rates, channel effi- ciency, and other factors: the second deals with the

characteristics of the transmissicjn medium."

(Franco et al., 1965, p. 125).

3.74 "The method chosen to avoid diluti(jn of single-error-detection capability is that of repre- senting each of the additional (transparent-mode)

controls by a sequence of two characters from the

'wrong' parity subset. This method provides the

required security, since a single-bit error within a

string of ASCII characters could falsely generate . at most only one character of such a sequence . . ." i. (Transparent-Mode Control Procedures . . .", i 1965, pp. 204-205).

3.75 "The gross modification of the facsimile i. signal would very likely not be available as an off- the-shelf feature of existing facsimile equipment i and therefore would require some research and |. development to produce the required equipment

modification. In spite of the need for research and

development, it is very likely that this approach

would be considerably cheaper than the use of ' electronic scramblers." (Geddes et al., 1963. p. 133). j;

4. Audio and Graphic Inputs

4.1 For example, "the main ingredient of a at the TOUCH-TONE phone calls the computer

' touch-tone data gathering system is the touch-tone as he would call another telephone station. The

^ card-dialer telephone made by the Bell Telephone data set at the computer automatically answers and

^ Systems . . . Depression of a key causes tones to puts the computer on line. The attendant is now

be generated within the set by its solid-state capable of keying signals into the computer. RepHes ^ circuitry. The only power required is obtained from generated by the computer are received audibly , the telephone line. Tones are also generated by the by the attendant through the telephone handset,

insertion of a plastic pre-punched card into the card One technique used at the computer is to generate , reader, which is an integral part of the telephone voice reply with the aid of speech segments preset .. . recorded on magnetic tape. The computer as- !. "The function of the data subset [Data-Phone sembles these segments in the proper sequence to ! 401, 403A or 401J] is to receive the tones generated produce the required replies. Another technique

by the touch-tone telephone and convert them to that can be used is computer generated synthetic

relay contact closures. The relay contacts are cable- speech. This approach has been the subject of ,

, connected to the code translator through a multi- considerable research. Signals corresponding to 5 pin interface." (Davenport, 1965, pp. 36-37). voice pitch, loudness, tongue position and other f

| "There are systems utifizing this capability today. speech variables are combined to produce the con- -

^ The majority of these are of the Digital Inquiry- sonant and vowel sounds. These are generated in , . Voice Answerback (DIVA) type. The system the proper sequence to produce sounds that are like consists of a computer which is configured as a human speech." (Balkovic. 1967, p. 156). j ^ station on the Switched Telephone Network and 4.2 "Voice input is quite another matter. In . the various TOUCH-TONE telephones that can spite of the existence of some interesting work, this ij || access the computer via the network. An attendant reviewer feels that it will be five to ten years before ,|

88 I
any significant amount of computer input will be

received in the iorni of human speech. The intensity

of the work in this field is interesting and gratifying:

Hogan includes 21 books, articles, and documents

in the bibliography of his survey of the voice input/

output literature. Almost every entry deals with some aspect of speech recognition. It is Hogan's

opinion that we are approaching the point of having

a limited amount of spoken input to a computer

system and that the telephone will become an important computer terminal. If this latter prediction

is realized any time soon, which is not unlikely, it will be because of Touch-Tone 'dial' input and

voice response, not voice input. The reason is simply

that, unlike voice-recognition equipment, devices

for 'recognizing" Touch-Tone signals are fully de- veloped, inexpensive, and commercially available."

(Mills. 1967, pp. 233-234).

"The use of voice input to computers is still in the research and development stage. One reviewer

feels that the state-of-the-art permits refiable rec- ognition of digits spoken by a speaker for whom the

recognition program has prior information. To date, no (operational speech recognition systems have been

designed." (\ an Dam and Michener, 1967, p. 194: see also Gentle. 1965. p. 87 and Goettel, 1966, p. 191). "For many years man has been receiving messages from machines in printed form. Teletypes,

computer console typewriters, high-speed printers

and. more recently, character display oscilloscopes

have become familiar in the role that they play in machine-to-man communication. Since most computers are now capable of receiving instructions

from remote locations through ordinary telephone

lines, it is natural that we ask whether with all of the

sophistication that we have acquired in computer

usage, we can communicate with the computer in normal speech. On the input of the computer, there

is the automatic speech recognition problem, and at the output, the problem of speech synthesis from

messages in text form. The problem of automatic

speech recognition is substantially more difficult than the speech synthesis problem. While an auto- matic speech recognizer capable of recognizing

connected speech from many indiviudal speakers

with essentially no restriction on the vocabulary is many years away, the generation of connected

speech from text with similar restrictions on vocabulary is now well within our reach." (Lee, 1968, p. 333). 4.3 "'Cognitronics. however, has developed a conversation machine that can ask questions, using

a Cognitronics Speechmaker, and can understand

the spoken words "yes" and "no." This machine

could be used to access a well-defined and tightly

structured data base both quickly and cheaply. . . . "The computer may ask a question such as "do

you enjoy golf?" If the response is "yes", the next querv might then be "Do you like the mountains?"

If the answer is "no" the subsequent question may

by "Do you hke the seashore?" Depending upon

the "yes" or "no" answers to questions like these,

the computer selects the next logical question and

finally chooses a pre-selected vacation package for the customer based upon the entire range of re- sponses. Simple as it may seem, a basic telephone

serves as the inquiry device for this system. All

that is required is the ability to talk to and listen to the computer." (Gentle, 1965, p. 87). 4.4 "At the remote laboratory the sealer-counter

which accepts the raw data from the scintillation detector . . . provides an output pulse for every

100 (or whatever scaling factor is desired) detector

pulses . . . [reducing] the pulse rate to an ac- ceptable rate for the telephone data-link. It has

proved convenient to use the telephone dial to trans- mit simple order codes and timing marks to the

computer. For example, in the application being

described we dial '0' to indicate to the computer the

moment of injection of the radioactive tracer into the venous systems . . . "At the computer the pulses are picked off the

telephone by an inductive pickup coil which clips to the phone. The pickup signals are ampHfied and

those exceeding a threshold level (set to discriminate against hne noise) are fed into the computer.

The intervals between pulses are measured by the

computer itself by comparison with its internal

clock. Actually a program loop is used as a time base

and the number of times the computer executes the

loop between pulses is counted . . ." "If the computer is not available at the moment

when data are being generated, the information

pulses can be stored on an ordinary inexpensive

'home-type' magnetic tape recorded for transmission as soon as the telephone line and/or the computer becomes available. " (Neilsen. 1965. pp. 634-635.)

4.4al Information obtained from Moore, Dr.

Rolf, private communication. Aug. 11. 1966. 4.4a2 "There has been progress in research into the problem of optical recognition of printed text characters (Potter, 1964) but there is real difficulty

in developing the type of flexibifity needed to handle

the various idiosyncrasies of an individual's handwritten print or script. It has been shown that high

reliability of recognition of handwritten words can

be obtained when the machine is programmed to deal with the handwriting of four subjects; reliability

decreases when the program is based on a larger

group, and deteriorates further when attempts are made to deal with the writing of subjects, samples

of whose script has not been included in the

programming (Mermelstein and Eden, 1964)."

(Spolsky,1966,p. 493).

4.4b "Whirlwind (at MIT) had a cathode ray tube and light pen in the early 1950's. A prototype

of the APT system (computer controlled machine

tool) was programmed on Whirlwind in 1955."

(Wigington, 1966, p. 86). "The light pen, which was originally used in military air-surveiUance systems for target identifi- cation . . . has been adapted by means of tracking

89
programs to permit direct entry of hand-drawn in- formation." (Ward, 1967, p. 48). 4.5 "The Elastic Diaphram Switch Technology

(EDST) is being used in an experimental device

created by . . . [IBM's] Advanced Systems De- velopment Division which can enter handwritten

information directly into a computer's memory."

(Commun. ACM 8, 718 (1965).) 4.6 "With Data Trend's MIMO Hand-Print

Model input-output terminal for real-time on-line

operation with a data processor, the user writes his message on a platen with a special stylus. All the

alpha-numerics and several symbols may be used.

Little or no operator training is required. Information concerning the character written is transmitted

via a teletype code to the computer which identifies

it and takes whatever action is appropriate." (Data

Processing Mag. 7,50(F'eb. 1965)7)

"Data Trend's SoHd State Keyboard MIMO

{Man /n-Machine Out) systems-oriented input/

output terminal provides real-time on-line operation

with a data processor." (Data Proc. Mag. 7, No. 2,

50 (1965).) 4.7 "If a speaker's previously recorded 'voiceprint' . . . could be fed into the computer as the

object to be found, the computer could monitor

telephone conversations or search masses of tapes,

printing out only where the conversation included

the voice-printed subject. . . . "It may also be possible to use phoneme sounds

. . . to enable computers to spot particular words in oral communications, such as 'atomic', 'Pentagon',

'Rockefeller', or 'Costa Nostra', and to take off only conversations containing these signals."

(Westin,1967,p. 87). 4.8 "A solid state, optical scanning device, the

IBM Scanistor, converts images into analog voltage

output representing amount and position of light

detected, with high resolution and fast response,

and has been suggested for development as "a

hand-held 'reading' device which could be passed

over a line of printed text to enter data into a computer." (Commun. ACM 8, 82-83 (Jan. 1965).)

"The scanistor (an integrated diode resistor array)

shows promise for future appHcation in the character recognition field." (Henle and Hill, 1966, p. 1860).

4.8a "For some years the Institute for Scientific

Information has been working on the Copywriter,

a portable device for selectively reproducing a word,

line, sentence or paragraph from a printed page.

Its developers estimate that 10% of the total copying market would find a selective copier appealing."

(Veaner, 1966, p. 208).

4.8b Thus Vander Lugt et al. (1965, p. 139)

propose "the use of spatial fihering in coherent

optical systems to construct filters for the detection

of key words in printed material. Such a system

might be used in the Post Office Department for routing mail to given areas by using the Zip Code.

It might also be useful in abstracting and cataloging

operations where one looks for certain descriptor

words."

4.8c This includes the possibility that "the

coded tape produced in the keyboarding of manuscripts may be used in all subsequent phases of

disseminating and handling scientific information." (Kuney, 1967, p. 136). However, "until we

have progressed first of all to the graphic insertion

promised by Photon, IBM, and others to the

actual computer storage of both Hne diagrams and

half-tone images and their recall and production

along with the text, when called for by the editor

or makeup man, we cannot pretend that we have a

satisfactory comprehensive automated publishing

system." (Duncan, 1967, p. xi). 4.9 "Another data coding scheme might be

explored for application beyond its original purpose:

Galli (1962) has described a method for transcribing

text into machine form using the stenotyping tech- nique, where individual phonetic syllables or common words and phrases are manually tran- scribed into a 23-bit code. The principal application is rapid data transcription using the stenograph

machine, with decoding performed by photostore

dictionary lookup technique. But one can envision

other applications that relate to storage compression (not necessarily text storage), where the steno symbols are stored and only decoded at out- put time." (Climenson, 1966, pp. 117-118).

"Stenotype devices will be an attractive alternative to the keypunch or typewriter for preparing

inputs for the optical readers." (Berul, 1968, p. 32). 4.9al Another type of combination is repre- sented by the following: "Depending on the specific

application at hand, two separate, modern mechanical input techniques have been used to replace keypunching.

1. For alphanumeric data, we are using NCR

731 key-operated magnetic tape recorders.

Applications include master file conversions,

file updating, program entry and program

editing.

2. For entry of numeric transaction data, we are

utilizing optical font sales registers and adding

machines." (Lee, 1968, p. 51). 4.9a2 "The use of highly speciaHzed fonts as exemplified by the Farrington scanner has been

limited primarily to systems that are self-contained

within an agency. The United States Department of Agriculture is an example of use of the Farrington

process. This process is limited to the recognition

of unique characters produced by specially equipped

typewriters. It costs approximately $40 per instru- ment to convert to Farrington characters. In essence

this process is restricted to internal processing of documents which originate and end in the using

organization. The psychological factor of 'difference' has been a deterrent to broader usage for alphabetic

data." (Lannon, 1967, p. 48). 4.9b "Input to a computer is still one of the

slowest elements in automatic data processing. If we compare the internal speed of the computer

90
system scheduled to be installed at the National

Institutes of Health of my Department we find that the central processor is 8,000 times faster than the

card reader of the system. The card reader is by no means slow and processes 1,000 80-column cards

per minute. . . . "Dependent upon a variety of factors it takes in the range of 16 manhours of key punch and key

verifier time to keep the card reader busy for one

minute, which in turn keeps the central processor

busy for .075 seconds. It becomes quite apparent

that the input process is quite expensive and still quite slow." (Lannon, 1967, p. 48).

4.10 Some examples are as follows: "The monthly Bibliography of Agriculture now

is issued by using an optical scanner-computer

combination." (Brown et al., 1967, p. 33). "The Council is assisting the [Los Angeles County

Public] Library to evaluate a procedure by which

bibliographic records would be prepared from the

beginning in a form suitable for optical scanning."

(Council on Library Resources, 10th Annual Report,

1966, p. 42.) "It might be noted parenthetically that, from the

typist's viewpoint, the simplest solution would be

to use optical scanning. The Olivetti-Underwood

Praxis 48 typewriter, for example, is used by Documentation Incorporated to provide input to an REI

scanner. The font is a standard gothic, only slightly

modified as to descenders; the scanner does not sense red, making forms typing possible. This

approach entails the least disruption to the typist's

routine." (North, 1967, p. 5.) "One other agency reporting a large use of

optical readers in the place of other input conversion

methods was the Department of the Agriculture

which uses 2 CDC 915's, fed by 25 typewriters in the home office, and numerous, a thousand or more,

in the field." (Auerbach Corp., Source Data Automation, 1967, pp. 2-13.)

"For large conversion tasks the OCR exceeds all other methods in economic excellence, even when

including typing cost." (Moore, 1967, p. 95.)

"Probably the greatest interest is in optical

readers, and studies have shown its high-speed

potential (since it is not dependent on direct human

operation), and flexibility to formats to be advantageous to cost reduction in large-scale operations.

This has been demonstrated even when an initial conversion step from source data to typewriter

input must be made." (Auerbach Corp., Source

Data Automation, 1967, p. 2-12.)

"The results of a comparative cost analysis

showed that keypunching would cost approximately

3.5 times as much per year as optical scanning;

therefore, the committee pubhshed a formal justi- fication recommending the purchase of at least three optical scanners, one for BuPers in Washington and two for Navy Finance Center . . ." (Auerbach Corp., Source Data Automation, 1967, p. 2-13.)

"Retyping after making clean erasures has been

found to be an acceptable correction method for OCR. The use of an erasing shield is recommended

to avoid disfiguration of adjacent characters."

(Greenly, 1966, p. 47.)

"A simple formula for determining this cost [keypunch vs. OCR] is to evaluate:

F== number of characters processed per dollar, a = total characters processed per month,

b = monthly equipment rental and overhead

costs. c = monthly employee salary costs, including

supervision and fringe rates."

(Feidelman and Katz, 1967, p. 0210:28.)

"By dividing the cost of the key punch operator

into the cost of the reader the break-even point is to the advantage of character reading when the load

exceeds the capacity of 15 key punch operators."

(The British Computer Society, 1967, p. 155).

The British Computer Society survey also shows

that a comparison of costs of key punching cards

and typing and optical reading (with a typical cost reduction of close to 50%) indicates "the potential

of typing and reading to reduce considerably the

costs of data conversion, particularly for large

volumes of mainly alphabetical content." (1967,

p. 156).

"One may readily ask: 'If the input data must

be rekeyed, what is the advantage of rigid font scanning?' The answer lies in the fact that many

typewriters equipped with normal font can be readily

changed to rigid optical font by mere selection. The

ordinary typewriter can then become a substitute

key punch device . . . What are the economics of

the rigid font optical scanners? The typing in Fig. 3

could be read by a device costing $120,()00 or renting

for $3,500 per month. Such an optical scanning

device is made by the Control Data Corporation.

This device could maintain a rate of input reading

that could remain well ahead of 40 operators keying

difficult textual material." (Wishner, 1965, p. 240).

"On the other hand, the typewriters used by the

catalogers could be obtained with the Farrington

Selfchek font and the preparation process could be

continued just as it is now. Then, once a catalog card

had been completely prepared, the card itself could

be optically scanned and a 'magic' typesetter used

to produce the cards. This process would also offer economy, speed, and efficiency. The machines exist now; nothing is stopping us except ourselves and,

perhaps, the funds." (Patrick and Black, 1964, p. 39.) 4.11 "One [of the problems that cause particular

difficulty] ... is the presence in a large proportion

of all input documents of non-alphabetic material

which cannot be recognized or dealt with as text. This includes graphical material, pictures, special

366-107 O - 70 - 7 91
field defining lines or formatting marks, characters

from strange alphabets or bizarre and exotic fonts.

. . . Perhaps the simplest example of this kind of problem is that caused by underlining a word or phrase with a solid Hne. This causes a major problem

with every simple character separation system we

have conceived. . . . "For certain applications, such as the input

system to a translator, some portions of nonalphabetic material may have to be made available

for insertion in the translated text. An indication

of where this material is located, and how extensive

it is, would need to be recorded by the recognition

system." (Potter, 1964, pp. 321-322).

4.12 For example, in relatively early Baird

Atomic developments, "the V strip is auto- matically placed along the left hand margin of

each page by the camera when photographing it onto

the 70 mm film. This serves both as a reference for grey scale calibration during scanning and as a means for instructing the text reader to start scanning a line. The i" strip is manually placed

along both sides of all graphics prior to scanning.

The reader stops scanning when it encounters the

first strip and resumes scanning when it crosses the

second strip. The space between the strips is sensed

and recorded by the reader which produces ap- propriate control signals for the translator." (Buck

et al., 1961, pp. IV-4.)

4.12a "With the current research on pattern

recognition devices, we may soon expect automatic

processing of at least simple graphic diagrams.

With an oscilloscope input into a computer, one

might draw graphs with a light pen and let the

computer itself, in whatever ways it is capable,

reorganize this data for storage and manipulation."

(Barnes, 1962, p. 29.)

"Most character recognition machines now in use

require either a fixed format document, where the

material to be read appears in well-defined fields, or manual editing with colored pencil or magnetic

ink to outline the areas to be processed. More

versatile readers would find application in massive

file conversion and information retrieval projects,

and in automatic translation, abstracting, and

indexing. . . . "In an interactive system it should be possible

for the operator to direct the scanner only to areas

of the page of interest by virtue of their meaning,

and set in a typeface compatible with the recognition

logic of the machine. 'Graphics', including photographs, line drawings, graphs, charts, and esoteric

symbols, could be scanned without any attempt at recognition, and stored in binary arrays for eventual

redisplay by some type of facsimile device. Important headings, equations, footnotes, and other non- machine readable textual material would be typed in by the operator on an alphanumeric keyboard and

stored in code. Alternatively, the operator would

have the option of keying in a few lines of a new font

in order to provide the machine with an identified

training set to adjust its decision parameters. A

function keyboard would allow labeling the various

portions of the text to facilitate subsequent retrieval. Some preliminary experiments, designed to expose

the problems hkely to be encountered in implementing these ideas, are described . . . (Nagy,

1968, p. 481).

4.13 In the Army Chemical Typewriter developments of Jacobus and Feldman at Walter Reed

Army Medical Center, a set of characters and

conventions of usage have been established. "Then,

as the structure is typed, a tape is perforated with the

codes of the characters typed, and the codes of the

coordinates of the position of the characters on the

typewritten page." (Feldman, 1964, p. 206. See also Feldman et al., 1963).

4.14 "The rules estabfished for coding struc- tures are integrated in the program so that the

computer is able to take a fairly sophisticated look

at the chemist's coding and the keypunch operator's

work. It will not allow any atom to have too many or

too few bonds, nor is a

'7' bond code permissible

with atoms for which ionic bonds are not 'legal'. Improper atom and bond codes and misplaced

characters are recognized by the computer, as are various other types of errors." (Waldo and DeBacker,

1958, p. 58.)

4.15 "Provisions have been made to accept

input data on magnetic tape in BCD or binary for- mat. The input is coded into machine media from

line-a-time devices such as flexowriters, card

punching equipment, computer programs, and the

Army Chemical Typewriter." (Burger, 1964, p. 8.4.) "The Chemical Typewriter produces X and Y

coordinates to locate the characters on a grid which

enumerates, respectively, the horizontal spacing

positions and relative to zero vertical positions of

its platen." (Burger, 1964, p. 8.) 4.16 ". . . The molecular formula, which is printed adjacent to its corresponding structural diagram and read with it, is an inventory of the

atoms which appear in the diagram, and so the

computer identification of each alphabetic character

in the diagram can be checked against this inventory . . . "The complete prototype system . . . consists of a general purpose binary computer and an optical scanner. On a signal from the computer, the scanner

transfers the entire image to computer core storage

by a series of subprograms to search for black area

. . . , to recognize each character and supply a machine language representation . . . and to construct and check the connection table." (Cossum

et al., 1964, pp. 271-272).

4.17 "The typing and language rules are quite

flexible, unrestrictive, and easy to learn. Typing

errors are easily corrected by back spacing and over- typing or pressing a special "erase" button. Superscripts and subscripted arithmetic expressions can be typed conveniently and summation, product,

integral symbols, etc., of arbitrary size can be con- structed from elementary characters or formed by

selecting the desired symbol or subprogram from

an accessory console keyboard. Since the system

has been designed for human interaction, it is not 92
necessary to type neatly formed or symmetric

symbols. The system will recognize even badly

formed symbols. Usage may be off-line or in an

on-line conversational mode." (Amann and Klerer,

1966, abstract).

4.17a "Our input device is (similar to the

MADCAP device (Wells, 1961)) a Friden Flexowriter

that has been modified so that subscript and superscript positioning can be done automatically under

keyboard, paper tape reader, or direct computer

control. In addition, the 88 available typable symbols

have been chosen to give flexibility both in the

typing of equations and the construction of mathematical operators of arbitrary size. These may be

composed manually by typing stroke by stroke or by pushing an appropriate key in an optional console keyboard." (Klerer and May, 1965, p. 103).

"The purpose of this paper is to describe some

I new apphcations in the realm of two-dimensional

I input-output by typewriter terminal. . . . The

! principal elements of this approach consist of a

I versatile programming language and a reverse- indexing typewriter equipped with a special character set. This set permits not only normal alphanumerics but also the construction of arbitrarilysized symbols by the use of a few interlocking

primitive strokes. The reverse-indexing and indexing, together with spacing and backspacing, allow

j fuU two-dimensional keyboard control of the typed

I document. Typing errors are corrected by moving

I to the desired point and overtyping, or by pressing an 'erase' button." (Klerer and Grossman, 1967,

p. 675).

4.17b "Our objective has been to devise a remote computer terminal through which the

scientist or engineer can converse with the computer

in the natural language of mathematics. For ex- ample, he can enter an equation exactly as it appears

in a textbook and receive an immediate graphical

i and alphanumerical display of the results." (Clem,

i 1966, pp. 119-120).

j "For the last 18 months we have endeavored to develop such a system called AMTRAN (for Auto1 matic Mathematical TRANslation) and this paper

will review our progress so far. AMTRAN was

i inspired by a similar online system developed by

! Culler and Fried and it shares many basic principles

jj with the Klerer May system. The development of

( AMTRAN was initiated by Seitz and it is at present

I carried on by several of us in Huntsville. The basic

I goals of AMTRAN are:

1. To use the natural language of mathematics as

a programming language without any arbitrary

restrictions whatsoever.

2. To obtain immediate graphical output of

intermediate and final results.

3. To retain a hard copy of useful results and

programs.

4. To retain copies of programs in an easily

reusable form.

5. To retain utmost flexibility in the system so as

to allow its use from the level of existing

programming language up to the level of ad- vanced calculus," (Reinfelds et al., 1966,

p. 469).

4.17c "In the improved terminal area I mentioned above, I'm aware of only one outstanding

attempt — the work done by Columbia University's

Oceanographic Laboratory. They've built a terminal

that permits keyboard entry of a wide range of

commonly used mathematical symbols. Although

the transcription task is thus more difficult, the

programming task is simplified since the oceano- graphers use their familiar mathematical notation.

This approach has not been used widely because it is difficult to build an inexpensive, easy-to-operate

machine that directly transcribes many special

symbols. But this experiment shows clearly the

importance and value of being able to use, in a programming language, the necessary symbol."

(Reynolds, 1967, p. 29). 4.18 "The Army Chemical Typewriter (ACT)

. . ., was developed by the Walter Reed Army

Institute for Research as a means for inserting

chemical structural diagrams into a digital computer

for storage and subsequent searching. This is accomplished by typing the chemical symbols

and bond configurations into a matrix from which

is then reduced to a linear coded representation on a paper tape. The ACT will be used in the

IDEEA network as the man-machine interface. All communications with the systems computers will be accomplished through the keyboard of the ACT.

Thus both alphanumeric and symbohc data can be

inputted and outputted." (Hoffman, 1965, p. 95.)

"By interfacing the ACT with the FADAC, we

create an input/output device that has both memory

and arithmetic capability. Thus we can perform error checks on the input data as it is typed. The marriage

of these two devices further allows for a good deal of

preprocessing of the data at the input end, such as screen derivation and data classification." (Hoffman,

1965, p. 96.)

4.19 "Three basic methods of input are used to convert into machine language the structural dia- grams prepared by a chemist. Two of these, the

keypunch and the typewriter, require clerical processing steps. The third method involves direct

scanning of the diagrams into the computer record.

Waldo & DeBacker, and Horowitz & Crane have

used a 48-character keypunch to record structural diagrams directly. This method in input provides no direct hardcopy of the keyboard data for editing,

though key-verifying is applicable. Moreover,

because of the restricted character set, keypunching

requires a great many conventions both in the form

of character substitutions and in the representation

of angular bonds required in the diagrams. Newer

keypunches have as many as 64 characters, but this limited extension of the character range does not provide for inclusion of an adequate number of

special structure-composing characters to simplify

diagrammatic input." (Tate, 1967, p. 296).

93
4.20 Some details are as follows: "Besides auto- matically producing punched paper tape, the modified typewriter has the capabihty to provide coordi- nate positioning of each type character on the page.

In addition, the machine can automatically encode

any one of approximately 90 selected (commercially

available) auxiliary type faces inserted at the platen.

This device has been named the 'taxywriter' by the

NBS staff to indicate a type face augmented X-Y

recording typewriter.

"The machine can operate either as a standard

tape typewriter or in an augmented mode in which

it produces four punched codes for each typed

character. The four codes are those for the character, its X-coordinate, its Y-coordinate, and an item

separator. Insertion of a modified type face element

inactivates the standard coding for the typewriter

keys; striking any key then produces on paper tape

five codes, which are a type-face-element prece- dence followed by the auxiliary character, X- and

Y-coordinates, and item separator. The modified

type face element has four pin holes on each side, into which metal pins may be inserted to signify an

8-bit, odd-parity, binary code. The pins make

electrical contact with a guide at the platen of the

typewriter to activate the coding . . . "The Office of Standard Reference Data intends

to use the new machine to prepare scientific text and tabular data. Any application in which superscripts, subscripts, special symbols, or coordinateoriented material must be prepared in machinesensible form could benefit from its use. Its principal advantages are:

(1) Immediate visual verification by the typist of the copy being produced.

(2) Rapidly prepared proof copy available on a day-to-day basis (as output from an extended

character printer) for technical review.

(3) Daily editing on a line correction basis in conjunction with technical proofing.

(4) Availability of typewriter-quality scientific text with adequate symbols for preparation

of manuscripts.

(5) Preparation of machine-sensible copy for use in producing publications by computergenerated photocomposition.

(6) Rapid, low-cost preparation of selected por- tions of recorded scientific text on cards or paper stock for manual filing." (NBS Tech.

News Bull. 50, 118 (Apr. 1966).)

"The thing that is special about this typewriter is that these "Typits", as they are called, are coded by pins placed in the sides so that the

information can be read by small switches and can

be punched into a paper tape at the same time that the symbol is being typed onto the hard copy. "Up to 4 pins can be placed in each side of a "Typit", giving an 8-level code. When a key is struck with a "Typit" in place, a precedence code

is automatically punched, the code for the particular

symbol is read and punched, and a code returning

to the normal mode is automatically punched." ; (Bozman, 1967, pp. 2-3.) , "... 3 Nixie tubes . . . are used to display the

numerical code of the "Typit", when reading back

a punched paper tape. When the tape reaches a ; place which calls for one of the special symbols,

the coded number for that particular symbol is ! shown on the Nixies. The operator can then place I the correct symbol in the typewriter, type that i character and restart the automatic typing process

again." (Bozman, 1967, p. 3.) i "Another feature of this typewriter is that the : rotation of the platen is also punched into the paper

tape." (Bozman, 1967, p. 3.) "The typist can make up the formula in whatever i order seems most convenient, rotating the platen f up or down, as needed. Since the information is i all punched into the paper tape, the computer can : reconstruct the formula line-by-line, if necessary, for the final typesetting." (Bozman, 1967, p. 3.) See also ^ "Modified Tape-Recording Typewriter", 1966. * 4.20a "Part of the program of the NBS Office

of Standard Reference Data is the development of

^ a General Purpose Scientific Document Image ' Code (GPSDIC) system . . . The design and devel- opment of this system is being carried out by ^• Blanton C. Duncan and David Garvin ... As '{ designed, the system permits a scientific typescript,

with all its complex symbolism and highly structured

page format, to be transferred to digital machine

form with virtually no limitations on the notations

employed. ...

"The system was designed to assure broad

applicability by emphasizing: (a) exchange of infor- mation via telecommunication devices compatible

with the USA Standard Code for Information Inter- change (USASCII), (b) design of hardware to permit

the use of proven skills of ordinary scientific typists

in the record capture process, (c) exploitation of the

capabilities of commercially available extended " character high-speed line printers for direct com-

' puter output, and (d) publication using this type of ^ machine record as the 'typescript' input to com-

' puterized typesetting." (NBS Tech. News Bull 52,

86, Apr. 1968).

] 4.21 "The third method of recording structural diagrams is by scanner. Meyer has developed a

j photocell scanner for structure input. This scanned

input, supplemented by a limited amount of key-

' boarded data that identify noncarbon, nonhydrogen

atoms, bond multiplicates, and special structural

^ features, provides a combination scanner-keyboard

input record that is transferred by the computer , into a single structural record. Ledley, and Cossum j et al., have developed direct input of structural , diagrams drawn freehand. Though these systems , are claimed to offer economic advantage and in- creased reliability, only Meyer's system is presently

j scheduled for operation." (Tate, 1967, p. 297).

j 4.22 "What a chemist would most Hke to do is to ,j simply draw a structural formula on a sheet of paper. • We therefore built a machine which by means of , 94
photocells can scan structures written on paper and

punch the information obtained into punched cards

or paper tape." (Meyer. 1963. p. 131.)

4.22a "The importance of the sound spectrograph lay in the fact that it provided a visual image

of the spectra of speech sound. It was in effect the

automation of Fourier analysis of speech spectra.

It immediately made evident acoustic factors of speech that had not been suspected, and helped to consolidate or eliminate various aspects of the

theories that analytical methods had only gradually

been yielding." (Lindgren. 1965, p. 127). 4.23 These authors suggest, further, that: "Computer measurement of ECG's is now suffi- ciently accurate to provide a basis for an automated

diagnostic classification . . . In a computer diagnostic program, "abnormal" measurements are given

diagnostic significance only when present in certain

combinations of leads. This computer diagnostic

program is being written and tested". (Bobrow

et al..l965.p. 126.) 4.24 "The program employs a multiple adaptive

matched filter system with a variety of normafization. weighting, comparison, decision, modification,

and adapting operations. The flexibility of the method

has permitted study of the effects of experimental

variations of these operations on the pattern classi- fication process to simulate human interpretation of electrocardiograms more closely." (Okajima et al., 1963. abstract.) 4.25 For example: ". . . (a) a series of typical

filter patterns for P. QRS and ST-f segments of the

EKG has been developed, (b) a diagnostic program

for rhythm analysis has been prepared, (c) an inter- pretation matrix and a diagnostic matrix have been

devised that incorporate pattern recognition.

rh>lhm and extracted parameter data with some

stratifying chnical information for the determination

of an EKG interpretation, (d) the loop of the diagnostic system has been closed by the frequencymodulated transmission of EKG data by telephone

lines from the Electrocardiography Laboratory of the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals to a GE 225

digital computer at the . . . M.I.T. . . . and the

subsequent return of a diagnosis to the laboratory

for teletype display . . ." (Whipple et al., 1965.

p. 49). 4.26 "The system is entirely digital and the

tablet is relatively inexpensive. In addition, thin

paper sheets can be inserted between the tablet surface and the pen for tracing maps and curves."

(Lewin, 1965, p. 831).

"The RAND tablet consists of a thin Mylar sheet

containing on one side, an array of etched copper

lines in the X direction and, on the other side, a

similar array of fine lines in the Y direction. By

means of capacitor encoding networks, also etched

on the same sheet, a unique voltage pulse train is apphed to each X and Y fine from a common pulse

pattern generator. The pen in this case is merely a metalhc electrostatic pickup connected to a high

input-impedance amplifier. The pulse train picked

up by the pen depends on the X and Y Hnes nearest

to its tip. This serial pulse pattern (in Gray code to eliminate errors) is converted into a parallel binary

address with appropriate peripheral logic, which

includes a shift register and a code converter." (Lewin, 196^, p. 831).

"The RAND tablet device generates 10-bit x and 10-bit y stylus position information. It is connected to an input channel of a general-purpose

computer and also to an oscilloscope display. The

display control multiplexes the stylus position

information with computer-generated information

in such a way that the oscilloscope display contains

a composite of the current pen position (represented

as a dot) and the computer output. In addition, the

computer may regenerate meaningful track history on the CRT. so that while the user is writing, it appears that the pen has 'ink.' The displayed

'ink' is visualized from the oscilloscope display

while hand-directing the stylus position on the tablet

. . . . Users normally adjust within a few minutes to the conceptual superposition of the displayed

ink and the actual off-screen pen movement. There

is no apparent loss of ease or speed in writing,

printing, constructing arbitrary figures, or even in penning one's signature." (Davis and Ellis, 1964. p. 325).

