Chinese/Kanji on-line recognition system

An on-line Chinese symbol recognition system with an extendable vocabulary comprising:

• an on-line tablet device that collects pen position signals as the Chinese symbol is written,
• signal filter and segment integration means for receiving pen coordinate signals and pen up/down signals from said tablet device to define segments of strokes which correspond to continuous motion of a pen on a tablet in a fixed direction,
• base stroke classifying means, connected to the output of said signal filter and segment integration means, to classify the motion of the pen between pen down and pen up occurrences into one of a predetermined number of base stroke categories, including means for determining if the stroke has crossed a prior stroke,
• symbol element recognition means, connected to the output of said base stroke classification unit, for analyzing the base stroke and crossing information to detect the occurrence of members of a predefined set of symbol elements, each of said symbol elements being graphically descriptive of portions of the shapes of Chinese symbols,
• a symbol recognition output table, connected to the output of said symbol element recognition means, which contains a list of all the Chinese symbols in the system's vocabulary, each symbol in the list having associated with it all of the symbol element sequences that correspond to it, and
• recognition table readout means which accepts the sequence of symbol elements for a given input symbol, searches the recognition output table to determine the identity of the symbol that is associated with that sequence of symbol elements, and sends the symbol identity code to the desired output device.