Scanning system for registering and reading characters

Claim 1

IN A CHARACTER READING SYSTEM, A RECORD MEDIUM HAVING A PLURALITY OF CHARACTERS PRINTED IN TRANSVERSE ROWS THEREON, SAID CHARACTERS IN EACH RESPECTIVE ROW BEING PERMITTED TO BE VERTICALLY MISALIGNED RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER, REGISTRATION SCANNING MEANS FOR SCANNING A ROW OF CHARACTERS IN A DIRECTION SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO SAID ROWS FOR PRODUCING SIGNALS DEFINING THE VERTICAL REGISTRATION OF EACH CHARACTER IN A ROW, READING SCANNING MEANS SPACED FROM SAID REGISTRATION SCANNING MEANS AND DISPOSED TO READ, ALONG A PLURALITY OF CLOSELY SPACED PATHS, EACH CHARACTER IN A ROW AFTER THE RESPECTIVE CHARACTER HAS BEEN VERTICALLY REGISTERED BY SAID REGISTRATION SCANNING MEANS AND FOR PRODUCING INFORMATION SIGNALS CORRESPONDING TO THE PORTIONS OF THE CHARACTERS LOCATED ALONG SAID PATHS, IDENTIFYING MEANS, AND LOGICAL CIRCUITRY MEANS FOR SELECTING CHARACTER INFORMATION SIGNALS FROM AT LEAST TWO OF SAID PATHS FOR EACH CHARACTER, IN TURN, IN RESPONSE TO THE VERTICAL REGISTRATION, SIGNALS FOR EACH CHARACTER AS DETERMINED BY SAID REGISTRATION SCANNING MEANS AND GATING SAID CHARACTER INFORMATION SIGNALS OF SAID TWO PATHS TO SAID IDENTIFYING MEANS, WHEREBY A ROW OF CHARACTERS IS DECODED BY SAID IDENTIFYING MEANS DURING A SINGLE SCAN OF SAID SCANNING MEANS.