4.27 "The Grafacon 1010 is based on the Rand

Tablet, has a 'writing' surface and control electronics. It does not require a computer-controlled

scanning system to locate and track the stylus.

The 10 X lO-inch writing surface can accommodate

106 input locations with 100 lines/inch resolution

in both X and y." (Datamation 11, No. 5, 99. 101

(1965). [Data Equip. Co., Santa Ana, Calif.]. "Two-dimensional digital graphic input system,

based on the Rand Tablet, consists of a "writing"

surface, stylus, and associated control electronics.

It is said to permit the plotting of a wide variety of

input information directly on an integral screen. Pulses sensed by a high-impedance, pen-like stylus are encoded as serial X—Y Gray-code information.

This data is then strobed, converted to binary code,

assembled in a shift register, and gated in parallel

to computer interface circuitry. It does not require

a computer-controlled scanning system to locate and

track the stylus. The printed-circuit screen, with

capacitive-coupled encoding, is the hub of the sys- tem. The 10" X 10" writing surface can accommodate

10*^ input locations, with excellent linearity and 100

lines/inch resolution in both X and Y. The stylus

contains a pick-up probe, amplifier, and a control- signal switch which is actuated by tip pressure. Data Equipment Co., Div. of BBN Corp., Santa

Ana, Cal." (Computer Design 4, 74, Nov. 1965).

"A new graphical input system for off-Hne digitizing of graphic drawings, strip charts, maps, etc., or from projected sUde or film images onto computer

magnetic tape — has been introduced recently by

Bolt Beranek and Newman's Data Equipment Div.,

Santa Ana, CaHf. The Grafacon 205-1 Magnetic

Tape Digitizing System is claimed to be several

times faster to use than other graphic digitizing

systems currently available. 95
"The new system consists of the Grafaeon lOlOA

Digital Tablet — a IO5" square production version of the RAND Tablet Graphic Input Device — with a

stylus, alphanumeric keyboard, incremental magnetic tape recorder, and associated electronics

assembled in a 30" H X 8^" L X 20" D cabinet.

"Optional off-line digitizing equipment includes

either the Model SS Storage-Oscilloscope for visual

display of the data as it is digitized, or the Model

PL X-Y Recorder Monitoring System for tracking

the Grafaeon stylus position." (Computers and

Automation 16, No. 12, 50 (Dec. 1967).)

4.28 "To beat the language barrier between man and machine, Itek has, in effect, hitched the

digital computer to the draftsman's stylus. With a

photoelectric light pen, the operator of an EDM

can formulate engineering problems graphically

(instead of reducing them to equations) on a console

that looks like a flat, unflickering television screen. The operator's designs pass through the console

into an inexpensive computer, which solves the

problems and stores the answers in its memory

banks in both digitalized form and on microfilm.

By simply pressing buttons and sketching with the

light pen, the engineer may enter into a running

dialogue with an EDM, recall any of his earlier drawings to the screen in a millisecond and alter

its lines and curves at will. The whole system, Itek

engineers claim, can be hooked up to permit longdistance design conferences between field sites such as a missile launching pad and the home

office." (Time, Mar. 2, 19'62, p. 76). 4.29 "Sylvania is offering an electronic ballpoint

pen which translates graphic material to computer

language as it writes, and simultaneously transmits

data to computers for storage and analysis. Called

the Data Tablet . . ." Data Proc. Mag. 9, No. 6, 72 (1967).

"Sylvania Electronic Systems, a division of Sylvania Electric Products Inc., Waltham, Mass.—

The Sylvania Data Tablet is transparent — has a protective coating on the surface — and does not require contact by the stylus. Any nonconductive

material such as paper or film up to 1 inch in thick- ness, can be interposed between stylus and surface. An operator can write on a pad of paper placed over

the tablet, and his writing will register. An inking

capability on the stylus provides the option for creating hard copy simultaneously with electronic

entry. The DT-1 can be used as a desk, console,

or as a transparent overlay for a CRT or other dis- play, such as the map on the cathode ray tube at the

left. The operator can post new information graphically on the tablet which the computer will accept

for up-dating the map. This graphic input device

is easily interfaced with almost any computer. It is suitable for many diverse applications such as

military command and control, machine-aided

design, training devices and as a general research

tool." (Computers and Automation 16, 54 (Dec.

1967).)

"Use of phase measurements to obtain position as in the Sylvania Data Tablet is apparently a fairly

new concept or at least one which was not developed

fully in the past. Its greatest advantage in this application (over other conductive film techniques

dependent upon voltage gradient) is that capacitive

coupling to the conductive film by the pen can be

used even through dielectric layers such as a pro- tective glass covering or sheets of paper. The latter items and the fact that the pen used in the Data

Tablet contains a standard ball-point pen stylus

offers the ability to produce a hard copy simultaneously with the data entry. . . . "A drive network excited by the electronics

package drives the film at discrete points along its circumference in such a manner that a traveling wave (in a mathematical sense) is established

parallel to each orthogonal axis. This wave has the

property that its phase is a linear function of position as in the relationship:

V=K sin iwt-aX)

were a, (o are constants and X is the position

coordinate. (It should be mentioned that a true propagating wave does not exist on the writing panel

since a frequency in the hundreds of megahertz

would be required to give a significant phase shift along on eleven inch path. Actually, only one kilo- hertz is used as the phase shifted frequency.)"

(Teixeira and Sallen, 1968, p. 316).

4.29a "The actual writing is done on ordinary

paper (with any desired printing format) placed on

top of the array. The pressure of normal printing

forces the paper and the top membrane down onto

the bottom set of conducting lines, producing a contact point between the two orthogonal sets of

lines in the location directly under the printing

stylus. As this stylus moves from point to point,

successive momentary contacts are made, and a

raster-type image of the character, as it is traced

out, is signaled to the electronic system. The stylus can be any natural implement, such as a ballpoint

pen or a leadpencil." (Simek and Tunis, 1967, p. 77). 4.29b "A necessary requirement for the system,

and a novel contribution of this present work, is the

development of an extremely low-cost hand-printing

transducer. Functionally, it is similar to the Rand

Tablet, but conventional paper and pencil may be

used." (Simek and Tunis, 1967, p. 72). "Basically, the system makes use of a square glass

tablet as a drawing medium and as an ultra-sonic

delay line, through which mechanical vibrations are transmitted periodically and alternately by station- ary transducers installed along two adjacent edges

of the glass tablet. A separate transducer is built into the pen used to make the drawings; when the

pen comes into contact with the glass top, the

mechanical vibrations can be detected by the pen

transducer. Since mechanical vibration can be

propagated with a constant velocity through an

isotropic and homogeneous solid such as glass, the

time delay between transmission of a wave and its reception by the pen transducer is an accurate 96
measure of the distance between the edge of the

drawing board and the pen position. . . . "When mechanical pulses are rapidly and alter- nately transmitted in the X and Y directions of the

glass tablet, the coordinates of the pen can be

determined. This information is converted into

digital form and stored in a computer memory.

When recycled out from the memory and reconverted into the graphical form, the information is projected through a CRT system to the back of the

glass tablet." (Woo. 1964. p. 609).

4.30 "The III COMPUTER EYE is an optical

information sensor and processor capable of measuring and interpreting real world scenes. The sensor of the EYE . . . differs from the tv camera in that,

under control of the Image Processor (a stored

program general purpose computer), it selectively

examines points in its field of view. The E\E may

seek out a significant part of the image, concentrate on it. and then move to other areas under guidance

of a pattern recognition program." (Information

International. Inc.)

4.30al "Canada's Geographic Information System as now set up makes use of an IBM System/360

Model 65 computer along with equipment to create

a central data bank — bringing together all existing

geographic and geodetic data on capabihties and

uses of land in Canada.

"Of necessity maps comprise the main input.

Hence the call for the now installed IBM Carto- graphic Scanner, as it is named, specially designed

and built by IBM's Systems Development division

in Kingston. N.Y.. under contract with the Canadian

Government s Agricultural Rehabilitation & Development Administration. Geols in fact has become

the key to the entire Canadian Land Inventory

(CLI) program.

"Maps are stored in the system by two devices.

The first is the Cartographic Scanner which

records information on magnetic tape and produces

a map in fine form.

"The second is a manually operated XY digitizer

which translates geodetic data on maps into punched

cards. Classification data also is punched into cards." (Boggiss, 1967, p. 64). 4.30a2 "As more and more applications have

been made, it has become clear that the properties

of Sketchpad drawings make them most useful in four broad areas: "For Storing and Updating Drawings: Each time

a drawing is made, a description of that drawing

is stored in the computer in a form that is readily

transferred to magnetic tape. A Hbrary of drawings

wiU thus develop, parts of which may be used in other drawings at only a fraction of the investment

of time that was put into the original drawing.

"For Gaining Scientific or Engineering Understanding of Operations That Can Be Described

Graphically: A drawing in the Sketchpad system

may contain expficit statements about the relations

between its parts so that as one part is changed the

imphcations of this change become evident throughout the drawing. For instance. Sketchpad makes it

easy to study mechanical Hnkages, observing the

path of some parts when others are moved.

"As a Topological Input Device for Circuit

Simulators, etc.: Since the storage structure of

Sketchpad reflects the topology of any circuit or diagram, it can serve as an input for many network

or circuit simulating programs. The additional effort required to draw a circuit completely from scratch

with the Sketchpad system may well be recom- pensed if the properties of the circuit are obtainable

through simulation of the circuit drawn." (Sutherland, 1963, p. 332).

"For Highly Repetitive Drawings: The abihty of

the computer to reproduce any drawn symbol any- where at the press of a button, and to recursively

include subpictures within subpictures makes it easy to produce drawings which are composed of huge numbers of parts all similar in shape."

(Sutherland, 1963, p. 332).

4.30b "A more serious drawback of keyed

numerical input is that it cannot be used to achieve

continuous variation of parameters in the manner of

a shaft encoder or a tracker-ball. Many display

instaUations do not include any input devices of

this type, and a graphical technique has been

developed [Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard

University] to achieve a similar effect using a Hght

pen. This technique has been called the Light

Handle, as it simulates the effect of winding a handle or rotating a knob. Any coordinate-input

device such as the RAND Tablet (Davis and Ellis,

1964) or the SRI Mouse (Enghsh, Engelbart and

Berman, 1967) may be used to control the Light

Handle." (Newman, 1968, p. 63). 4.30c "Most of the required components already

exist and have been put together at System

Development Corporation, as a prototype system.

For the hardware, the user terminal is a RAND

Tablet (Grafacon lOlOA), for input to the computer,,

and a CRT display for output. The CRT image is rear-projected onto the Grafacon, so that input and

output images are coincident. The terminal is connected through a peripheral processor (a PDP-1

computer) to the AN/FSQ-32 computer, which is the central processor for the system. Details of the

terminal and computer interface were described

by GaUenson at the 1967 Fall Joint Computer

Conference." (Bernstein and WilHams, 1968, p. 28). 4.31 "Control Data Corporation announced the

development of the Digigraphic 270 series . . . Combining free hand drawing using a light pen and

automated drawing (activated through control

registers and buttons on a keyboard) for production

of perfect circles, angles and hues, the operator can

create any type of graphic representation on the screen of the Digigraphic console. Drawings are transmitted to the CDC 3300 as thousands of

individual vectors, the position of each given as

relative to a built-in x- and y-axis." (Commun.

ACM 9, 468 (1966).)

"Experimental work being performed at the

Control Data Digigraphic Laboratories in BurHngton,

Massachusetts, uses electronic drafting boards and

97
light pens supplemented by keyboards to permit the man to provide input to the computer comfortably."

(Macaulay, 1966, p. 579).

"Control Data Corporation, Minneapolis, Minn.,

is marketing a Digigraphics System designed for use with a small-scale Control Data 1700 Computer

System. Digigraphics refers to a CDC system in which an operator seated at a special console equipped with a large TV-hke display screen is able to enter data in graphic form — using a Hght pen and

keyboard — directly into a computer system for processing, storage and retrieval. "The controller used in the 274 Digigraphics

System has a 4096 word buffer memory — expandable to 8192 words — for operating a single Digigraphics console. A vector-oriented, 22-inch

diameter, flatface visual display screen on the console is capable of displaying the equivalent of 2000

inches of curves, or up to 1800 characters of variable

size or font. . . . "The software package (Function Control Package) provided with the system offers a large number

of universal design features. This means that the

user, rather than structuring a software system from

scratch, need only interface his apphcation pro- gram(s) with existing routines to achieve full operational capabihty. Integration of user oriented pro- grams with the FCP software is accomplished via FORTRAN IV CALLS.

"Upgrading any general purpose Control Data

1700 Computer System to Digigraphics capabihty

requires only the addition of the 274 Digigraphics

Controller, the 274 Digigraphics Console, and 24,000

words of core and disk pack memory." (Computers

and Automation 16, 60 (Nov. 1967).)

4.32 "The [RCA] system . . . utihzes the pen as the signal generator and the writing surface as the

address detector. The pen contains in its tip a small magnetic head which periodically generates a locahzed magnetic field pulse. (Since the coupHng

is magnetic, it is not shielded by most materials

placed between the pen and the tablet). The writing

surface contains a number of thin winding layers in a laminated structure . . . There are as many layers as there are address bits, each developing a positive or negative induced voltage as a function of the

pen position." (Lewin, 1965, p. 832.)

4.32a "The initial goal of the Design Augmented

by Computer project was the development of a combination of computer hardware and software

which (a) would permit 'conversational' manmachine graphical communication and (b) would

provide a maximum programming flexibility and

ease of use for experimentation. This goal was

achieved in early 1963." (Jacks, 1964, p. 344).

"The IBM 7960 Special Image Processing

System was designed and built by IBM to specifications provided by the General Motors Research

Laboratories. The system is the man-machine and

image processing hardware for the CM Research

DAC-I System." (Hargreaves et al., 1964, pp. 384-385).

"The DAC-I System for design augmented by

computer at the General Motors Research Laboratories . . . facilities sketching and designing on

the cathode-ray screen. It provides on-line access to large, computer-processible files of 'blueprint'

information. Automobile components designed

through DAC-I are now on the street." (Licklider,

1967, p. 9). "Of considerable historical interest, a program

which roughly paralleled the M. I. T. work has been

carried on independently at General Motors since

about 1959. It was kept in complete secrecy until

its disclosure in the fall of 1964." (Prince, 1966, p. 1698).

4.33 "It is possible, in conjunction with the light

pen and a suitable program, to read to progressively

greater levels of detail in an area of interest selected

by the light pen. Looped playbacks of the successive

reads on a visual scope can be enlarged to reveal

discrete points. It is possible to apply the differential principle in reading around curves in order to produce a center line of high quality. It is also possible to recognize patterns of objects, and to combine code-generated pictures, computercontrolled visual input and light pen visual input in a single operation. The recorded output of the computer can be stored on film and read back into the

computer visually at any time. Overlays can be

quickly accomplished on standard maps by reading

the maps with the computer-controlled CRT reader

and combining them in memory with elements to be displayed. The result can be put out on film. . . . "A computer-controlled television camera is a general-purpose visual input device capable, when

properly programmed, of reading any gauge or instrument panel or observing an experimental

situation and, through its computer, controlling it rapidly. . . . "Several computer programs have been written

to permit an operator to perform drafting using the

visual scope and the light pen. The computercontrolled CRT reader enhances this operation by

permitting the introduction of photographs and

drawings." (Fulton, 1963, p. 38, 40). 4.34 As examples of current hardware capabilities for this purpose we note the following: "A new

photographic data processing system which will speed post-flight analysis of photographic data . . . was developed by David W. Mann Co. . . . The new

Microdensitometer system . . . measures the posi- tion (in two coordinates) and the relative Hghtness

or darkness of micron-sized images while scanning

photographic plates at rates up to 625 millimeters

per minute." (Data Processing Magazine 7, No. 2, 40 (1965).)

"A new, low cost method of input to computers

of diagrams, drawings, and photographs has been

developed by D-Mac Ltd. The device, the Pencil

Follower, allows outlines to be traced and converted

to computer input, or entered on cards or tape for subsequent processing on a computer." (Data &

Control 3, 32 (1965).)

98
"The imagery . . . was processed in IMITAC

(Image Input to Automatic Computer), a specially

constructed scanner which converts images to computer language, and can also convert computer

output to images. The Philco IMITAC can scan a

3-by-3 inch image with a 1024 line raster, each line being sampled at 1024 points. An analog-to-digital converter encodes the photographic density to 64

levels. This 6-bit code is then transferred to the

UBC (Universal Buffer Controller) of the Philco 2000

computer system, and then to magnetic computer

tape.'' (Kanal and RandaU, 1964, p. D2. 5-5). 4.35 "The input data for a given compilation is in the form of a pair of aerial photographic trans- parencies together with pertinent camera data;

i.e.. position and attitude of camera for each trans- parency, focal length of camera and distortion

characteristics of the lens." (Bertram, 1963, p. 105).

4.36 "We have constructed a scanner system

that will look at a resolution element 1/200 inch on a

side, that wiU assign one of eight gray levels of light

density to each element, and that will put the in- formation in a systematic way on a standard

magnetic tape. We have computer programs that

will then manipulate the information contained on

the tape. W e can display it by means of a pictorial

printout; we can list the actual density values for any area of interest." (Moore et al., 1964, p. 927).

4.36al "Aeronutronics Div. of Ford Motor Co.,

has ordered a Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-7 to use in an experimental film-scanning operations.

They plan to mechanize and automate many steps

in detecting and analyzing the data contained in aerial photographs." (Data Proc. Mag. 7, No. 7.

p. 12 (July 1965).)

4.36a2 "The system for automatic photointerpretation in Karlsruhe, which is still under development, will be used for scanning and preprocessing

negative films such as aerial photographs, bubble

chamber photographs or X-ray photographs without

any restriction as to special structures of the

pictorial information. Aerial photographs will be the

chief subject of investigation, since they have the

most general structure." (Kazmierczak and Holdermann, 1968, p. 45). "Considerable work has been done on the simplification of the information content of aerial photographs by, e.g., successive processes of averaging

I and differentiation." (Rosenfeld, 1965, p. 114).

4.36b "The digital filters are designed to produce

silhouettes on the basis of broad target and/or

background characteristics but not to depend on

specific target shape or configuration. Every sil- houette produced represents a possible target

and is individually tested as such in a final stage

recognition system. . . . The generated silhouettes

not only include a large number of nontarget shapes

which must be reliably rejected to achieve a satis- factory false alarm rate, but may also include

imperfect silhouettes of targets which must be

reliably recognized as such. Some noise effects are inevitable, but consistent imperfections are

not noise as long as nontargets do not also generate

silhouettes similar in characteristic to those

generated by any target." (Holmes, 1966, p. 1681).

"The CAL [Cornell Aeronautics Laboratory]

Flying Spot Scanner . . . can sample a 3" X 3" photographic transparency with a spatial resolution

of 1024 X 1024 sample points with better than 95%

independence and with a density resolution of 64

levels of gray. Of particular value to this research

is the fact that the scanner can sample the pattern scene transparency in a random-access fashion,

under control of our IBM-7044, so that it can sense

directly those portions of the scene required by the

object extraction process. . . . "In research reported earlier by Trabka and

Roetting objects in a complex scene are located by

performing an optical cross-correlation of the

pattern scene and an aperture filter of the shape

of the object to be located. This technique locates

the desired object in the object scene, but it does

specifically define its boundaries or extract it from

the scene. However, the technique is very fast, as

it can process a whole scene in parallel, and is very tolerant of changes in shading in the interior of the object, since it detects objects by the shape

or their edges." (Muerle and ADen, 1968, p. 5, 3-4).

4.36c "A prototype Map /Analysis System

(MANS) has been developed as an experimental

first approximation to ... a general picture description system." (Pfaltz et al., 1968, p. 361).

"Within the geographical profession, the map is the traditional data-storage and nomographicanalysis device. These two functions of the map are being 'computerized' as rapidly as is economically

feasible. The theoretically more important use of the map as a 'hypothesis-generation' device would

require a computer that can read — that is interpret

and not just scan — maps. In spite of intensive efforts on the part of the military to develop an automatic

photointerpretation capability, the results fall largely into the category of data reduction rather

than pattern recognition. For this reason maps

remain an oft-desired output format. The art of

computer mapping has been developed fairly ex- tensively using offline printers, graphic plotters,

and cathode ray tubes to produce statistical atlases,

contour-like maps, and so on." (Tobler, 1967,

pp. 57-58).

4.36d "The bubble chamber is one of the most

versatile tools for high energy physics research.

It is used to detect the passage of particles and to measure their trajectories, momenta and velocities. Nuclear events are produced by the interaction of

beam particles from the accelerator with nuclei

of the chamber medium." (White, 1968, p. 175).

"Charged particles which pass through the chamber during the sensitive period of its expansion cycle cause formation of strings of bubbles along their

trajectories, with bubble density determined by the

particle velocity. A magnetic field is present to allow particle momentum to be measured by the

radius of its trajectory. Generally three cameras

99
photograph the bubble chamber during the sensitive period of its expansion cycle, so that by inter- comparison of views a space reconstruction of

particle tracks can be made." (White, 1967, p. 175).

4.37 "Dr. Bruce McCormick has proposed a scanning technique which allows rapid recognition,

separation and measurement of the photographic

records of star type nuclear events. A device known

as the Spiral Reader measures background and

star type event features impartially, discriminating

against non-radial patterns by the geometry of its rotating scanning element. The event measurements

are separated from the background measurements

by an IBM 704 computer under the direction of a program called FILTER. The separated nuclear

event measurements are subsequently reconstructed

in space for physics analysis." (Innes, 1960, p. 25.)

4.37a "Visual input to the computer enters through flying spot CRT scanners: two for 70-mm

film, two for 46-mm film, two for 35-mm film and

two for microscope slides. Two modes of raster scanning are provided: raster mode, where cell-bycell the image is encoded uniformly in 1, 2, 4, or 8

bits of gray scale; and coordinate mode, where each

black/white transition triggers the readout of 16

bit X(Y) coordinates. Raster mode is the normal

recognition scan input; coordinate mode is primarily

reserved for precision measurement purposes."

(McCormick et al, 1966, p. 359.)

4.37b "Because the part [i.e., design component]

can be rotated to any position in space, lines can be

drawn directly in three dimensions by drawing in a plane. The part is rotated until the area in which

the line is to be drawn is parallel to a viewing quadrant. The line is then drawn true length; the depth

coordinate remains constant as the pen moves

across the plane of the scope screen. Specification

of the single depth coordinate is done by program

interpretation . . . This program, called the Pen

Space Location program, is the backbone program

of three-dimensional sketching. Sophisticated drawing is made possible by this program." (Johnson,

1963, p. 350.)

It is noted, however, that "general three-dimensional graphical communication, which deals with

arbitrary surfaces and space curve intersections,

presents many difficult problems; the beginning has

been modest and much work remains before the

complete graphical communication problem is solved." (Johnson, 1963, p. 347.)

4.38 "Sketchpad has been extended to three

dimensions by Johnson. In Sketchpad III, the user can add a line to a plan and have it appear simultaneously in the front field, the side view, and the

oblique representation. When he rotates the oblique

representation, the orthogonal views change appropriately, etc." (Teitelman, 1966, p. 11.) 4.39 "The only work I know of on machine depth

perception is that on binocular images. Julesz has

reported a procedure which shifts the binocular

pictures to find the areas at different depths. This

procedure uses only texture, not edges, to develop

the depth information . . ." (Roberts. 1965, p. 161.)

4.39a "It is possible to obtain a spatial derivative of the scanned image which simultaneously

rejects those parts of the original image which are

out of focus and preserves the boundaries where

the value of the derivative exceeds some threshold."

(Lipkin et al., 1966, p. 1006.)

4.40 "Special equipment developed by the

Electronic Systems Laboratory at M.I.T. makes it possible to draw with the light pen a three-dimensional object and display its projection on the face

of the cathode-ray tube just as if the objects were

continuously rotating in three dimensions under

control of the viewer." (Fano, 1967, p. 31). "Another device that is in many ways superior to the light pen and RAND tablet is the Lincoln

WAND*. It uses 4 ultrasonic transmitters and one

receiver to obtain digital delay measurements that determine the stylus position, and can operate over

a working area four feet square with a resolution of

0.02 inches." (Coggan, 1967, pp. 73-74) [Ref. to Roberts, 1966]

"The Wand is an interesting development pres- ently being tested at Lincoln Laboratory for inputting three-dimensional data to the display. Four

acoustic transducers located around the periphery

of the display transmit pulses which are detected

by a microphone in the wand. Counting circuitry measures the four distances which are converted

into xyz display coordinates by the computer."

(Prince, 1966, p. 1699).

"Research continues actively in the areas of new input devices and display media. The Lincoln

WAND, described by Roberts at the FJCC, allows

the operator to position a hand-held ultrasonic

receiver in three-dimensional space. The sensor

receives signals from four transmitters aligned in

in a plane near the scope face and allows the computer to resolve its position in three dimensions.

Thus, the 'menu selection' area used for pointing

at program alternatives can be significantly in- i creased from that of the two-dimensional scope i face used with the light-pen. In addition, three- s dimensional 'drawing' can be simulated." (Van t Dam and Michener, 1967, pp. 197-198.)

"The well-known 'light pen' or 'light gun' has \ been used since the early 1950's as a mechanism

for drawing or pointing on the face of a CRT.

Roberts describes the so-called 'Lincoln WAND,' a

related device for pointing in three-dimensional

space. The pointer contains a microphone, which

detects pulses from several ultrasonic transmitters

in the vicinity. The result is a sort of small-scale

ultrasonic LORAN (Long Range Radio Navigation)

which is already good enough to give a positioning

accuracy of about two-tenths of an inch. A few

suggestions are given as to the importance of adding

a third dimension and considerable spacial freedom

to conventional pointing schemes. A final item of

display hardware is the Stratton description of a novel replacement for the conventional light pen. The general idea involves direct detection by the

'pen' of the CRT electron beam rather than of

the light emitted when it strikes phosphor. Stratton's 100
paper describes the hardware in intensive detail and

will be of greatest interest to other hardware de- signers and implementers." (Mills, 1967. p. 232.) 4.41 "I would estimate that within the next two

decades a three-dimensional scanner will be avail- able that will describe the shape of an object in terms of a grid . . . which can be as fine or as coarse as the investigator desires. The object would

be placed between two such grids, and where the

beam could pass between two parallel points of course the object would not be in between these

points, and where the beam was reflected back the

distance on either side would be calculated, and the

difference would be the thickness of the object at that point." (McDonough. 1964. pp. 34-35.)

4.42 "Three dimensional x-ray photographs are being produced ... by the Giannini Controls

Corp., ... to see the distance between component

leads in a potted module . . . also has medical

apphcations. For example, it has been used to deter- mine the depth of a bone infection." (Electronics

37, 26, 1964.) 4.43 '"Ford is reported to be using a Hght-scanning measuring machine, built by the Ex-CeU-0-

Corp., to inspect clay mock-ups for X (length), Y

(width) and Z (height) coordinates . . . "Ranging circuits in the scanning machine measure the light's travel time, convert it into distance

from the source, and feed the data into a cardpunch." (Gomolak, 1964. p. 66). 4.44 "The method records the light's electro- magnetic field exactly as it existed, so that the

images it regenerates are three-dimensional images

indistinguishable from the original scene ... on

the fringes, three-dimensional television." (Stroke,

1965, p. 53). 4.44a "This paper is involved with one aspect of

the pattern recognition problem, namely, that of quahtative pattern recognition. A pattern recognition problem is quahtative if certain transformations

of the pattern are either the end result in themselves

or are necessitated for ease of further processing or

recognition. One can extract partial information

(both qualitative and quantitative) about the pat- tern through such transformations. . . . "The transformations of interest cannot, in general, be expressed in terms of known mathematical

transformations. Even if such transformations were

found, it may not be presently possible to obtain the

corresponding physical realizations. For these

reasons, quahtative pattern recognition wiU be a challenging area of research in future, both in terms

of new mathematical tools and new physical components." (Hemami, 1968, pp. 1-2).

"Although qualitative pattern recognition has not been emphasized, there are numerous applications

of these techniques to qualitative problems. For

instance, the techniques could be used to accentuate specific features on contour maps, such as regions with steep slopes or regions which are nearly

level. Another appHcation is compact information

transmission of graphical forms. Since the transformation technique reduces the information content of a contour or graphic representation to a compact form, it is ideal for information transmission. Two other potential applications include

analyses of handwriting and recognition of signatures. The representation of a signature's boundary

by Fourier harmonics presents especially interest- ing possibilities. The areas of filtering and smoothing

also offer many possibihties for applying these

techniques." (Brill, 1968, p. 9). "Most of the applications of optical systems to quahtative pattern recognition deal with trans- formations that directly involve spatial frequencies.

Many other simple transformations that are useful

in quahtative pattern recognition are not well

understood, and cannot be realized by simple optical

systems. A few of such transformations are noted

here.

1. Interpolation and extrapolation, eUmination or retainment, rotation and translations of specified hues and curves in a pattern.

2. Increasing or reduction of thickness (width) of

a pattern in a specified direction or vicinity.

3. Separation of superimposed patterns with over- lapping spatial frequencies.

4. Nonhnear transformation such as clipping,

thresholding and clamping the pattern amphtude for which simple analog reahzations do

not yet exist.

5. Transformation from defined shapes to other

shapes such as simultaneous mapping of

triangles into circles and squares into ellipses

in a pattern consisting of a number of tri- angles and squares.

6. Conformal transformations." (Hemami, 1968,

pp. 6-7).

4.45 For example, "the program may be com- manded from the typewriter to analyze a complex

scene. Such a scene may consist of known items, i.e., shapes which have been defined as being significant

(the alphanumeric characters); and of other items, some of which may be significant to the viewer but

not to the system, and some of which may be merely

background 'noise'. An arbitrary number of known

items may be present simultaneously; they may be

of different sizes and orientations; they may overlap,

or be inside each other; they may be super-imposed

on an arbitrary background." (Marill et al., 1963,

p. 28). 4.45a "In dealing with ... a photograph, conventional techniques of shape and pattern recognition are not directly appUcable, since there is no

natural distinction between figures (—shapes or

patterrjs) and background in the photograph. . . . "Statistical analysis of the input image ... is used to determine the boundaries of the conspicuous

figures which the image contains and to generate a

simplified description of the 'visual texture' of

various parts of the image. . . . "An arbitrary point pattern (or figure made up

of straight lines) is determined if certain lengths of

line segments or angles between them are specified.

101
More generally, an arbitrary shape is determined

by specifying the curvature of its boundary as a function of arc length." (Rosenfeld, 1962, p. 114).

"What makes picture processing a subject in its own right is that it deals with pictures which are

not merely arbitrary functions or matrices, but

which are pictures o/ something— which purport to represent a real scene (terrain, microscope

slide, . . .) or an ideal symbol (such as an alphanumeric character)." (Rosenfeld, 1968, p. 1-10.)

"Experimental work . . . suggests that . . . detailed contrast frequency analysis provides enough

information about the visual texture of the image

to make possible the automatic identification of

many basic terrain types." (Rosenfeld, 1962, p. 115).

"The extraction of conspicuous figures from the

photographic image also involves the concept of

visual texture, since the boundaries between adja- cent areas having significantly different textures

will define such figures." (Rosenfeld, 1962, p. 115).

4.45b "A two-level statistical classification pro- cedure has been applied to the problem of detecting

complex targets in aerial photography. At the first level, a set of classification functions designed on

the basis of samples from the target class and from

other images is used to make subdecisions on local- area statistically-designed features associated with

the target class. At the second level these subdecisions are combined into a single decision as to the presence or absence of the target. The nature

of the data does not allow for the direct application

of classical methods of multivariate discriminant

analysis; rather, modifications of classical methods

are used. This procedure has been simulated on a

digital computer with the aid of a special inputoutput device which converts imagery to computer

language." (Kanal and Randall, 1964, p. D2.5-1).

"Thus the imagery screening system consists of

(a) a high-speed flying spot scanner, (b) a Laplacian

preprocessing stage that converts the video to binary data, (c) a shift register correlator with

statistically designed coefficients, and (d) the final decision logic. The result is a machine that can

rapidly search large amounts of photography and

reliably detect a variety of tactical targets in any

position. . . . "The work described here and other related

efforts lead to a (preliminary) conclusion concerning

the relative merit of some competing design

approaches. For the identification of small targets

in aerial surveillance photography, the two-layer

statistical classification method based on local- area statistically designed features and using

Laplacian pre-processing is far superior to the

'random-mask' methods used (at least in the past)

in Perceptrons and other 'trainable' networks."

(Kanal and Randall, 1964, p. D2.5-7).

4.46 "The first step taken by ANALOGY is to decompose each problem figure into 'object' (subfigures) . . . While a decomposition program of the

full generality desirable has not yet been constructed, the most recent version of the program is capable, in particular, of finding all occurrences of an arbitrary simple closed figure x in an arbitrary

connected figure y; for each such occurrence the

program can, if required, separate y into two objects:

that occurrence of x and the rest of y. . . . "Next, the 'objects' generated from the decomposition process are given to a routine which calculates a specified set of properties of these objects

and relations among them . . . [e.g.,] that the object labeled P2 lies inside that labeled P3 and

generates a corresponding expression . . ."(Evans,

1964, pp. 329-330.)

4.47 ". . . We are now able to begin serious

study of the most difficult problem facing the project: The analysis of real-world three-dimensional scenes." (Minsky, 1966, p. 12). "Programs have been developed to read selected

parts of the visual scene, analyse them for parts

of polygonal objects, and then transform them to real-world coordinates. The present programs are

still rudimentary, and their extension is vital to the

project." (Minsky, 1966, p. 16). "Our goal is to develop techniques of machine

perception, motor control, and coordination that are applicable to performing real-world tasks of

object-recognition and manipulation." (Minsky,

1966, p. 11). "The sensory equipment includes two visual- input devices. TVA, a vidicon television camera,

and the more precise TVB, an image-dissector

device for controlled-scan analysis." (Minsky,

1966, p. 13). 4.48 ". . . The problem is to make measure- ments on a curve . . . Since the fines are thick,

the measurements must be made from points in the

middle of the fines." (Ledley et al., 1966, p. 79). "The transform of a pattern consists of a locus, called the medial axis of the pattern, together with

a function defined along this locus, which describes

the exact shape of the pattern . . . The function

. . . is the distance from the curve to the pattern

boundary. The transform is generated by causing

the pattern to shrink down in size, or equivalently

by allowing the area outside of the pattern to propagate with uniform velocity into the pattern. The

medial axis of the pattern is described as the locus

of self-intersection of the propagating area."

