Character recognition devices

Claim 1

AN ELECTRO-OPTICAL DEVICE FOR AUTOMATICALLY IDENTIFYING AN UNKNOWN VISUAL REPRESENTATION FOR TRANSLATION INTO AN ELECTRIC SIGNAL, SAID DEVICE COMPRISING A LENS SYSTEM HAVING AN AXIS, A HOLDER FOR POSITIONING UNKNOWN REPRESENTATIONS TO BE IDENTIFIED AT A PREDETERMINED STATIONARY LOCATION, AN ARRAY OF REFERENCE REPRESENTATIONS AT PREDETERMINED STATIONARY LOCATIONS FOR COMPARISON THEREWITH AND AN ARRAY OF PHOTODETECTORS FOR PRODUCING SIGNALS FOR COMPARISON THERE AMONG, A SOURCE OF ILLUMINATION, A CONDENSING LENS SYSTEM FOR DIRECTING RADIATION FROM SAID SOURCE OF ILLUMINATION TOWARD SAID UNKNOWN REPRESENTATION ALONG SAID AXIS, SAID HOLDER BEING POSITIONED AT THE OBJECT PLANE OF SAID LENS SYSTEM, SAID ARRAY OF REFERENCE REPRESENTATIONS BEING POSITIONED IN THE CENTER PLANE OF SAID LENS SYSTEM, SAID ARRAY OF PHOTODETECTORS BEING POSITIONED AT A LOCATION PREDETERMINEDLY SPACED FROM THE IMAGE PLANE OF SAID LENS SYSTEM, DRIVE MEANS FOR MOVING SAID HOLDER INTO VARIOUS SELECTED POSITIONS, AND COMPARATOR MEANS FOR DETERMINING WHICH OF THE SIGNALS OF SAID PHOTODETECTORS IS THE STRONGEST, SAID COMPARATOR MEANS BEING RESPONSIVE TO SAID SIGNALS FROM SAID PHOTODETECTORS SIMULTANEOUSLY, ONE OF EACH OF SAID SIGNALS BEING FUNCTIONALLY RELATED TO SAID ILLUMINATION AS TRANSMITTED, IN ASSOCIATION, FROM SAID UNKNOWN REPRESENTATION AND ONE EACH OF SAID KNOWN REPRESENTATIONS.