public void loadAlphabets(String filename) {
     	try {
      		File f = new File(filename);
      		Scanner s = new Scanner(f); 
        	String line = null; 
        	
      		List<String> dot_mat_alpha = new ArrayList<String>();			      
      		if(s.hasNext())
      			characters = s.nextLine();
      		int i = 0;
        	while (s.hasNext() && (line = s.nextLine()) != null && i < characters.length()) {	    	  
      			char c = line.charAt(0);
      			if (c == '#') {	    		  
      				String alpha = Character.toString(characters.charAt(i++));					  
      				this.dm.put(alpha, dot_mat_alpha);
      				dot_mat_alpha = new ArrayList<String>();
      			}
      			else 
      				dot_mat_alpha.add(line);						  					  	    	  
      		}					
      		//Dot Matrix representation for the blank character
      		dot_mat_alpha = new ArrayList<String>(); 
      		for(int j = 0; j < 7; j++) {
      			dot_mat_alpha.add("     ");
      		}
      		this.dm.put(" ", dot_mat_alpha);
      	}

      	catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
      		System.out.println(" Dot Matrix Alphabets file not found");
      		System.exit(1);
      	}
    }// End of loadAlphabets method