Apparatus for recognizing input character strings by inference

摘要

An object of the present invention is to provide a character recognition apparatus for inferring the entire character string solely from a user-input handwritten keyword and displaying the inferred result as a candidate character string. The apparatus of the invention comprises: a word dictionary a6 storing word identification information and hierarchy information for layering a plurality of words into a hierarchy and for recognizing each of the words within the hierarchy; a character transition probability table a4 storing probabilities of transitions from any one character to another, and those pieces of the word identification information which correspond to combinations of characters resulting from the transitions; and an optimization unit for using the character transition probability table a4 in optimizing candidate character strings obtained by a recognition unit. The word dictionary a6 is searched for a word defined by the word identification information which corresponds to the optimized candidate character string, whereby the searched word is retrieved which applies to the hierarchy information and which has yet to be input.