Character recognition
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for character recognition by performing lateral view-based analysis on the character data and generating a feature vector based on the lateral view-based analysis.
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
acquiring character data comprising one or more characters, the one or more characters having a first contour and a second contour;
performing lateral view analysis on the character data;
generating a feature vector based on the lateral view analysis; and
identifying the one or more characters.
2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the performing the lateral view analysis comprises:
selecting a number of characteristic points;
dividing the one or more characters into a number of horizontal segments, the number of segments equal to the number of characteristic points; and
locating characteristic points on the first and second contours, wherein a characteristic point is located in each segment on both the first and second contours.
3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein an origin is located at a lower left of the one or more characters and wherein the characteristic points on the first contour are located at a minimum distance from a vertical axis rising from the origin and the characteristic points on the second contour are located at a maximum distance from the vertical axis.
4. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the horizontal segments have the same height.
5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising binarizing the character data.
6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising removing noise from the character data.
7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising performing oblique/skew detection.
8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising segmenting the character data into individual characters, the character data comprising a plurality of characters.
9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the contour data is not thinned.
10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the one or more characters comprises using an artificial neural network.
11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising recognizing cursive characters.
12. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations are substantially font invariant.
13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising identifying characters in fonts having variable character widths.
14. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the feature vector comprises:
the minimum distance of the characteristic points on the first contour;
the maximum distances of the characteristic points on the second contour;
the width of the character; and
the height of the character.