Recognition device, method, and computer program product

A recognition method comprising:

• acquiring, by an acquiring unit, a recognition target pattern to be recognized;
• acquiring, by a first calculator, multiple training patterns from a storage unit storing the training patterns each belonging to any one of multiple categories, and calculating, for each of the categories, a distance histogram representing distribution of the number of training patterns belonging to the category with respect to distances between the recognition target pattern and the training patterns belonging to the category;
• analyzing, by a second calculator, the distance histogram of each of the categories to calculate confidence of the category;
• determining, by a determining unit, a category of the recognition target pattern from the multiple categories by using the confidences;
• and
• outputting, by an output unit, the category of the recognition target pattern.

A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing a computer program that causes a computer to execute:

• acquiring a recognition target pattern to be recognized;
• acquiring multiple training patterns from a storage unit storing the training patterns each belonging to any one of multiple categories, and calculating, for each of the categories, a distance histogram representing distribution of the number of training patterns belonging to the category with respect to distances between the recognition target pattern and the training patterns belonging to the category;
• analyzing the distance histogram of each of the categories to calculate confidence of the category;
• determining a category of the recognition target pattern from the multiple categories by using the confidences;
• and
• outputting the category of the recognition target pattern.