(Philbrick, 1968, pp. 395-396).

5. Preprocessing Operations and Pattern Recognition

5.1 ". . . Filtering for irrelevancy should be

performed at the sensor site in most cases in order

to reduce the demands on information trans- mission facilities." (Edwards, 1965, p. 148).

5.2 For example, in standardized OCR font readers being developed for European postal check

handling and similar applications, Standard

Elecktric Lorenz and Telefunken use infrared102
range scanning, while Olivetti has a prototype

reader under development using ultraviolet. "In general, use of the infrared range makes

interferences from fountain and baU-point pens,

colored pencils, office stamps, colored paper, and

finger smudges tolerable, while materials containing carbon or graphite have a reflectance similar to printing inks and thus cause trouble.'" (Dietrich.

1965. p. 319.)

5.3 The technique of carrying analog gray-scale

values rather than quantizing early in the recognition process is associated first with Taylor (1958.

1959. 1960).

5.3a ". . . We find almost universally that the very first operation after linear ampHfication of the

video signal obtained from the scanning process is a 'black-white' cUpping. From the detection point

of view, this nonlinear process irretrievably rivets the noise to the signal, and now all kinds of logical

acrobatics are required to save the situation."

(Nadler. 1963. p. 814). See also Hart (1966) p. 17. 5.3b "If there is a contrast boundary at the

scanned point, the preprocessing of the scanned

information consists in computing the gradient of the contrast. If there is no contrast, only the grey

value in this location wdU be measured. While the grey value can be measured on a scale of 64 levels,

the contrast gradient wiU be measured on a scale of 40 steps in a 360° range with an accuracy of ±4.5°."

(Kazmierczak and Holdermann. 1968. p. 49). 5.4 "It is well known that, due to diffraction

effects, the image of a point source produced by a convex lens is surrounded by the Fourier transform

of any aperture placed in the plane of the lens. If this aperture is a photo-transparency then the image

plane contains the Fourier transform of any pattern

in the transparency. The spatial frequency components of the pattern are displaced radially about

the optical axis, displacement increasing with spatial

frequency. Opaque stops can be introduced into the image or Fourier plane to suppress selected

frequency components, an image of the aperture

pattern is then transformed according to the transfer function defined by the stops. The Fourier

transform, being, in effect, a modified image of a

fixed point source, is independent of the position

of the pattern in transparency, and hence also of any part of the pattern so that patterns may be

processed without precise location, alternatively

several patterns may be processed simultaneously.

If the low frequency components of the Fourier

transform are suppressed areas of sensibily constant

density in the pattern are ehminated and an outline

effect is obtained: the suppression of high frequency

components reduces fine granular noise and fine structure. By the use of appropriately shaped stops

a large range of transfer functions can be obtained

and this technique may conveniently and economically be used to preprocess patterns before more

elaborate analytical processes are applied. The

operation of spatial filtering of optical signals (patterns) is directly analogous to electrical filtering

of electrical signals but performed in two dimensions. The concepts of bandwidth, frequency and

rejection or pass bands are directly appHcable.

Since, in the Fourier plane frequency increases

with distance from the optical axis, a circular axial stop will reject the d.c. and low frequency components of the pattern. A circular axial aperture will reject high frequency components. Clearly an annular aperture wiU pass only middle frequencies.

"The coUimated output from a laser, after passing

tnrough a phototransparency. is brought to a focus

by lens Li. This focal plane contains the Fourier

transform of any pattern in the transparency. The

plane containing the transparency is itself imaged,

again by Li, onto the photocathode of a television camera. The video signal from the camera could

then be input to a pattern processor/analyser

proper." (National Physical Laboratory, n.d., pp. 2-3).

5.4a See Moore (1968). as foUows: "STRIP-3

provides for the use of a number of different raster

sizes appropriate to pictures in most net print sizes from 30 miUimeters up to 24 X 24 centimeters. All images used in any one run of the program must

however be of the same size. In the anticipated

machine configuration, a minimum of two '8 X 10

inch' (24 X 19 cm) binary phase images can be held

in the active memory, while up to 8 binary images in '4X5 inch' or smaller size can be retained and

processed in combination. Logically modified

images can be stored without destroying the originals. Where operations directly upon the multiple

level density scale may be necessary, these are accomplished by logical combinations of binary

images representing the 8-4-2-1 or 4-2-1

bits of the density characters. While this method

appears indirect, it is in fact several times faster

in operation than the arithmetical methods which

would of necessity be performed one gray character

at a time . . . "A . . . powerful series of image transformations

are accomplished through the use of 'BIT OPerations'. These are processes in which new image

bits are determined for each raster point as a function of both their original value and the value of each of the eight neighboring bits. Thus individual

points of the image can be classified as being within

the body of particles, in specific edge positions, or

in isolated situations . . ." (Moore, 1968, pp. 287,

296).

5.4b "In the case of two-level pictures, such as printed matter, the entire image can be reconstructed from the contours. For pictures with a continuous tone scale the contour information can

be used to reconstruct the high frequency component of the complete picture. In either case

efficient coding of the contour data is essentiak

Since the contour is by nature a highly connected

set of points advantage may be taken of the inherent

correlation to reduce the total required channel

capacity." (Schreiber et al.. 1968. p. 1).

103
5.5 "Most approaches to preprocessing can be

classified as either attempts to reduce the dimensionahty of the sample space or attempts to build

up a description of the samples by isolating features. The former approach, which is usually analytical, suffers from the use of narrow assumptions which

severely restrict the applicability of the results. The latter approach is usually based upon intuitive considerations." (Hart, 1966, p. 29.)

He suggests further that "one might first try to isolate a number of features and then use a dimensionality-reducing technique to condense the de- scription of the pattern further. This combined

approach is, in fact, not often seen, and perhaps

deserves closer attention." (Hart, 1966, p. 4). 5.5a "Many measurements which seem other- wise very useful in discriminating printed characters are sensitive to line width — certain first order

autocorrelation measurements, for example. One

technique for filtering this out has been designed

by H. B. Baskin at our Laboratory. It utilizes a combination of local analog and binary operations on

the video signal from a scanner to reduce line width

variations." (Andrews, 1962, p. 291).

5.5b See also the following:

"Although large character size variations might

be considered as font variations, it is worth con- sidering them separately since it is possible to

filter them at an early point in a recognition sys- tem by automatically varying magnification. What

seems to be the simplest way to accomplish this

is to vary the scan resolution of a CRT type opti- cal system in response to previously sensed aver- age character height." (Andrews, 1962, p. 290). 5.6 See note 2.7a. 5.7 "In an early Post Office address-reader de- signed by Farrington-IMR, the input process consists first of finding the lowest line of the typed

address on an envelope, with scan of each successive one of four areas I2 inches wide to determine

where this last address is located, and with subsequent scanning such as to follow the apparent

lowest line. The shadow cast by the window of a window envelope has, for example, caused diffi- culties in adjustment for this lowest line position."

(Stevens, 1961, p. 56). "The work done by E. Milbradt and J. Bauldreay

in solving registration problems for the recognition

of mail addresses utihzes the edge of the character

as a datum line for decision making. A preliminary

reading is made to obtain a registration error. This

error is fed back to correct the optics such that the

character placement is correct at the second reading station. Pre-biasing is also established to take

advantage of a priori knowledge of character drift along the line." (Stein, 1965, misc. notes). 5.8 "Feedback functions may affect this operation as in cases where the first input pattern is used

to adjust repositioning of the source image, to trigger

the beginning of specific recognition steps, to standardize the dimensions of succeeding input

pattern elements or to set the frame of reference

for more detailed analysis of the input pattern.

Feedback functions . . . may also arise where any

input pattern, or input pattern element, determines

the selection of succeeding elements of the source

pattern. In reader developments at Philco, several

different scan modes and techniques for focussing

and defocussing serve to enlarge or reduce the area of pick-up." (Stevens, 1961, pp. 56-57).

5.9 ". . . The probability with which the various

elements may be black or white can be determined

by examining them in relation to their neighbors. . .

.

"The analog image signal . . . consists of about

500 picture elements per character and is converted

by a trigger amplifier into a digital black and white

image. Noise due to imperfect printing is reduced

by comparing each picture element with its neighbors and subsequently the appropriate form ele- ments are detected by line following, whereby

character height serves as a relative dimension.

In parallel with this operation the automatic reader

determines the size of each character along with its position in the scanning field, and compares it with limit values." (Gattner and Jurk, 1963. pp. 392-393).

"The commonly used spatial filtering techniques

are differential or edge enhancing, filtering, and

lowpass filtering . . . Lowpass filtering smooths

data, for example, by replacing each matrix element

by a weighted average of itself and the surrounding

eight elements." (Hankley and Tou, 1968, p. 421).

5.10 "A 'noisy' picture can often be effectively

'smoothed', or an unsharp picture 'enhanced',

by a single neighborhood operation which takes a

local average or computes a finite-difference Laplacian. Similarly, a picture which contains

thick 'roads' (lines or curves of points having given

values) can be 'thinned' by iterating a 'border ele- ment deletion' operation, perhaps alternated with a smoothing operation, where the number of iterations required is relatively small since the roads are narrow compared to the picture size." (Rosenfeld

and Pfahz, 1966, p. 473).

"Edge differentiation may be used to obtain more accurate area values, and the tone scale may be enhanced or corrected if the original tran- scription is inaccurate." (Moore, 1968, p. 285).

"The procedure we have implemented ('STRIP')

. . . results in an object which consists of

(i) arcs: connected sets in which all points have

exactly two neighbours in the object

and

(ii) nodes or nodal regions: 'tips' consisting of

single points with one neighbour only, and

'nodes' in which each point has more than

two neighbours." (Rutovitz, 1968, p. 127).

"Two-dimensional filtering with nonlinearities

introduced can produce interesting and useful

results. The necessity for nonlinearity precludes

optical processing for the present and makes the

digital computer a unique tool for research, and

probably an essential element of a final system.

104
The scope available for further research on two- dimensional, nonlinear, digital filters favors con- tinued work in this area. The work should con- centrate in three fundamental regions.

(1) Filters to define and measure the orientation

of low-curvature contours. Initially, nonnoisy contours should be studied but, ulti- mately, the straight but locally irregular

contours, characteristic of the boundaries

of wooded areas adjacent to cultivated land

should be included.

(2) Filters to incorporate texture as well as amplitude distribution continuity in an ex- tension of the K-S filter approach.

(3) Processes to assemble silhouettes fragmented

by shadow effects and close the gaps created.

The processes may take advantage of proximity, edge alignment effects, or target size requirements (that is, assembling proximate

silhouettes to make silhouettes of approximately the correct size)." (Holmes, 1966,

pp. 1685-1686).

5.11 "Classification or the arrival at a category assumes a matching or near-matching of something

with something, or the failure to achieve such a matching . . . data-reduction processes reduce

things that are non-matching in detail to things

which are matching in some overall aspect. In some

sophisticated types of pattern recognition, matching

or near-matching within tolerance is done only after considerable data reduction ha^s taken place."

(Minot, 1959, p. 11.) "Reliance is normally placed on differences in color or tone density, or on general logical processing, to eliminate features for which measurements

are not desired. The numerous parameters measured

for individual particles or objects may, when appropriate, be used in suitable combinations to classify

the measurements into groups pertinent to single classes of objects. Such edited data may then be

used to compute summary information on individual

classes of objects." (Moore, 1968, pp. 324-325).

"The effectiveness of a recognition system will depend upon how well the significant differences

between pattern classes are characterized by the

prescribed set of measurements, and the accuracy

with which the decision criterion categorizes the

pattern measurements." (Greanias et al., 1963,

p. 14). "Thus, the problem of feature selection consists

of three parts as follows:

1. To find criteria for measuring the separability

of pattern classes.

2. To evaluate the effectiveness of each feature

or each mapped feature to the criteria.

3. To find the mappings which allow us to use

smaller dimensions, keeping the criteria at certain values." (Fukunaga, 1968, p. 1).

5.11a "The purpose of data analysis is to extract those features most valuable for discrimination

among the allowable characters; i.e., those features

which have consistent values over variations of a particular symbol, yet which have different values

for different symbols." (Groner, 1966, p. 592).

"The total number of features is not necessarily

the most critical consideration. The reliability with

which these shape features can be detected in all significant type fonts is much more important, and

will probably be the subject of much additional

work in the development of multifont and handwritten character readers." (Greanias, 1962, p. 145).

5.11b "The main purpose of feature-ordering is to provide, at successive observations, the feature

which is most 'informative' among all possible

choices of features, for the next observation." (Chen,

1966, p. 552).

"The importance of utilizing measurements of the

order of encountering points as one traverses the

branches of a pattern is especially pointed up by

the comparison of the results obtained with the

Highleyman data. . . . Closely associated with the

point-ordering feature is the use of topological data."

(Minneman, 1966, p. 95). 5.12 Some examples of stroke direction analysis

techniques are provided in Shepard's 1953 patent

for an "apparatus for reading". Bomba (1959)

used local operations to extract horizontal and

vertical lines, slanting lines at various angular dis- placements from the vertical, and selected orientations of F-, L-, and V-shaped line intersections.

Selfridge (1955) and Dineen (1955) were early

exponents of property filtering techniques to select

significant features such as edges and corners". In 1966, at the University of Naples, a pattern

perception study involves use of a curve analyzer

to detect maximum and minimum inflections and

the investigation of coding into a discrete number

of symbols of scanned line connections, corners, and other characteristic features. (Stevens, 1968,

p. 17). Rochester et al. (1959) claim with respect to the

"lakes" and "inlets" method that "the use of

mathematical topology is getting at the crux of

distinctive features . . . little attention is paid to the lines of the character as such, but the lines are only important insofar as they bound regions."

Further extensions of this technique are exemplified

by Kamentsky (1962), Schultz (1963), and Sublette

and Tuhs (1962).

5.13 "The main concept of the system is the use of a collection of programmable pointers, which

are visualized as a family of 'bugs' . . . the

PLACE statement initiates or sets up a bug by

assigning a name and initial coordinates to it . . . The MOVE statements move the bug a specified

distance (i.e., number of spots) in either the x or type y directions ... A series of statements . . . TEST the grey-level value of the picture at the

location of the bug ... A bug's grey-level may be

changed in statements that are particularly useful

for 'thick line' analysis are the STICKs. If a bug

wishes to walk along the middle of a 'thick Une',

105
these statements will readjust the bug location to the 'middle' ...

"Bugsys can be used for any types of applications

. . . (including the analysis of photomicrographs

of neuron dendrites and . . . processing of

Schlieren photographs taken for molecular weight,

determination when using ultracentrifuges."

(Ledley et al., 1966, pp. 79, 81-82.)

"The X- and y-coordinates of the curve arc measured by taking the distance between bugs AA

and origin for x and the distance between bugs AA

and BB for y." (Ledley et al., 1966, p. 83). 5.13a "The processing of pictorial information

contained in aerial photos has been considered in detail." ("Technische Hochscule. Karlsruhe,

Research on Pattern Recognition . . ., 1966,

abstract, p. 1). "A system development consists of special scan- ning and preprocessing devices for pictorial data

is going on. The scanner and preprocessor combines

analog and digital techniques. The scanner is realized as flying spot scanner. The scanning modes

are controlled by a computer Control Data CD

3300. The processor generates directions of contour

gradients, grey shades, contour coordinates and

other line elements." ("Technische Hochscule

Karlsruhe, Annual Report 1966", 1967, p. 52). "The Karlsruhe system for automatic photointerpretation is a scanning and preprocessing

system under computer control." (Kazmierczak

and Holdermann, 1968, p. 47). 5.13b "There are other methods currently in vogue in the field of character recognition for elimi- nating the effects of such distortions as stretching,

skewing, magnification, etc. Many of these may be

referred to as 'feature detection' methods, although

they variously go by the names: n-type detection,

zoned n-tuples, stroke detection, lakes and bays,

etc." (King and Tunis, 1966, p. 70). 5.14 The phraseology, "autocorrelation tech- niques for pattern recognition", is in a sense ambiguous and misleading. Target pattern identifica- tion operations in these techniques (whether applied

to printed character characters or to spoken

numerals or words) are as much dependent upon

cross-comparisons and cross-correlations of the

input pattern with the set of available reference (or

master) patterns as in other techniques. The point

is rather that, in the autocorrelation techniques, the

transformations performed upon the source pattern

to generate the input pattern or further to process

the input pattern depend upon autocorrelation functions of the source pattern as it is variously manipulated in order to extract those criterial features or properties that are to be used in the recognitiondecision process.

5.15 In particular, a multi-layer hierarchical sys- tem is currently under investigation that applies some of the original ideas of auto-correlation but no

longer integrates. Instead, both positive and negative copies of the input image are superimposed

and shifted in various directions and with special

screens to provide mappings that discriminate

criterial features. In the second level of operations,

coincidences are detected for relative dispositions

of the features in the characters making up the

alphabet. For example, "h", "u", and "n" will have

the same parallel-verticals feature, the possibility of "u" will be eliminated by the mapping for curves, and a long-ascender feature will show "h" rather

than "n", or, conversely, the negative of the longascender will detect "n".

It is to be noted that the input image may be a sequence of characters, such as a complete word of

text, with or without spacing between its characters.

Thus, prior segmentation is not required since in effect, the technique scans the text through a moving

aperture, and checks continuously for specific

groupings of local features that will identify the

characters, one by one. In this connection, simulation experiments have been run on computer for all possible pairs of 10 alphabetic characters with no

space between them, detecting 12 different local features in the first level of operations and 4 dif- ferent possible definitions for each character at the second level. While false recognitions occur

(e.g., two quantized "o" 's detected at one stage as an "x"), the results appear promising. Further re- search will apply threshold requirements with re- spect to clumps of the most probable character

values. Statistical data from tests to date is available

as to the extent by which recognition improves as spacing or segmentation is introduced. (See Stevens,

1968, pp. 6-7 and Clayden et al, 1966).

5.15a "Characters may be recognized in terms of

properties more abstract than geometrical features. For example, Giuliano, Jones, Kimball, Meyer and

Stein (1961) and Ah (1962) have obtained the higher

moments of patterns, blackness being analogous

to mass; and Horwitz and Shelton (1961) and Clowes

and Parks (1961) have used autocorrelation as a

first stage of automatic recognition. Generally

speaking, the output of the first (preprocessor)

stage is a set of numerical values. It is often found

expedient to multiply these values by weights in the decision process, and several methods for deter- mining suitable weights are now well known.

Statistical weighting was proposed by Selfridge

(1955) and implemented for example by Doyle

(1960) on results of fairly complicated geometrical

tests. Following Roberts (1960), Duda and Fossum

(1966) have experimented with a perceptron-type

systematic trial and error method for finding

weights, and also for finding more than one set of weights per character." (Ullmann, 1967, p. 256).

"Misregistration arises not only from the char- acters out of fine on the document, but also from

variations or instability in the doucument handling

and optical equipment. A general method of eliminating such effects is to make use of measurements

or transformations on the image which are invariant

with respect to displacement within an allowed

field. One such transformation which has been de- veloped by several workers is first order autocorrela106
tion. Its use with variations has been reported by

G. L. Shelton and L. P. Horwitz of IBM, and by

Clowes and Parks. Higher order autocorrelations

involving products of three or more displaced

images have also been studied." (Andrews, 1962,

p. 288).

5.15b "Since the [Laplacian] function is deter- ined by brightness derivatives rather than by bright- ness itself, it produces no output on large uniform

areas. In the presence of line boundaries or cor- ners, the output is high. Thus the function tends to outline objects and emphasize their contours." (Kanal and Randall, 1964, p. D2.5-4).

5.15c "Another application in which Hilbert

transform filtering can aid the sensitivity of a processing operation that follows is in signal detecttion by optical matched filtering. By performing an

operation on the input that is related to a differentiation, viz, a Hilbert transform, and the same trans- formation is made of the reference image or filter, then the matched filter performs, in effect, a derivative correlation. In this manner it is possible to achieve a high degree of correlation for a signal

and a reference filter, even though significant dif- ferences in the low frequency noise content of the

two may exist. There is the added advantage that,

at least in the ideal case, no loss in signal energy

is incurred as a result of the two transformation

operations." (Haagen, 1968, p. 9). 5.15d "Of late, considerable interest has centered on the generation of the Fourier Transform of

pictorial information, largely for the purpose of performing contrast enhancement and other types

of selective filtering. To this end a number of algorrithms have emerged — in particular, the 'fast Fourier Transform' — for producing digital ap- proximations to the Fourier Transform on a computer. All of these are, however, basically of an

Ij oflf-hne nature, since none of the algorithms is fast enough for real time apphcations, at least where

standard video frame rates are concerned." (Popji pelbaum and Faiman, 1968, p. 1).

I "This paper describes an approach for trans- forming the exterior boundary of a character into a unique one-dimensional waveform. This waveform

is neither sensitive to character orientation nor

affected by scale, and it offers exceptional possibilities for implementation into recognition schemes.

I; The waveform is expanded into Fourier series and

the coefficients of the series are used as descriptors

of the character. It is shown that certain recognition

techniques, employing these Fourier descriptors, can be developed which eliminate or significantly

reduce all the shortcomings mentioned above.

' "These recognition techniques were simulated

by discrete methods on a digital computer, proI ducing excellent results in recognition experiments

j with both machine-generated and hand-written

t characters. However, in practice, real time analog

systems are to be preferred over digital computations because, in general, they are faster and less

costly. The design of real-time optical or electrooptical systems to achieve the analog of the above

mathematical transformation poses challenging

problems." (Brill, 1968, p. 1). 5.16 "The number of optical readers presently

in use is estimated at 1,200 (200 being character

readers), with a steady increase foreseen." (Auerbach Corp., Source Data Automation, 1967, p. 2-106).

"There are currently nineteen different scanning

machines manufactured in the United States."

(Bus. Forms Int'l., Inc., 1967, p. 1). "There are five major competitors for a basic scanner business that is estimated at $100 miUion.

The companies are the Burroughs Corp., Farrington

Electronics, Inc., National Cash Register Co.,

Philco Corp., and the Rabinow Engineering Co."

(Kornberg, 1964, p. 116).

5.16a "At present, there are 14 manufacturers

in the business segment of the field, and a 15th,

Scan Data in Norristown, Pa., which is believed

to be staffed by ex-Philco-Ford personnel, is ex- pected to have a hardware announcement later

this year. In addition. Western Union is working on

character readers, but these developments are still in the laboratory stage." (Drattell, 1968, p. 38). 5.17 "Farrington Electronics, Inc. . . . Model

3030 Page Reader reads multi-Hned pages — as many as seventy lines per page." (Business Forms

International, Inc., 1967, p. 8.) "The Farrington Model 3030 is a machine that can read ledger or bond paper documents, or pages

up to legal size. Each line of information to be read

may contain up to 75 characters and spaces. Characters are read at the rate of 400 per second." (Busi- ness Forms International, Inc., 1967, p. 17.) "The Rome Air Development Center, Information

Processing Laboratory has the only page optical

scanning equipment which reads both upper and

lower case alphabetical letters, the numerals zero

to 9, and punctuation marks for a total of 70 characters. This Optical Character Recognition equipment [Farrington] has been in operation in testing

auxiliary research on lexical data handling for over two years." (Shiner, 1962, p. 335).

"And at Time, Inc., in Chicago, where two Far- rington page readers and one Farrington document

scanner are being used by the publishing company

as basic input on all subscriptions (including new,

change of address, payments), OCR is estimated to be 15 percent cheaper than other input sources."

(Drattell, 1968, p. 36). 5.18 "The Electronic Retina Computing Reader

presently is reading with a substitution or error rate of less than 1 error per 100,000 characters. To

achieve this degree of reliability with keypunching

would require 100% verification." (Perry, 1966,

p. 132).

"The system consists of: A rapid index page

carrier, an Electronic Retina and recognition unit, a Scientific Data system 910 computer, and two

Ampex magnetic tape stations which are compatible with RCA. Hard copy is fed into the system,

107
and the characters are read by the Electronic

Retina. This hard copy, prepared with special

typewriters developed for us by Olivetti, can be

editorial text matter, classified advertising set

solid, semi-display, display, legals, accounting

data, or any other alphanumeric information.

The Electronic Retina converts the typewritten

characters and spaces into predetermined electrical impulses which are stored on magnetic tape.

The magnetic tape, in turn, produces justified

paper tape to drive the linecasting machines —

either hot or cold type. Printed or typewritten

copy is read up to the rate of 2,400 cps (approximately 28,000 words per minute)." (Perry, 1967,

p. 86). Text corrections can be accommodated as fol- lows: "The typist then retypes the lines, or seg- ments of lines affected by the changes, using a new piece of copypaper as a correction sheet. The correction sheet then is fed into the Electronic Retina ahead of the original copy which

is to be corrected. The reader stores these cor- rections and its coded instructions concerning

them in its memory system. Then, as the regular

text comes in behind the correction sheet, the

Electronic Retina's computer determines whether

there is a correction in each line. If there is one, the Retina wipes out the original copy and accepts

the corrected line, or lines, inserting the revised

material until the correction. is completed." (Perry,

1966, pp. 130-131).

"Another Electronic Retina Computing Reader,

recently delivered to the Swedish Postal Bank

in Stockholm, automatically processes part of

the daily banking transactions for more than

500,000 account holders. Daily banking volume

averages one to one and one-half million transactions, but sometimes reaches two and one-half

million. The OCR system reads information

from original turnaround documents, formats it, converts it directly to magnetic or paper tape,

and prints out a list of specified information and

totals to each account holder. The system processes

900 to 1,200 documents per minute, depending

on their size and the number of lines read from

each. Previously, daily transactions were handled

manually for sorting, preparing totals, checking,

and booking on ledger cards." (Philipson, 1966,

p. 130).

Recognition Equipment, Inc.'s deliveries, be- ginning in 1964, now include use by a service

bureau agency, the Data Corporation of Los

Angeles (Business Automation 12, No. 6, 86 (1965).)

5.19 "The Philco General Purpose Print

Reader, which employs the flying spot principle,

is a multi-font reader which can be programmed

to read a variety of different type styles throughout

a fixed customer installation. A good potential

application would be an installation where there's a

variety of different typewriters involved, with

different fonts. This scanner wiU read up to 2000

characters per second and transmit this information directly from the document it has read onto magnetic tape units for later data processing

functions." (Janning, 1966, p. 114).

"We have a no-compromise machine that takes advantage of the matrix technique. . . . Our character display ... is a 680-element dis- play which we believe is currently the highest

resolution being offered in matrix type recognition

systems. It combines feature recognition and

template recognition. The machine has five common

type faces . . . five [more] come at slightly extra- cost options." (Gibbs and MacPhail, 1964, p. 96.)

"The General Purpose Reader recognizes all of the common business font styles in upper- and

lower-case alphanumeric, and symbols. Up to 10 fonts may be included in one machine." (Com- mun. ACM 8, 255 (1965).)

"Cards or documents on paper up to legal size (7^X13) may be read." (Commun. ACM 8, 255

(1965).)

Further, a New ERA Data Systems advertisement

in the October 1966 issue of Business Automation

said: "If you're an average reader you'll read this ad in just 34 seconds. Our Philco Reader read it —

and put every word directly onto magnetic tape in 0.6 sec."

5.20 "Another possible application ... of a page reader would be the ability to reduce proofreading. To take the original manuscript, read it into a type-composition system, through a page

reader, set the type, make galley proofs, and compare these through a page reader with the original

manuscript which was stored on discs or tape . . ." (Merz, 1964, p. 85). "Additional areas of applicability of automatic

character recognition techniques include the checking, verification, and proofreading of machine out- put, such as tables of numerical values, ballistic tables, code-book data, printed indexes, and biblio- graphical lists. The use of high-speed on-hne or

off-line printing of the results produced by computer generation and processing of such data

emphasizes the need for high speed verification processes to keep pace with output." (Stevens,

1961, p. 15). 5.21 "When a scanner for ordinary typing

becomes available at a reasonable price, the pages

of an author's manuscript can be fed directly into the scanner, without retyping for conversion to magnetic tape. Colored pencil marks can be made

at points where editing is desired." (Markus,

1965, p. 3). "The potential advantages of a page scanner are:

1. The input keying of the library surrogate can become decentralized. The elements of the

surrogate can be typed on a document

'traveler' and added by one station after another, the final station performing the

final editing on the surrogate." (Wishner,

1965, p. 240).

"One method of cost reduction that looks promising is the use of multiple remote scanning equip108
ment to feed a single recognition logic assembly.

Thus, if a user has only a small number of documents to be read, a simple device can scan the

documents, transmit this video information to a

central processor or to a magnetic tape recorder."

(Rabinow. 1966. p. 24). 5.22 . . The IBM 1975 Optical Page Reader

(which is installed at the Social Security Administration). The 1975, with a contour pattern recognition process controlled by an IBM/360 model 30, can recognize characters in more than 200 different type faces, and probably in wellblocked handprinting. Reading 650 lines a minute from a standard

Social Security form, it can read and record in eight

hours what a keypunch operator can produce in 100 days." (Yan Dam and Michener, 1967, p. 189).

"The Page Reader system processes the employee

earnings at a rate equal to 120 to 150 keypunch

operators with an equivalent or better error rate." (Hennis, 1967, p. 2.) [IBM 1975 Optical Page Reader]. "New tech- niques in video processing such as contrast control,

dynamic video thresholding and data reduction

circuits have been added to minimize the usual

difficulty in recognizing seriously degraded forms

and printing." (Commun. ACM 9, No. 9, 706 (Sept.

1966).)

"The 1975 Model 3 Optical Page Reader has

an effective speed of 64,80() input lines per hour . . . Approximately 50 per cent of the total load is suitable for scanning. The scanjier will be able

to do the work of approximately 200 key punch

operators in approximately 2,000 manhours and

relieve computers used to convert cards to magnetic tape of about 885 hours of work per year. . . . "Rough calculations indicate that from 35 to 40 key punch positions would have to be displaced

^1 if the necessary capital investment [^$800,000]

j is to be written off over 5 years." (Lannon, 1967,

[ p. 50). 5.23 "A peephole template matching technique

developed by General Precision's Link Group

employs a mask or template in which only a rela- tively small number of selected sub-areas of the

image field are used as apertures for matching . . . A laboratory page reader having a vocabulary of four type fonts has been successfully demonstrated." (Maass, 1965, pp. 18-23).

"Link Division, G.P.I., for several years, has been

actively engaged in programs directed towards the

development of advanced optical character recognition techniques . . . Several reading techniques

have been investigated; however, the most successful one uses an electronic peephole matching principal in which only selected sub-areas of the image

field are used as apertures for matching. The method

allows complete disregard for serifs and other typographic and stylistic embellishments . . ."(Greenly,

1966, p. 3.) "Each character is scanned by a column of photodetectors and converted into a digital waveform from

which selected portions are matched against a

reference vocabulary, the recognition criteria being

the least value of the time integrals of the total number of absolute differences between the incoming video and stored descriptions of each character

in the vocabulary." (Greenly, 1966, p. 3.) "The addition of two fonts ... to the Link Page

Reader required minor modifications . . . The

system had previously been designed to read two

type fonts one of which consisted of 55 characters

while the second included 19 characters. The

memory for each of these fonts and for each of the

fonts investigated under the subject [RADC] pro- gram is operator selectable." (Greenly, 1966, p. 4). 5.24 "Sylvania is now developing an extremely

versatile page reader capable of reading up to 30 typefaces, where the size of each one may

range from 6 to 36 points, at speeds above 1000

characters per second, on pages of complex format

such as those found in technical books and journals.

"Early in 1961 a decision was made to build a

feasibility model of a general-purpose page reader

with the aim of proving the practiciability of certain newly devised techniques for character

recognition. The initial design goal was to attain maximum versatility. This led to the following

specific requirements for this machine: Speed —

a

reading speed of at least 1,000 characters and

preferably higher; Type Fonts — the machine

must read characters independently of size within

broad limits, and must have a capacity for at least 30 distinct type styles; Optics — the machine

should read the original paper document, not a photographic negative; Accuracy — the undetected

error and reject rates should be as low as possible;

Flexibility — the machine must use a control and

scan technique capable of being programmed

to read pages with complex formats, such as those

encountered in translation and information re- trieval applications. This class of applications is characterized by a wide variety of printing and

formats, and relatively high quality. The tech- niques also show promise of being suited to lower

quality print such as typewriting.

"Design and construction of a reader with most

of these properties is complete, and feasibility of the above goals has been demonstrated. Further

testing and design improvements are now being

made." (Gray, 1963, p. 85). 5.25 Rabinow demonstrated this machine at Interdata 65, see also Business Automation 12, No.

7, 44 (1965): "Control Data Corp., has introduced

the 915 Page Reader which reads information pre- pared on a typewriter equipped with American

Standard Assn. optical character reading font . . . can handle documents from 4 to 12 in. wide, 2? to 14 in. long, and continuous fanfold sheets." (Bus.

Automation 12, No. 7, 44 (1965).)

5.26 "Multifont Optical Unit Reads 2000 Characters per Second. Tokyo Shibaura (Toshiba) Electric Co. has developed a high-speed multifont opti- cal character reader capable of reading 2000

characters per second and 1200 lines per minute.

109
"Developed by Toshiba central research laboratory, the device's character-recognition logic needs

no adjustment to read as many as six of the widely

used numerical fonts. "A spokesman said the characters are recognized

by their features, rather than by stroke, thickness

or position.

"He said the new OCR can be used with journal

tapes produced by comparatively inexpensive

printers. Another OCR, which that can also rec- onize hand-written numbers, is under development

at the Toshiba laboratory.

"Characters that can be handled by the Toshiba

OCR are ISO-A, ISO-B, IBM, NCR, Farrington

12F, Toshiba Stylized Font and others (optional).

"Main components of the new OCR are a paperfeeding mechanism, a photoelectric scanning device

and a recognition logic.

"The width of journal tapes that can be fed into the unit can vary from 56 to 100mm. Line pitch is T inch or more per line. Character pitch is 10"." (Electronic News, 7/10/67).

