Pattern recognition system operating by the multiple similarity method

Claim 1

A pattern recognition system comprising: a sample pattern generating circuit for sequentially generating, one by one, a plurality of sample pattern data corresponding to a plurality of sample patterns, respectively, each of said sample pattern data having a plurality of bit rows; a dictionary memory which stores a plurality of reference pattern data comprising pieces of data each representing one of a plurality of reference patterns, respectively, each of said reference pattern data having a plurality of bit rows; a plurality of pattern similarity computation circuits, each including a memory section and a computation section and being connected to said sample pattern generating circuit and said dictionary memory; and means for transferring the sample pattern data to the respective memory sections of said pattern similarity computation circuits to store the sample pattern data in the respective memory sections and for transferring the reference pattern data to said computation sections one piece at a time; said computation sections of said pattern similarity computation circuits simultaneously calculating the degrees of similarity of pattern data in said memory sections, with respect to said one piece of the reference pattern data.