JPH0344354B

PURPOSE:To obtain a high-speed, low-cost recognition system wherein accurate positioning is unnecessary and characters to be recognized are not limited by judging whether the center point, etc., of a character figure is in the character or not, from whether the boundary point of the character figure is present or not. CONSTITUTION:The center point O of the character figure and middle points A and A when the character figure is divided into two are found. An in-character state is denoted as 1 and an out-character state is denoted as 0; and whether the points O, A, and A are in the characters or not is discriminated by 0 and 1. Then, scanning lines are extended from the points O, A, and -A in directions 1-8 t judge whether 0-to-1 or 1-to-0 boundary points are present or not by counting. Said extended scanning lines, however, are within ranges of width (d) and height (h). Thus, the character figure is discriminated from the points O, A, and -A and 0 and 1 figure obtained from the scanning lines in combination.