APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR RECOGNIZING CHARACTERS

An optical reader for recognizing printed characters, such as alpha-numeric characters, is disclosed. The characters are scanned in parallel, vertical slices by a photodiode array contained in a hand-held wand which is manually moved over the printed characters. The resultant video signals are examined for predetermined features, such as gaps, bars, strokes, etc. These features are encoded into a digital word for each slice. A logic tree analysis is used in which each new digital word is compared to words along the tree to direct the analysis to branches or substances. The continued comparison leads to a positive recognition of a single character. The raw video is not stored as in prior art systems, but rather the video signals are processed in a serial manner with feature identification occurring without storage. The processing circuitry thus is efficiently used since the video signals are processed as they occur.