Patent ID: 7079688

Claim:
A pattern recognition system for determining a match between a recognition area of a pattern to be recognized and a reference area of a reference pattern, comprising: storage means for storing prescribed reference areas of a prescribed reference pattern, and prescribed relative spatial reference relationships, each prescribed relative spatial reference relationship describing relative spatial positions between two of the prescribed reference areas; selection means for selecting a first recognition area from a pattern to be recognized; comparing means for comparing the first recognition area with the prescribed reference areas to select a first reference area from the prescribed reference areas of the prescribed reference pattern; first selection means for selecting a second reference area from the prescribed reference areas by using the first reference area and one of the prescribed relative spatial reference relationships which describes a relative position of the first reference area with respect to the second reference area, wherein the second reference area is formulated as a hypothesis for a presumed second recognition area; second selection means for selecting a second recognition area from the pattern to be recognized by using the first recognition area and the one prescribed relative spatial reference relationship which describes the relative position of the first reference area with respect to the second reference area, and determination means for determining a match between the second recognition area and the second selected reference area, wherein said determining of the match determines whether the hypothesis is verified.