Optical character identification

Claim 1

The method of identifying a character executed substantially in accordance with a predetermined format relative to a vertical center bar extending through a field in which said character reposes, comprising the steps of: scanning said character in one vertical direction along a plurality of vertically aligned laterally spaced paths, generating white field signals and black field signals representative of white and black fields at each of a plurality of points on each of said paths, sequentially comparing the signal from each given point with signals representing the point immediately above in the present scan, and the adjacent point in the preceding scan with reference to said center line, modifying the signal from each given point in accordance with the results of the comparison of the point immediately above and the adjacent point, generating enclosed point signals when any white field is enclosed by black field portions and said center line, and comparing said enclosed point signals for each of a plurality of zones of said field defined vertically by said bar and the sides of said field and horizontally by a horizontal line passing through center bar crossings and by the top and bottom of said field with a code for each symbol to produce symbol identification signals.

Claim 2

The method of identifying a character executed substantially in accordance with a predetermined format relative to a vertical center bar extending through a field in which said character reposes, comprising the steps of: scanning said character in one vertical direction along a plurality of vertically aligned laterally spaced paths, generating white field signals and black field signals representative of white and black fields at each of a plurality of points on each of said paths, sequentially comparing the signal from each given point with signals representing the point immediately above in the present scan, and the adjacent point in the preceding scan with reference to said center line, modifying the signal from each given point in accordance with the results of the comparison of the point immediately above and the adjacent point, generating enclosed point signals when any white field is enclosed by black field portions and said center line, and comparing said enclosed point signals for each of a plurality of zones of said field defined vertically by said bar and the sides of said field and horizontally by a horizontal line passing through center bar crossings and by the top and bottom of said field with a code for each symbol to produce symbol identification signals.

Claim 7

A method for recognition of alphanumeric characters which are superimposed upon a vertical character center line where representations of such characters are scanned along a plurality of successive parallel scan lines which repeatedly traverse the character in the same direction along successive lines which are displaced from each other to derive for elemental areas of such scan lines a black signal representative of an element of the character or a white signal representative of an element of the background area for control of character selection comprising the steps of: storing a code on each scan indicative of any change in the vertical location of each black character portion from its position on the immediately preceding scan, generating a closure signal in response to two or more stored codes being indicative of an intersection between two or more of said black character portions, generating character signals representative of a background area completely enclosed by a boundary formed of a black portion of the character and said center line in response to intersection of at least two of said scanned black character portions, generating a code signal representative of the character scanned in response to said character signals, and decoding said code signal by stored character comparison means for generating an output signal uniquely representative of said character.

Claim 8

A method for recognition of alphanumeric characters which are superimposed upon a vertical character center line where representations of such characters are scanned along a plurality of successive parallel scan lines which repeatedly traverse the character in the same direction along successive lines which are displaced from each other to derive for elemental areas of such scan lines a black signal representative of an element of the character or a white signal representative of an element of the background area for control of character selection comprising the steps of: storing a code on each scan indicative of any change in the vertical location of each black character portion from its position on the immediately preceding scan, generating a closure signal in response to two or more stored codes being indicative of an intersection between two or more of said black character portions, generating character signals representative of a background area completely enclosed by a boundary formed of a black portion of the character and said center line in response to intersection of at least two of said scanned black character portions, generating a code signal representative of the character scanned in response to said character signals, and decoding said code signal by stored character comparison means for generating an output signal uniquely representative of said character.

Claim 10

A system for identifying characters executed substantially in accordance with a predetermined format relative to a vertical center bar extending through a field in which each character reposes which comprises: a. first means for scanning said character in one vertical direction along a plurality of vertically aligned laterally spaced paths; b. second means for generating white field signals and black field signals representative of white and black fields at each of a plurality of points along each said path; c. third means for sequentially comparing the signal from each given point with signals representing the point immediately above and the adjacent point in the preceding scan with reference to said center line to modify said signal from said given point to generate enclosed point signals when any white field is enclosed by black character portions and said center line; and d. fourth means for comparing said enclosed point signals for each of a plurality of zones of said field defined vertically by said bar and the sides of said field and horizontally by a horizontal line passing through center bar crossings and by the top and bottom Of said field with a code for each symbol to produce symbol identification signals.

Claim 11

A system for identifying characters executed substantially in accordance with a predetermined format relative to a vertical center bar extending through a field in which each character reposes which comprises: a. first means for scanning said character in one vertical direction along a plurality of vertically aligned laterally spaced paths; b. second means for generating white field signals and black field signals representative of white and black fields at each of a plurality of points along each said path; c. third means for sequentially comparing the signal from each given point with signals representing the point immediately above and the adjacent point in the preceding scan with reference to said center line to modify said signal from said given point to generate enclosed point signals when any white field is enclosed by black character portions and said center line; and d. fourth means for comparing said enclosed point signals for each of a plurality of zones of said field defined vertically by said bar and the sides of said field and horizontally by a horizontal line passing through center bar crossings and by the top and bottom Of said field with a code for each symbol to produce symbol identification signals.

Claim 14

A system for recognition of alphanumeric characters which are superimposed upon a vertical character center line where representations of such characters are scanned along a plurality of successive parallel scan lines which repeatedly traverse the character in the same direction along successive lines which are displaced from each other to derive for elemental areas of such scan lines a black signal representative of an element of the character or a white signal representative of an element of the background area for control of character selection, said system comprising: means for assigning a storage register to each black signal representative of a portion of said character vertically spaced from one another; means for storing a code in each register, on each scan, indicative of any change in the vertical location of each black character portion from its position on the immediately preceding scan; means for generating a closure signal in response to the code in two or more storage registers being indicative of an intersection between two or more of said black character portions; means for generating character signals representative of a background area completely enclosed by a boundary formed of a black portion of the character and said center line in response to the closure signal; means responsive to said character signals for generating a code signal representative of the character scan; means for decoding said code signal by stored character comparison; and means for generating an output signal uniquely representative of said character.

Claim 15

A system for recognition of alphanumeric characters which are superimposed upon a vertical character center line where representations of such characters are scanned along a plurality of successive parallel scan lines which repeatedly traverse the character in the same direction along successive lines which are displaced from each other to derive for elemental areas of such scan lines a black signal representative of an element of the character or a white signal representative of an element of the background area for control of character selection, said system comprising: means for assigning a storage register to each black signal representative of a portion of said character vertically spaced from one another; means for storing a code in each register, on each scan, indicative of any change in the vertical location of each black character portion from its position on the immediately preceding scan; means for generating a closure signal in response to the code in two or more storage registers being indicative of an intersection between two or more of said black character portions; means for generating character signals representative of a background area completely enclosed by a boundary formed of a black portion of the character and said center line in response to the closure signal; means responsive to said character signals for generating a code signal representative of the character scan; means for decoding said code signal by stored character comparison; and means for generating an output signal uniquely representative of said character.