DOT CONSTRAINED HAND PRINTED CHARACTER RECOGNITION SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

of the Invention A constrained character entry form for receiving hand printed characters suitable for machine reading with the form including a web for receiving hand printed characters, and printed on the web a countable number of preprinted constellations of at least three minimum sized visible dots arranged in columns and rows with each of the constellations having a height that is equivalent to the spacing between a column of three equally spaced dots to permit characters to be hand printed using substantially straight lines emanating from and terminating at two or more of said dots. The invention also includes a method for entering hand written characters into an automated character reading system. Initially a web is provided for receiving hand printed characters with a countable number of preprinted constellations of at least three minimum sized visible dots arranged in columns and rows with each of the constellations having a height that is equivalent to the spacing between a column of three equally spaced dots to permit characters to be hand printed as lines emanating from and terminating at two or more of said dots. Then a countable number of characters are hand written on the web wherein each of the characters is drawn as a series of lines which start and terminate at selected ones of the dots. Next, the web is optically scanned to generate an electrical signal corresponding to markings on the web between each pair of adjacent dots within a constellation. Finally the signals are compared against a set of reference signals corresponding to a set of acceptable characters and a determination is made as to the closest matching character to the written character.