Industrial Technology Research Institute

Shiaw-Shian Yu

Wen-Hsiang Tsai

Cheng-Chin Chiang

Yuan-Cheng Lai

Sheng-Li Chou

A character recognition device and system:

Statistical-based recognition of similar characters

A preprocessing method for smoothing handwritten Chinese characters before subjecting the same to computerized character recognition and/or other applications. The method disclosed in the present invention is a run-based smoothing method which takes advantages of the unique characteristics of the building blocks of Chinese characters, which consist essentially of vertical, horizontal, and tilted strokes. Accordingly, the two-dimensional array of pixels representing a digitized character are first converted into a run information map which will be repeatedly scanned and subject to three main smoothing treatments: (1) empty run filling, (2) small triangular area filling, and (3) filled run deleting. A unique protocol is developed for effectuating each of the smoothing steps. After each treatment, the run information map is updated, and the treatment steps are repeated until no more empty run filling or filled run deleting can be found, or until a specified number of cycles are exceeded. Since an entire run is used during the filling and deleting steps, the method disclosed in the present invention has the advantage that a strong smoothing effect can be achieved. Furthermore, since a run rather than a pixel is used as the checking unit, the processing speed is fast and efficient.

Run-based method for smoothing handwritten Chinese characters

In accordance with the present invention, a neural network comprising an array of neurons (i.e. processing nodes) interconnected by synapses (i.e. weighted transmission links) is utilized to carry out a probabilistic relaxation process. The inventive neural network is especially suited for carrying out a variety of image processing tasks such as thresholding.

Growing community of inventors

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Shiaw-Shian Yu