System and method for character recognition with normalization
First Claim
1. A neural network-based character recognition system, comprising:
- a receiver for receiving a first binary image of a plurality of characters;
a segmenter for separating the first binary image into a plurality of second binary images corresponding to the plurality of characters in the first binary image;
a normalizer for reducing variations among the plurality of characters by processing the second binary images, comprising;
a stroke adjuser for processing the second binary images to adjust strokes of the characters first to a one-pixel thickness and then to adjust the one-pixel thickness strokes to a second thickness which is substantially uniform and which is greater than the one-pixel thickness,a size normalizer for processing the second binary images to proportionally adjust the overall size of the characters to a predetermined overall size, anda slant correcter for processing the second binary images to reduce a slant with respect to a predetermined axis of the characters by using a binary search strategy which converges within a predetermined error margin; and
a neural network recognizer coupled to the normalizer for processing the stroke-adjusted, size-normalized, and slant corrected second binary images to determine which character is represented by each of the second binary images processed by the normalizer.
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Abstract
A character recognition system comprises means for receiving a first binary image of a plurality of characters; segmenting means for separating the first binary image into a plurality of second binary images corresponding to the plurality of characters in the first binary image; normalizing means for reducing variations among the characters, which normalizing means comprises stroke adjusting means for processing the second binary images to adjust strokes of the characters to a predetermined thickness, size normalization means for processing the second binary images to proportionally adjust the overall size of the characters to a predetermined overall size, and slant correction means for processing the second binary images to reduce a slant with respect to a predetermined axis of the characters; and recognizer means coupled to the normalizing means for processing the normalized second binary images to determine which character is represented by each of the normalized second binary images.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A neural network-based character recognition system, comprising:
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a receiver for receiving a first binary image of a plurality of characters; a segmenter for separating the first binary image into a plurality of second binary images corresponding to the plurality of characters in the first binary image; a normalizer for reducing variations among the plurality of characters by processing the second binary images, comprising; a stroke adjuser for processing the second binary images to adjust strokes of the characters first to a one-pixel thickness and then to adjust the one-pixel thickness strokes to a second thickness which is substantially uniform and which is greater than the one-pixel thickness, a size normalizer for processing the second binary images to proportionally adjust the overall size of the characters to a predetermined overall size, and a slant correcter for processing the second binary images to reduce a slant with respect to a predetermined axis of the characters by using a binary search strategy which converges within a predetermined error margin; and a neural network recognizer coupled to the normalizer for processing the stroke-adjusted, size-normalized, and slant corrected second binary images to determine which character is represented by each of the second binary images processed by the normalizer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of processing a binary image of a character and then providing the processed binary image to a neural network character recognizer for recognition by the neural network character recognizer as one of a predetermined set of characters, comprising the steps of:
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providing the binary image of the character which includes one or more strokes forming the character, each stroke having a length and a thickness which can vary over the length; processing the binary image to adjust each of the strokes of the character to a one-pixel thickness; processing the adjusted binary image to adjust each of the adjusted one-pixel thickness strokes of the character to a second thickness which is substantially uniform and which is greater than the one-pixel thickness; and providing the twice-adjusted binary image to the neural network character recognizer for recognition as one of the predetermined set of characters.
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Specification