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Graphical system for automated segmentation and recognition for image recognition systems

  • US 5,487,117 A
  • Filed: 10/11/1994
  • Issued: 01/23/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/31/1991
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. In symbol recognition apparatus comprising an image sensor, an image segmenter, a memory, a recognizer including a library of known images and a comparison means for generating a measure of probability that a sensed image is a one of said known images, the improvement in recognizing one or more unknown alphanumeric symbols, comprising:

  • means for sensing an image of said symbol string with said image sensor;

    means for segmenting the image of said symbol string with said segmenter to construct candidate cuts through said string, thereby creating a multiplicity of image segments potentially greater in number than the symbols present in said string and sufficient in number to include the correct segmentation;

    means for arranging in said memory said segments as a sequence of nodes, the nodes at the beginning point of said sequence corresponding to the left-hand side of said string, and the nodes at the end-point in said sequence corresponding to the right-hand side of said string;

    means for identifying all nodes corresponding to segments which are legal neighbors and connecting with arcs from left to right all such nodes, thereby creating multiple paths across said sensed image, each said path corresponding to a particular legal segmentation of said image;

    means for comparing said segments to predetermined data in a definite cut database thereby to identify all nodes which straddle a definite cut;

    means for eliminating from said memory said last-named nodes as well as all arcs connected to each said node;

    means for identifying nodes which because of the preceding step no longer have a parent-child connection, and recursively eliminating all said nodes and associated arcs from said memory;

    means for generating in said recognizer a measure of probability for each remaining node returning said measure to said memory for association with the respective node; and

    means for combining said probability measures associated with all of the nodes in each said remaining node path, thereby to produce outputs consisting of a symbol identification and a total probability measure associated with each particular node path.

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