Statistical-based recognition of similar characters

摘要

A character recognition device and system:PP(1) constructs a database comprising pairs of similar-looking characters; PP(2) selects critical features distinguishing these characters from each other; andPP(3) performs a recognition process based on the selected critical features.P PIn the present invention, sample data is automatically analyzed to construct a feature reference database for a typical character recognition device. If two characters are confused for a threshold number of times, this pair is considered to be similar- looking or confusing. The reference data already accumulated is statistically analyzed for each similar-looking pair to determine the importance of certain features in distinguishing the two characters. These features are further statistically analyzed so that only the most dominant features will be looked at and the less dominant or similar- looking features will be ignored. A table is constructed containing a list of all similar-looking characters and the number of dominant, distinguishing features that are statistically likely to be present in order to select a top candidate character.