System and method for identifying physical markings on objects

A system for identifying characters-of-interest from physical markings on a surface of an object, the system comprising:

• a segmentation module configured to receive and analyze an image of the object having physical markings that include characters-of-interest, the segmentation module also converting at least one of the characters-of-interest into a corresponding feature vector, the feature vector including a vector address and a data pattern;
• an identification module configured to identify the character(s)-of-interest using a sparse distributed memory (SDM) module, the SDM module having hard locations that include a stored vector location address and a stored content counter, wherein the identification module is configured to:
• determine a relative distance between the vector address of the feature vector and the stored vector location addresses of the hard locations, wherein the hard locations that are within a predetermined distance from the vector address are activated locations;
• and
• providing a suggested identity of the character-of-interest that is based upon the stored content counters of the activated locations.

A method of identifying characters from an object having physical markings, the method comprising:

• receiving image data relating to an object having a surface with physical markings thereon, the physical markings including characters-of-interest;
• analyzing the image data to convert at least one of the characters-of-interest into a corresponding feature vector, the feature vector including a vector address and a data pattern;
• providing hard locations that include including a stored vector location address and a stored content counter;
• identifying activated locations by determining a relative distance between the feature vectors and the stored vector location addresses of the hard locations, wherein the relative distances between the feature vector and the activated locations are less than a predetermined distance;
• and
• providing a suggested identity of the character-of-interest that is based upon the stored content counters of the activated locations.