Apparatus for recognizing characters by scanning them to derive electrical signals

Claim 1

IN CHARACTER RECOGNITION APPARATUS OF THE KIND COMPRISING MEANS FOR SENSING THE PARTS OF CHARACTERS TO DERIVE A PLURALITY OF ELECTRICAL SIGNALS, EACH OF WHICH CORRESPOND TO THE LUMINANCE VALUE OF A MATRIX OF CELLS DEFINING AN INTELLIGENCE-BEARING ITEM SPACE, AND LOGICAL CIRCUIT MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SUCH SIGNALS TO IDENTIFY THE CHARACTERS, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING THE COMBINATION OF: MEANS FOR SCANNING A DOCUMENT BEARING A CHARACTER TO DERIVE AN ANALOGUE SIGNAL REPRESENTING IMAGE DENSITY IN RESPECT OF EACH OF SAID MATRICX OF CELLS, COMPARATOR MEANS HAVING FIRST AND SECOND INPUTS, MEANS FOR SUPPLYING THE ANALOGUE SIGNAL FROM ONE CELL TO ONE INPUT, WEIGHTED MEANS FOR SUPPLYING TO THE OTHER INPUT A COMBINED ANALOGUE SIGNAL ONLY FROM AT LEAST TWO OF THE CELLS IN THE NEAR PROXIMITY OF THE SAID ONE CELL AND FOR WEIGHTING THIS COMBINED SIGNAL IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GREATER AREA OF THE PLURALITY OF CELLS COMPARED WITH THE ONE CELL, SAID COMPARATOR MEANS BEING RESPONSIVE TO THE RELATIVE MAGNITUDES OF THE SIGNALS ON ITS FIRST AND SECOND INPUTS TO SUPPLY THE ELECTRICAL OUTPUT SIGNAL FOR THE SAID ONE CELL.