Structured document processing with lexical classes as context

Claim 1

A character recognition method including the steps of: receiving a digital image representing a hard copy structured document; isolating characters in text portions of the digital image; for a given string of isolated characters, specifying for each character possible alternative identifications of each character; for the given string, forming a matrix of possible character identifications based on the specified alternative character identifications; comparing each string in the matrix to a set of rules established for string classification to determine a lexical class for each string, wherein the lexical class establishes the rules to identify character patterns within each string based upon predefined meanings; from the comparison step, generating a modified string, including characters confirmed by context processing specific to a determined lexical class; from the comparison step, generating at least one lexical class identifier for association with the modified string.