AREA EXTRACTION PROGRAM, CHARACTER RECOGNITION PROGRAM, AND CHARACTER RECOGNITION DEVICE

An area extraction method including obtaining a character lattice showing a connection relation between unit areas, which are obtained by separating a character string pattern in an image into patterns each recognized as corresponding to a single character, judging whether or not all combinations of each of the unit areas in the obtained character lattice and each of the unit areas in a regular lattice defining a regular connection relation between the unit areas are likely to be established, generating a path coupling between nodes corresponding to the combination of the unit areas which is determined as likely to be established, determining an optimum path from the generated paths based on a degree of coincidence with the regular lattice or the character lattice, and extracting from an image the unit areas in the character lattice corresponding to the determined optimum path.