Patent ID: 8731298

Claim:
A character recognition apparatus comprising: an acquisition unit that acquires data representing a character string written in a plurality of separate areas of a character recognition device; a memory that stores the data representing the character string; a specification unit that specifies an element of a compound character satisfying a predetermined condition for determining the compound character from the character string; a movement unit that moves the element of the compound character close to an adjacent character; a recognition unit that recognizes a changed character string in which the movement unit has moved the element of the compound character, based on a shape of characters and relevance between adjacent characters; and an integration unit that integrates the plurality of separate areas, wherein the integration unit integrates an area where the moved element of the compound character is written and an area where the adjacent character is written, and the recognition unit specifies recognition candidates as a single character based on the shape of the character to be recognized when the character to be recognized is written in an area that is not integrated by the integration unit, and specifies the recognition candidates as the single character or as a plurality of characters based on the shape of the character to be recognized when the character to be recognized is written in an area that is integrated by the integration unit.