Character segmentation device and character segmentation system

Abstract

A character segmentation system for segmentation out a character from a string of characters which are in touch with each other, which is capable of being executed on a small size hardware resource without influence of variation of touching condition due to difference of character font, comprises an image storing unit,for storing an electronic image of character string obtained by such means as optical scanning, a partial pattern dictionary,for storing partial pattern shapes used as features for specifying fonts of character, a partial pattern detecting unit,for extracting areas of the image of character string, which coincide with a partial pattern, a character font determining unit,for determining the font of character on the basis of positions of the areas of the image of character string, which coincide with the partial pattern, and the number of the areas, a feature extraction inhibited area dictionary,for storing areas in which feature extraction processing for respective fonts of character is inhibited, a character separating feature extracting area defining unit,for defining areas of the image of character string, from which character separating features are to be extracted, by referring to the feature extraction inhibited area corresponding to the font of character determined by the character font determining unit, a character separating feature extracting unit,for extracting the character separating feature from the areas for extracting the character separating feature, a character boundary position detecting unit,for detecting positions at which characters are to be separated from each other and a control unit,for controlling operations of all of the constructive components.