SECTIONING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR OPTICAL CHARACTER READER SYSTEMS

A character sectioning apparatus for segmenting character stream images into individual characters utilizes the projection distribution obtained through a series of character strain images. The apparatus includes means for identifying the character lumps and blank spaces from the projection distribution, means for estimating the character pitch, means responsive to the projection distribution and the character pitch for setting segmentation candidate sections each having a plurality of segmentation candidate positions, means for calculating a distance measurement between each of the segmentation candidate positions within the segmentation candidate sections and segmentation candidate positions within adjacent segmentation candidate sections, means for calculation an appreciation standard and means for selecting an optimum segmentation candidate for each of the plurality of segmentation candidate sections. The appreciation standard is selected as a function of the distance measurements for segmentation candidate positions in each of the plurality of segmentation candidate sections. Each optimum segmentation candidate position minimizes the appreciation standard for the respective segmentation candidate section.