Machine reading of handwritten characters

Claim 1

A REAL TIME READER FOR HANDWRITTEN ALPHA-NUMERIC CHARACTERS COMPRISING IN COMBICNATION MEANS DEFINING AN AREA FOR THE DESCRIBING THEREON OF SAID ALPHA-NUMERIC CHARACTERS, MEANS IN SAID AREA DEFINING VISIBLE INDICIA WITH RESPECT TO WHICH SAID CHARACTERS ARE DESCRIBED, A PLURALITY OF CONDUCTIVE SEGEMENTS IN SAID AREA, A STYLUS FOR THE MANUAL DESCRIBING OF SAID CHARACTERS ON SAID AREA, SAID STYLUS INCLUDING AN ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE ELEMENT HAVING A POTENTIAL APPLIED THERETO, DETECTING MEANS FOR DETECTING PARTICULAR ONES OF SAID SEGEMENTS TRAVERSED BY SAID STYLUS AS SAID CHARACTERS ARE DESCRIBED ON SASID AREA, SAID DETECTING MEANS INCLUDING MEANS FOR DETECTING THE POTENTIAL APPLIED TO PARTICULAR ONES OF SAID SEGMENTS AS SAID CHARACTERS ARE DESCRIBED ON SAID AREA, AND MEANS CONTROLLED BY SAID DETECTING MEANS FOR PRODUCING CODED SIGNALS DISTINCTLY IDENTIFYING SAID CHARACTERS.