Character reader utilizing stroke and cavity detection for recognition of characters

Claim 1

IN A CHARACTER READER FOR READING CHARACTERS FROM A DOCUMENT, DIFFERENT ONES OF SAID CHARACTERS BEING FORMED OF DIFFERENT OUTLINE TRACES ON SAID DOCUMENT, THE OUTLINE TRACES OF SAID CHARACTERS EXHIBITING A PLURALITY OF TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES INCLUDING STROKES, SAID CHARACTER READER INCLUDING MEANS FOR SCANNING SUCCESSIVE ONES OF SAID CHARACTERS BY A PLURALITY OF SCANS TO DERIVE VIDEO SIGNALS REPRESENTING THE TOPOGRAPHY OF SAID CHARACTERS, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING, MEANS FOR DETECTING PULSES IN SAID VIDEO SIGNALS TO DETECT STROKES IN A CHARACTER, MEANS FOR COMPARING PULSES IN SUCCESSIVE SCANS OF A CHARACTER TO GENERATE STROKE INFORMATION SIGNALS FOR EACH STROKE DETECTED IN SAID CHARACTER, A PLURALITY OF STROKE ANALYZING CIRCUITS, ONE FOR EACH STROKE IN A CHARACTER, FOR ANALYZING SAID STROKE INFORMATION SIGNALS, A STROKE TRACKER HAVING A PLURALITY OF POSITIONS WITH EACH CONTAINING A DIFFERENTLY CODED SIGNAL FOR TAGGING EACH DETECTED STROKE WITH A DIFFERENT LABEL, MEANS FOR SUCCESSIVELY POSITIONING EACH OF SAID CODED SIGNALS INTO A PRESCRIBED POSITION IN SAID STROKE TRACKER ON EVERY SCAN TO SIGNAL THE SUCCESSIVE REDETECTIONS OF THE STROKES CORRESPONDING TO SAID CODED SIGNALS SO AS TO TRACK EACH OF SAID DETECTED STROKES FORM SCAN TO SCAN, A PLURALITY OF GATES, EACH ONE COUPLED TO A DIFFERENT STROKE ANLYZING CIRCUIT, FOR COUPLING SAID STROKE INFORMATION SIGNALS TO SAID STROKE ANALYZING CIRCUITS, EACH OF SAID GATES BEING ACTIVATED BY A DIFFERENT ONE OF SAID CODED SIGNALS, AND MEANS FOR APPLYING EACH SUCCESSIVE CODED SIGNALS IN SAID PRESCRIBED POSITION TO ALL OF SAID GATES TO PASS THE STROKE INFORMATION SIGNALS FROM A DETECTED STROKE INTO ITS CORRESPONDING STROKE ANALYZING CIRCUIT.