Handwritten ZIP code recognition

The encoding of delivery point code (DPC) for a handwritten address is one of the most complex problems of the US mail delivery automation. This paper describes a real-time system intended to recognize the 5-digit ZIP code part of DPC. To increase the system performance the results of ZIP code recognition are cross-validated with those of city and state name recognition. The main principles of the handwritten word recognizer which provide the core of the system are explained. The system throughput is 40,000 address blocks per hour. Experimental results on live mail pieces are presented. The ZIP code recognition rate is 73% with 1% error rate.