Ncr Corporation

Meera D Kulkarni

Raymond L Higgins

Dennis W Golem

A system and method are disclosed for optical scanning and recognition of bar-coded characters (e.g., CMC7 type characters having a pattern of bars and intervals) recorded on documents such as bank drafts and checks. The system comprises an optical scanner, a microprocessor, a read-only-memory (ROM), a random-access-memory (RAM, with a stored program) for storing data and a plurality of pre-determined character-identifying binary codes. The scanner optically scans each document and produces a plurality of grey-scale pixel values corresponding to the bars and intervals of the characters. The grey-scale pixel values are then stored in the RAM under control of the microprocessor. The microprocessor processes the stored pixel values, and effectively locates, and segments each character on the document by taking one or more slices (segments) of each character. Each segment includes a plurality of grey-scale pixel values representing a horizontal slice of a character. The microprocessor than converts the segment of pixel values to a binary code, and compares the binary code to the predetermined binary codes for obtaining a match, identifying the character.

System and method for optical character recognition bar-coded characters

A system and method are disclosed for optical scanning and recognition of bar-coded characters such as CMC7 type fonts having a pattern of bars and intervals recorded on documents such as bank drafts and checks. The system includes an imaging device for forming a digitized matrix having rows and columns of a character to be recognized. A processor and an associated program are used for rotating the digitized image to facilitate processing in a word size used by the processor. A memory is used for storing templates of the characters to be recognized to enable the processor to perform template matching. The apparatus and method also include first, second, and third bit configurations used in identifying a character.

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Waterloo, Canada

Meera D Kulkarni