[54] HAND-WRITTEN CHARACTER
RECOGNITION APPARATUS AND
METHOD
[75] Inventors: Masayuki Chatani; Kimiyoshi
Yoshida, both of Kanagawa; Akio
Sakano, Ibaraki; Hirofumi Tamori,
Tokyo, all of Japan
[73] Assignee: Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
[21] Appl. No.: 395,740
[22] Filed: Aug. 18,1989
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Aug. 23, 1988 [JP] Japan : 63-209094
[51] Int. CI.* G06K 9/18
[52] U.S. CI 382/13; 382/9
[58] Field of Search 382/9, 13, 30, 34, 24,
382/22, 38
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,045,773 8/1977 Kadota et al 382/9
4,162,482 7/1979 Su 382/55
4,193,056 3/1980 Morita et al 382/20
4,284,975 3/1981 Odaka et al 382/13
4,317,109 2/1982 Odaka et al 382/13
4.377,803 3/1983 Lotspiech 382/9
4.527.283 7/1985 Ito et al 382/9
4,607,385 8/1986 Maeda 382/9
4,653,107 3/1987 Saojima et al 382/13
A hand-written character recognition apparatus and method in which line element data obtained from an output hand-written stroke is converted to a plurality of sub-strokes satisfying a tracing condition in accordance with a tracing command described in a character dictionary data base, substrokes satisfying the tracing condition are selected in accordance with a selection command described in the character dictionary data base, then on the basis of an assumption that the hand-written stroke is a set of sub-strokes, the hand-written character is recognized by evaluating the shape of the sub-stroke by employing a shape evaluation command and by evaluating a position evaluation command derived from the character dictionary data base, whereby a hand-written character, such as a distorted hand-written character and so on, can be recognized with ease.
8 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets
