Patent ID: 7072513

Claim:
A method of segmenting handwritten touching numeral strings having a non-vertical segmentation line, the method comprising the steps of: receiving an image of the handwritten touching numeral strings having the non-vertical segmentation line extracted from a specially patterned document; smoothing an uneven shape of the image of handwritten touching numeral strings; searching a contour line for the image of smoothed handwritten touching numeral strings; searching a candidate segmentation region, in which the touching numeral strings may exist, from the searched contour line; searching a candidate segmentation point within the candidate segmentation region; searching a vertical segmentation line for segmenting the handwritten touching, numeral strings from the candidate segmentation point; searching the non-vertical segmentation line for segmenting the handwritten touching numeral strings having any inclination from the candidate segmentation lines; and segmenting the handwritten touching numeral strings by use of the vertical and non-vertical segmentation lines.