Patent ID: 8280168

Claim:
A character classification system comprising: an input device for receiving a handwritten input character; and a processor configured to, for each of a plurality of character models, each character model being associated with an output character and defining a model specific segmentation scheme for that output character and an associated segment model, the model specific segmentation scheme defining a minimum length corresponding to a number of points in a stroke of the output character: (i) decompose the handwritten input character into one or more segments in accordance with the model specific segmentation scheme of the respective character model; and (ii) evaluate the one or more segments against the segment model of the respective character model to produce a score indicative of the conformity of the one or more segments with the segment model; the processor being further configured to select the character model that produced the highest score, and classify the handwritten input character as the output character associated with the character model that produces the highest score.