Patent ID: 7469062

Claim:
A method of modifying a classification scheme for classifying hand-written characters to thereby make the classification scheme user dependent, the classification scheme including a number of user dependent weighted allographs and the classification scheme including a number of classes, each class representing a respective letter and containing one or more of the allographs, each allograph including an associated weighting and representing a respective style of a respective letter and containing one or more prototypes, each prototype representing a variation in the respective allograph and each prototype being represented as a prototype vector, each prototype vector being formed from a number of values, each value quantifying a respective feature of the respective prototype, the method including one or more computers or processors to: Obtain at least one hand-written character; for at least some of the prototypes, determining a selection value based on the similarity of the character and a respective prototype by: (i) determine a feature vector representing the character, the feature vector being formed from a number of values, each value quantifying a respective feature of the character; and (ii) determine a distance value representing the distance between the feature vector and the respective prototype vector; Select a respective one of the prototypes in accordance with the determined selection values; Select a class in accordance with the selected prototype representing the character to thereby determine the letter represented by the character; Select a user dependent weighted allograph in accordance with the associated weighting and in accordance with the selected prototype representing the character; and Modify one or more of the allographs in the respective class in accordance with the selection by modifying the associated weighting of one or more of the allographs.