5.27 "One large user — the Social Security

Admin. — maintains that its custom-made OCR

system, an IBM 1975, will do the work of 120 to 140 keypunch operators, but the agency says that no one will lose his job. The operators will be re- assigned to other recordkeeping operations." (Drattell, 1968, pp. 35-36).

5.28 "The U.S. Post Office in Detroh, Michigan,

has completed the initial testing of a pilot-model

OCR mail sorter developed by Philco-Ford. First

test results show that 15% of total mails can be

optically read at present, with a 45% figure antici- pated in the near future." (Feidelman and Katz,

1967, p. 0210:16).

5.29 "Since there are a wide variety of font types

in existence, multi-font readers have been developed

(up to 128 fonts). These depend however on manual

modification of plugboards to accommodate dif- ferent styles with the result that mixing of documents, containing different fonts, is not possible . . . and will be possible in the future, if automatic sens- ing is developed, only at great expense." (Auerbach

Corp., Source Data Automation, 1967, p. 2-10 to 2-11).

"The manual method, consisting of altering

the recognition logic by manual replacement of such machine parts as plugboards and optical

masks, is low in cost but inadequate for reading

a stack of documents in which the character

fonts are mixed." [As also on a typical journal

page]. (Auerbach Corp., Source Data Automation,

1967, pp. 3-103).

5.30 "Today's optical readers will take selected

type fonts; some very sophisticated versions will take several type fonts. None, however, will take

the number of type fonts found in a scientific journal, nor will any handle the number of type

fonts found in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Due

to the rapid increase in computer technology in the publishing industry, more and more textual

materials are becoming available in the form of computer-readable tapes. We have recently

discovered though that having materials computerreadable is not the entire answer — it is still necessary to write programs that bring this material

into the form that we desire. This is no trivial task." (Simmons, 1965, p. 220). 5.31 "The most flexible method is to include

a stored-program controller as part of the OCR

system. This permits dynamic format changes

based on the information being read and makes

convenience to the human user the primary consideration in forms design and data preparation. . . . (Philipson, 1966, p. 128.)

"With recent OCR use of programmed controllers the use of variable format is suggested

since the machine is much more efficient in for- matting than the human." (Auerbach Corp.,

Source Data Automation, 1967, pp. 2-17).

"The Farrington Page Reader, Model 3030, . . . has a programming repertoire of some 66 instructions." (Feldman and Katz, 1967, p. 0210:03).

"Others who have done significant work on programmable scanning and pattern recognition

are the Link Group of General Precision, Inc., Scope, Inc., The Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories,

and the Stanford Research Institute." (Hustvedt,

1967, p. 7). "The Programmed Controller [SDS-910 computer] enables the Electronic Retina Character

Reader to perform context editing functions,

control document sorting operations, and effect other logical operations such as justification and

word hyphenation for automatic typesetting

operations." (LeBrun, 1963, p. 150). 5.32 Cf., for example, the following opinions

or recommendations: "Such 'auto-encoding'

processes would have to be based on considerable

insight into the physical properties and make-up

of documents." (Luhn, 1958, p. 211.)

"The U.S. Government is sponsoring investi- gations into the feasibility of recognizing the

formats of intermixed inputs from several technical

journals. This research is directed toward pro- ducing a system which can recognize the format

and then read and assemble the information for

later computer processing." (Stevens, 1965).

5.33 "Amongst the difficulties encountered

in the processing of machine readable texts, in- consistencies in the use of punctuation marks,

compounds, capitals, spacing and indentations have

been a problem way out of proportion with respect

to the simple functions these devices stand for. For instance, even with the aid of a dozen dif- ferent tests performed by the machine, the true end of a sentence cannot be determined with

certainty. It is hoped that publishers of scientific literature will in time sacrifice some of the niceties

and aesthetic aspects of the printed page for the

sake of clarity in communication." (Luhn, 1955,

p. 22). 110
5.33a "Two main types of degradation are encountered, misplaced characters and unclear

or smeared characters. The causes are threefold: mechanical, human, and accidental. Mechanically, for example, typewriter ribbons wear, leaving

light or smeared impressions. Soft paper leaves

fuzzy-edge characters. Pinion wear and jammed

keys cause tilt or skew in the typed symbol. Human

mistakes typically cause misregistration, misalignments and palimpsests (where two characters are superimposed, one only partially erased), and

smears. Accidents account for overlays of foreign

material, ranging from grease to egg foo yong,"

(Frank. 1964. p. 2. reprint).

5.34 "For optimum reader performance, print

quality is by far the most critical document property.

Since quality control of printing cannot be done on

a 100% inspection basis, the procedure that is used must be able to maintain adequate perform- ance of the system with only periodic checks of

critical items. Certain conditions, such as proper

selection, and quality control of ribbons and paper, can be handled on a routine basis. Other conditions,

such as end-of-ribbon life and the need for printer

readjustments must be detected by inspection of

the printed characters. Experience has shown that optimum performance can be achieved in the

reader with a reasonable printer control effort,

if the character stroke width is maintained between

10 mils and 18 mils. Characters with stroke widths

that range beyond these limits also can be recog- nized currently. But the probaTjility that unacceptable characters will occur increases beyond

the level for optimum performance when more

than 25% of the stroke width of the inspected character ranges down to 8 mils or up to 23 mils."

(Greanias, 1962, pp. 143-144).

"The essential requirements for optical character

recognition are paper handling techniques, positive control of random formats, automatic error correction, system reliability and accuracy, and economical

equipment." (Shiner, 1962, p. 335). 5.35 "Paper feeders, format controls, information buffers and output devices make a practical

reading machine cost many times the cost of the

recognition logic itself." (Rabinow, 1966, p. 18.) "The factor limiting present OCR speed is paper

handling. Speed of paper handling can be increased

by multiple scanning of documents, or by multiplexing the input. One solution is to overlap the

functions of reading and transporting documents.

A Philco reader under development uses a vidicon scanner that deposits an image of the entire document on a CRT and then scans the CRT surface

while the next document is moved into position.

Another method of increasing speed is selective

scanning (scanning only the necessary parts of the

document) with variable-format readers, like the

Philco General Purpose Print Reader. The complex

paper-handling mechanisms are also very expensive:

it was stated at the 1966 IEEE Pattern Recognition

Workshop that the reading equipment of a typical

OCR is only one-quarter of the total cost, and that

the other three-quarters is for paper movers, format

control, and other handhng mechanisms." (Van

Dam and Michener, 1967, p. 190).

5.36 "Measurements of print characteristics

such as stroke width variation, edge irregularity,

voids, extraneous ink, paper to ink optical reflectivity, etc., are commonly used techniques for specifying acceptable tolerances of printed text. . . . "[The high-resolution optical] scanner used in this study was designed and constructed . . . and has

been used by G.E. for various pattern recognition

studies which require high resolution. . . . "One of the most appealing approaches from a theoretical viewpoint would be to classify print

quality in terms of print noise statistics. For simple

noise statistics, such as independent additive, gaussian noise, this approach can be realized. It is also possible to design optimum recognition logic and

predict the adverse effects of this type of print noise on machine performance. For practical situations,

however, such simplified assumptions for print noise

statistics are inadequate . . ." (Vitale, 1965, pp. 1, 17,28.)

5.37 "Ink Smudge — In OCR, the displacement

of ink under shear beyond the original edges

of a printed character." (Unpublished definition,

American Standards Association, X3 Committee

on Computers and Information Processing).

"Ink Squeezeout — In OCR, the displacement

of ink from the center to the edges of a character

during printing resulting in a character with

'darker' outlines than the center." (Unpublished

definition, American Standards Association,

X3 Committee on Computers and Information

Processing).

"Ink Bleed — In OCR, the capillary flow of ink

beyond the original edges of a printed character."

(Unpublished definition, American Standards

Association, X3 Committee on Computers and

Information Processing).

5.38 "Light Stability — In OCR, the resistance

to change of color of the image when exposed

to radiant energy." (Unpublished definition,

American Standards Association, X3 Committee

on Computers and Information Processing).

5.39 "The Kidder [Press Company, Inc.]

Model 081 Optical Character Tester was designed

to check the print quality of documents for optical

scanning and can be used for analytic measurements

or for routine inspection. Physical measurements

are made on a large viewing screen on which

a magnified image is displayed. Reflectance

measurements, in two spectral ranges, are made

on a meter giving readings in print contrast signal

directly and also in percent reflectance . . ." (Business Forms International, Inc., 1967, p. 33.)

5.40 "Designed to check that printed characters

are of sufficient quality to be read by machines,

the Optical Print Quality Monitor can measure

paper whiteners and blemishes, and the dimensions,

density and quality of print characters against

parameters set up beforehand." (The British

Computer Society, 1967, p. 126).

Ill
"Equipment for monitoring OCR characters

also provides a CRT display, in this case of the

magnified outline of a character as 'seen' by

a 0.2 mm scanning spot. The observed density

gradient at a stroke boundary and the severity

of voids or of extraneous inked areas are obviously

functions of scanning spot size and thus Monitor

and Reader should have comparable optical

characteristics. The displayed boundary can be

selected for any brightness level between the

white of magnesium oxide and absolute black.

Fig. 14 illustrates the effect of varying this level from 0.51 to 0.70 on the PCS scale where white

paper gives 0 and absolute black gives 1.00." (The British Computer Society, "Character

Recognition 1967", p. 22.) 5.41 ". . . Handling of paper can result in curl

of the sheet, creasing, local distortions through

uptake of moisture, and discolouration and scuffing

of the printed characters; none of these effects can be dealt with very specifically. The best way to minimize the effects of handling would be to select a fairly stiff, smooth, not too glossy paper, of good

dimensional stability and with high tear strength."

(The British Computer Society, 1967, p. 22). In

particular, "tear resistance is relevant to general

handling and may be an important consideration

for the preparation of documents on line printers,

in which circumstances the direction of the grain

of the paper may be in conflict with the direction

desirable from the standpoint of the paper transport

of the reading device. The choice of the optimum

combination of characteristics must be a matter

of selection according to the particular application."

(Ibid, p. 33). 5.42 "The inclusion in the body of the paper of

material to which the reading device is sensitive

is to be avoided as much as extraneous ink ... In OCR appHcations this takes the form of specified

maximum dirt count . . . Fluorescent additives

are sometimes used as brighteners for paper but

should be avoided for OCR use as they may have a

significant effect upon the reflectivity of the paper. Water marks deserve special attention because

they may offend both against the requirements for a flat surface and for minimum opacity and are

better avoided at least in the clear band." (The

British Computer Society, 1967, p. 33). 5.43 "Minimum line spacing must be sufficient

to allow adequate separation between the highest

character boundary in a line and the lowest character

boundary in the line above, in addition to the height

of the character itself. The width of the clear band

specified is commonly as large as 5/8" (16 mm.) . . . The permissible character skew may be as little as H degrees and the vertical misalignment as

little as 0.007 inch." (The British Computer Society, 1967, p. 30). 5.44 "Noise in the character field is dependent

on the character . . . Noise is not scattered about

in the character field in a random, equally probable manner. The spatial distribution of noise resembles

the character printed on the field." (Ufifelman et al., 1967, p. 42.)

"The spatial distributions of additive ink-noise

about character strokes have been determined.

Ink noise has been shown to be stroke-related, hence

character dependent." (Ufifelman et al., 1967, p. 63.)

5.44a "The functional value of available readers

has been another important factor in the growth

of optical character recognition. Like any other

commodity, the value of character recognition must

be measured by comparing its cost to that of per- forming equivalent functions by other means. The

actual cost of reading is not always the controlling

economic factor. Sometimes the value of associated

editing and classifying that must be done manually

may offset the potential savings of faster and

cheaper reading by machine. In other applications,

the reduced document preparation cost that can

be realized by printing machine readable documents on a single pass through an accounting

machine or computer is enough to tip the balance

in favor of machine reading." (Greanias, 1962,

p. 130).

5.44b "The desirable features of O.C.R. as 1 see them are as follows.

(1) Economically to replace key-punch operators

from the point of view of:

(a) Cost of salaries and cost of equipment.

(b) Cost of space and the amount of space

occupied.

(c) Burden of administration and supervision

of staff of large punched card sections. (It has been estimated, however, that when

our centralization is complete on all computer appHcations (not just Billing), we will

still require 85 operators even with O.C.R.

equipment.)

(2) To increase the accuracy of data fed to the

computer, since there is less chance of copying or punching errors.

(3) To reduce the time to prepare and read data

into the computer in order to avoid punching

bottlenecks, and to lessen the elapsed time

required to produce the final printed output —

e.g., bills and meter reading slips — so as to have more chance of giving a 24 hour service

to consumers.

(4) To be able to use the same type fount as will be used for the rest of the document, and a fount which will be acceptable to consumers.

(5) To have a high rate of correctly reading the

characters and marks, and also a low rate of

machine breakdown.

(6) Not to increase significantly the cost of the

stationery.

(7) Not to increase significantly the operator effort on the printer or the maintenance attention on

the printer, and to not reduce the speed of

printing." (Paine, 1966, p. 221).

5.45 Figure 14 illustrates the proposed DickinsonWheeler embellishments.

112
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5.46 One type of application is shown in Figure

15.5.46a For example, "in the production of script

to be identified three constraints are placed on the

writer. First, he is asked to observe a base-line and

a guide line above it. The second constraint is that no capitals are used. Finally, the writer is asked to be careful and legible in his script; we seek to identify reasonably good writing before considering

scrawl and scribble." (Harmon, 1962, p. 151).

5.46b "It is obvious that the use of controlled or constrained writing may hamper the writer in at least two ways: 1) he might not write as fast as he

could have, had he not been using a controlled writ- ing system: 2) the writer may not be able to adhere

to the control." (Kamentsky, 1961, p. 491). 5.47 An example of the use of this method in close conjunction with suitable constraints on the

formation and placement of handwritten numeric

digits was demonstrated at the Eastern Joint

Computer Conference held in Washington in 1957. Dimond of the Bell Telephone Laboratories reported

at this Conference on a successful method for the

automatic reading-recognition of numeric digits

handwritten by telephone toll switchboard operators

in the Bell System who produce in the aggregate some two billion toU tickets, with 20 to 30 characters

each, per year. This automatic reading may be

accomplished by either direct, by-product, machinelanguage data generation through use of a stylus

in combination with a special recording device,

or by subsequent machine recognition of characters

recorded on paper in accordance with preprinted

guides.

The stylus-recording-inscription device is simple

in operational principle, easy to use, and portable.

This device has been tentatively termed a "Stylator", and its basic principles are as follows: "A writing surface is provided on which there

are two guide dots surrounded by a set of criterial areas consisting of seven conductors embedded

in a plastic plate. As a numeral is written with a

stylus connected to a source of potential, the

stylus energizes, one at a time, the conductors

in the criterial areas involved in the numeral.

The combination of areas energized causes certain flip-flops in a translator to operate and drive

the rest of the translator to indicate the correct numeral." (Dimond, 1957, p. 236). In other words, the conductors marking the

significant areas serve as vectors which, if crossed

by the stylus as the numeric digit is written, will,

in accordance with specific vector-crossing patterns, serve to identify the digit that was written. In the

Bell Stylator device, the sequence in which the

stylus crosses various vectors as the characters

are produced is important for recognition purposes.

An independent invention was disclosed in the

Johnson patent, assigned to IBM, which provides

for the use of two centering dots and of radial areas extending from these dots for the sensing of

conduction of the marks or crossings constituting

the numeral written. Figure 16 is a reproduction

of two cards processed in an experimental reader,

based on this principle, demonstrated at the

Western Joint Computer Conference of 1961. Figure 16(b) represents source patterns correctly

read and recognized. In Figure 16(a), however, there

is a nonrecognition of the fourth handwritten digit,

because that digit, "6". was not properly formed in accordance with the system constraints. Provided

that the required vector crossing pattern is not

violated, however, considerable variation in the exact shape of the handdrawn digits can be

tolerated. 5.48 "H. C. Vernon and R. R. Walsh were

granted a patent on a character recognition method

and apparatus which attempts to perform recognition on constrained characters. The character

is scanned by a flying spot scanner in three seg- ments. Each segment is oriented so that its long

dimension is vertical. The scanning within each

segment proceeds bottom to top in a television raster fashion with the retrace occurring between

segments. The three scans are assumed to be

non-overlapping.

"Several methods for constraining the handwritten characters are suggested, among them a six dot

constraint and a 'forbidden area' constraint.

A variation of this system is also described in which the rasters are oriented horizontally one above the other. Truth tables are constructed

showing the results of these scans on representative

characters.

"Registration is accomplished by a separate detector and logic system. The characters are assumed

to be constrained within a rectangular marked

area which is detected as a separate operation

by a set of horizontal and vertical registration

detectors. Once registration has been established

the registration logic gives way to the recognition

scheme." (Stein, 1965, misc. notes).

5.48a For example, "handwriting can be

separated into x, y component waveforms for dynamic analysis or transmission using the analog

or digital versions of stylus position." (Rose, 1965,

p. 639).

5.49 "Groner reports some interesting work

in handwriting recognition for real-time computer input. The system involves the use of a RAND tablet and a fountain-pen-like device

together with a CRT display. The recognition

scheme used is surprisingly simple, yet rather

successful, and a number of editing features are included to permit the user to make corrections

quickly. This reviewer, who had an opportunity

to use the system for a few moments, found the use of a "scribble" character as the rubout com- mand delightfully natural, although some other

results of this short trial were not as satisfactory.

Some much more meaningful test results are described in the article. An indication that recognition of handwritten characters has perhaps

115
IBM EXPERIMENTAL CONSTRAINED H ANDLETTERING READER

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LETTER NUMBERS AS SHOWN ABOVE.

PUNCHED HOLES TO THE RIGHT OF NUMBERS INDICATES NUMBER RECOGNIZED.

USE ANY SOFT LEAD PENCIL.

IBM

00000

i> 1 1

2

3

4

5

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7

8 8 8 8

9 9* 9 9

EXPERIMENTAL CONSTRAINED H ANDLETTERING READER

LETTER NUMBERS AS SHOWN ABOVE.

PUNCHED HOLES TO THE RIGHT OF NUMBERS INDICATES NUMBER RECOGNIZED.

USE ANY SOFT LEAD PENCIL.

Figure 16. Handwritten numerals, vector crossing technique.

not quite 'arrived' commercially is a short newproduct announcement on a commercial device

capable of reading the ten digits and five alphanumeric characters; the purchase price is quoted

as $162,000!" (Mills, 1967, p. 233.)

"The scheme responds very quickly even though

it recognizes a fairly large set of symbols. Moreover,

it imposes few constraints on style, speed, or position of writing. It makes use of contextual

information to distinguish symbols which cannot

be distinguished by shape alone. This scheme

has been used daily at The RAND Corporation

for using computer code, drawing flow charts,

and editing. The symbol recognition scheme

is written in IBM System/360 Assembly Language

and runs on an IBM System/360 Model 40." (Groner,

1966, p. 591).

5.50 "A patent was issued to H. B. Crane on a device which is hand held and which can be

used as input for the recognition of hand-written

numerals or characters as they are written. The

device consists of a series of contacts surrounding

a stylus. As the hand is moved in the writing of

characters, the contacts are made in a sequence

which is peculiar to the character being written.

An analysis of the sequence and duration of contact

closures then reveals the identity of the unknown

character." (Stein, 1965, misc. notes). 5.51 "A patent has been issued to L. D. Harmon I j on a device for automatic reading of cursive script, j As an operator writes the word in question, his ; stylus moves across a writing platen. The surface , is made of electrically conducting strips arranged ^ horizontally. Features are extracted as the stylus ji

116
is moved. These may include loops, parts of characters extending above or below certain horizontal

strips, etc. The horizontal reference of the logic

is controlled by the stepping of a time commutator

which is stepped by every crossing of the stylus over the zero axis line. Thus differences in the hori- zontal direction are normalized." (Stein, 1965,

misc. notes). 5.52 "An 'electronic drafting board' constructed at M.I.T. has been described by L. G. Roberts. X-Y coordinate information is produced

in real-time for direct input to the computer by moving a stylus consisting of a pin and a set of coils across a 20 X 20 inch sheet of paper laid over a

specially wired base. The base is cross-wired in two

directions and selectively wound in and out of pulse

transformer cores to provide coded drive current. As the stylus is moved over the wires, the currents

that are picked up provide coordinate information

for the computer by means of the code selected by

the wired cores. Approximately 100 machine in- structions are sufficient to identify a character from

a list of characters that the particular user has

previously drawn." (Stein, 1965, misc. notes).

"Earnest has developed a set of simple tests on

the strokes in a word which enables a computer to pick likely words from a dictionary. Presently

these tests are to count the closed loops, the tails above and below the small letters, and the axis

crossings at the center of the word." (Roberts,

1962, p. 210).

"For separated letters, Teager estimates that 100

machine instructions are sufficient to identify a character from a list of characters that the user

has previously drawn." (Roberts, 1962, p. 211).

5.52a "The character recognizer included in SHAPESHIFTER was written by Kenneth Ledeen

at Harvard University. With a training program the user teaches the computer his own handwriting;

this information is punched on paper tape and is read into SHAPESHIFTER at run time. In effect each user has a version of the character recognizer

tailored to his own writing style. . . . The recognizer

must supply five pieces of information: the name of

the character and its four descriptive coordinates,

the X minimum, x maximum, y minimum, and y maximum of the area where it was written on the tablet. "After a character has been printed and recognized, a canonical form of the character, in the same

form and of the same dimensions as the printed

character, replaces the 'ink' on the scope. This

both 'neatens' the display and tells the user how

the written character was interpreted." (Lewis,

1968, p. 721).

5.52b "The major software component of the

system is the Q-32 Time-Sharing System (TSS).

TSS currently serves in excess of 30 users at one

time with a limitation of 47K words as the maximum

program size. To support the terminal, we have

prototype versions of a handprinted-character rec- ognizer, an editor, and an expression analyzer, all of which operate under TSS.

"The character recognizer is in the final stages

of development. It uses a character dictionary built for each individual user, and can recognize alphabets in excess of 80 characters. The editor permits

characters to be erased or written over; entire ex- pressions may also be deleted. The analyzer is a

part of the PLANIT course-writing and computerassisted instruction system. It will compute the

value of an expression written in ordinary mathematical notation. Figures 3 and 4 show some of the

input forms and resultant displayed output. The

parsing algorithm and allowable notation are stiU quite limited, but we are working on more sophisticated parsing and editing facilities that will allow

the user the same freedom of expression he has

using a blackboard or a pencil and paper." (Bernstein and Williams, 1968, pp. 28-29). 5.53 "As customers make purchases at Higbee's,

sales clerks write pertinent information on specially

designed IBM card sales checks . . . This handwritten information indicates the quantity, department number, merchandise number, and amount

of the transaction." (Greanias, 1965, p. 62.)

5.54 "IBM MACHINE READS HANDWRITTEN NUMBERS. A machine that reads handwritten

numbers is IBM's latest offering. The IBM 1287

optical reader can recognize numbers and five different handprinted alphabetic characters pencilwritten on a wide variety of business documents.

The first with this capability to be offered commercially, it feeds this information directly into a computer for processing.

"There are two models of the 1287. Model I reads

hand-pencilled, printed, imprinted and pencilmarked cut-form documents. Model II reads printed

cash register and adding machine journal roUs in addition to cut-form documents. The 1287 is de- signed to be used with System/360 Model 30, 40

or 50. "Both 1287 models wiU be available during the

first quarter of 1968. Monthly rental of the 1287

model I begins at $3,600; purchase price begins at $162,000. Monthly rental of the 1287 model II begins

at $4,000; purchase price begins at $180,000."

(Commun. ACM 9, No. 11, 829 (Nov. 1966).)

"Only two OCRs capable of reading handprinted

data have been announced. IBM recently released

the 1287, which reads handprinted numbers and

five letters but imposes strict constraints on the

printing. The computer-controlled 1287 can read

300 machine-printed numbers a second, but slows

down when reading handprinted numbers. An inter- esting error-checking mechanism in the 1287 causes any machine-unrecognizable character to be dis- played on a CRT for the operator to recognize, rather

than immediately rejecting the document. [This same feature is discussed as it applies to film scan- ning in Michael's forum and by Gott.]The 1287 costs $180,000 and rents for $4000 a month." (Van Dam

and Michener, 1967, pp. 189-190.)

"Both International Business Machines Corporation and Recognition Equipment Incorporated

117
announced late in 1966 that they had developed

equipment capable of reading hand-printed or handpencilled characters." (Business Forms International, Inc., 1967, p. 5.) 5.55 "Recognition Equipment announced in late 1966 that it had developed a scanner that reads hand-printed characters intermixed with

typed or printed characters in a variety of different,

standard type styles at the rate of 2000 characters

per second and processes documents containing

this information at rates up to 1200 per minute.

The system can be supplied with the abiHty to recognize a variety of hand-printed character

shapes tailored to the individual user's specific

requirements." (Business Forms International,

Inc., 1967, p. 29.) "Recognition Equipment, Inc. (Dallas, Texas) have announced a new module

for its Electronic Retinal Computing Reader which

enables the automatic recognition of handprinted

letters and numbers with a claimed speed and reliability previously possible only when reading

machine-printed information. The module, which

can have a vocabulary of up to 40 alphanumerics,

permits a considerable variation in characters

and reportedly provides computer input that is 200 to 300 times as accurate as that provided by

unverified keypunching." (Composition Information

Services Newsletter, Oct. 1, 1967, p. 3). 5.56 "Information International Incorporated

. . . has a system known as Programmable Film

Reader-3 which performs a variety of pattern recognition tasks controlled by computer program.

Included in its capability is character recognition

of a large number of type fonts and hand drawn

characters. Scanning is done by a programmed

flying spot. Recognition is done by a variety of means: matrix matching, feature analysis, curve

tracing and others. The recognition logic can be

updated on the basis of experience, and it will purge itself of statistically insignificant erroneous

entries." (Hustvedt, 1967, p. 7). 5.57 "Several manufacturers, including IBM,

Philco, REI, CDC, and III, have scanners which

can do fairly well at reading carefully hand drawn

numbers, but at rates considerably slower than for typed material; some also read upper case letters. None holds out any current hope of reading script."

(Hustvedt, 1967, p. 2). "Philco-Ford has several developments. The

company has been testing a hand-print unit that reads alphanumerics at Educational Testing Service

in Princeton, N.J., a not-for-profit company that,

among other things, administers and scores college

board exams. In addition, Philco-Ford will deliver next December an optical film reader that reads

photographic film. The system will be installed at Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. in San Francisco, where it will read photographic film of trunk

line registers. It is believed to be the first successful

marriage of microfilm and optical scanning capabilities." (Drattell, 1968, p. 54).

5.58 "A character reader which reads handprinted and machine-printed figures (on the same

line, if desired), characters, and symbols, converting

the data for magnetic tape has been introduced

by Optical Scanning Corp., called the OpScan

288 . . ." (Data Proc. Mag. 9, No. 6, 72(1967).)

"New System Reads Hand-Printed Characters

as Data for Direct Input to Computers. A new

optical character scanning system which reads

both hand- and machine-printed characters and

transfers the data directly to magnetic tape for input to computers has been developed by Optical

Scanning Corporation, Newtown, Pa. . . . "The system is free-standing and operates ofQine.

The basic price is $98,088, or a customer may

rent one for a monthly fee of |1,988. . . . "OpScan 288 reads at a rate of about 600 one-line

documents a minute. The unit can distinguish

10 digits, six letters, and the signs for plus and

minus. As many as 25 hand-printed or 80 machineprinted characters can be accommodated on a

single scanning line. Both hand-printed and

machine-printed characters can be placed on the same scanning line. . . . "OpScan 288 accepts documents of from

2-1/2" X 3-1/2" to 4-1/2" X 8-1/2". The documents

can be on paper ranging from 20-pound to tabulatingcard stock. . . . "OpScan 288 is compatible with all major

computer series." (Commun. ACM 11, No. 5, 386, May 1968).

The OpScan 288 allows the 10 numerals, the

letters C, N, S, T, X, Z, and plus and minus signs

either machine printed or constrained handprinted.

(See Fig. 17.) 5.59 "We have plans to use constrained

hand-printing whereby the hand-printing is placed

in individual character boxes." (Brick, 1964, p. 87.) 5.60 "We have work going on in our development labs on reading handwritten material."

(Huntley, 1964, p. 95.)

"Other new products are on the horizon including

a unit from Farrington to read hand-printed numeric

characters. The machine, to be announced shortly,

wiU join hand-printed numeric character recognition systems now marketed by IBM and REI.

The latter will install a hand-printing reader

module for its Electronic Retina Computing Reader

in July. The device reads ordinary hand-printed

letters and numbers at speeds up to 1,200 documents per minute." (Drattell, 1968, p. 54). 5.60a "As a basis for the subsequent stroke

analysis, we decided that our elementary decisions

should supply information on the orientation of the stroke in each elementary area in which it has been

detected. This led us to a system yielding ... a vector field, obtained by a detection process carried out on the raw, unquantized video signal.

"Such a field can be obtained from a set of space

filters matched to the various possible orientations

of the character strokes. Each time that the scan- ning pattern sweeps across a stroke, that filter

118
OpScan sea DEMONSTRATION FORM

Linig3M5b7fl'^E3M5b7fli

Optical Scanning Corporation

Ds 4916-2 © 1968 OPTICAL ScANMNo CORPORATION g, V P-O- BOX 40 NEWTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA 18940

Figure 17. OpScan document.

which is matched to the corresponding stroke

orientation should give an output exceeding a certain

decision threshold; the other filters should remain

silent. . . . "A suitable measurement for this purpose is the measurement of the ink-density gradient, a

vector perpendicular to the edge of the character

stroke . . . This gradient is quantized in direction

to ±22.5°, and after the decision threshold, it is normalized in amplitude. The input pattern is thus

a set of unit vectors corresponding to the (directionally quantized) orientations of the detected

character strokes." (Nadler, 1963, p. 815).

"The model also read (carefully drawn) handwritten numerals, along with the three design

fonts." (Nadler, 1963, pp. 815, 821).

"Since we are looking for the boundary between

the area which 'belongs' to the character and the

'outside', it appeared natural to us to seek a measurement system which would give us this boundary

directly, rather than to attempt to deduce it from

the usual type of OCR measurement (the generation of a rectangular matrix containing merely

information on positions presumed 'black' and

positions presumed 'white'). We detect the contours

directly in terms of their local orientation in the

scanning matrix. We distinguish only eight directions, in jumps of 45°; thus, in place of simple yes-no

information, at each point we decide whether we

are observing an element of the contour, and its direction. . . . "At the first, and most global, level the principal

structural elements of the sign are determined.

Thus the 'O' is defined as a simple loop, the '4' as a loop with a tail, descending, the 'd' as a loop a

tail ascending, etc. It is quite clear that at this level we cannot do more than to regroup the various

signs into classes, within each of which the structural descriptions are equivalent. Thus 'B,8', '0,D',

etc. For high-quahty print, such as electric typewriters with onetime ribbons, these classes will correspond to our intuitive decomposition into classes. For degraded print, or hand-lettered 'block'

letters and numerals, the noise wiU cause the classes

to be enlarged. Thus, if the tail on the '4' gets lost, as happens aU too often, it enters into the 'O, D'

class. A second level of description will enable us

to distinguish, within each class distinguished at the first level, the differences defined by the general

form of each of the contours composing the elements

of the ideal figure. Thus, in the class 'O, D, 4', we

shall find that at the left there is an arc in the 'O', a

vertical straight line terminated by two right angles

in the 'D', and an obHque slanting upwards to the

right in the '4'." (Nadler, 1967, pp. 36-37).

5.61 "The only commercially available reader

of handwritten characters is the IBM 1287, although

Philco-Ford, Control Data, and Burroughs have

developed such readers for the U.S. Post Office

Department." (Feidelman and Katz, 1967, p. 0210:11.)

"Burroughs [Zip reader] uses a five-shift-register

and the 'best match' code-comparison method, with

a flying-spot scanner." (Kornberg, 1964, p. 116).

"Rabinow's [Zip reader] . . . Hght pipes, in an image converter tube, pick up the moving address,

reproduce it on the back surface of the tube and

shift it up and down at high speed.

"The characters are scanned by a light-sensitive

cell behind a pinhole. The cell generates electronic

signal patterns corresponding to the specific char- acter on the envelope. These are recognized and

compared with the address-directory on a 'best match' basis." (Kornberg, 1964, pp. 116, 119). 5.62 The Zip Code Reader designed for the Post

Office Department by NCR includes multi-level fea- ture recognition logic. Eleven blocks of logic are used, known as reference functions. Analog cross

correlation is done in three separate levels. The

result passes through an A/D encoder, and then goes

I

I 119
in to a recognition matrix before being fed to the

final decision logic. (Stein, 1965, misc. notes).

"National Cash Register [Zip reader] also uses

a flying-spot scanner, but substitutes a set of photographic 'feature' templates as the analyzing device

. . . The machine has a 2,000-bit optical shift- register and a 19-lens beam splitter. Separate

cathode-ray tubes are used to find the address lines and scan them. The read scan-signals are fed to a storage tube that displays each character se- quentially. The character image is superimposed

on a group of photographic templates, each template looking at a small segment of the character."

(Kornberg, 1964, p. 116).

5.62a "In Earnest's system . . . the writer is constrained to write more or less horizontally,

and he uses a 'Ute' pen to write single words on

the face of a cathode-ray tube (thus deferring

certain problems related to actual writing on paper).

The present [Mitre] system, which is set up on the M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory TX-2 computer, recognizes about 10,000 common English words. The

system deals only with whole words, and so cir- cumvents, in part, the segmentation problem."

(Lindgren, 1965, p. 107).

"Using the estimated envelope as a guide, a matrix program finds the following key features:

1. significant strokes above the envelope (as in b, d,f, etc.) and whether such strokes have

a crossbar (i.e., t), 2. significant strokes below the envelope (as in /, g, j, etc.),

3. significant closed curves entirely within the

envelope (always in e), 4. the number of times the pattern crosses an

axis midway between the envelope lines. . . . "The feature detection programs are based on

connectivity within a given region, so that when

crossbars overlap adjacent tall letters (as in little), the overlapped sequence is detected as a single

grand feature. . . . "Once the key features have been identified, a 7-bit category code is constructed as follows: The highest order bit tells whether any crossbars were found, the next three bits tell the number of

high strokes, and the last three tell the number of

low strokes. . . . "The next step in the process is a comparison of the predicted number of axis crossings of each

word in the chosen category with the observed

values (within a certain tolerance) . . . Finally, a crude model of the handwriting process steps across the pattern from left to right, checking the

X-coordinates of extracted features against corre- sponding features (if any) in each word remaining on the Ust. . . . "Five subjects . . . were recently asked to write words selected at random from the dictionary.

