METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING OVERLAPPING PATTERNS

A method of determining the outline of a character in a character recognition system, the character being included in a segment comprising a plurality of pixels which are either white corresponding to the absence of information or black corresponding to the presence of information, the method including the steps of: searching the segment of pixels to detect the location of the first black pixel nearest one edge of the segment; storing the location in the segment of the first detected black pixel; scanning those pixels in the segment within a predetermined distance from the first detected black pixel to detect a second black pixel; storing the location in the segment of the second detected black pixel; and continuing the scanning to successively detect black pixels surrounding the last detected black pixel.