Patent Document ID: 5487118
Application ID: 08224786
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. The computer-implemented method of extracting an individual stroke from a pixel bit map of a stroke based symbol, said method comprising the steps of: providing, within a storage area of a computer, a pixel bit map of the stroke based symbol formed by stroke pixels having stroke status forming fixed node regions of contiguous node pixels common to a stroke and one or more other strokes within the stroke based symbol, and by stroke pixels having stroke status forming fixed body regions of contiguous body pixels unique to a stroke, and by background pixels having background status forming non-stroke areas between strokes; selecting an individual stroke to be extracted from the stroke based symbol; defining a pair of straight detection boundary lines each formed by a series of boundary pixels along each side of the individual stroke to be extracted, the boundary lines being displaced from the individual stroke and extending parallel to the individual stroke, each boundary pixel in one boundary line having a corresponding pixel in the other boundary line; monitoring the status of the boundary pixels to determine the presence and location of stroke pixels from strokes outside of the individual stroke to be extracted indicating the presence of node regions within the individual stroke, and background pixels from non-stroke areas outside of the individual stroke to be extracted indicating the presence of body regions within the individual stroke; causing the computer to cue body regions of the individual stroke to be extracted from the bit map of the stroke based symbol by deleting pixels forming the body regions; and protecting the node regions of the individual stroke to be extracted from cutting by not deleting node pixels.