Out of a total of 107 words, the computer correctly

listed 65. . . . "It appears that reliable mechanical recognition

of cursive writing is not out of the question, though

it has not yet been achieved. It will apparently be

necessary to make the most of graphic, linguistic,

and dynamic constraints on the writing process."

(Earnest, 1962, pp. 463-465).

5.63 For discrimination between two pattern

types, a network of 2,048 cells (simulated on a computer) was divided into two groups. Each cell, being

connected randomly to eight input bits, had a weight

preassigned, and reinforcements were applied to weights of cells in the correct response set for each

trial. After normalization with respect to center of

gravity of the input characters, two character pat- terns could be distinguished with 95% accuracy

after 20 trials, and after 100 trials the model was

able to accommodate rotations and systematic dis- tortions. For six character-pattern categories, a reinforcement procedure was utilized that modified

the random connections between the cells as well

as cell weights, and that facilitated a search for 'good' connections.

Further investigations . . . resulted in models

in which connections are not random, but in which

the input pattern elements to a single cell represent

a specific local operation on a character. In these

later models various reward-reinforcement functions were studied. Roberts concluded that it is possible to recognize the characters of a complete

alphabet with an accuracy of 94%, after a training

period of 40 trials per character, using these net- works and a suitable reward function. (See Roberts,

1960, and Stevens, 1961).

5.63a "The recognition of hand-printed numbers

was attempted with a linear decision function. The

set of measurements which was used involved

quantizing the number into a 12 X 12 binary matrix.

A matrix element was given a weight of one if it contained a mark and weight of zero if it contained no mark. The quantized number was then positioned

in the matrix by aligning its center of gravity with

the center of the matrix." (Highleyman, 1962, p. 276).

"The implementation consists essentially of a transparency-photomultiplier combination for each

character. The transparency represents the average

character. When the image of the unknown char- acter is focussed upon the transparency the trans- mitted fight, measured by the photomultipher, is a function of the desired cross-correlation value . . . Consider a piece of film in which the transparency

at each point is proportional to the probability of occurrence of a mark at that point for a particular

character. That is, the transparency of the film represejrts an average character ..." (Highleyman,

1961, p. 510).

"This method, with centering by shifting and a penalty threshold of 0.04, was applied to the handprinted alphanumeric alphabet of 1,800 samples.

No rejection criteria were appHed. The total rec- ognition rate was 77.2 per cent." (Highleyman, 1961,

p. 507).

5.63b "While the techniques developed were

applicable to generalized line patterns, the partic120
ular subset chosen for detailed test were hand

printed letters . . . The printing samples used

were collected from 35 individuals." (Spinrad, 1965,

p. 125). "The Scan program starts by determining all the

line segments, at eight angular steps, which can be

fitted into the source pattern. A series of four

'filtering" programs are then employed to successively "weed out' those line segments which do not represent a good fit. . . . "The representational scheme we have selected

has a matrix format in which the rows are a description of the line segments and the columns describe

their relationships to the pattern's centroid. [Angular

displacement from horizontal reference, bearing

direction]. . . . "A sample of 243 letters, different from those used

in the Accumulate program, was run through the

classification program. The program correctly identified 93.5% of the input set. . . . "The Scan line recognition program, with its constituent filters, acts as a very effective 'noise' rejection mechanism . . . Extraneous blots, spots,

etc., are not fitted with Hne segments because they

are too small or because the program cannot abstract

just one representative line segment. Further, be- cause the Scan program initially fits a multiplicity

of segments, the final abstraction is relatively tol- erant of the void areas within the character's boundaries." (Spinrad. 1965. pp. 127-128, 140-141).

5.63c "The program that has been tested to date

generates and searches for its operators at what

might be termed the first synaptic level, immediately

behind the input matrix. A program that is now being

written first pre-processes inputs by means of this

first synaptic layer. Specifically, it performs a two- dimensional differencing operation, which trans- forms a surface into its contour (e.g., Rashevsky,

1948). Operators are then generated, and successful

and optimally adjusted operators searched for, at

this level, to work on these contours. The contour

differencing operation wiU allow us to begin to ex- amine the problems of recognizing patterns of

graded intensity. . . . "The speeded up program has been tested on

several different types of input patterns. ... In most cases, results were quite similar on both

"known' examples (that is, examples the program

L had previously processed and hence had learned

Ji from) and 'unknown' examples (that is, different

I' from the ones used in learning, and also produced by

li different people) . . . Results for several different

sizes of pattern arrays, all of handprinted capital

letters, printed by different people . . . show relalively little decrease in the program's abilities as

the array size is increased, at least up to the 26 letter alphabet. Thus, on the sixth pass through the 26

letter alphabet the program was 100% correct on known patterns and 96% correct on unknown pat- terns." (Uhr and Vossler, 1962, pp. 321-322).

". . . Results for two 10-pattern arrays. These

were: (1) hne drawings of cartoon faces and simple

objects (such as shoes and phers), each copied from

a different picture, as found in cartoon strips and

mail order catalogs . . . and (2) handwritten arable

letters, written by the same person. The program

achieved 95% success on known and 70% on un- known pictures, and 60% success on known and

55% success on unknown arable letters (segmented

handwriting) in the fifth pass. . . . Results from

two 5-pattern arrays: (di^tized and degraded sound

spectrograms of speech (the numbers 'zero', 'one',

'two', 'three', and 'four', as spoken by different speakers) (Uhr and Vossler, 1961c), and (2) seg- mented lower-case handwriting, written by different people. The program achieved 100% success on

both known and unknown spoken numerals by the

fourth pass, and 100% success on known handwriting by the third pass. It achieved 60% success on the unknown handwriting, but it is likely that it would have improved further on these inputs if it had been given more opportunity to learn (once it achieves 100% success on known patterns it does

not benefit appreciably from subsequent learning

experiences)." (Uhr and Vossler, 1962, pp. 322,326).

5.63d "This paper . . . [assumes] that an adequate structural description of a character has

been extracted from the character's environment

and passed to the information selector. This struc- tural description consists of an ordered sequence

of (x, y) coordinate values recorded at points around

the character's boundary where its edge changes

direction. The underlying philosophy for this partic- ular structural description is the same as that of

Zahn. To paraphrase Zahn, a sequential trace of a

character's boundary yields the most useful information for distinguishing one character from another

because curves defining the boundaries of letters and numerals have certain properties which are

invariant over several fonts and that any specific

letter or numeral observed on the basis of its boundary would hardly be confused with any other

letter or numeral. Furthermore, it is felt that dis- crimination based on the trace of boundary edges

will encounter difficulty at about the same level as the human observing characters out of context. . . . "The paper presents a mathematical model of a proposed information selector. It offers some in- teresting possibihties because of its simplicity and

power. The model introduces the Angle Versus

Length (AVL) representation, a technique that traces the boundary of a character from its structural description to produce a characteristic waveform. It generates this waveform by plotting the

tangent angle versus arc length around the figure's

boundary in such fashion to form a closed contour. The resultant waveform is unique and complete be- cause it preserves the relationship of each boundary

feature with every other boundary feature so that the original and only the original character may be

reconstructed from it. The Fourier series transform

of the characteristic waveform is performed and

the resultant coefficients are used as descriptors —

hence the term Fourier descriptors. . . . "The AVL representation and Fourier descriptors were conceived by Cosgriff in 1960 and subsequently

121
refined and developed by Fritzsche, Raudseps, and

Borel. The research reported here is an extension

of previous work by the above researchers. . . . "The recognition scheme was tested with two data

samples. One was composed of more than 600 machine-printed characters representing all the nu- meral classes of 50 different commercial fonts and

the other contained over 400 hand-printed numerals

chosen from 40 styles of handwriting. A reference

set of 21 Fourier descriptor representations was

used with the machine-printed numerals and a

different reference set of 17 representations was

used for the hand-printed numerals. The recognition technique identified 98.6 percent of the machine-printed numerals and 90.5 percent of the

numerals from the hand-printed sample." (Brill, 1968, pp. 1-2, 7). 5.63e "The curve tracing technique is one of the more recent concepts. Its basic advantage of being

able to handle relatively wide variations in the

shapes or sizes of the characters makes it a useful

method for recognizing hand-printed characters.

By following the character outline, the recognition

unit determines certain features which it uses to identify the character. Among these features are character splits, line intersections, line magnitudes,

and the straightness of lines. The major disadvantage is difficulty in reading characters having

broken lines or holes within their block boundaries."

(Feidelman and Katz, 1967, p. 36). 5.63f An earlier report on these IBM contourfollowing techniques provides such details as the

following: "The characters are scanned optically

along a variable path that depends upon the information obtained as scanning proceeds. The actual

character on the document serves as the primary

store of raw character information. The scanner is the means for retrieving the information as required

from this 'memory'. Specific regions of the character

are scanned selectively (and repetitively, when

necessary), according to their significance in character identification. The scanner is also made to seek significant features in new areas of the char- acter when prior scanning does not provide conclusive results. . . . "To accomplish recognition, the contours of

each character are traced two or more times.

During the first tracing, the extreme positive and

negative excursions of the character's outer contour in X and y are stored. On subsequent passes

around the character, the beam is located relative

to the character extremities and therefore is not dependent on the character location or the point

of initial contact. . . . "The analysis of the filtered beam deflection signals is based on two properties of the line edges

that they represent:

(a) The relative location of the line edge within

the character.

(b) The approximate direction of the fine edge.

"By considering both properties simultaneously,

the significance of most line edge signals can be

detected without resorting to precise measurements

of location and direction. In some instances, such

as certain 8's and O's, identity cannot be established

by coarse measurements on the outer contour of the

character. For these cases, the scanner is redirected

to obtain more information from the interior of the

character . . . Since accurate recognition can be

accomplished without resorting to precise measure- ments of line locations or directions, this system

provides large tolerance for shape variations. . . . "The reading capabilities of this model were de- termined in an experimental study at Tufts University . . . Approximately 200 untrained subjects wrote 20,000 numerals, of which 92% were correctly

recognized." (Greanias et al., 1963, pp. 14-16, 19). 5.64 "A deterministic pattern recognition sys- tem for hand and printed numbers and capital block

letters was developed and tested by F. Kuhl. Here

an angularly quantized peripheral code was used to approximate contours of character images. The

transformation is called angular mapping trans- formation (AMT) and together with redundancyerasing reduced the patterns to a few numbers. The

condensed numerical description is used in a one- dimensional correlation scheme. It is insensitive to major variations in the particular representations

of a character but still can distinguish between the

characters of interest. "AMT is similar to the edge sequences proposed

earlier by Unger, except that here each vector en- codes in incremental change in position, length and

directional angle of the trace. "Of some 385 test characters drawn in pencil, over 95% were recognized correctly. This trans- formation, like all contour following recognition

schemes, is quite sensitive to flourishes and curl- icues." (Stein, 1965, misc. notes).

5.64a "Other parameters which are useful in important special cases, such as that of hand printed

or written characters, include numbers of inter- sections with a raster, numbers of branch points of

various orders, and so on." (Rosenfeld, 1962, p. 114).

5.65 It is to be noted that "considerable tol- erance was provided for: , • Character registration. If necessary, characters i can be located anywhere within an area several I inches square. • Character size. The height of characters can

vary over a 4-to-l range. • Shape. The tolerance for shape is defined in terms of the shapes that occur in unconstrained

handwritten numerals. The initial recognition

criteria were selected to cope with more than

90% of the character shapes found in 3000

samples of unconstrained numbers. • Line quality. Lines from medium hard pencils

and dark-ink ball point pens in reasonably good

condition are acceptable. • Character rotation or slant. Normal characters can be rotated ±20°." (Greanias et al., 1963,

p. 15).

122
5.65a "My invention requires no special nor complex scanning. I use any successive line pro- ducing scanner, e.g.. the scanner shown in the J. Rabinow Patent No. 2,933,246 or a row of photocells

or others. This is possible because my invention is only in the nature of a curve tracer. "To the best of my knowledge, my invention entails a new system of character identification based

upon a new philosophy. Specifically, if a scan fine crosses a character fine, my invention remembers in time, or voltage, or space, or digits, etc.. the crossing

point, and if the next scan hne (of the same character) crosses the character within a given area

(of time, voltage value, space, etc.). it is concluded

that the character line being investigated is con- tinuous and this information is remembered . . . "In one embodiment of the invention, when a

vertical scan line first crosses a character line the

crossing point is remembered and a gate system is set during a portion of the next (second) scan line. The duration or width of the gate is made to include

a time, area, etc., slightly above and slightly be- low ... a horizontal projection of the first remembered crossing point. enabHng the said next scan

line to interrogate the character in a restricted area

alongside of the first crossing. Now. if the second

scan hne crosses the character Hne within the inter- rogated sensitive area, the scanner output falls within the width of the gate system and is remembered; and the same way, but for the next scan hne

and this process continues to the end of the character hne. . . . "By examining the behavior of the follower, a characteristic trace of the line of the character being

examined, can be developed and remembered. For

example, if I assume a horizontally moving character

area and a vertical scan made of a scan element

moving from bottom to top of the character, my in- vention easily recognizes whether the characteristic

trace is sloped up or down, curved or straight by

observing whether the hits are early or late in the

width of the gate system. . . . "More than one follower is required to distinguish

characters from each other . . . For example, consider the letter X. The first follower is assigned and

begins to function when a scan line crosses the lower

left corner and there will be a wide space in the same scan line, and then another crossing. The

second crossing assigns a second follower to operate

simultaneously with the first but it investigates a

different portion of the character. Now consider the

letter F. The first crossing is long and the scanner

will produce a long pulse. Means are provided for identifying such a pulse. The next few scan lines

will produce a hit in the first follower gate system

corresponding to the first horizontal leg of the F,

and a second follower will be propagated along the

upper horizontal bar of the F." (Holt, 1964, p. 1 ). 5.66 "The programme described by Bomba

employed a cross-correlation technique to extract features from a character. The method may be vis- ualised as the comparison of the two-dimensional

input pattern with a set of standard patterns or

templates representing the features to be detected.

For optimum performance the templates should be

matched with the unknown in the correct orienta- tion and position, and the templates should be of the

correct size and shape. The basic principle underlying detection by auto-correlation is the use of the

features actually present in the input pattern as

their own templates thus making it unnecessary to position and orientate the pattern." (Clowes, 1962,

p. 306).

For criterial feature extraction by Bomba's local operations, the area operated upon is a radial pattern

built up of the appropriate combinations of smaller

local areas. For example, to find an L-shaped fea- ture, a pattern element detector consisting of a cell, P, the seven cells directly above P in a vertical line,

and the seven cells extending in the horizontal line

to the right of P, is moved over the input pattern

field. This is done in a scanning manner to detect

coincidence of black cells in the input pattern local area with the cells of the L-feature extraction pattern. When there is coincidence for all the designated cells, then an L-feature signal is recorded in a buffer image for this feature at the same respective

coordinates which the ceU "P' then has. By dividing

these secondary input patterns (buffer images for each extracted feature) into zones, the recognition

logic may take account of relative location and connectivity of the features that have been detected.

(See Bomba, 1959, and Stevens, 1961, p. 94). 5.66a "SPAC has been suggested for use in recognizing handwritten alpha-numeric characters

(perhaps for inputting handwritten programs to a

digital computer), recognizing diagrams of molecular structures in patent searches and recognizing

biological cell structures. It could also be used as an aid in analyzing photographs of particle tracks

as required in high energy physics." (Fuller, 1963,

p. 24). 5.67 "To demonstrate the effectiveness of this design procedure utihzing time-varying threshold

logic units, the technique was used in the simulated

design of a character recognition device. The input

patterns were a set of 240 hand-printed alphabetic

characters, divided into 12 classes with 20 char- acters in each class ..." (Astropower Lab., 1964,

p. 194). 5.68 "M. Fischler has reported on experiments on several thousand characters hand-printed by

approximately 100 people. The decision-making

system was a special purpose computer (PIP)

which simulates a network of threshold elements

designed to identify a pre-selected set of typical

patterns. The characters were constrained within

rectangular boxes.

"A flying spot scanner with quantized output was used. Feature words made up of 350 bits were

derived to describe the 'upper black', 'right diagonal', 'sohd black', etc. Of the identifications at- tempted, some 71% were successful." (Stein, 1965,

misc. notes).

5.69 "P. M. Lewis conducted a search for "good'

statistics relating patterns to relevant character366-107 O - 70 - 9 123
istics. He chose fifteen alphabets of 62 characters

each. From these he evolved thirteen characteristics

and his resulting system recognized 81.9% of letters. The fifteen alphabets included nine machine-printed

and six hand-printed. One sample of each symbol

from each alphabet was included. Upper case, lower

case and numerals were represented in the 920

samples which also varied in height by a factor of

four. Lewis suggested that more samples would have

to be looked at in order to derive a more effective code." (Stein, 1965, misc. notes).

5.70 "Defining the vector spaces and deciding

whether an unknown branch is an element thereof

constitutes the main part [of Minneman's 1966

paper on handwritten character recognition]." In order to define vector spaces one examines several

copies of the same character ... as drawn by

different people, for 'learning' the reference configuration thereof. The mean of the resulting vector space is used for point-by-point comparison with an unknown. The criterion of acceptance . . . is based

on a conditional probability and distance relation- ship." (R. Jessup, review, Computing Reviews 8,

113-114 (1967).)

"Samples were obtained of the characters 1, 2, ... 9, 0 from 26 individuals. They were instructed

to letter neatly, but in their own style, avoiding

breaks (except at top of 8), and to try to make their

characters fit within a|-inch diameter circle. Closed

top 4's were not allowed. . , . "The 260 design samples were then tested against

the 35 standards derived from them to determine

the internal consistency of the system. The results were as follows. Correctly recognized 253 = 97.3 percent

Not recognized 2= 0.8 percent

Incorrectly recognized... 5= 1.9 percent

"The number of subclasses necessary to define

all variants of a character type was found to range

from one for a one or a zero to eight for a four. On

average, 4.3 variants were found per character

type." (Minneman, 1966, p. 93). "To test the performance of the system an additional sample of 260 characters was obtained . . . The results of the test were as follows: Correctly recognized 254 = 98.5 percent

Not recognized 0= 0.0 percent

Incorrectly recognized... 4= 1.5 percent

[2 characters not processed because of program

deficiency]. (Minneman, 1966, pp. 93-94).

5.71 "S. Spilerman has revealed a classification scheme for the alpha-numeric set which is insensitive to common variations in hand-printing. This

method is based on invariance in angular change

along certain segments of a line pattern.

"The system groups many variants of a pattern

together and yet breaks the character set into a large number of subsets, each containing a small

number of characters. A method for quantizing and

representing simply connected segments of a pat- tern is first introduced. It is then used to convert

two-dimensional line patterns into one-dimensional

statements. "The most detailed one-dimensional statement

contains a record of the slope. The most condv^nsed

is a quantized angular description of the pattern.

The condensed patterns are then compared with a

list in memory to determine an initial classification. One-third of the characters can be identified this way. The remaining are divided into sub-classes

containing two to six members. More detailed pat- tern statements or additional tests can be applied to extract the proper identity from the sub-class. The

patterns covered do not cover cases where loops

occur. Reasonably well-printed characters were

used for the study. Constraints were placed on (1) flourishes and (2) gap size. "This work was simulated on a 7090. A curve

follower constructed to input the necessary infor- mation would have to be backed up by considerable

logic to avoid retracing previously encountered

curve segments at crossovers." (Stein, 1965, misc.

notes).

5.72 "Fifteen modular criteria were developed

by G.U. Uyehara for reading numerals either typewritten in multifont or hand printed. Five criteria were used to describe the inter-connections and ten described shape and tread of individual 'streams.' Uyehara uses a modular criteria detector which

analyzes the character during scanning. The results of this are then inserted into a buffer store and

from there they are organized into a pattern lattice network. Two kinds of recognition are used. The

Gestalt criteria are used to recognize beginning,

end, continuation, convergence or divergence of streams. The single stream criteria are listed as:

first quadrant compound wedge; second, third,

fourth quadrant wedges; first/fourth quadrant com- pound wedge; second/third quadrant compound

wedge; positive diagonal Line, negative diagonal

line, horizontal line segment; and vertical line segment.

"Uyehara reports that the Gestalt criteria are

sufficient if the character can be identified from the

inner connections alone. Otherwise, the single

stream criteria as organized in the pattern lattice network are necessary to supplement the features. Synchronism between the scanner disc and delay

lines, and the accuracy of construction of the slits in the disc were among the worst engineering problems encountered in the construction of the first model of his equipment." (Stein, 1965, misc. notes).

5.73 Weeks, 1960. "In these experiments, both

machine printed and handwritten numeric char- acters served as source patterns which were

scanned: 'In television fashion with a raster consisting of six lines uniformly distributed over the

digit at six different angles uniformly spaced 30

degrees apart.' . . . There is then processing which

determines the first scan line crossing and the last and then divides the intervening area ... to obtain

6 equally spaced areas across the character image.

The number of vector crossings or intersections per scan line are now counted, since different portions

124
of the character may be crossed by the same scan

line. The counts are compared with probability

tables, which are based on statistics gathered

from previously scanned and processed characters

and thereby provide the identification formulas."

(Stevens, 1961, p. 50-51.)

5.74 "A model of a pattern recognition computer, whose design is based on electronic simulation of a nerve cell, has been developed by two

electrical engineers at Purdue Univ. Thus far, the

small-scale model, built by Prof. King-Sun Fu, and

Wen C. Lin, has recognized hand-printed Roman

and Chinese letters. "The system consists of a photo-ceU grid, which

scans and converts the black and white patterns

into digital signals, joined to a box enclosing 200

interconnected circuits, or 'neurons', and an I/O

panel board . . . "The circuits are arranged into three banks: (1) the transformation layer, which receives and re- duces the pattern from 144 to 24 bits: (2) the correlation layer, which compares the 24 bits with the

pattern references stored in memory, feeds the correlation coefficients back to the first layer via a

learning loop to inform it how to adjust its threshold

for succeeding patterns and fires the same coeffi- cients to (3) the decision layer, which indicates to which class the pattern belongs. A second learning

loop may correct the decision layer." (Datamation

11, No. 7, 71 (1965).)

5.74a "We shall now describe, a technique, at present under investigation at AFCRL's Data Sci- ences Laboratory where it was originated by the

author, for reducing alphabetic patterns to feature

vectors. A printed letter is composed of line and

background. In the case of a letter printed on a white

page, the inked part is the line and the white part

the background. In the following manner we give

any background point a four-digit ternary code,

where ternary means that each digit is 0, 1, or 2. We draw imaginary horizontal and vertical lines through the background point, forming a cross. The

cross has four arms that extend left, up, down and

right. Each of these arms determines one of the four

code digits for the point. The digit is 0 if the arm

does not intersect the line of the pattern. It is 1 if the arm intersects the pattern just once. It is 2 if the arm intersects two times or more than two. In forming

the code, we write the digits from left to right, taking

first the digit determined by the left arm, then the

upward arm, then the downward arm, and lastly the right arm . . . "Now consider the locus of aU background points

that . . . have the code 2012 . . . This locus

consists of the lower part of the interior of the

triangular upper cavity of the M. The upper part

of this cavity is the locus of points whose code is 1011. Clearly, every point of the background of a

pattern must have a ternary code, according to this scheme; and clearly, all points having one code, for example 2012, combine to form a locus. We may

call this locus the locus 2012. The locus of one code

is usually in one piece, but it is occasionally in two

or more pieces. It is hard to imagine a capital M that does not have a locus 2012. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine an A, B or C that has a locus 2012. In fact, the locus 2012 is rather characteristic of an M . . . "To form the feature vector of a pattern, we list the codes in a consistent order and, after each code,

write the area of the locus of that code as it appears

in the pattern. If the locus does not appear, we write

zero; otherwise we write the relative area of the

locus, that is, its percentage of the sum of the areas

of all the loci. Since every pattern has each locus

to a greater or lesser degree, even though this may

be zero, the vector thus formed is somewhat characteristic of the pattern . . . "The scheme can be implemented by a specialpurpose device attached to a digital computer. The

computer can, of course, be the very one that will use the printed information that is read by the

system. The basic cell of a grid of identical cells has been designed so that, with a pattern impressed

on the grid of cells, each background cell can compute its own four-digit ternary code. The computer

then communicates with the cell grid to determine

the pattern's vector. With the decision functions

derived in an earher training mode stored, the computer then classifies the pattern." (Glucksman,

1968, pp. 13-14).

5.74b "In exploring the use of nth-order auto- correlation functions for pattern recognition, we

conducted experiments with typewritten samples of

the characters a, e, s and handlettered samples of

numerics. . . . "This [handlettered numerics] was run with a set of 3100 characters (distinct from the set used for finding the subspaces Wi), and 38 classification errors were made." (McLaughlin and Raviv, 1968,

pp. 131, 137).

5.74c "The samples used in the experiment were

obtained by asking three subjects to print characters

in a two inch square or to write characters in a circle with a two inch diameter. The characters are fairly

centralized and normaUzed. Eight features . . . were selected for handprinted characters, and

eighteen features . . . for handwritten characters

. . . Each feature is assigned by a number which is the distance, measured along the predetermined

path, from the edge of the square or the circle to the first intersection of the character." (Chen, 1966,

p. 557).

5.74d "The first program, or 'preprocessor' converts any pattern of black-and-white cells on a 20 X 20 matrix into a one-dimensional description of

its contour. . . . "Of these classes, the one most extensively used was a set of 27 rather badly distorted examples of the hand-printed alphabetic characters D, E, F,

and G. On this set, versions of the program fre- quently gave about 75 per cent correct answers

after about three learning experiences with each

example." (Prather and Uhr, 1964, p. D2.2-1, 5).

125
5.74e "Samples of handwritten numerals were

collected from a group of salesclerks . . . These

samples were scanned by a contour analysis scanner and recorded on digital magnetic tape. The

measurements provided by the contour analysis were all binary and are therefore directly suitable

for the present simulation program. . . . "Two sets of 3,000 samples were used in this experiment. One set was used to design the recognition network and the other set to test the network.

Twenty-four measurements were used to characterize each sample.

"Interating on design data, a tree structure . . . was obtained, and the number of recognition errors was 42. The error count of the linear structure for the same design data was 84. The computing time on an IBM 7094 was about one hour.

"Recognition of the test data set was then at- tempted with the tree structure. There were 59

recognition errors. With the linear network, there were 84 errors in the test data." (Chow and Liu,

1966, p. 79). 5.75 "Research on multifont, handwritten

character and cursive word recognition and signa- ture identification has been done by simulation on

a computer Telefunken TR 4." ("Technische

Hochschule Karlsruhe, Annual Report 1966", 1967,

p. 52). 5.76 "Considerable information, from initial studies performed, appeared to be present in the

dynamic sensing of two signals: pen-tip acceleration

and pen-paper contact. Successive signatures from

a subject appeared to be well correlated visually,

using acceleration and contact signals obtained from

strip recordings. . . . "The instrumentation of the pen to provide tipacceleration and paper-contact signals was con- sidered to be a step forward. Neither of these vari- ables is normally available to the handwriting expert;

thus, the speed of writing — the invaluable time

function — is lost to the expert when confronted a

posteriori with a specimen. . . . ". . . During the course of this study, persons

found themselves able to identify the signers from

the acceleration time plots by looking at the pattern

of the acceleration peaks ... A plot might be made

of the height of each peak versus its position when

ranked by size . . . There would be complete infor- mation as to the peak pattern in the shape of this curve and in the information which represents the

ranking of the peaks. Thus, if the eighth peak were

largest, the fourteenth peak were second largest, the

sixth peak were third largest and so on, then the

numbers 8, 14, 6, . . . would also identify the

signature. . . . "Using a . . . vector, whose components consist

of such indices as zero-crossing counts, number of

pen-paper contacts, etc., this comparison system

correctly classified 226 signatures out of . . . 250."

(Mauceri, 1965, pp. 8. 9, 50, 54-55.)

5.76a "Patterns whose names were to be learned

by the stimulus-sampling program consisted of two

hundred first name signatures. Twenty exemplars were collected for each of . . . ten signatures . . . Individual signatures were written inside a 5-inch

by 12-inch rectangle. Although subjects were

instructed to fill the rectangle as much as possible,

the instruction was difficult to follow, and few

signatures touched the edges of the rectangle.

Each exemplar . . . was projected against a grid

with 20 rows and 48 columens. The image was

expanded when necessary to reach three sides of the grid, giving preference to the top and left sides. No other attempt was made to normalize

the image. . . . "Exemplars of names collected in the second

session were treated in a different fashion. No

attempt at all was made to normalize the figures.

Each signature was traced directly on a graphic

input device developed at the RAND Corporation and

attached to the RAND JOHNNIAC computer. . . . "The ten signatures collected from any subject

in a given session tended to resemble one another

fairly closely, but there was a considerable difference

between sessions. The difference occurred in part

because of changes in the general appearance of the

signatures and in part because of the different methods of processing. . . . "Each signature to be recognized or learned was

described within the computer program by a property vector with 960 components, where each

property reflected presence or absence of part of

the figure in a fixed portion of the visual field." (Marzocco, 1965, pp. 210-211, 214).

". . . The probability is less than 0.02 that four

or more responses will be guessed correctly if no

systematic effects are present. Since this level of performance is reached by the time 2 or 3 signatures

sets are presented under any condition of administration, it is apparent that learning occurred under

every condition. . . . "A set of properties useful for recognizing the

handwritten first name signatures results from the

digital encoding without need for further processing f to isolate specific topological features of the

patterns." (Marzocco, 1965, pp. 215-216).

5.77 In a later patent issued to Harmon in 1964, i the stylus is moved across a writing platen whose r surface consists of electrically conducting strips i arranged horizontally. Features including loops,

' ascenders, and descenders are extracted as the t stylus is moved.

5.77a "Tests are made for a number of 'local features' such as differential vertical extent, cusps, ) closure and retrograde strokes. Other tests establish I individual letter domains, thus grouping the detected i features into clusters. ...

"The accuracy of letter identification is greater ' than 90 percent over a sizable population of writers \ and test sentences. Those errors due to segmentation inaccuracies amount to less than 3 percent. I Most of the other errors are due to imprecise ! 'feature' extraction. ...

"Recognition accuracy thus approaches 93 per- cent. Studies are currently being made to use

126
context at a more complex level and to investigate

the extent to which the constraints on the writer

may be relaxed." (Harmon. 1962, pp. 151-152).

5.78 ". . . An attempt is made to identify

script on a letter-by-letter basis. We seek a minimum

set of 'local features' which are common to a large

selection of reasonably legible handwriting samples.

Characteristics such as differential vertical extent, cusp, retrograde strokes and closure are used.

Recognition decisions are based on the outcomes of

tests for unique combinations of these local fea- tures." (Frishkopf and Harmon, 1961, p. 301.)

"When the same writer is the source of both

dictionary and test words, correct identification is achieved for 32 per cent of all test words written by

all subjects . . . When comparison is made

between test words written by one writer and a dictionary written by another, correct identification

is achieved in 26 per cent of all cases." (Frishkopf

and Harmon. 1961. p. 314.)

"'Method 1 was tested by processing 19 sentences

(412 letters total) written by five persons. The correct

letter-identification for the entire group was 58.9 per cent." (Frishkopf and Harmon, 1961, p. 313).

5.78a "The parameters used are here called the

'loop configurations' of numbers. In the 'loop space',

Arabic numbers are considered to be made up of

lines forming fully-closed loops or loops which are open on one, two, or three sides." (Kamentsky, 1961,

p. 492). 5.79 "Investigations on multjfont and handwritten character recognition are under way. A

character recognition scheme for hand-printed

numerals has been realized. For the simulation of handwritten character recognition a special light-pen

off-line input device has been developed. The use of shape elements as features has been studied and

linear classifying networks have been considered.

An integrated computer-scanning-classifying system

with feedback control is being developed." (Technische Hochschule. Karlsruhe, "Research on

Pattern Recognition . . .". 1966, abstract, p. 1). "Methods of contour description and line seg- mentation of characters have been investigated with

regard to storage capacity requirements, operation

time and redundancy. Other methods are based

mainly on sequential decision techniques."

(Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, "Annual

Report 1967". 1967, p. 63). 5.79a "Handwriting analysis was begun and very

well characterized by Eden and Halle. They found

that only 18 strokes are used to construct all of the

English characters. These strokes can be generated

and joined together by simple rules in a computer

so as to 'write' any word. By finding the ranges of

the stroke parameters for an individual, the computer can forge his handwriting." (Roberts, 1962, p. 210). 5.80 "An algorithm for the segmentation of the

pen displacement signal of handwriting into function segments corresponding to strokes has

been presented. This procedure, when repeatedly

applied to a collection of handwriting samples yields

function segments that may be classified into categories based on topological similarities, thereby

yielding a representation for every cursive letter by means of a small number of permissible alternative sequences of stroke categories. Such categories

are defined by means of statistical averages of the

numerical representations of the member functions,

and the Hkehhood of membership of new function

segments in each particular category is estimated by means of the multidimensional distance between the

representation of the new function and the average

for the category. . . . "Constraints are recognized to exist on two levels,

those between stroke categories, sequences of which

must form valid letter representations, and those

between letters, sequences of which must form

words within the vocabulary of the system. The

result of the recognition process is that word which

is generated from the stroke category sequence,

the constituent strokes of Avhich correspond to a maximum total likeUhood. Methods are presented

which implement the stroke sequence to word

mapping in an efficient manner." (Mermelstein and

Eden, 1964, p. 334). 5.81 ". . . The development of a limitedcapability handwriting recognition system that can handle a very large font without significant size or orientation constraints. The remaining constraints

of language style and segmentation are now being

removed. . . . "The user can teach the program to recognize

his set of characters. The learning process for the

program involves modifying individual decision

trees, changing the weights on each tree, and where

necessary, introducing new decision trees with

their corresponding properties into the system.

