International Business Machines Corporation

George B Fryer

Gregory M Bednar

David A Stepneski

Manthri S Narasimha

A method and apparatus of processing data is disclosed for recognizing unknown characters of a known character set, some of the characters having diacritical marks. The method includes the steps of storing the image data of an unknown character which may contain a diacritical mark. From the stored image data a predetermined localized area of data is extracted that corresponds to the expected location of the diacritical mark. The extracted diacritical mark image data and at least a portion of the stored image data of the unknown character are examined to recognize the character and any diacritical mark associated therewith. Also disclosed are video preprocessing techniques for segmenting the characters using profiles thereof, inclusive-bit-coding to separate characters based upon differences in size, justification of the extracted diacritical mark image data, unique encoding of the recognition results, and post-processing verification for characters including diacritical marks.

Method and apparatus for character recognition accommodating diacritical

A method and apparatus are disclosed for segmenting character images in an optical image system where the character images have a predetermined pitch. The optical image system generates character information in the form of a successive series of scan lines of data. Profiles of the character images being scanned are generated, and a profile segment meeting certain criteria is selected. The center of the selected profile segment is located, and segmentation points between the character images are established as a linear function of the character image pitch and located center. The segmentation points are integer multiples of the pitch.

Method and apparatus for segmenting character images

Video image data received from an optical document reading system is processed by a dynamic field cut technique which utilizes the scan line as its elemental unit of data in controlling the concurrent extraction and processing of the individual fields. The field cut technique of the present invention has a chain of control instructions with a series of pointers being utilized to control the sequential processing of the control instructions and permit bypassing the control instructions for fields for which processing has been completed. By this arrangement, the number of operations necessary to separately act on a plurality of independently defined fields is reduced.

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Charlotte, NC, United States of America

George B Fryer