Character recognizer

Claim 1

A CHARACTER RECOGNITION SYSTEM COMPRISING: (A) PROCESSING CONTROL MEANS FOR PRODUCING A SEQUENCE OF CONTROL SIGNALS TO OPERATE OTHER UNITS OF THE SYSTEMS, INCLUDING A SCAN SIGNAL AND A STEP SIGNAL; (B) A SCAN UNIT RESPONSIVE TO THE SCAN SIGNAL FROM SAID PROCESSING CONTROL MEANS FOR SCANNING A PRINTED CHARACTER AND PRODUCING A CHARACTER PATTERN OF N BINARY BITS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CHARACTER; (C) A SCAN REGISTER UNIT OF N POSITIONS SETTABLE TO THE CHARACTER PATTERN AND CAPABLE, WHEN DRIVEN BY A SUITABLE NUMBER OF SHIFT PULSES OF SERIAL ROLLAROUND DURING WHICH THE ENTIRE CONTENT IS MADE AVAILABLE AT AN OUTPUT; (D) A POSTURE REGISTER UNIT OF N POSITIONS SETTABLE TO THE CHARACTER PATTERN, SUSCEPTIBLE TO SERIAL ROLLAROUND PAST AN OUTPUT, AND RESPONSIVE TO THE STEP SIGNAL FROM SAID PROCESSING CONTROL MEANS TO SHIFT ITS CONTENTS FROM ONE TO THE NEXT OF A SEQUENCE OF POSTURE PATTERNS; (E) A ROLLAROUND COUNTER SUBJECT TO A ROLLAROUND CONTROL SIGNAL TO PRODUCE N PULSES TO ROLL OUT THE CONTENTS OF BOTH THE SCAN REGISTER UNIT AND THE POSTURE REGISTER UNIT IN UNISON AND TO RETURN THE CONTENTS TO THEIR PREVIOUS POSITIONS; (F) PROGRAM UNIT RESPONSIVE TO PRESELECTED NUMBERS OF THE STEP SIGNALS FROM SAID PROCESSING CONTROL MEANS TO PROVIDE THE ROLLAROUND CONTROL SIGNAL TO SAID ROLLAROUND COUNTER, FOR EACH OF A PLURALITY OF CHECKPOINTS; (G) A CORRELATION UNIT CONNECTED TO THE OUTPUTS OF SAID SCAN REGISTER UNIT AND POSTURE REGISTER UNIT FOR PROVIDING A PLURALITY OF CORRELATION COUNTS FOR EACH ROLLAROUND;AND (H) RECOGNITION MEANS ASSOCIATED WITH SAID CORRELATION UNIT FOR PROVIDING CHARACTER RECOGNITION SIGNALS IN RESPONSE TO PREDETERMINED COMBINATIONS OF CORRELATION COUNTS.