Because the program was written as an input

device to a larger man-machine system, the description of the implementation stresses the human

engineering features. A qualitative evaluation of the

system as implemented is offered, together with

possibilities for expanding and generalizing the

program." (Teitelman, 1964, p. 559).

"Essentially the only things that can be said

about a program of this type relate to its convenience

and usefulness. The program has been taught to recognize, on separate occasions, Russian characters, Hebrew characters, Greek characters,

upper- and lower-case English characters, and a

large collection of mathematical symbols. It has

been used by many different people, and the combination of control panel and punch-out and read-in

features make it at the very least enjoyable to operate. With a little experience, after the user becomes accustomed to the idiosyncracies of the

fight pen, and trains the program in the variations

of his handwriting (surprisingly many people are not aware of the fact that they vary their style of handwriting from sample to sample), the resulting manmachine system becomes quite effective. Again no

quantitative results can be offered here other than

observations on use of the program by a considerable

number of individuals. . . . 127
"The results seem to indicate that the use of the

time sequence is a powerful tool in pattern recognition. It enables a program using fairly simple

properties to achieve a high rate of recognition.

One way to improve the program might be to include more sophisticated properties other than the posi- tion of the pen. An immediate improvement would

be to include a property that detected sharp corners by noticing changes in the velocity of the pen. Other properties might note curvature or angle.

Developing a language that described a wide class of properties would generalize the program even

further. The user would then be able to communicate subtle differences in forms by means of fairly

abstract concepts." (Teitelman, 1964, p. 574).

5.81a "Although this particular work emphasizes

handprinting input, the transducer is clearly

applicable to allowing the input of more general

information such as mathematical symbols, drawings, or graphs. . . . "The output of the printing transducer is trans- mitted into an IBM 1620 data-processing system

. . . The decision procedure uses adaptively

derived linear boundaries . . . The use here of the adaptive system allows the recognition to be

trained for a variety of individual printers and for a variety of printing fonts. . . . "The measurement space used describes the

character in terms of straight-line segments . . . Eight types of segments are allowed, corresponding

to the eight directions of the compass . . . The

printing area is divided into nine zones, or regions,

and the region in which a particular segment begins

determines where in the measurement space its occurrence is recorded. The number of times the

printing stylus is lifted off the transducer during

the creation of a particular character is also recorded ... as is the number of times a particular segment

occurs in a particular zone." (Simek and Tunis,

1967, pp. 72-74).

"The circuitry tests the sequence of x, y location

points for incremental changes. When a pre- dominance of these changes is established in one of

the eight possible directions, a valid measurement

has occurred. An indication of the segment is transmitted to the computer; subsequent segments

are recorded only if they differ from the the segment

immediately preceding them. For printed alphanumeric characters, an average of seven such measure- ments is obtained per character; for the character

'8' a maximum of 14 such measurements occur. Note

that we are breaking up curved sections of a char- acter into a sequence of straight-line segments. . . . "The experimental results are based on fairly

large samples (approximately 300 alphabets, where

an 'alphabet' is one example each of the characters

to be treated) obtained from two individuals . . . The

two printers were not trained and used their normal

printing style. . . . "The performance on the test sample is dependent on the size of the analysis sample. In effect, the

analysis sample must statistically represent the

test sample. . . .

"The recognition performance on the test sample

of one individual, given a set of weights adapted on

the analysis sample of that individual, showed that both individuals obtained a recognition performance

in excess of 99.4 percent." (Simek and Tunis, 1967,

pp. 75. 79-80). "In another study, samples of handwriting were

fed into the system, employing intentionally 'sloppy'

characters to test recognition capability. The set of weights used was based on a sample of 200

alphabets [numerics] of printer one. . . . [approximately 26%] were not identified correctly. Many

of the characters identified incorrectly are noticeably smaller; they were undoubtedly not recognized

because of system resolution. . . . "The handprinting input device and recognition

system described has been shown to be technically

feasible. Its use awaits its economic justification in particular applications. . . . "As might be expected, an increase in alphabet

size results in a decrease in recognition performance. However, with the largest alphabet size used

[26], the recognition rate is still in excess of 92 per- cent, a level which should be acceptable in many

applications if some method of feedback, allowing

retransmission or correction, is included. . . . "The performance level achieved by one indi- vidual, using the weights generated by the analysis

sample of a different individual (but both using the same font), is in the vicinity of 95 percent." (Simek

and Tunis, 1967, pp. 80-81).

5.81b "Studies were made into the usefulness of various recognition schemes for handprinted alphanumeric characters and ease to which subjects

adapted to program-forced constraints. The Sylvania

Data Tablet proved extremely useful in this application for several reasons: First, the inking capability

allowed the subjects to write on a sheet of blocked

paper in a very natural manner. Second, the multiple

threshold Z axis feature allowed the programmer to use one level (contact with the surface) to indicate

stroke and a second level (about Vs inch above the

surface) to indicate completion of a character. In other words, multiple stroke characters are formed

with the tip of the pen always below the Vs inch

level, and once the pen is raised above that level the completion of a character is indicated to the

computer. Third, the high resolution provided

minute details needed for recognition of small

characters. The 1 per cent accuracy of the tablet proved more than adequate for accommodating

letter sizes of i inch or more." (Teixeira and Sallen,

1968, pp. 320-321).

5.82 "The word parapropagation is intended to signify the interruption of a propagation by an inter- posed barrier. It will be shown that patterns can be

classified by a process based on the interruptions of propagations." (Glucksman, 1965, p. 435).

5.82a "Very simple, automatic methods are

sufficient to decompose a printed page into text

set in one, or a few, predetermined type styles, and

other material. While there appears to be no con128
venient standard for measuring the accuracy of the

decomposition, it would seem that more compHcated and time-consuming methods of spectral

analysis need not be invoked for this purpose.

"With documents of the order of complexity of technical journals, automated scanning at this level,

coupled with existing character recognition devices,

would not produce a computer storable reproduction

suitable for aU of the intended purposes of the

original document. A limited range of functions,

such as automatic indexing, and perhaps extraction,

could be performed on the coded version. Simpler

page structures, such as the 'claims' section of patent documents, could be processed for natural

language search procedures and complete re- display." (Nagy, 1968, p. 486).

"The IBM experimental character recognition

system on which these experiments were performed

already incorporates a number of fairly sophisticated features for registration, normalization, noise

suppression, threshold adjustment, and character

separation. When presented with a noncharacter

field, it attempts to convert what it finds into familiar

symbols by means of protracted and agonizing

convulsions. What is needed, then, is a rapid

'prescan' of the entire page, or a sizable fraction

thereof, to indicate to the control unit which areas

are to be read, and which ones skipped or copied

onto magnetic tape without further processing.

The logic used to derive this information from the

prescan is discussed in the third section of this report." (Nagy, 1968, p. 481).

"The percentage of correctly identified letters

in the words underlined varied from 95-98 percent

from day to day depending on the care taken to adjust the video circuits of the scanner. This

includes only lowercase characters, since there was no recognition software available for capitals,

punctuation, and ligatures (fi, ff, fl, ffl, and ffi)." (Nagy, 1968, p. 483).

"The method to be discussed stems from the

simple observation that character fields are readily

distinguishable from almost everything else by the

average density of the lines and of the blank spaces

above and below the lines." (Nagy, 1968, p. 483).

5.82b "Because handwriting presents a more or

less continuous signal, it too raises the specter of

the segmentation problem." (Lindgren, 1965, p. 105).

5.82c "Automatic recognition of speech would

be particularly useful for information, communication and control engineering. With its help it would

even be possible to control machines by means of the spoken word, to carry out switching operations

of all kinds, to dial telephone numbers, to write

texts on typewriters, to feed data into computers

and to simplify the transmission of messages."

(Kusch, 1965, p. 201).

"Voice recognition for purposes of translation,

control, or recording for printing will eventually be

handled with the aid of large memories . . . Schemes for building up words by recognizing indi- vidual phonemes will be replaced by systems

wherein whole words at a time are recognized by

an indexing process. The index terms will be

characteristics such as energy distribution at various frequencies for a succession of phonemes.

Simple language-structure rules will make it possible

to distinguish between words which sound the same but are spelled differently." (Astrahan, 1958,

p. 313).

5.82d "Still another area of experiment that has

grown more germane to the problem of automatic

speech recognition are the psycholinguistic studies,

which have begun to give new insights into how

humans process speech." (Lindgren, 1965, p. 46). 5.83 "A futuristic system must cope with

problems such as dialect variations, slurring of words in continuous speech, and the resolution of homophones." (Bhimani et al., 1966, p. 275).

"Another difficulty arises from the different dialects in common use. Here the same words or phrases spoken by different talkers will have

different phonetic content. Thus transliteration

from a sequence of phonetic elements to English

words may involve complex linguistic structure." (David and Selfridge, 1962. p. 1098).

5.83a "Not only were there variations between

speakers in their acoustic outputs, but there were

variations by the same speaker in different circumstances, in differing emotional states." (Lindgren,

1965, p. 121).

5.84 "Visual examination of the quantized

spectrograms on the display matrix revealed that the location of the lowest frequency format using

this technique is much more erratic with female

voices. This result demonstrates the fundamental

weakness of the short-term Fourier Analysis in locating the poles of the vocal tract." (King and

Tunis, 1966, p. 73). "The same words spoken by a man and a woman

differ drastically in their acoustic content, but the

listener has little difficulty in establishing that they

are the same words." (David, 1958, p. 294).

"It is not merely a question of the differences in speech of a man as compared with a woman or a

child, but also of the variations in dialectical pro- nunciation, with the added factor of emotional

colouring." (Kusch, 1965, p. 201).

5.85 "R. H. Gah in 1951 decided to draw up a

set of rules for recognition of ten spoken numbers

from spectrograms." (David, 1958, p. 301). "L. G. Kersta in 1947 . . . assumed a selected

vocabulary consisting of ten spoken numbers, and

took spectrograms of them from each of nine men

and five women. He divided each spectrogram into a mosaic of square elements. If the integrated

density in a particular element were V2 or greater

than the integrated density then it was represented

as being entirely black, [otherwise, white] . . . For

each digit he then compiled two master patterns ... all black elements common to the utterances

of the fourteen speakers. . . . The second master

pattern consisted of all common white elements.

. . . Now if the black and white masters are apphed

in tandem with a logical 'and' requirement; that is,

129
both black and white elements must match, . . . the maximum error probability for any digit is less than one percent, while the average over all digits

is about 0.2%." (David, 1958, pp. 305-306).

Lindgren cites other early work at the Bell Laboratories as follows: "In the Wiren-Stubbs electronic implementation,

the properties separated were the voiced sounds

from the unvoiced, the turbulent (noise like) from

the nonturbulent; then the nonturbulent sounds were separated . . . into groups . . . and the un- voiced turbulent sounds were separated into the

stops and fricatives . . . Fairly good results were

obtained with this system. For instance, for vowels

in short words pronounced by 21 speakers, accuracy was above 94 per cent . . ." (Lindgren, 1965,

p. 118).

"Another version of the Bell Labs system (called

Audrey) was developed later in the decade (1958) by

Dudley and Balashek. It would recognize acoustic

patterns corresponding to 16 different basic linguistic

elements . . . The incoming acoustic signals were

broken down into specific patterns, which were compared with patterns stored in the machine.

Best-matches were determined by cross-correlation

methods." (Lindgren, 1965, p. 118).

5.85a Berkeley describes briefly a project at MIT under the direction of WilHam N. Locke

supported by the National Science Foundation to construct a machine that will recognize spoken

sounds and write them down as English phonemes.

"A prototype machine distinguishes successfully

between vowels and consonants and also between

the consonants sounds 'F', 'SH', and 'S'. Efforts

j are currently being made to distinguish electroniI cally between the sounds 'P', 'T' and 'K'. The

' essential difficulty at present comes in designing

circuits which will distinguish the sounds when

different speakers clearly enunciate the same

phonemes. The final stage will come in distinguishing different sounds spoken by anybody in normal

rapid speech. The principles being used in the MIT

study are those of recognizing distinctive differ- ences, rather than recognizing patterns — on the

theory that when a man is trying to find his way

with a map, a small number of judgments made

correctly is sufficient for him to tell where on the

map he is. None of the work being done at MIT at present includes the problem of subsequent correction of the sounds heard by clues from context."

(Berkeley, 1956, p. 9). 5.85b "The clusters for this experiment were

generated by taking measurements on sustained

spoken vowels. The utterance of each vowel was

sampled at a 20-milhsecond rate through 15 levels,

and the outputs of the filters were quantized into 13 levels. Each time sample was taken as a pattern,

thus producing a cluster of patterns from an utter- ance of one vowel. Eight vowels were used . . . The

set of 250 patterns, viewed as samples of unknown

space for purposes of this experiment was subjected

to a series of analyses to determine whether clusters existed and whether the method would separate

them . . . Within the Hmitations imposed by the

number of points within the clusters of the sample

space, this experiment resulted in the satisfactory

separation of eight unknown clusters of complex

patterns in an arbitrary sample space, identified

aberrant samples, and suggested an output code."

(Dammann, 1966, pp. 80, 87-88).

5.85c "A developmental speech recognizer

demonstrated by Philco-Ford Corporation is ex- pected to be the forerunner of practical and economical voice control equipment for applications such

as: direct voice input to a computer, phone dialing

by voice, voice control of machinery, and many

other specialized applications both military and

non-military in nature. The compact device re- sponds to words from a limited vocabulary

(presently OH through NINE) with typical acuracies between 90 and 99 per cent depending upon

the speaker, his microphone technique, and his familiarity with the recognizer. . . . "Input to the word recognition logic comprises

three measurements that are made continuously on the speech waveform. The resulting unique set of parameters are based upon a transformation of the information carrying resonances (formants)

of the human voice into a single equivalent fre- quency representation. The three measurements

are (1) the frequency of this single equivalence resonance, (2) the amplitude, and (3) the state of voicing, i.e., whether the sound is originated by the

vocal chords, or by noise due to air flow over a constriction in the vocal tract (as when speaking

the 's' sound). These three parameters are subsequently quantized to provide digital inputs to the word recognition logic." (Killet, 1967, p. 3). 5.86 "At the Electrotechnical Laboratory,

where analysis and synthesis of both the hearing

and the speech organs are under investigation they

are trying to develop a unique method of recognition based on testing the correlation between

generated and received speech. . . . Researches

[in speech analysis, synthesis, and recognition] are also being done at the University of Kyoto,

Kokusa Densin Denwa Co., Tohoku University,

and the governmental Electric Wave Research

Laboratory. Their present situation is that not more than vowels can be recognized." (Niwa,

1962, p. 65). 5.86a "At the present time there are several

projects in existence involving the analysis of

speech waveforms. Such fields of study are: (a) development of communication systems that use

digitized and/or parametric speech; (b) experiments with automatic recognition of spoken com- mands; (c) study of phonetics through models of the vocal system and synthetic speech; (d) seg- mentation of words, and human perception tests. For many of these applications conventional de- vices for examining speech, such as the fixedfilter spectral analyzer, are inadequate. Additional

specialized equipment is required and there is increasing interest in prior digital simulation of these experimental systems as an aid to design.

130
Alternatively digital, rather than analogue, processing of the speech waveform may be used. This

method is capable of greater flexibility and accuracy,

and new techniques such as zero-crossing analysis

readily lend themselves to computer calculations. In the setting-up of digital speech processing facilities, two problems may be distinguished: (1) provision of an input/output device to convert

the analogue speech waveform to a numerical

representation which may be stored on magnetic

tape: (2) development of programs to perform

various kinds of analysis on the digital record."

(Lavington and Rosenthal. 1967. p. 330).

"A simple 16-word vocabulary has been used

to assess the effectiveness of these measurements.

The vocabulary consists of monosyllables formed

by combinations of one of four initial consonants

(S. F. T. X). one of two vowel-sounds ("EE", or

'OR"), and one of two final consonants (S. N).

A recognition program has been tested on a total of 70 words spoken by 19 speakers (14 male, 5 female: various accents including Cockney. Lancashire, Glasgow, American, and Southern EngHsh).

Average computing time on the University's

Atlas was 1-2 sec per utterance, of w^hich about

0-35 sec was spent in assembling the digitized

speech from magnetic tape to the main store prior

to analysis. (The speech was previously put onto

tape via a tape-recorder or direct rnicrophone input

to the Speech Converter.) The main program was

written in Atlas Autocode, and is at present being

converted to machine code. Prehminary tests have

shown that this will reduce the overall time (in- cluding data-assembly) to below 0-7 sec per utter- ance. The size of the Atlas Autocode object-program

is 3.000 machine-instructions." (Lavington and

Rosenthal, 1967, pp. 338-339).

5.87 "In a case such as the present experiment where the patterns [eight classes of vowel

sounds] emerge from the real world rather than

from a pattern-generating rule, there can be no

assurance that any particular sample belongs to

its parent class in accordance with any reasonable

objective criterion."" (Dammann. 1966. p. 87).

". . . The analysis sample of one speaker is not

a good statistical representation of the test sample

of a different speaker. It must be noted, however,

that the performance of the system was significantly better than chance, implying that there is some degree of statistical invariance in the measure- ments . . . from one speaker to another." (King

and Tunis, 1966. p. 74-75.)

"A particularly difficult requirement to fulfill

is that the recognition process must produce the same results from the voices of different speakers

with different personal characteristics. " (Kusch.

1965, p. 204). 5.88 "Filter bank analyzers have been much

used (e.g., by Abramson, et al.. Denes and Mathews,

Olson and Belar. Davis et al. (1952), and Talbert

et al.) . . (King and Tunis, 1966. p. 65). The speech analyzer presently in operation at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm is

a band-pass filter-bank speech spectrum analyzer,

with 51 channels that can be set in various combinations of center frequencies and different band

widths. Input signals are digitalized after filtering in order to allow synchronous sampling of aU

channels. Output may be presented visually or recorded on magnetic tape in digital form, or it may be reconverted to analog form for display via

CRT or on X—\ plotter. Investigations can be

made of effects of different frequency transpositions upon input signals, changes in the time code

system, and the Hke. and the analyzer results can be compared with those obtained from the speech

syTithesizer.

A number of different techniques for the improvement of the basic low-pass filter have been tried and, as a result of the experience so gained, later investigations have provided for the use of two or more filters in parallel so that the disadvantages

of a particular system can be compensated by

circuits having complementary characteristics.

(Risberg. 1962 see also Stevens. 1968).

5.89 "(The output of the sonograph [Kay

Electronics Co.] is a continuous record of a fre- quency and amplitude vs time: this record is called

a sonogram.)"" (King and Tunis. 1966. p. 67). 5.90 "A simple model for human speech was

originaUy formulated by H. W. Dudley. It relies on the observation that during a human speech

utterance (especially during the 'voiced' portions),

the acoustic energy is mainly concentrated in only

a few relatively narrow- regions of the frequency

spectrum . . . These energy concentrations are known as formants. During the utterance of a word

the position and relation of the formants change,

creating a characteristic 'pattern' distinctive of

a word and, to some extent, the speaker." (King

and Tunis. 1966. p. 66.)

'The second major characteristic of interest is the marked tendency of frequency selective energy

concentrations, referred to as formants."' (Fant.

1959. p. 6). Other definitions are as follows: "Vowel

sounds are characterized acoustically by formants,

which are frequency regions of high energy concentration corresponding to the passbands of the throat and mouth cavities."" (Phonetics Laboratory,

University CoUege. London, 1963. p. 1). "The vocal tract resonances, called formants,

are determined by the shape of the vocal tract which, in turn, depends on the position of tongue

and lips. As we pronounce phoneme after phoneme, we change the position of these vocal organs, and

therefore also the formants. the spectrum, and

the character of the resulting sounds.'" (Denes,

1966, pp. 246-247).

5.91 "A new speech perception theory . . . known as the Single Equivalent Formant and its associated parameters developed by Philco Advanced Communications Laboratory can provide

a sound economical basis for a speech recognition

system." (Scient. Info. Notes 7, 21 (1966).)

131
5.91a See Kusch (1965). For example: "Recognition is effected with the help of a coding matrix

for sound groups and another for digits. . . . "The relevant characteristics are obtained from

the form analysis of speech oscillogram . . . Two

vibrations can be extracted from the overall signal

with adequate reliability by means respectively

of a low-pass and a high-pass filter with non-critical

cut-off frequencies. The vibrations show different amplitudes, which are to be distinguished as

'large', i.e., the vibration is present . . . And as

'small', i.e., the vibration is absent . . . "The spoken numbers were on the average cor- rectly indicated to the extent of about 87%."

(Kusch, 1965, pp. 201-203).

"The speech signal is essentially resolved into

its component frequencies by means of filters, as

for example in the vocoder technique. The fre- quency components that predominate in the fre- quency analysis are termed formants (characteristic

frequencies). These formants, which have already

frequently been used as parameters, do not constitute a reliable basis for the recognition of all sounds because of their frequency displacement

from one speaker to another. Account has to be

taken not only of the sounds themselves, but also of the sound transitions between consonants and

vowels." (Kusch, 1965, p. 204). 5.92 In particular, von Keller has tested a /procedure, using 300/as. time intervals, to determine

the number of zero-crossings in order to separate

the different vowels. Using as criteria the mean

lengths of distances as compared to pre-determined values, he has been able to separate five of

the eight vowels. (Stevens, 1968, p. 27; von Keller,

1966). 5.93 In the word classifier developments, the

objectives are to discover criterial features that are not phonemic segments but that will successively discriminate more different classes as additional features are considered. A speech recognition device was constructed for twenty classes

consisting of the ten numbers and ten words, in

Italian, for Euratom, ISPRA.

"The University of Bonn has developed a machine

that understands Italian and types out answers

on command. Known as DAWID, Device for Automatic Word Identification and Discrimination, the

machine, at the moment, has a vocabulary of 20

Italian words. It is claimed that it makes fewer

errors than IBM's Shoebox system which only

understood 16 words and had an error rate of 6

per cent. "Dawid contains circuits which detect the ex- plosive sound at the beginning of a word and measure delays on the remainder of the word.

The energy level of sounds below 400 c/s is also detected and the formants of the sound are fre- quency analysed. A phonetic and easily readable

language in which such a machine could write

down messages has also been developed." (See also Data and Control Systems, May 3, 1966, p. 65,

Tillman et al., 1965).

5.93a "In considering the recognition system, we intended to accept all the vocabulary commonly

used and not be Hmited to a certain category of

words. To satisfy this requirement the phoneme

was selected as the basic recognition unit. . . . "The zero-crossing pattern of the original signal

is closely related to the spectra of the original signal

and its peak corresponds to the formant. . . . "The score of the machine for the Japanese monosyllables (which contain a consonant and a vowel)

is more than 90 per cent for the vowel part and more

than 70 per cent for the consonant part except

nasal consonants, and /r/ and /b/ sounds for the

pronunciation of several males." (Sakai and

Doshita, 1963, pp. 836, 839, 845).

"Segmentation of the vowel interval is performed

by extracting the parameters that describe the

aforementioned intervals from the digital pattern

of speech sound analyzed by the zero-crossing wave

analysis. We defined two quantities called 'dis- tance' and 'stability'. Stabihty expresses the station- ary property of pattern, that is, the property that the parameter remains in an almost constant state over a certain interval. On the contrary, distance

is the quantity that expresses the change of the

pattern. Stability is useful for discovering the vowel

sound and the fricative sound, and distance is for the sound with burst, such as stop consonant."

(Sakai and Doshita, 1963, p. 837).

5.94 Further, "the means of automatic discernment (analysis) and automatic production (synthesis)

of sounds of speech require the rules under which

a plurilogical system, i.e., a collection of plurilogical elementary units and a manner of thesis

contributing, can be correlated with real sound

manifestations. Apparently, a relative simplification this task is to select a plurilogical system consisting of a collection of differential signs . . . "In correlating the constructed system of dif- ferential signs with real sound manifestations, the

main difficulty consists of differences between the

phonetic norms characteristic for the speech of any person. Similar problems appear in the study

of a correlation of the system of graphic differential signs with the systems of graphic norms, deter- mining differences between various handwritings

and typographical faces. A solution of the latter task is required for programming operations for reading automatic machines." (Ivanov, 1962, pp. 14-15.)

5.95 "STAR (Standard Telecommunications

Automatic Recognizer) is a research machine being

built at STL to further work on speech recognition . . . Four types of pulses (beginning and end

of rise, and beginning and end of fall) are derived

from the short-term mean power envelope of the

speech wave representing an isolated word. Any

or all of these may then be used to provide grouping of the other features detected, thus simplifying

the order information. There are two main advantages in this approach. The grouping is related to the broad structure of the word to be recognized,

132
and there is automatic time normalization meaningfully related to the word." (HiU. 1965, p. 357).

5.96 It is claimed for this experimental speech

recognition system that "this work extends the

results existing in the literature in that it deals

with significantly larger sample sizes than have

been commonly used, with a limited number of

hmited vocabularies, and with the effect of trans- formations of the primary measurement space on

recognition performance." They state further that "the recognition performance did not drastically

deteriorate as the number of words in the vocabulary was increased and suggests that good perform- ance on vocabularies larger than 15 words is achievable." (King and Tunis, 1966, p. 65). 5.96a "CYNTHIA III is an adaptive hybrid computer, developed by Andromeda, Inc., of Kensington, Maryland, which can learn to recognize highly

variable statistically distributed signals. It must go

through a preliminary learning process before rec- ognition is effective. After learning is finished it will quickly recognize the respective signals appUed

to its input by producing an unambiguous output

coded response which identifies the signal class

to which an input signal belongs. The machine is capable of extrapolating or generaUzing so that new signals, never presented in the learning operation, are recognized correctly if they belong in the

learned classes. The machine also provides an

internal digital memory and a visual display of the

characteristics of the statistical signals which render

them separable. ...

"The machine does not learn individual signals

when a large number of signals are presented, but

learns output classes to which certain significant

signal characteristics belong. All responses which

deviate from any of the averages of a set of classes

are extrapolations. The average itself may not be

present in an actually previously presented and

learned signal, but is established by learning. The

machine ignores other characteristics not in the

recognition classes and which are unnecessary for

identification. The present machine can deal with

isolated signals such as words or short sentences

taken as meaningful wholes, but cannot cope

with continuous speech. Extension of its powers

are being planned for the recognition of continuous

speech." (Lesti, 1963, p. 279).

5.96b "To use phonetic notation is clearly simplest for the first stage, converting the continuous

speech signal to discrete symbols. It is theoretically

feasible to develop a method of analyzing and seg- menting the acoustic signal, using phonetic symbols

for specific patterns recognized, but in practice this has proved to be extremely difficult. Thus, by

1960, all that could be claimed was the abihty to recognize spoken digits and some vowels in isola- tion (Marrill, I960)." (Spolsky, 1966, p. 493). "In the speech recognition system described

. . ., the speech sound was divided into several

segments (that seem to correspond to the phoneme)

from the time variation of the analyzed pattern and

then discrimination was performed for each

segment. But the parameters of distributions of

a segment are affected by the phonetic contextual

effect from the neighboring phoneme. The speech

sound, therefore, must be recognized as a whole

pattern considering phonetic context. This principle,

however, is difficuh to apply to the recognition

system of general conversational speech." (Sakai

and Doshita, 1963, pp. 842-843).

5.97 See, for example, a report of work by King

and Tunis based on the hypothesis that the spectrum

analysis of speech waveforms will provide measure- ments containing or comprising statistically

invariant measures of the spoken word. They

describe a programming system that applies

various transformations to the input measurement

space. "This transformed measurement space

then is used as the input to the categorizer section

of the recognition system. The categorizer section

consists of linear decision functions in which the

weights are obtained using an adaptive algorithm."

(King and Tunis, 1966, p. 65). 5.98 See Wooster, 1964, p. 13, as follows:

"It is becoming increasingly clear that speech recognition can not be done on the basis of the acoustic

properties of the speech signal alone; that general

solutions will rely upon the interplay of linguistics

and semantics."

Similarly, Lindgren reports: "Somehow, ways

must be found of incorporating linguistic information in the decision-making functions of possible

speech recognizers." (Lindgren, 1965, p. 121).

"Some observers place the resolution of speech

recognition problems squarely on the determination

of the laws of language." (Lindgren, 1965, p. 46). "It becomes clear, then, that quite apart from its own problems, the success of automatic speech

recognition depends in the last analysis on the suc- cessful solution of the problems involved in parsing

and semantic analysis." (Spolsky, 1966, p. 494).

It is to be noted in particular that: "Our understanding of these contextual factors is, as yet, slight.

We believe that the mechanical and anatomical

properties of the vocal tract play an important part

as well as a wide range of grammatical, linguistic

and semantic factors. The anatomical, physiological,

linguistic and other factors have a great influence on the acoustic features produced when a phoneme

is pronounced in context as opposed to when the same phoneme is pronounced in isolation; it is also more than likely that as listeners we make use of our knowledge of the operation of these factors —

acquired unconsciously when we learn to speak — to unravel the ambiguities of the acoustic cues. The

study of these factors, of the dynamics of speech, is at present the major research interest of Speech

Science." (Denes, 1966, p. 249).

5.99 See, for example, Dolby et al., 1965, p. 3-3:

"It is one question to ask whether a particular letter sequence is an affixing sequence, and quite another

to ask whether it is an affix in a particular word."

5.100 "The Farrington Manufacturing Company, New York, N.Y., a leading producer of Optical

Character Readers, is expanding into the voice

133
identification field by agreement to purchase Voiceprint Laboratories, Inc., Norville E. White, Chair- man and President of Farrington has announced.

The agreement provides that Voiceprint Laboratories, with headquarters in Somerville, N.J., will be operated as a Farrington subsidiary.

"Voiceprint identification is a method of identifying individuals by a spectrographic examination of

their voices which is nearly as accurate as fingerprint identification. Mr. White said that Voiceprint

identification 'will become a useful and valuable tool

in the data processing field. In addition to use in credit verification systems, it is expected that during

the next few years voice identification will be used

for direct communication between depositors and

a bank's computers via telephone'." (Computers

and Automation 16, No. 10, 55 (Oct. 1967).)

5.100a "The Justice Department last week

launched a |500,000-plus study of the human voice

as a means of identifying criminals. The work could

revolutionize law enforcement.

"The program is planned as a 3-year project, but

the Department is committed only to the first year's

research. Tuesday, it awarded a $146,509 grant to the Michigan Department of State PoHce for the

first phase of the project.

"Justice officials said the study will cover such

voice characteristics as pitch, timbre, resolution

intensity and the phase spectrum of sound waves. "They also want to learn the degree of precision

needed for adequate voice identification. " 'You may say a certain word one way one day and

another way the next. We want to know where

individual peculiarities become unreliable', an

official explained.

"The project, a new venture for the Department, was proposed by the Michigan police.

"First year's work will be channeled into three

subcontracts: • "The Department of Audiology and Speech

Science at Michigan State University will make a validation study of spectrographic

equipment already on the market. • "Stanford Research Institute will make a state- ment-of-the-art examination and probe alternatives to present equipment. • "Michigan State's School of Police Administration will cover law enforcement aspects.

"Justice officials said the probe, for all its depth,

is not intended as a 'definitive piece of research'.

But after the 3 years, they aim to know if voice

identification is feasible for law enforcement — and

if more study will be worthwhile." (Electronic News

13, June 24, 1968).

5.100b "Fingerprint identification is a very real possibility with the computer-controlled CRT

reader. The technique might well produce a more

complete method of cataloguing and comparing

fingerprints automatically and at very high speeds."

(Fuhon, 1963, p. 40). 5.100c "Trauring and Cuadra have suggested

matching of minutiae patterns as a basic for automatic print identification, such as for a personal

identification system. In his preliminary studies,

Cuadra uses manual detection of minutiae. Trauring

assumed idealized feature detectors." (Hankley

and Tou, 1968, p. 417).

5.100d "Van Emden has suggested a single

print classification scheme using multiple ridge counts between selected minutiae, but also assumes

idealized feature detectors." (Hankley and Tou,

1968, p. 417).

"Scientists and technicians at Litton Industries

Advance Data Systems have been conducting a

series of experiments and studies in the field of automatic fingerprinting processing for approximately three years . . . "Consider now the key problem in the field. What information is to be extracted from the

finger ridge pattern? If the FACT [Fingerprint

Automatic Classification Technique] technique is employed, the finger ridge pattern is scanned and

the location of all minutiae that has ridge endings

and ridge bifurcations or branches is temporarily

entered into storage . . . The data extraction

device then returns to each of these locations and

counts the number of ridges intervening between

all combinations of minutiae . . . "Using the Fingerprint Automatic Classification

Technique, the minutiae table is processed using

a proprietary technique evolved by the staff of Litton Industries. In actuality, four different processing techniques have been evolved using the minutiae

table. They all reduce to a binary descriptor word

whose length is a function of the number of minutiae

encountered in the original print. This descriptor

typically runs somewhere in the vicinity of forty

bits but could go as high as 120 bits in some remote

cases. This descriptor is well ordered and preliminary tests have indicated it to be unique." (Van

Emden, 1967, pp. 493, 496, 498).

5.100e "After elementary spatial filtering, an

interpretation program systematically searches

along ridges, correcting for gaps, contiguous ridges,

etc., to detect the print core and topological fea- tures. A topological coding program generates a sequential code sentence which describes the topological structure of the center region of the print.

Ordering of code sentences is used to classify fingerprints." (Hankley and Tou, 1968, p. 413).

"All lines are directed downward from locally

uppermost points, labelled Tj and called top nodes.

The choice of ridge tops as nodes may be justified

by their use in topological coding and by the fact that humans place comparatively heavy emphasis

on such points of locally maximum curvative."

(Hankley and Tou, 1968, p. 423).

"The proposed automatic fingerprint interpretation and topological coding schemes were simulated on an IBM 7094. The Ohio State University SCATRAN language was used, which allowed bit manipulating operations and logics to be expressed in essentially FORTRAN-like notation." (Hankley

and Tou, 1968, p. 444).

134
: Additional features are as follows:

"(1) The proposed scheme is a single-print sys- tem. Sufficient information is extracted from

each print to allow a fine classification.

(2) The interpretation program learns print structure and performs contextual filtering to correct for imperfections such as ridge

gaps and contiguous ridges.

(3) The interpretation logic is evolved via a learning mode using training data and inter- action with human programmer.

