CHARACTER RECOGNITION DEVICE

The present synchronization circuit for an optical reader operates as follows: when a pattern read is that of a non-mutilated character, three decision pulses are generated substantially in time coincidence: the first after having recognized a character pattern, the second after having detected the end of a pattern and the third after having detected the beginning of a pattern. When a pattern read corresponds to a mutilated character one or more of these decision pulses are missing and are not in time coincidence. In this case the decision pulse generated first is used to control the decision operation.