Method of optical character recognition

Abstract

A method for scanning a page and locating individual characters on that page so that character recognition can be performed is disclosed. A page containing characters to be read is scanned with successive scan lines from top to bottom and the data contained in each scan line is transmitted to a buffer memory for temporary storage. An additional set of data which represents the significant amount of character information within a scan line is also generated and stored in a separate memory. When the microprocessor is ready to begin recognizing characters the set of data which indicates those scan lines containing significant character data is accessed and read. The microprocessor then accesses a different set of data which represents the significant character information as arranged in vertical pixel lines. When the microprocessor locates a vertical pixel line having significant character information the microprocessor then begins reading data from the buffer memory at locations as determined by the external data sets. The microprocessor does not read data in the buffer memory unless it corresponds to areas in which significant character data is located. The microprocessor is able to quickly scan an entire page and locate all characters within the page to provide for fast optical character recognition.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.