(4) The coding system is topological . . . The

topological structure of a fingerprint is in- variant to distortions due to rolling or stretch- ing of the skin or to changes in the size of the

finger. It is also invariant to translation and

rotation of the prints.

(5) The classification technique is highly compatible with the manual mode. The rules are

easily learned, and classifications may be

I verified bv inspection.'" (Hankley and Tou,

,1 1968, p. 413).

Hankley (1968) reports further as foUows: "This

paper presents a new scheme for topological classii| fication of single fingerprints. As a basis for a fingerprint file system, it allows a fine ordering of in- dividual prints using a concise coding of only a small

core area of each print. Moreover, the classification

is highly compatible with the way in which humans

[ naturally describe prints. These properties make

'j practical today an automated file system with re-

; mote manual input of print code. Alternately, the

scheme lends itself to automatic photointerpretation,

which is described elsewhere in the literature."

! (Hankley, 1968, p. 1). S.lOOf "Under the control of the computer, the scanner scans selected areas of 35 mm film, either

[i in the horizontal or vertical direction. The fine scan- ning density may be varied. The scanner sends to the computer the x and y coordinates of boundary

' crossings between light and dark areas. It also

identifies whether a fight or dark area is being

entered . . . "In the experiment we conducted, 128 small

squares per print were scanned. The square size was approximately 44 ridges on a side. Proper

positioning of the boundary was checked for each

^ i area. This was accomplished in the following manner. First an area was scanned. Then the amount

• of dark area was calculated. A ratio was formed

' between the amount of dark area and the total area. If this ratio was between the limits of onethird and two-thirds, the sample was accepted for additional processing. If it was outside these limits, the boundary was changed, the print was rescanned

'3- and the ratio test repeated . . . "There are two types of information that a

\: , machine can extract, namely ridge endings and

I ridge slopes. Ridge endings can be used for

;

' secondary classification and positive identification

of an unknown print. Ridge slopes can be used

for primary classification. If a fingerprint is segmented into a number of small areas, the slope

of the ridges passing through each area allows one

to recreate, using only the slope data, a rough

approximation of the print. Having this rough ap- proximation of the print allows one to divide the

total fingerprint population into a number of groups, thus allowing one to determine into which group an unknown print belongs wi^hoi'* searching the

entire file." (Shelman, 1967, pp. 467-469).

"If complete automation is to be accomplished,

the scanner should have provisions for translating

and rotating a print to establish a reference system.

If a translational and rotational invariant descriptor can be developed, this constraint may be reHeved."

(Shelman, 1967, p. 477).

S.lOOg "It is the purpose of this paper to consider optical processing of two-dimensional images

or patterns and to stress its usefulness for fingerprint processing . . . An angular averaging method,

which provides rotational invariance of the spectra,

in addition to their inherent translational invariance,

is shown to be suitable as a coarse classification method. In addition, the use of cross-correlation

techniques for identification of a fingerprint against

a limited set is discussed, and some other possible

schemes of optical processing are briefly mentioned." (Marom, 1967, p. 481).

S.lOOh "A very special hologram, called a

spatial filter, has the capability of comparing two

patterns and producing a signal which is a function

of the correlation or similarity of the patterns.

Experimentally, it has been found that complicated,

natural objects with irregular patterns can be

recognized with greater confidence than can man- made objects which tend to be geometrically symmatrical. Fingerprints, because of their randomness, appear to be ideal objects for the spatial

filtering method of recognition ...

"Eight fingerprints . . . were obtained from the

New York State Identification and Intelligence

System . . . All of the prints were very similar and

would have the same general classification. The

prints were copied on 35 millimeter film and a

spatial filter was produced from the print designated 'E'. The strip containing the eight similar

prints was then passed through the recognition

system with the spatial filter in position and the

recognition plane was photographed. The only print that produced an intense recognition spot was fingerprint 'E', the correct print. Several of the other

prints produced some fight scattering in the rec- ognition plane due to partial correlation with the

filter, but the light was not focused to a small spot

and measurement showed that the intensity of the

spot produced by fingerprint 'E' was 175 times

greater than any of the noise produced by the other

prints. There is absolutely no doubt that fingerprint

'E' was the only print which correlated with the

filter. Other experiments supported the conclusion

that the spatial filtering process is very selective

and is not confused by two very similar prints. In

fact, attempts were made to generate a filter which

would recognize all prints of one particular classi135
fication and in this way the spatial filtering process

could be used to classify prints automatically. So

far we have been unsuccessful, largely because the

spatial filters are too selective and tend to recognize

prints by their fine details and ridge spacing rather

than simply by their general patterns. This is ad- vantageous when you are attempting to recognize one particular print, but disadvantageous when you

are attempting to classify it." (Horvath et al., 1967,

pp. 485, 489-490).

5.100i "In September 1965, the FBI submitted

to members of industry who had displayed an interest, a request for proposal stated in very broad

terms. This proposal solicited ideas for the development of a device that would accurately read and

classify inked fingerprints. By the end of the year, we have received a number of responses ... It appeared that the greatest consideration had been

given to the use of general purpose scanners; however, it became apparent that a number of organizations were giving serious consideration to the use

of coherent light and a system of optics to do the

reading . . . "An indication of the industry's interest in this area can be garnered from the fact that a preproprosal conference held at FBI Headquarters on January 12, 1967, was attended by representatives

of more than 30 interested companies." (Voelker,

1967. pp. 446-447).

S.lOOj "With the current state of the art, it is not possible to tell whether an automatic coding

technique can be developed and put into practical

operation over a period of the next five to ten years

or so. This depends as much upon interest in the

problem and financial support as it does upon tech- nological development. With this somewhat uncertain prognosis, it seems desirable to examine alter- nate coding procedures while still maintaining the

computerized efficiency of the rest of the system.

An obvious appraoch to such an alternate tech- nique was a hybrid system where a human would

perform some of the more critical pattern recognition functions and a machine would perform the

remaining functions. This hybrid system can be

called a semi-automated system. If a fully auto- mated coding technique were eventually to be de- veloped, it seems highly probable that there would

still exist many situations in which it could not perform satisfactorily. This is particularly true with

respect to the coding of many latent fingerprints

found at crime scenes." (Kingston, 1967, p. 450).

"Thus we have two major reasons for developing

a semi-automated technique: (1) it could serve

to get a computerized fingerprint processing system

operational sooner than would be possible if we

were to wait for fully automatic procedures, and (2)

it could serve as an ancillary input to a fully auto- mated system when this is developed." (Kingston,

1967, p. 450).

5.101 "During the past several years, various

organizations have been investigating the possibility

of identifying a fingerprint by automated means.

A system to perform this function would encode a

fingerprint pattern to be identified so that it could

be compared at high speed with similar patterns,

available in a computer type storage facility. An

approach to encoding a fingerprint, using data about

bifurcations, or ridge splits, is described. Some

relationships between a suggested approach to matching fingerprint pattern and correlation detection procedures used in various modern communication systems are cited." (Gaffney, 1967, abstract).

5.102 "The system concept that was examined in our research . . . attempts to capitalize on the

information represented by the ridge characteristics. Unlike the other approaches, which aim at complete automation, it proposes a man-machine

operation, with the man locating the ridge characteristics and the machine (computer) performing

computation and matching of the locations . . . The computer would transform the locations into a standard frame of reference and perform a variety

of calculations on the relationships among core,

delta, and characteristics, to provide 'index' handles for later comparison." (Cuadra, 1966, p. 9). 5.102a "One advantage of neighborhood logic over other pattern recognition schemes is its in- variance to orientation . . . The PLUS instruction

is a symmetrical operation and as such it does not depend upon the orientation of the bifurcations.

Thus, a single sequence of instructions extracts all the bifurcations which are in the fingerprint. Since

in the inverted image (negative), a ridge ending

resembles a bifurcation, the algorithm can be

applied to the inverted image to extract ridge ending locations." (Freedman and Hietnanen, 1967,

p. 508).

"At present, work is continuing at Bendix Re- search Laboratories to develop an electro-optical

computing system which will be capable of processing fingerprints in parallel using neighborhood logic.

It is felt that such a system will have a great deal of potential to solve many other pattern recognition

problems including some in the area of surveillance

and detection. Thus, the system will be extremely

flexible, just as the biological pattern recognition

system is, and it would, therefore, fill the gap left by existing equipment." (Freedman and Hietnanen,

1967, p. 509).

5.102b "Several approaches have been made to automatic fingerprint identification including holo- graphic techniques. The techniques that use details of a fingerprint such as cores, deltas, ridge counts,

ridge endings, and ridge bifurcations tend to be

speciahzed according to the method by which the information is taken from the fingerprint. Thiebault

has described a technique using the directions of minutiae (ridge endings and bifurcations) where the data are obtained by a special camera that photographs the finger. Where a human operator identifies the core and delta as a reference axis, a matching technique has been developed that utilizes only the positions of the minutiae. The technique

described in this paper is intended primarily for

136
use with an automatic reader that reads minutiae

directly from a fingerprint card without identifying cores and dehas.

'This paper describes a procedure for matching

fingerprint impressions by computer using only two

types of minutiae: ridge endings and bifurcations . . . [The] matching procedure is based on matching a

constellation or group of minutiae formed about a

particular minutia called the mucleus from one impression with a corresponding configuration from

another impression . . . Although a particular constellation flexes and stretches, it retains a certain

pattern identity in impressions taken from the same

figure over a period of years. Matching just one constellation from one impression with a corresponding

impression appears to be sufficient for concluding

that both impressions were made by the same finger.

'Both relative distances and relative angles are used to match a constellation in one fingerprint impression with a similar constellation from another

impression . . ." (Wegstein et al., 1968, pp. 1-2).

"It is interesting to note that the variation in the

angle between minutiae directions tends to be quite

diff"erent than the variation in the distances. This

1 suggests that diff'erential emphasis might be placed

t on angular information versus positional informaj tion in the development of a descriptor. It is clear

that any descriptor must be tolerant of these variations and would, therefore, be redundant. It would

not be used with the expectation of a perfect fit but

rather in the sense of 'best match'. Its development

I would represent another challenging bench mark

along the route to a possible automated fingerprint

il identification system." (Wegstein and Rafferty, 1967,

I p. 464).

"Various minute details in a fingerprint might be

I utihzed in a descriptor. For example, the character-

: istics of sweat pores are as individual as the minute

, details of ridges. Unfortunately, special processes

I are required for making impressions that show sweat

i pores. On the other hand, ridge endings, bifurcaitions, islands, enclosures, incipient ridges, and

I breaks in ridges readily appear in inked fingerprint

limpressions. Furthermore, if just a few of these

I minutiae are the same in two different fingerprint

iimpressions, then there is a very high probability

ithat both impressions are from the same person."

KWegstein and Rafferty, 1967, p. 461).

5.102c It is similarly pointed out that: "Although

(simple and economical, the familiar process of

recording inked fingerprints is hable to a variety of

'errors and inconsistencies. There is wide tolerance

positioning the finger. Variations in inking cause marked differences in contrast between fingerprints

s well as in different parts of the same fingerprint,

idge details are lost through over- and under-inking.

The flexibility of the finger makes the image depend

on the way the finger is pressed and rolled. The

^extent to which the sides of the finger are recorded

is highly variable." (Schwartz, 1967, p. 511). 5.103 ^'Recognition of Plant Species from

'^eaf-Vein Patterns. We begin this study under the

assumption that an algorithm can be developed

which will generate a venation pattern in which

certain stochastic features perturb an essentially

deterministic process. The parameters of the

algorithm could then be regarded as the features

serving to classify the leaf types according to species." (Quarterly Progress Report No. 80,

Research Laboratory for Electronics, M.I.T., 221

(1966).)

5.103a "Seven types of patterns were considered. Four of these were features of the lunar

terrain: craters with flat floors, craters with central

peaks, rima, and wrinkle ridges . . . The remaining three classes of patterns were types of cloud cover appearing in NIMBUS imagery: noncumulous,

cumulous polygonal cells, and cumulous solid

cells." (Darhng and Joseph, 1968, pp. 457-458).

Another approach to cloud pattern recognition,

at Astropower Laboratory, has involved the computer simulation of a Perceptron-type approach.

(Joseph et al., 1964).

5.104 "A group is conducting research on

respiratory ailments at Southwestern Medical

School in Dallas, Texas. One parameter of interest

is the number of times that a patient coughs during

a given interval. Microphones are placed in selected

hospital rooms and audio recordings are made . . . In addition to the requirement to classify the audio

signal as cough or non-cough, the physiological

model of the cough indicates that decision theory

may profitably be applied to the waveform to identify

the cough as having emanated from individuals

suffering from different broad classifications of respiratory diseases." (Welch et al., 1967, p. 260).

5.105 "The recognition of sheet music is being

studied as an example of pattern recognition in partially structured pictures. 'Partially structured'

refers to a picture composed of well-defined forms

or 'characters' and of forms that are only partially

defined. The need to handle both types of forms

and to deal with the relations between a number of

forms simultaneously makes this problem more

pictorial in nature than character recognition alone. The scheme that is being utihzed includes nonhnear

background elimination, contour tracing, and feature

extraction. . . . "With the aid of the scanner and ancillary equipment ... it is possible to program a computer to determine note value, duration, phrasing, and cer- tain other music indicators from ordinary printed

sheet music. . . . "At present, the program successfully processes

and recognizes one general class of patterns, namely

the timing-bar complexes attached to notes containing the time information for the notes. Progress

continues along these lines with work now being

directed toward recognition of general note

clusters. . . . "By using this scanner, pictures of music were

scanned into the TX-0 and written on magnetic

tape in a format compatible with FORTRAN.

Nonhnear vertical and horizontal defocusing

137
(background elimination) were efifected on these

pictures by using the IBM 7094 computer. Tapes

were then generated containing pictures obtained

by various logical combinations of picture arrays, such as complementation and logical 'anding'.

The results of using these processes were various

types of modified pictures, such as those with hori- zontal and vertical Hnes erased, those with nothing

present except horizontal lines, and so forth."

(D. H. Pruslin, Quarterly Progress Report No. 80,

Research Laboratory for Electronics, M.I.T.,

221, 225-226 (1966).)

5.105a 'T have already been approached by

persons interested in tracking baboons in their

migrations across Africa. The problem is: Can the

rump prints of baboons be taken by a machine such

as the FACT finger scanner, processed and held

in file for future comparisons when these same

animals are again captured? While this seems very

comical, this and other side benefits could accrue from the work done in the name of automatic

fingerprint processing." (Van Emden, 1967. p. 504).

5.105b "It is wise to remember that many

problems in music are complex. The extent to which data-processing technology will render solu- tions more accessible than do traditional procedures

remains an open question. For example, it now

appears that computer-generated graphic displays

offer new resources for the editing procedures

that are central to much work in musicology. Yet,

a great deal of work must be done before machineimplemented editing can cope with the notational

systems of various historical periods or with such a complex representation of the human creative

process as a page from a Beethoven sketchbook,

in attempting to cope with such problems, however, we can expect that traditional music scholarship

will obtain insights that may determine extensive

critical revisions of conventional methods and

criteria." (Forte, 1967, p. 329).

5.105c "Before processing, scores are encoded

by hand in a language designed by Stefan BauerMengelbery in connection with a computerimplemented project to print scores automatically.

This input language has unique attributes:

(1) It is isomorphic to standard music notation.

(2) It is highly mnemonic, hence easy to learn.

(3) The responsibilities of the encoder are minimal. The encoding rules are unambiguous and do not require the encoder

to make arbitrary decisions.

(4) It is economical. The amount of code for a complete representation is remarkably

small." (Forte, 1967, p. 4). 5.106 "As an aid to the physician, to release

his time for other types of patient care, the In- strumentation Field Station of the United States Public Health Service has developed programs for automatic analysis of waveforms such as the

electrocardiogram, phonocardiogram, forced

respiratory spirogram, electroencephalogram, and

other medical signals." (Weihrer et al., 1967, p. 289).

5.107 See Swanson, 1966, p. 4. 5.108 "At the Royal Institute of Technology,

Stockholm, S. Karlsson of the Institute for Telecommunication Theory is engaged in the study

of problems of pattern recognition with respect

to electrocardiographic recordings. Karlsson and

jj Arvidsson have developed a programming system ^ for EKG measurements, using an approach some- i what similar to that of Pipberger (1965) at the I U.S. Veteran's Administration. Karlsson starts with a procedure to formulate initial clusters i such that a member of a cluster has its nearest neighbor in the same cluster (e.g., in the peaks

of the recording), and repeats for the next nearest neighbors and so on. The purpose is to derive a measure for each pattern category by extracting

features common to all members of the same

| cluster." (Stevens, 1968, p. 33) ; 5.108a See, for example, Pizer and Vetter,

p 1968, on the perception and processing of medical

^ radioisotope scans and the work of Butler (1968) J on automatic analysis of bone autoradiographs. i 5.109 "The general approach is also being j applied to problems of medical diagnosis and » data interpretation such as are encountered in electrocardiographic, phonocardiographic, and ' x-ray interpretation." (Teager, H. M., Quarterly

j Progress Report, No. 80, Research Laboratory for , Electronics, M.I.T., 269 (1966).) } 5.110 For example, projects at the University

of Pisa are concerned with automation of the

j analysis of radiocardiograms. "This involves a non- ; linear programming problem to determine transfer ( functions of interest, requiring detections of the i first three moments, average dispersion, symmetry, I as characteristic of desired curves. Similarly, there

is a project to extract time sequences of nerve

pulses and to determine coding in the optical li system. For this purpose, a special-purpose analog- « to-digital converter has been designed. A more ^ generahzed converter is under development for a variety of biomedical investigations including ' EEC, EKG, and other problems involving pattern « recognition with respect to clinical data." (Stevens, i 1968, p. 32). ? 5.110a "The automatic computer analysis for . the determination of the mitotic index involves

scanning with the FIDAC . . . Since a mitotic cell

is in the process of fragmenting, it has a much [ more irregular boundary than has a nonmitotic '

cell. To distinguish between mitotic and non- ' mitotic cells, then, the computer is programmed

to count the number of concavities smaller than ^ a given segment length in the silhouette of each ' object or cell, and compare this number with the

total number of such segments on the boundary. ' The greater the proportion of concavities, the more ' irregular the boundary and the more likely it is f that the cell is mitotic." (Ledley et al., 1968, p. 100). 5.111 "The CYCLOPS 1 appears to be among , the most sophisticated and powerful pattern- , recognition devices yet reported; its capability j 138
to do quite elaborate scene analysis is perhaps

unique." (Hart, 1966, p. 16). For example, "the program may be commanded

from the typewriter to analyze a complex scene. Such a scene may consist of known items, i.e., shapes which have been defined as being significant

(the alphanumeric characters); and of other items, some of which may be significant to the viewer

but not to the system, and some of which may be

merely background 'noise'. An arbitrary number of

known items may be present simultaneously; they

may be of different sizes and orientations; they may

overlap, or be inside each other; they may be super- imposed on an arbitrary background." (Marill et al., 1963, p. 28). The CYCLOPS—I scheme involves a series of

finding operations by looking for what might be

!| there and by progressive ehminations of possibilities.

I Thus, "a negating tree system has been used by

Marill et al. in which the possibility of an unknown

being a particular character is examined sequentially

i (i.e., if the unknown alphanumeric does not consist

i of essentially one segment whose length is Httlc

fi more than the distance across the end points, and is

i approximately vertical, it is not a one)." (Minneman,

j 1966, p. 86). 5.112 ". . . We are now able to begin serious

study of the most difficult problem facing the

,1 project: The analysis of real-world three-dimensional

scenes." (Minsky, 1966, p. 12).

' "Programs have been developed to read selected

!i parts of the visual scene, analyse them for parts of

•' polygonal objects, and then transform them to

I real-world coordinates. The present programs are

still rudimentary, and their extension is vital to the

'] project." (Minsky, 1966, p. 16).

\\ "Our goal is to develop techniques of machine

\( !' perception, motor control, and coordination that

i

I are applicable to performing real-world tasks of

,f j object-recognition and manipulation." (Minsky,

, 1966, p. 11).

;,; i "The sensory equipment includes two visualu; i input devices: TVA, a vidicon television camera,

I and the more precise TVB, an image-dissector

r.

I device for controUed-scan analysis." (Minsky,

( 1966, p. 13).

y

. Further, "processes for recognizing visual objects

I by computer programs are being studied. These

^ j processes involve analysis of the visual field into objects and background. Objects are to be recogg

[ nized by generating hypotheses and confirming

^ J them or modifying them by the results of selective

attention to parts of the field and of the proposed

objects. These processes will entail use of stereopsis

'^^ and color, as well as the construction of abstract

,

I symbolic three-dimensional representations of

, < the scene within computer memory." (Quarterly

''

, Progress Report, No. 80, Research Laboratory for

®

j Electronics, M.I.T., 195 (1966).)

I "A picture, scene or view is read with the help of an optical device and stored as an array of light intensities in the memory of the computer. The

r?" ' ultimate goal will be to understand this information,

that is, to identify, separate and position the

different objects or bodies belonging to the scene(s).

The demands of information will vary: sometimes we

wiU be interested in knowing if an object is seen

in the scene or not, while at other times we may

require a complete description of the scene, in- cluding information on relative support and (3-dim)

position of the different components." (GuzmanArenas, 1967, p. 1). "For planning and control of the overall activity of the machine, we are taking into account texture and color, as well as object boundaries and the hke.

The system will be able to partition a scene into objective regions, combine these regions into pro- posed objects, and finally present this collection

of pseudo-objects as an abstract model of the objects

and background in real space." (Minsky, 1966,

p. 16). 5.113 Cf., for example, Dreher as follows: "As

a matter of survival and social interaction, it is necessary for living systems constantly and concurrently to perform two types of event classification, termed by anthropologists 'etic' and 'emic'

distinctions. Under etic classification, similarities among events are cancelled out and attention is focussed upon differences; in the emic classification, differences are disregarded and any possible

similarities are focussed upon." Dreher (1966. p. 9). 5.113a "Pattern recognition is only one aspect

of the much more fundamental problem of analysis

and description of classes of patterns (or equivalently, classes of pictures)." (Narasimhan, 1966,

p. 167).

"The problem of designing logics to recognize

characters can be considered as requiring two main

efforts. The common starting point of all recognition

techniques is 'feature extraction' operations on

the character to determine the significant characteristics of the character. The second investigation

involves the problem of identification, that is, the

problem of classifying a character as a member

of one of several classes." (Liu, 1964, p. 586).

"The essential problem of character recognition

is to find which of two patterns is the more similar

to a third. When this problem has been solved, an unknown pattern can simply be 'recognized' as belonging to the recognition class to whose members

it is most similar." (Ullmann, 1966, p. 584).

5.113b "Since pattern recognition is actually

the operation of classification, the concept of classes

of patterns plays a central role . . . Each class is represented by a region, or more generally by a dis- tribution function in some kind of pattern space."

(Richardson, 1966, p. 10). "Very popular in decision techniques and in pattern recognition is the minimum Hamming

distance (MHD) method using binary feature set

{xi}. Here the categorizing is accomplished by

determination of the MHD between the applied

binary sets and all those ideal feature sets stored."

(Kazmierczak and Steinbuch, 1963, p. 826).

"A more general adaptive procedure for deter- mining linear or piecewise Hnear discriminant

3S6-107 O - 70 - 10 139
functions for multiclass pattern classification is proposed. The adaptive procedure is a manypattern or group-pattern adaptation. The training

sequence consists of groups of vectors in matrix

form instead of single vectors. The convergence

proof shows that this procedure terminates in a

finite number of adaptations if a solution exists. A necessary and sufficient condition is developed

for testing the linear separability of each subset

of (d & 1) samples. Furthermore, the proposed

procedure can be implemented with the addition

of only a little complexity to existing systems. Computer simulations indicate satisfactory results." (Wee and Fu, 1968, p. 178, abstract).

5.114 "There are many purely hardware

considerations that dictate the particular choice

of measurement, transformation, or decision function to be used; certain measurement spaces may

require much more digital storage than others."

(King and Tunis, 1966, p. 66). 5.115 "Among the challenging problems in the

design of pattern recognition systems, two problems

are of utmost importance: (1) the extraction of

pattern features, and (2) the optimum classification of pattern classes. The first is concerned with the

problem of what to measure, and the second deals

with the problems of making optimum decisions

in classification." (Tou and Heydorn, 1967, p. 57). "The essential point underlying the validity of

the separation of the system into two parts, is the

requirement that the quantities [6,] produced by

the property filter define a -pattern space of modest

dimensionality in which the classes overlap to only a minor degree." (Richardson, 1966, p. 75). "To avoid inaccuracies in prediction caused by

too many measurements, a method is given for selecting from the available measurements a subset

that will usually give a more accurate prediction.

Essentially, this technique consists in estimating

the mean square error associated with various

numbers of measurements in a particular ordering.

This selective approach to prediction is most profitably applied to problems involving a relatively

large number of measurements and a limited

number of learning samples. Two experiments

having these properties were presented to show

the power of the selective predictor." (Allais,

1966, p. 128).

5.116 "The theorem of the ugly duckling shows

that if all the predicates which are logical functions

of the observable attributes of objects are con- sidered as having equal importance, or weight, there

cannot exist any recognizable classes of similar

objects. This is because, according to the theorem,

any pair of non-identical objects shares the same number of predicates as any other pair of nonidentical objects. This means that if there are recognizable classes of similar objects in our world

of experience, some predicates are tacitly given more weight than some others. This is the basic

mathematical fact underlying the technical knowledge shared by everybody that the essence of

pattern recognition lies in weighting or evaluation

of variables and in eventual selection of a 'few' j 'good' ones . . . For this reason, the process of t pattern recognition can be considered also as a j sort of information compression, because its purpose \ is to ignore that information which is irrelevant [ to class features." (Watanbe et al., 1967, p. 192). , 5.117 Some of the results that have been re- i ported deal with the likelihood functions of separ- I able stochastic functions (Brick and Owen, 1967),

with measures to select variables so that the probability of misclassification is systematically de- creased (Rao, 1966), and on algorithmic approaches

to the determination of decision boundaries based

on learning samples. (Henrichon, 1967).

5.118 "The mathematical model used is the

classic one of which so many of the statistical pattern recognition studies have been based,

whereby an n-dimensional sample space is partitioned into category regions with decision j boundaries . . . Assuming there exists a probability

distribution associated with each category describing

| the distribution of its members in n-space, the object

is to partition the space in an optimal fashion. An

unknown vector is then assigned to the category in whose region it falls." (Cooper, 1966, pp. 1-2).

"Adaptive pattern recognizers incorporate

approximations to the class probability distributions

that improve as a result of cumulative information

derived from known inputs." (Barus, 1966, p. 385).

5.118a "The reliability of a particular recognition procedure can be described quantitatively

by means of certain misclassification probabilities

and cost functions. These, in turn, define a loss function which usually forms the base for choosing

the classification regions. For example, the Bayes

procedure chooses Ri, . . . Rm so as to minimize

the expected loss, while the minimax procedure

minimizes the maximum expected loss." (Capon,

1965, p. 247). 1 A specific example is given by Allais as follows: i "Data for the first experiment were obtained from i; a handwritten character reader, built by IBM ; (Greanias, et al.). The problem treated is that of ? discriminating between the handwritten numerals one and zero. One hundred measurements were i chosen at random from 160 which were available, : and of these only 78 were nontrivial. Thus these

experiments were performed with q—78 candidate

| measurements. Each measurement was an integer- t valued number less than 20, and predictand y was ! a binary indicator. Hence, the data are nonnormal. i Measurements were ordered by partial correlation \ with the class indicator y, using 100 learning i samples. Recognition using various numbers of i measurements was then tested on 284 independent i] data samples. Minimum estimated error ep occurred f with p = 29, which in this case resulted in zero / recognition errors." (Allais, 1966, p. 128).

"The main resuh of the foregoing analysis is the t practical interpretation of an expression for the f mean square error of the maximum-likelihood j predictor. Here, the fractional increase in error e due to using a learning sample was found to be i; 140
approximately pi {N-p-2) . where p is the number

of measurements. This resuh explains why a pre- diction is sometimes more accurate if it is based

on fewer than the total number of available measurements." (Allais, 1966. p. 128).

5.118b "The notion of effectiveness of a recognition logic may be interpreted from an informationtheoretic point of view. Intuitively, one hopes to obtain effective recognition logics so that the ac- curacy of recognition may be enhanced, or the

number of logics required to achieve a given

accuracy may be reduced." (Liu. 1964, p. 586).

5.118c "Since the shapes of the Arabic numerals

and English alphabet were not designed to make

the most efficient use of common features, it is not possible to code the numerals and alphabet

with six or seven features bits, as in the case of an ideal code. Prior studies have shown that substantially more than seven features will be required —

perhaps as many as twentv or thirty." (Greanias.

1962. p. 145).

5.118d "Considering pattern recognition as a

statistical decision problem, the structure of a

recognition system can be derived from the functional

form of the probability distributions. Successive

approximations to the distribution functions lead

to a hierarchy of recognition structures." (Chow

and Liu. 1966. pp. 73-74).

5.118e "In general, the measurements are not

statistically independent; there exists a certain,

though usually unknown, dependence among the

measurements. The central problem is to determine

which dependence relations are worth examining

and how to weigh them." (Chow and Liu. 1966.

p. 74). "For certain types of measurements, the chain

ordering or the dependence tree may be inferred

from the physical or geometrical properties of the

measurements. For example, when these are the

I direct video image of the pattern, then the assumpII tion of neighbor dependence such as described

by Chow [1962] is a reasonable choice." (Chow,

1966. p. 108).

I 5.119 "It has been recognized that the pattern

j recognition problem can be discussed within the

I framework of statistical classification theory."

(Capon, 1965, p. 247).

"We turn now to a second way of describing

(classes, namely in terms of statistical distribuI tions . . . The only reasonable way to describe

overlapping classes is statistical. In this kind of

description, whether the pattern space be complete

or incomplete, a given pattern is assigned a probability of lying in a given small region of pattern

space and this probability is further decomposed

into a sum of terms each giving the probability of membership in a given class. . . . "Another way, perhaps intuitively appealing, of

looking at the statistical prescription is to regard

each class as a pile of dust resting on a multidimensional floor corresponding to the pattern space. Each pile contains a particular kind of dust and dif- ferent piles may overlap, one layer over another.

The total amount of dust of all kinds over a given

area of the "floor" represents the probability that

a pattern Hes in the area regardless of its class membership. The relative thickness of the various

layers of dust then gives the probability of membership in each class." (Richardson, 1966, pp. 11-12).

"The use of statistical decision functions is one

of the many possible approaches to the problem

of character recognition by computer." (Chu. 1965,

p. 213). Cf., also. Dressier and Werner as follows: "Of the many different pattern recognition

systems and devices utiHzing various principles of

operation, this analysis is confined to those which

employ a 'forced-learning' preliminary procedure,

and which base decisions upon application of the

maximum-likelihood principle of statistical decision

theory. In this type of system, the statistical data

compiled from the forced-learning process are

stored in the memory of some associated computing

circuits and used as the basis for calculations of

posterior probabihties, and probability calculations

are made directly from Bayes' Rule. Within this particular procedural framework, there are. among

other conceivable possibilities, two basic alternatives regarding the nature of the data utilized.

(a) The simpler method, now in common use, employs some fixed threshold, a single quantity, for each mask. If the excitation resulting

from the application of an unknown pattern

to a mask exceeds this threshold, then the

mask is said to be excited or to fire. The

probabihty scores necessary for the calculations are then only the relative frequencies of excitation and nonexcitation for each pattern

class of interest . . .

(b) Contrasted with this, a somewhat more complicated procedure which could be used would

employ the complete probability density curves resulting when one entire class of patterns is presented to each mask, instead

of just a fixed threshold procedure. The

statistical decision in this case is then based

not merely upon the probabihty of a firing or a nonfiring, but rather upon a quantitative measure of the mask's response to an un- known, in terms of the known probability

density curve." (Dressier and Werner, 1964,

pp. 471-472).

5.120 Similarly, in the area of speech recognition, "one approach of interest assumes the

existence of a perfect measurement for each class of utterance. It also assumes that the variety of

measurements is the result of the perfect measure- ments being corrupted by additive noise. . . . "If an operation on the measurements, = g'(X)

,

could be discovered that would ehminate the effects of variation in speed of talking, volume, and ex- pression between speakers, the problem of recognition of human speech might stiU be approached

from the perfect signal point of view." (King and

Tunis, 1966, pp. 66-67).

141
"Talbert, et al., and Dammann have reported on

the use of adaptive linear decision functions in speech recognition studies . . ." (King and Tunis,

1966, p. 65). "Research in pattern recognition may be

characterized as a search for invariants. The

problem is to find attributes that all instances of a given pattern have in common that instances of other patterns do not. The particular class of in- variants selected will ultimately determine the

performance of the pattern recognition system.

However, performance is not the sole factor

influencing the choice of invariants. Associated

with any research project are certain objectives

and goals. In pattern recognition, achievement of these goals is not only a function of what the system

recognizes, but also how it performs the recognition.

Thus the selection of invariants may be more in- fluenced by the purposes and philosophy of the

research than by a desire for a high rate of recognition. To illustrate this point, let us examine briefly

two character recognition schemes which are at opposite ends of a spectrum with respect to the

aims of their research. Both perform very well in that their recognition accuracy is high. Their basic

difference in purpose and philosophy is reflected in two very diverse sets of invariants. These two

schemes wifl provide a frame of reference for the

research described in this paper." (Teitelman,

1964, pp. 559-560).

"What is needed, then, is a concise description,

invariant to size and position of the pattern which

presents, in a direct manner, the segment inter- relationships. One would like, further, that any such

description while not being rotationally invariant,

be readily amenable to rotational manipulations.

This last because many line patterns and letter sets, while not wholly rotationally invariant, are

largely so, and it would be desirable to be able to conveniently probe this aspect of the recognition

problem. Clearly, in order to avoid reference to an

arbitrary external point, a point in the pattern

itself should be chosen as a reference. The pattern's

centroid is a good choice." (Spinrad, 1965, p. 128).

