Character-recognition apparatus utilizing columnar variations from a reference line

Claim 1

CHARACTER-RECOGNITION APPARATUS COMPRISING MEANS FOR SCANNING CHARACTERS TO DETECT THE PRESENE OF ONE OUT OF N POSSIBLE CODE ELEMENTS ARRANGED COINCIDENT WITH SAID CHARACTERS, SAID SCANNING MEANS INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF PHOTOSENSITIVE CELLS, MEANS TO ADVANCE SAID CHARACTERS FOR SCANNING BY SAID SCANNING MEANS, MEANS COUPLED TO SAID SCANNING MEANS TO REGISTER IF THE OUTPUT OF SAID SCANNING SAID EXCEEDS A THRESHOLD VALUE AND TO CONVERT SAID OUTPUT INTO DIGITAL INFORMATION, MEANS TO STORE SAID DIGITAL INFORMATION, AND MEANS TO IDENTIFY THE STORED DIGITAL INFORMATION, SAID STORAGE MEANS INCLUDING AN INPUT REGISTER COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF STORAGE CELLS IN EXCESS OF THE NUMBER OF PHOTOSENSITIVE CELLS COUPLED THERETO, THE SAID MEANS TO IDENTIFY THE STORED DIGITAL INFORMATION INCLUDING A TYPE-OF-DASH IDENTIFICATION CIRCUIT COUPLED TO SAID INPUT REGISTER, AND A PAIR OF TYPE-OF-DASH REGISTERS COUPLED TO THE OUTPUT OF SAID IDENTIFICATION CIRCUIT, FOR STORING DIGITAL INFORMATION REPRESENTATIVE OF SAID CODE ELEMENTS.