Character recognizing system employing category comparison and product value summation

Claim 1

A character recognition system for effecting a pair judgement process comprising: first means for converting the optical image of an unknown character into a first electrical signal formed of a plurality of bits; second means, responsive to the plurality bits of the first electrical signal provided by said first means, for providing initial correlations between the bits of said first electrical signal representative of said unknown reference character and stored electrical representations of a plurality of reference characters, said second means including a first plurality of adder-amplifier circuits, having a plurality of inputs connected to the respective bit outputs of said first means, for adding the bits of said first signal to each other; third means, responsive to the respective correlation outputs provided by said second means, for modifying said correlation outputs in accordance with prescribed correlation weighting coefficients, comprising a plurality of weighting coefficient resistors coupled to the outputs of said adder amplifier circuits of said second means, the values of said resistors corresponding to said predetermined correlation weighting coefficients; and fourth means, coupled to the outputs of said third means, for comparing said modified correlation outputs with a reference value and for judging into which one of a plurality of categories said unknown character belongs, including a plurality of comparator circuits receiving the respective outputs of said weighting coefficient resistors and comparing the outputs thereof with a reference voltage, and a plurality of ''''AND'''' circuits connected to respective pluralities of said compairators for producing signals corresponding to the category in which the unknown character belongs.