5.121 "Only this kind of identification of the

problem [defining the objectives of associative

retrieval in mathematical terms] is likely to yield

productive results and we may find . . . that

distinctly different association matrices are re- quired, depending upon the problem which requires

solution. . . . Bryant also expresses ". . . surprise that so much attention has been given to derivation of measures of association and correlation in the

absence of mathematical work which specifies

that, under certain reasonable assumptions, these

are the measures needed." (Bryant, 1964, pp. 503-504).

"It is clear that carefully controlled experiments

to evaluate the efficacy and usefulness of the statis- tical association techniques have not yet been

undertaken except in a few isolated instances. . . .

"Adherents of the statistical approach spend

much time arguing among themselves as to whether

this or that statistical technique is more appropriate,

but those who have a chance to compare them often

find that the difference in output between one

technique and another is not appreciable." (Doyle,

1965, p. 18). "All such methods involve two considerations.

First, there is defined a measure of group-density or

of inter-group likeness. Examples of the latter type

of measure (the so-called 'similarity coefficients') are

legion; the best-known have been reviewed by

Goodman and Kruskal (1954, 1959), Dagnelie (1960)

and Sokal and Sneath (1963), but it is doubtful

whether even these extensive collections are complete. For general consideration, suppose that two

groups (i) and (j) fuse to form a group (k); then,

extending (and slightly altering) the symbolism of Williams, Lambert and Lance (1966), we shall need

to distinguish between three types of measure:

(i)-measures, which define a property of a group,

(i, j)-measures, which define a resemblance or difference between two groups, and (i, j, k)-measures, which define some difference between the

original two groups, considered jointly, and that formed by their fusion. Of these, (i)-measures are confined to clustering techniques except in so far as they may be incidentally required in the course

of calculation of (i, j, k)-measures." (Lance and

Williams, 1967, p. 373).

5.122 "Goodman and Kruskal (1959) have identified over 50 different formulas for measuring

associations. Each such formula has its own

advantages as well as its drawbacks, and, given our present incomplete understanding of the

problem of semantic association, it would be pre- mature to suggest any one as ideal." (Guiliano,

1965, p. 27). 5.123 An optical relization of "PAPA" (Italian

acronym for 'Automatic Programmer and Analyzer

of Probabilities') (1962) provided a filter for each

of the two classes a and b to select only those optical

fibers that give a preferential 'yes' answer for the

appropriate class with weights proportional to their 'goodness' as discriminating criteria. "The first dichotomic separation is based on

'the most widely fluctuating property', which is also

in most cases the most evident or simple property

for the sense organs of the machine." (Gamba,

1961, p. 147). ; "The inductive ability of PAPA is related to an

'intelligence' term, proportional to the average

^ correlation factor of different patterns of the same

class." (Gamba, 1962, p. 176).

j "After PAPA No. 2 has been instructed by ^ presenting to it an equal number of example

[ patterns of both classes, the tape is run backwards. ,j The read-out amplifiers pick up the "yes" (and | "no") pulses for each A-unit and check their values. If they are the same within a preassigned

percentage, this means that the A-unit is inefficient. In this case the corresponding noise ... is auto-
matically erased and replaced by fresh noise. This

might give rise to another inefficient A-unit, but

since the process is such that the efficient A-units

are maintained, by repeating the process several

times the average efficiency of the A-units for the

given classes is considerably increased." (Palmieri

and Sanna. 1962, pp. 8-9). In the presently demonstrable model of Gamba's

'PAPA', Figure 18, 4,096 associational 'cells' are used with 8-bit discriminatory capacity for each, so

that 64,000 bits of storage are required for this purpose, and up to 8 categories or classes can be

distinguished. It should be noted, of course, that

size normalizations are not required in the system

and that depending upon the training sequence,

considerable tolerance to location in the input

field and to rotation can be accommodated.

"The present demonstration equipment and

programming allow a 32-sample training sequence

per class. Output consists of the lighting up of an

indicator signal for the machine-selected class and/or the printout of the numerical values of the

machine-calculated probabilities that a given

input pattern belongs to class 1,2, ... 8. "Potential application investigations have in- cluded studies of knight vs. rook moves in chess,

and the question of whether the Paschal lines for random interconnections of lines drawn from 6

points on the circumference of a circle are vertical

or horizontal. Perhaps more practically, the system

has been applied to meteorological chart discriminations with respect to isobar or isotherm curve

patterns, that are symptomatic, respectively, of

good or bad succeeding weather in a specific

location. Here, given training sequences of 50

samples each for the two classes, the 'PAPA'

machine system has achieved 80% valid recognitions." (Stevens, 1968, p. 29). To date, the same randomly-generated inter- section-detection patterns have been used for the

various tests. There is no reason, however, that other randomly-generated filtering patterns could

not also be used, but this question has not been

investigated in detail. On the other hand, at least prehminary consideration has been given to problems of speech recognition, without alteration

of the basic approach.

5.124 The objective is, "given a set of patterns,

[to] determine a set of features, minimal in number,

such that each pattern can be formed by the superposition of a subset of these features." These

authors conclude, however: "Unfortunately, we

have not yet been able to find a reasonably brief

algorithm to solve the problem in this degree of

generality. However, we shall present two useful

algorithms for the case in which the features are

large compared to their mutual overlap. Results

of experiments by digital-computer simulation will be used to show that these algorithms can lead to valuable results, even when this restriction is not met." (Block et al., 1964, p. 84). 5.125 "A 'conditioned-reflex' machine which

can learn to recognize photos of aircraft or even

people has been developed for the Air Force

Systems Command's Aeronautical Systems Division

at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

"Called Conflex 1, the pattern-recognition system was built by Scope, Inc., of Falls Church, Va., in a 30-month program for the Air Force Avionics

Laboratory at ASD.

"Decision-making by machine is becoming a

critical requirement in aerospace operations where

vast quantities of data must be collected, studied,

and a conclusion reached almost instantaneously.

"The device is capable of recognizing 4,800 differ- ent previously learned patterns, including pictorial

displays, letters, numbers, and geometric designs,

with 99.6 per cent accuracy." (Ordnance Electronics,

212,Sept.-Oct. 1963).

"CONFLEX I was designed to serve as an experimental CR ['conditioned-reflex'] system. For this reason, it was decided that the design should pro- vide for several thousand D-cells [discrimination]

and multiple M-fields (classes)." (Uffelman, 1962,

p. 137).

"What is required, is a system that does not merely discriminate between one pattern and

another, but rather analyzes classes of patterns and

is capable of extracting the properties of a class

that is common to all its members. . . . "Handwritten characters were used to train the

device. The letters A, D, and C were considered.

Thirty examples of each were used for training.

After training, all ninety of these examples were

rerun through the system for recognition. There

were eight system errors using probabilistic sorting.

Using unknowns (or letters not used in the training

sequence) the probabilistic scoring technique was compared to the Perceptron technique. The error

rates were 14% for Perceptron and 20% for Probabilistic scoring." (Hoffman, 1962, pp. 153, 156).

5.126 "The GPO approach of Coombs and

Milne has been applied to badly mutilated examples

of a 10-character multifont vacabulary. A technique

of 'shuggling' (shuffling or jittering) is used to determine maximum and minimum correlata of the

input image with the same and other patterns in the vocabulary. From these determinations, a some- what irregular 20 X 10 matrix of criterial points

provided successful character discrimination of

198 of 200 patterns of the training set." (Stevens,

1968, p. 5). 5.127 "Much more substantial is the nonlinear nature of transformations realized by the /4 -units with many inputs. Such transformations, as has

been shown by Barus' work, given a great number of

y4 -units, make it possible to store more detailed

information about the variety of patterns utilized during the teaching." (Kovalevsky, 1965, pp. 41-42).

"The test alphabets were chosen on purpose to be

difficult to classify. Early success with an alphabet

of 'squares' and 'circles' ('O's') led to further tests with a more difficult alphabet, consisting of the

hand-printed letters 'O', 'Q' and 'C. Although these

letters are distinguished by simple features, it must

be remembered that we are assuming no a priori

143

I
144
knowledge of the alphabet on the part of the

machine or the designer." (Barus, 1962, p. 241).

"Members of a stored sample can also be used to define subclasses, each sample member being

treated as a subclass centroid. Newly encountered

pattern members, instead of being averaged into an evolving subclass . . . are used to evaluate the

representativeness of the stored sample, to assign

weights to each subclass, and to adjust parameters

of the assumed subclass distribution. With this method, subclasses (each represented by a member

of the stored sample) can easily be discarded or new

ones added as part of a learning program." (Barus,

1966. p. 386).

5.128 "The Multivac has been trained to recognize and discriminate alphanumeric symbols, play

simple games, differentiate between sounds (such

as between those of a whale and a dolphin), and even

to run a maze . . . The Multivac's ability to search

photographs for evidence of structures of a partic- ular kind is being applied under a contract to NASA

which calls for a 'study of the feasibility of extraterrestrial landmarks', which may lead to an auto- matic method of classifying the visual appearance

of other planets. The contract includes design of a system that will be trained to recognize a number of categories of landscapes by processing a library of

representative slides to be furnished by NASA. In actual spaceflight missions, the system will observe

the surface of a planet being explored and classify

the landscape into one of the known categories."

("Machines That Think?", 1966, pp. 6-7). See also Asendorf (1968).

5.129 "MINOS II has been successfully trained on patterns, converted by preprocessors into digital

form, that represent such diverse subject areas as handwritten graphical symbols, weather information,

visual or photographic objects, time-varying waveforms, statistical data, and switching functions."

(Munson et al., 1966, p. 360). "In the meteorological application, ISODATA is being used to aid in the analysis of 646 weather

records related to ceiUng height at Washington, D.C.

The goal in this case is the design of preprocessing

for short-time (5 hours ahead) predictions of ceiling

height." (BaU and HaU, 1965, p. 330).

5.130 "The input to CHILD consists of re analog

values, which can be thought of as an re-dimensional

analog vector. This input vector can be derived

either directly from the sensors or from some pre- processing technique utilized to extract characteristics (or features) from the sensory pattern . . . It is child's primary purpose, then, to determine

(1) which components of the input vector are important, (2) the range of acceptable values each

component may assume, and (3) the degree of importance to be assigned to each component."

(Choisser and Sammon, 1963, p. 1). 5.131 In Bonner's method (1962), samples of members of the recognition vocabulary are repre- sented as binary words for the presence-absence of

pre-specified properties. The problem is then

simplified by breaking the total number of samples

into subsets of similar samples, where similarity is defined as the number of identical bits in the words

equalling or exceeding a given threshold. Categories

are formed by taking, any sample, and 'remembering'

it as 'Mask i', taking another sample and either

ignoring it if similar to Mask i or remembering it as Mask ii, continuing until all samples have been

processed. A "signature" is then developed for each sample consisting of binary indications as to which of the categories it does or does not belong to.

(p. 355).

Further, Bonner's property-finding algorithm

"looks for bits and logical combinations of bits which are valuable in distinguishing the various

types of samples in the category. It does this mostly

in a nonexhaustive manner by proposing hypotheses

of possibly valuable properties, then evaluating and

classifying these properties and creating new

hypotheses from the result." (p. 355).

5.132 "By a procedure using these principles,

the program builds up properties of such complexity

as: a thirty way AND OR-ed to a forty-way AND;

a four-way OR AND-ed to another, and other

properties of lesser complexity down to and including individual bits." (Bonner, 1962, p. 356).

5.132a "The problem of designing discriminant

functions for nonseparable pattern sets is a practical one because in many practical problems the over- lapping probability densities of the different pattern

categories will make nonseparable pattern sets

inevitable. Current practice for pattern sets which

are not completely separable is to use the adaptive

methods anyway, because they tend to yield

adequate classifiers even though they cannot

eliminate all classification errors. "Using linear programming in the design is easier

than using adaptive methods." (Smith, 1968, p. 367). "In general, the feature sets of different pattern

classes are not linearly separable. It is doubtful

whether in this case an approximation by complete

linear-decision functions is practical with regard to the required expense." (Kazmierczak and Steinbuch,

1963, pp. 831-833).

5.133 For a comprehensive discussion of thres- hold logic techniques, see the text by Hu (1965). We

note also the following:

"Many pattern classification systems use linear

threshold elements to perform linear discriminations on the patterns of interest. In such an approach,

re properties of patterns are measured and each

property is assigned a real number, A!^,. The re values

{Xi . . ., Xn) are used as a descriptor of the

pattern. . . . "A hnear threshold element (LTE) is a device

which has re inputs {Xi, . . ., Xn) and a single out- put,/. Each Xi is a real number and the value of /

is determined by forming a weighted sum of the

input quantities and comparing this sum S to a threshold T." (Mattson and Dammann, 1965, p. 294).

"A linear logic unit may be provided with a thres- hold varying in time over the entire range of possible

input levels. A logic unit then turns on at a time

directly determined by the input level. Depending

145
on the nature of the weights assigned to the input

connections, a unit with n binary inputs may have

from nt 1 to 2" distinct input levels. In the latter case — achieved by assigning weights proportional

to powers of 2 to the connections — each possible

binary input state has a unique weighted signal

level. Thus the time of response of a logic unit may

be made to specify exactly the input subpattern to the unit. "The proper utilization of this unit in a large sys- tem requires that the output weight associated with

a logic unit vary synchronously with the threshold.

To accomplish this, a system clock may be used to control the threshold and to specify the output

weight." (Astropower Lab., 1964, p. 192).

"The input weights and hence the logic unit hyperplanes were determined by the use of the

discriminant analysis technique . . . For computational reasons, each logic unit is permitted only

a small number of input connections (corresponding

to nonzero coefficients of the hyperplanes). More

units are generated than are used in the machine.

"The selection of logic units to be incorporated

in the machine is done sequentially in order to maximize the separation of pattern classes in the

recognition space . . . each unit being added to the machine being selected from a population of

possible units by the criterion of maximum improvement over existing interclass separations. This is accomplished by means of a loss function . . . The

procedure . . . concentrates on those patterns near

the boundaries, assigning large weights to logic

units active for these patterns, thus effectively

increasing the separation of pattern classes. "The use of linear logic threshold elements in current pattern recognition devices involves two

major difficulties: such devices are capable of only

two outputs, and the assignment of outputs to particular inputs is subject to the restraints of linear

separability." (Astropower Lab., 1964, pp. 192, 194).

"Threshold logic, a new and active area of switching theory, has been primarily motivated by an

interest in certain computer devices called 'threshold

gates'. The logical functions performed by such

gates — called threshold functions, linear-input

functions, majority functions, etc., — have been given

a great deal of mathematical attention. A switching

function f of n arguments is a threshold function

when there exist weights ai, a2, . . . a^ and a threshold T (all real numbers) so that

1 if ^ OiXi & r,

i= 1

0 if J] a,Xi<Tr

(Winder, 1963, p. 108.). 5.134 ". . . Iterative routines which operate on

a sequence of measurements, A!^i,A^2, . . .,Xi where

the class associations are known a priori and the

number of measurements from each class is large

enough to be representative. After a suitable number

of iterations, the process either converges, or else the performance of the systems ceases to improve

. . . Nonconvergence indicates either overlap of

the distributions associated with certain or all pairs of classes or else linear inseparability." (King

and Tunis, 1966, p. 67). "Two classes are said to be linearly separable if a hyperplane can be placed between them. Many

self-organizing machine concepts assume the linear

separability of classes. It is obvious that if two

classes are convex and nonoverlapping they are

linearly separable. However, if the classes are not convex the question of linear separability is harder

to answer. However, in the case of certain specific

models of classes, linear separability can be shown

to be impossible." (Richardson, 1966, p. 11). 5.135 GreenbergandKonheim ask ''how well ivill the separating hyperplane separate patterns which

are not included in the training set but which are

to be separated into the same classes? This is a question involving the error rate on new patterns

and one that can be answered only by subsequent

testing of the new data. On the other hand, since

the linear functionals are continuous it is reasonable

to assume that new patterns that are close to old patterns will be similarly classified. The limits of

such a form of 'generalization' depend upon how

well the linear functionals separate the classes. There is a well-defined and obvious sense by which we may rank the functionals which separate the

two classes A and B. However, the algorithm

given . . . yields only one such separating functional and the problem of finding the 'best' separation is a difficult unsolved problem." (1964, p. 306).

5.136 "Rabinow Electronics, Inc., . . . has

received a patent for an optical character recognition system featuring dictionary lookup . . . The

system checks doubtful words (indistinctly written)

by comparing characters against words in storage,

then selects the most likely word." (Commun. ACM

9, 707 (1966).

"Successful machines of which we are aware,

recognize individual characters and produce outputs

(usually clerical) identifying the characters. There

have been a smaller number of attempts to recognize

words, as opposed to the individual characters of

which the word is composed. The S. F. Reed Patent No. 2,905,927 discloses a method and apparatus for recognizing words as such, and not the individual

characters of the word. The V. K. Zworykin et al. Patent No. 2,616,983 and L. E. Flory et al. Patent No. 2,615,992 disclose machines which are in the nature of word recognizers. The Zworykin and Flory

disclosures relate to equipment for translating

written data into sound to aid the blind. On the other

hand, the Read patent is directly concerned with

word recognition in data processing pursuits.

"An object of our invention is to provide a recognition system for identifying the individual characters

of a word, but which rehes on a dictionary look-up

to ascertain the identity of the word if the reading

machine is incapable of identifying one or more of

146
its characters. In principle, we recognize a word (and

hence obtain knowledge of all of the characters

thereof) by identifying all of the characters of the

word which the reading machine is capable of

identifying, and then systematically interrogating a dictionary until we find a word or words which

have all of the machine-read characters plus another

character (or characters) in the place of the unknown

character (or characters). The dictionary word

(or words) are then fed to a utihzation device such

as a buffer, printer, computer, etc. . . . "Another object of our invention is to provide

automatically operative means for correcting an

erroneously read character, or character reading

machine failure of any other type, where the intelli- gence criteria to determine the identity of the un- known character are based on the characters which

are correctly read by the machine.

"A broader objective of our invention is to provide an error correction system for a character or characters of a word, regardless of the originating source,

i.e., whether or not a reading machine is used.

"A novel aspect of our invention is the technique

for finding the word in the dictionary. One technique

involves inserting 'trial' characters into the proper

position or positions of a group of identified characters for a dictionary look-up which continues

until a word having the known characters plus a

trial character is found . . . We have means to remember the characters which are properly

identified and also the positions of the character

or characters which are not identified. With this remembered information we insert 'trial' characters one after the other into the position of the improperly

identified character to form 'trial' words. A 'trial' character as used herein, is a character inserted in the space which would be occupied by an unknown

character of a word. A 'trial word' is a word formed

of known characters, i.e., those read by the machine

plus one or more trial characters. The trial words

are compared to the words in a dictionary for a

dictionary look-up. The entire dictionary may be

interrogated and all words made with trial characters printed out, or we can stop the dictionary

look-up when the correct word is found in the

dictionary. The dictionary is preferably a high-speed

magnetic storage device, for example a magnetic

drum, because it is fast and offers versatility not found (or at least as easily used) in other storage

devices. It is entirely possible and practical to have

a drum store the entire Enghsh language in the

practice of our invention." (Rabinow and Holt,

1966, p. 1). 5.136a "The experience gained in developing a

recognition method independent of the particular

geometrical configuration of the characters in the

text has also been applied to other tasks. Portions

of the clustering algorithm were used to group

Chinese characters, to design ternary references for a commerical multifont reader, to derive Boolean

recognition logic, and to classify the entries, on

the basis of a philological questionnaire, in a

dictionary designed for automatic translation."

(Casey and Nagy, 1968, pp. 502-503).

5.137 ". . . Recognition performance can be

improved by using context. Most obviously, letters and sounds make words, but even knowing digram

letter or syllable frequencies can improve decisions

about letters or phonemes." (David and Selfridge,

1962, p. 1094).

5.137a "The machine's recognition accuracy is improved by using simple contextual constraints;

letter digram frequencies are employed." (Harmon,

1962, p. 152).

5.138 "A good example illustrating the use of context in a decision theoretically correct manner

is the improvement achieved in the performance

of a faulty character recognizer through the utiliza- tion of letter digram or trigram frequencies."

(Sebestyen and Edie, 1964, p. 9). 5.138a "When recognizing handwritten or highly

disturbed characters human beings make use of the

redundancy of the words and sentences, i.e., of the context. This process can be simulated by layering learning matrices and thus used for increasing

the recognizing ability of an automatic system."

(Steinbuch and Piske, 1963, p. 858).

5.138b "As a preparatory step, a trigram of the

Japanese phoneme sequence was examined, which

gave us the data to design the recognition system

. . . From the result about 1000 cases of three

phoneme sequences cover 90 per cent of the data

appearing in the conversational speech . . . The

basic principle of recognition is the matching of

the analyzed pattern of input unknown speech

sound with the stored standard patterns corresponding to the three phoneme sequences." (Sakai and

Doshita, 1963, p. 843).

5.139 "The specific effect on error reduction is impressive. If a scanner given a 5% character error

rate, the trigram replacement technique can correct approximately 95% of these errors. The remaining

error is thus . . . 0.25% overall." (Carlson, 1966,

p. 191). 5.139a. "One stores the (27)- digram frequencies

of the English language (space is a character here)

and, in the case that a letter sequence is not found

in the dictionary (indicating that an incorrectly

spelled word has been detected), uses this table to examine the left and right neighbors of each letter

in an effort to find the letter least likely to be

correct . . . The most Hkely change is then made,

based on the same digram data, and the dictionary

searched again with this change. This process is repeated . . . until a match is found." (Cornew,

1968, pp. 79-80).

5.139b "In a sample of text several thousand

words long, the observed letter transition frequencies

may be expected to match the stored values quite

closely. For printed text in such quantity, it seems

reasonable to base recognition on the relatively

invariant transition frequencies, rather than on

preconceptions of the structure of characters."

(Casey and Nagy, 1968, p. 492).

147
"Tentative identities are assigned to groups of

similar characters. These identities are then

permuted until the text reads sensibly; good sense

in this case means an admissible set of transition

frequencies. Letter pair frequencies are actually

used . . . "In solving a cryptogram, each type of character

is labeled with the same (though incorrect) symbol

to start with. The processor described here, however,

must first perform the nontrivial task of determining

which samples should be classed together by the same symbol. The system achieves this by means

of a series of cluster-seeking algorithms operating

in the sample space." (Casey and Nagy, 1968. p. 492).

5.139c "We have been concerned . . . with the

recognition of the identity of a word or of letter sequences by making use of the fact that only

certain letter sequences occur in English with any

appreciable probability. . . . "Since certain forms occur in certain contexts

while others do not, all the available information is not being used by current pattern recognizers."

(Vossler and Branston, 1964, p. D2.4-1).

"The dictionary method has the disadvantage of requiring that any word to be recognized must be

included in the dictionary. This requires a large

amount of storage space, as well as a fair amount

of time for calculation in a sequential computer,

since the joint probabiHty must be calculated for each word of the given length. . . . "A system combining the dictionary method

[3737 words] with use of the digram method for words detected as not occurring in the dictionary, was tested on text from newspaper articles and from

a psychology book. With this combined system a reduction of about 45% in the number of letter errors was obtained, with an original garbling of 20%.

"A character recognizer performing at the 80%

recognition level might be expected to improve to a recognition performance of 95% or 96% or slightly

higher through the use of an extensive word diction- ary." (Vossler and Branston, 1964, pp. D 2.4-1, 7, 8). 5.140 "Closely related to the use of molecular

formula in the recognition process is the use of chemical context to assist in recognition . . . For

example, hydrogen hnks with only one other atom,

whereas nitrogen links with three, four, or five other atoms. Thus, 'H' is not likely to be mistaken

for 'N'." (Cossum et al., 1964, p. 271).

5.140a "Classification problems may be divided

into two categories: pattern recognition and clustering. In pattern recognition, the classifier knows the names of classes and some samples (called hereafter, paradigms) of each class. After the training

period is over, during which the paradigms are shown, the classifier is required to place new objects

of unknown class affiliation into the classes by a sort of inductive generalization based on the known

paradigms. In clustering, the classifier is given a

collection of objects with known properties, and is required to generate classes in such a way that objects within each class are strongly similar to one another, while objects of different classes are

appreciably less similar. Obviously, there is no

place for paradigms in clustering problems."

(Watanbe et al., 1967, p. 92). 5.140b "The purpose of Taxometric Analysis

is to separate a population into distinct groups or

clusters, each cluster being defined in terms of the

qualities or attributes which the members of the

cluster have in common. This is achieved by first computing a measure of association, a similarity

coefficient between each and every member of the

population or operational taxonomic unit (O.T.U.).

The simplest coefficient might be defined as: g_ number of attributes shared

total number of attributes."

(Shepherd and Willmott, 1968, p. 57). 5.141 "Early work in clustering techniques

assumed that the clusters were known a priori.

Fisher in 1938 made contributions in this area." (Mattson and Dammann, 1965, p. 296).

5.142 Parker-Rhodes says: "Broadly, members

of a clump must be more like each other, and less

like non-members, than elements of the universe

picked at random. We can put this more rigorously

in terms of inconnections (i.e., similarities between

members of one proffered clump), and out- connections (similarities between members of the

clumps and those of its complement); the former

must be above average, relative to the number of

pairs of elements involved, while the latter must be

below average."

"The analogue of error, or uncertainty of the data

[in statistical theory], is that [in classification theory] we do not really know with certainty whethr we do not really know with certainty whether or not a given element of the universe belongs to a given class or to its complement. . . . the statistical expression of this is to assign a probability to its class membership, assigning thus a vector of real numbers to each element. . . . Instead, we conceive

of our classes as marked off by partitions of the

universe; the uncertainties attaching to them are then represented as partitions of the universe into three parts, the 'in', the 'out', and the 'doubtful'." (Parker-Rhodes, 1961, pp. 7-9).

Needham adds: "We suppose that the data are presented as a series of objects, to each of which is attached a string of properties. We then have two

problems:

(1) to find a suitable definition of a 'class' or group which is stated in terms of something

computable from the data;

(2) to find a practicable algorithm for discovering

the classes in a given body of data." (Needham, 1963, pp. 4-5).

5.142a See also: "Automatic clustering tech- niques for subclass determination reported by

Bonner and Firschein and Fischler may be adopted

to subdivide some classes of characters that have

large variations among the fonts in consideration."

(Liu, 1964, p. 593).

148
5.143 "Dee F. Green, a research associate at the

University of Arkansas Museum . . . [has developed a code] for reducing the individual attributes of some 4,000-odd pottery vessels to a numerical

system for computer handling. Once the material

is classified, the various attributes will be sorted

into discrete categories and then statistical techniques applied to lump the attributes into statisti- caUy meaningful groups, or ceramic types." (Bowles,

1965. p. 271).

. . The computer is of use in studies of shards

or fragments of artifacts ... In this connection,

Jesse D. Jennings of the University of Utah suggests

constructing a matrix of coefficients of similarity of one artifact to another, and thus to all others within

a given corpus of objects." (Bowles, 1965, p. 270).

Ill 5.144 "Four measures of connection (similarity)

I' between pairs of objects may be computed . . .The

first three assume a binary incidence matrix . . . The fourth connection definition is used in cases where definition is used in cases where the initial incidence data consists of nonbinary attribute

values ...

"Each connection matrix is compacted, in the sense that only nonzero elements of the full n x n

matrix are recorded." (Dale et al.. 1964, p. 9). We note further that ". . . An alternate tech- nique is suggested in which the properties rather

than the objects of the incidence matrix are classiI fied. The properties are regarded as a second uni- verse set 'U', and the connections formalize similarity between properties through reference to their

' coincidence among objects. Clumping in 'U' will accordingly associate properties that are similar in their properties of incidence among the objects of

U." (Dale et al., 1964, p. 5).

!

jj 5.144a "Rabinow has recently obtained a patent

: covering the general concept of an autonomous

' I reading machine. He envisages combining an ele- mentary clustering procedure with dictionary look-

^ up techniques." (Casey and Nagy, 1968, p. 493).

* ! 5.145 "Word and document associations have

been used variously for the alteration or extension

'f. of a set of index terms attached to a given document,

by addition of associated terms; for the generation

of word or document clusters related according to some given criterion; for the ranking of documents,

obtained in answer to a search request, in order of

relevance; and for the detection of synonyms by

comparing association lists attached to the index

terms." (Salton, 1963, p. 53). 5.146 Further ". . . the requirement that algorithms for automatic classification should be potentially capable of application to very large object

universes prompts investigation of new procedures

that may prove more efficient when applied on a large scale or may prove more efficient under certain

conditions." (Senechalle, 1964, p. 1-1).

5.147 "A few examples of pattern recognition

problems that might be handled by a machine of the

type envisioned will now be mentioned. The first class of patterns that comes to mind is an alphabet

of hand-printed characters drawn on a binary grid,

the components of the primary measurement vector

o) corresponding to the cells of the grid. Another

problem is the classification of organisms into species, where the components of w might represent

the presence of strength of certain attributes. The

problem of medical diagnosis is closely related, the

attributes becoming symptoms and results of cer- tain diagnostic tests. Library classification can be

considered a pattern recognition problem, in which

the components of co might denote the presence or absence of certain key words in titles, subheadings,

abstracts, and so forth. A set of waveforms, cor- rupted by noise and distortion, but normahzed in time and band-limited, can be considered a set of

patterns. SampHng at the Nyquist intervals would

provide the w-components. Other possible examples

include recognition of spoken syllables, identifica- tion of languages from spoken samples, identification of musical instruments from their tone quahties, and

prediction of weather, economic trends and the

hke." (Barus, 1962, pp. 228-229). "Pattern recognition should ultimately provide

powerful techniques for use in such research areas

as form perception, target recognition, language

translation, theorem proving, game playing, and the

testing of psychological models." (Prather and Uhr,

1964, p. D2.2-1).

6. Conclusions

6.1 For example, " 'Recognize' is used to connote the act of identifying an incoming pattern with one of a known set of patterns. 'Classify', is meant

to describe the separation of the incoming patterns

into several sets according to similarities between

the patterns which are inferred by the device."

(Meyer et al., 1962, p. 181). 6.2 "Another area which would bear investigation is that of higher level interaction between the

control computer and the operator to permit even

greater variability in the input documents and flexi- bility in the output. The scanner could proceed

autonomously until it encounters 'unreadable'

material, which it then displays on a screen for the

operator's attention (a far smaller display than that necessary for an entire page would be sufficient here). The operator then simply indicates to the scanner what action to take: to scan the material,

as before, in a facsimile mode; to resort to curve

following; to summon its arsenal for italics, boldface,

or superscripts; or to let the operator key in the

offending word or letter. Aside from the intrinsic economies which may be realized on some classes

of character recognition applications, the experience

gained here may be useful in other man-machine

interaction situations." (Nagy, 1968, p. 487).

149
6.3 "In the case of Russion language materials, in which we have a great deal of interest, we

have found that an optical character reading device

which would be able to accept just the Russian

scientific material, would require the unambiguous

identification of about 800 characters and symbols.

This would give us an acceptable input capability

for automatic translation. These 800 characters and

symbols are found in four fonts of the Cyrillic alphabet, upper and lower case; the Greek alphabet; the

Latin alphabet; the digits; subscripts and superscripts; the mathematical symbols; and all of the

normal symbols that are used in the expression of

scientific discourse." (Howerton, 1962, p. 349).

"On the machine print reader, a technical requirement will probably exist to read scientific Chinese

publications. The RADC technical approach is based on evolutionary research and development."

(Shiner, 1962, p. 337).

"The first step involves research and development on a semiautomatic technique to determine

optimum coding and logic characteristics. The

second step then involves the development of an

optical character recognition technique which will completely mechanize the digital coding of the

Chinese ideographs for rapid processing with auto- matic language translation equipment such as the

USAF AN/GSQ-16 language translation machine."

(Shiner, 1962, p. 337). 6.4 "In foreign language materials we find that there is a tendency to avoid the use of such

things as italics or underlining for emphasis, but

rather the foreigners spread the letters of a word

apart to draw attention. If you teach a machine to recognize a white space between two characters as being the boundary between the two words, how do

you also make that machine recognize that when it sees white barriers between letters, it may be the case of a word having been expanded for emphasis?"

(Howerton, 1962, p. 349). 6.5 This is an approach suggested by Kirsch

et al. (1964), and earlier. Work on picture-language-equivalence inference

systems has also proceeded elsewhere, notably in experimental investigations reported by Schwartz

et al. (1965) and by Narasimhan (1966).

We note further that "such picture processing

techniques may also be able to handle the problem

of assigning descriptors to schematic representations of electrical circuits." (Wooster, 1963, p, 156),

but that "much less work has been done on good

programming systems for 'picture languages', than

has been done on the techniques and media for picture production." (Wigington, 1966, p. 87), and

that "a picture language is two-dimensional, and as

yet we have no general method of formalizing its syntax. A number of investigators are working on

the problem, but to date useful results are not

available." (Sutherland, 1967, p. 29).

6.6 "It has been pointed out that there are

theoretical problems; phonemic theory does not make it possible to set up unique rules according

to which the acoustic patterns of an utterance may

yet be correlated with the phonetic elements of the

message conveyed by the utterance (Fant and Risberg, 1962). One of the most serious problems is deciding how to use the information that a human

hstener obtains from the context (Garvin and

Bertram, 1964). Current work is concerned with

analysis in greater detail of the various formants

involved in the speech signal, and with investi- gating what elements of the signal are significant

for speech production and recognition." (Spolsky,

1966, p. 494). 6.7 "In the area of pattern description, there

is as yet no general theory, and few properties of measurement design algorithms can be adequately

generalized from one apphcation to another. The

problem of deriving efficient sets of measurements

needs a proper formulation. ..." (Chow, 1966,

p. 102). 6.8 In addition to patents and patent drawings

as such, we note the following suggestion: "The

large volume of trademarks registered with the

patent office has prevented any systematic search

prior to adopting one's own mark . . . The computer

here presents an excellent method for prescreening . . . Advanced input devices to computers will accept an overlay composed of a halftone of the

trademark in question . . . The computer will then

search its memory for a trademark of similar pattern

quality. If one is found, it will be reprinted on a return screen immediately. Once the basic composition of a trademark is found to be similar to another,

differentiating colors may then be checked out." (Sims, 1966, p. 26).

150
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165

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1970 OL—3M-I07
i
THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC GOAL

Sustained maximum growth in a free market economy, without inflation, under conditions of full employment

and equal opportunity

THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

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MISSION AND

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"to foster, serve and

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