Character recognition quantizing apparatus

Claim 1

CHARACTER RECOGNITION APPARATUS COMPRISING MEANS FOR SCANNING A SURFACE CARRYING ENERGIZED CHARACTER FORMING AREAS AND PRODUCING A SIGNAL RESPONSIVE TO THE SURFACE SCANNED, QUANTIZING MEANS FOR DETERMINING SUCCESSIVE INCREMENTS OF SAID SIGNAL INDICATIVE OF SCANNED CHARACTER FORMING AREAS, TIMING MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING A PLURALITY OF CHARACTER INCREMENTAL INTERVALS DURING THE SCANNING OF A CHARACTER, AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID QUANTIZING MEANS AND SAID TIMING MEANS DURING SUCCESSIVE CHARACTER INCREMENTAL INTERVALS FOR IDENTIFYING THE CHARACTER SCANNED, SAID QUANTIZING MEANS INCLUDING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID SIGNAL FOR PRODUCING AN OUTPUT INDICATIVE OF THE DURATION OF CHARACTER INFORMATION BEARING INCREMENTS OF SAID SIGNAL HAVING COMPLETE INTERRUPTIONS THEREIN NOT EXCEEDING A PREDETERMINED MAXIMUM DURATION AND MEANS DELAYING THE START OF SAID OUTPUT FOR THE DURATION APPROXIMATELY THE MINIMUM INFORMATION BEARING TIME FOR RECOGNITION OF A CHARACTER INCREMENT.