Character reader

Claim 1

A SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS FORMED OF A PLURALITY OF VERTICAL BARS SEPARATED BY SPACES OF VARYING DISTANCES COMPRISING READING MEANS FOR GENERATING AN ELECTRICAL WAVEFORM INDUCED BY THE PASSAGE OF A CHARACTER AND HAVING A PLURALITY OF PEAKS EQUAL IN NUMBER AND CORRESPONDING IN TIME TO THE POSITION OF THE BARS OF THE CHARACTER, A DIGITIZER RESPONSIVE TO THE PEAKS AND PRODUCING SQUARE WAVES THEREFROM, MEANS UNDER CONTROL OF SAID DIGITIZER FOR GENERATING A SEQUENCE OF SIGNALS HAVING AMPLITUDES CORRESPONDING TO THE TIME SEPARATION OF THE PEAKS FROM SAID READING MEANS, COUNTING MEANS COUPLED TO SAID DIGITIZER FOR GENERATING AN OUTPUT SIGNAL ON A PLURALITY OF CONDUCTORS FOR EACH PEAK OF THE WAVEFORM AND CORRESPONDING TO THE VERTICAL BARS OF THE CHARACTER, SAID COUNTING MEANS FURTHER GENERATING A READ COMMAND ON ONE OF SAID PLURALITY OF CONDUCTORS AFTER PASSAGE OF THE LAST VERTICAL BAR OF A CHARACTER PAST SAID READING MEANS, A PLURALITY OF STORAGE MEANS EQUAL IN NUMBER TO ONE LESS THAN THE NUMBER OF BARS FORMING A CHARACTER, MEANS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE OUTPUT SIGNALS OF SAID COUNTING MEANS FOR STORING THE SEQUENCE OF SIGNALS IN SAID STORAGE MEANS ONE SIGNAL PER STORAGE MEANS, MEANS FOR DERIVING FROM THE SIGNALS IN SAID STORAGE MEANS A REFERENCE SIGNAL HAVING A VALUE INTERMEDIATE THE VALUES OF THE STORED SIGNALS, A PLURALITY OF COMPARATOR CIRCUITS COUPLED TO AND EQUAL IN NUMBER TO SAID STORAGE MEANS, MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID REFERENCE SIGNAL TO SAID COMPARATOR CIRCUITS TO CAUSE CERTAIN OF SAID COMPARATOR CIRCUITS TO PRODUCE OUTPUT SIGNALS, AND MEANS FOR ACCOMPLISHING CHARACTER IDENTIFICATION BY RECEPTION OF THE READ COMMAND TO DETERMINE WHICH OF SAID COMPARATOR CIRCUITS HAVE GENERATED OUTPUT SIGNALS.