Character recognition by feature selection

Claim 1

MEANS FOR IDENTIFYING OPTICALLY READABLE LINE-TRACE CHARACTERS SUCH AS HANDWRITTEN CHARACTERS COMPRISING: (A) A SCANNING DEVICE, AND MEANS FOR PROVIDING RELATIVE MOTION IN A PREDETERMINED FIRST DIRECTION BETWEEN SAID SCANNING DEVICE AND A CHARACTER TO BE EXAMINED; (B) SAID SCANNING DEVICE COMPRISING MEANS FOR SCANNING ALONG A SERIES OF SPACED LINES ACROSS EACH OF SAID CHARACTERS IN A DIRECTION GENERALLY TRANSVERSE TO SAID FIRST DIRECTION, INCLUDING MEANS FOR EFFECTIVELY DIVIDING SAID SCAN LINE INTO A SERIES OF ELEMENTAL AREA SEGMENTS, TO PRODUCE A SERIES OF SIGNALS, ONE FOR EACH OF SAID AREA SEGMENTS, INDICATIVE OF THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF A CHARACTER IN EACH SEGMENT DURING THE SCAN; (C) FIRST SHIFT REGISTER MEANS HAVING A SERIES OF STAGES, EACH CORRESPONDING TO ONE OF SAID AREA SEGMENTS, SAID STAGES BEING IN A NORMALLY "OFF" CONDITION, MEANS FOR SETTING EACH STAGE INTO AN "ON" CONDITION IN RESPONSE TO A SIGNAL FROM SAID SCAN MEANS INDICATIVE OF THE PRESENCE OF A SUBSTANTIAL PORTION OF A CHARACTER IN ITS ASSOCIATED AREA SEGMENT, TO THEREBY STORE DATA CORRESPONDING TO A SINGLE SCAN LINE; (D) SECOND SHIFT REGISTER MEANS SIMILAR TO THE FIRST AND HAVING A CORRESPONDING NUMBER OF STAGES, BUT ARRANGED TO STORE SIGNALS CORRESPONDING TO A DIFFERENT SCAN LINE FROM SAID SINGLE SCAN LINE; (E) SEPARATE INDICATING MEANS FOR EACH REGISTER RESPONSIVE TO THE CONDITION OF THE LAST STAGE OF EACH REGISTER SO AS TO INDICATE THE "ON" AND "OFF" CONDITIONS OF SAID LAST STAGE; (F) MEANS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY SHIFTING OUT BOTH REGISTERS STAGE BY STAGE, INTO SAID INDICATING MEANS; (G) COMPARISON MEANS FOR COMPARING THE "ON" AND "OFF" INDICATIONS OF SAID RESPECTIVE INDICATING MEANS DURING SAID SHIFTING OPERATIONS AND THUS DETERMINING THE MANNER IN WHICH PORTIONS OF A CHARACTER INTERCEPTED BY SAID SCAN LINES VARY DURING THE RESPECTIVE SCANNING OPERATIONS, TO DISTINGUISH CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF TE CHARACTER; (H) AND MEANS RESPECTIVE TO UNIQUE COMBINATIONS OF SUCH CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES TO IDENTIFY CHARACTERS BEING SCANNED.