The Recognition of Handwritten Numerals by Contour Analysis

A character recognition system has been developed for the recognition of handwritten numerals. This system uses a logically controlled cathode ray tube scanner to generate basic measurements that characterize significant features of the numeral shapes. A contour-follower procedure is used to control the scanner. In addition, special scanner subroutines initiated by feedback from the recognition logic are utilized. Character shape data are generated in a sequential form, which can be analyzed for recognition with an easily realizable logic. An experimental model has been built that recognized 99.3% of numerals written by 45 subjects after 30 minutes of training. The error rate for these characters was 0.11%. The rejected character rate was 0.59%.