Character recognition apparatus

Claim 1

IN LEGIBLE CHARACTER RECOGNITION APPARATUS, A CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENT FOR ACCURATELY CONVERTING POINT INTENSITY SIGNALS RANGING IN AMPLITUDE OVER A MULTIPLICITY OF DISSCRETE INTENSITY LEVELS INTO BINARY VALUED SIGNALS REPRESENTATIVE SOLELY OF HIGH AND LOW INTENSITY LEVELS AND EVALUATING THE RESULTING PATTERN OF SIGNALS COMPRISING: MEANS FOR CONVEYING SIGNALS THE AMPLITUDES OF WHICH ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE INTENSITY OF LIGHT EMANATING FROM SUCCESSIVE POINTS IN A SCANNED CHARACTER IMAGE FIELD, SAID SIGNALS RANGING IN AMPLITUDE OVER A MULTIPLICITY OF DIECRETE AMPLITUDE LEVELS CORRESPONDING TO A MULTIPLICITY OF DISCRETE LEVELS OF SHADING AT THE ASSOCIATED POINTS OF SAID IMAGE FIELD, MEANS COUPLED TO SAID SIGNAL CONVEYING MEANS FOR QUANTIZING SAID SIGNALS ACCORDING TO THE PARTICULAR ONE OF SAID DISCRETE LEVELS TO WHICH EACH SAID SIGNAL CORRESPONDS, SAID QUANTIZING MEANS BEING EFFECTIVE TO PRODUCE BINARY DIGITAL OUTPUTS INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF BINARY DIGIT SIGNAL COMBINATIONS CORRESPONDING TO EACH SAID QUANTIZED SIGNAL, MEANS COUPLED TO SAID QUANTIZING MEANS FOR STORING AND SHIFTING SAID BINARY DIGITAL SIGNAL COMBINATIONS IN A PREDETERMINED GEOMETRIC PATTERN CORRESPONDING TO THE PATTERN IN WHICH SAID IMAGE FIELD IS BEING SCANNED, FIRST SIGNAL EVALUATING MEANS COUPLED TO A GIVEN STAGE OF SAID STORING AND SHIFTING MEANS AND TO A PLURALITY OF NEIGHBORING STAGES THEREIN, FOR EVALUATING THE DIGITAL SIGNAL STORED IN SAID GIVEN STAGE TOGETHER WITH THE DIGITAL SIGNALS STORED IN SAID NEIGHBORING STAGES, AND FOR PRODUCING A SINGLE BINARY VALUED OUTPUT SIGNAL CORRESPONDING TO THE SAID SIGNAL IN SAID GIVEN STAGE, SECOND SHIFTING AND STORING MEANS COUPLED TO SAID FIRST SIGNAL EVALUATING MEANS FOR SHIFTING AND STORING SAID SINGLE BINARY VALUED SIGNALS IN RHYTHM WITH, AND IN THE SAME GEOMETRIC PATTERN AS, THE SIGNALS ADVANCING THROUGH SAID FIRST MENTIONED SHIFTING AND STORING MEANS, AND SECOND EVALUATING MEANS COUPLED TO SAID SECOND SHIFTING AND STORING MEANS FOR EVALUATING THE PATTERN OF SINGLE BINARY VALUED SIGNALS STORED THEREIN FOLLOWING A COMPLETE CHARACTER SCAN.