Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for recognition of graphic symbols

US4949388A · kind A · utility

102Cited by
10References
30Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 19, 1987
Grant dateAug 14, 1990
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 19, 2007

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06V30/422
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A technique for recognizing hand-drawn graphic symbols operates on vectorized graphic data, including lines, arcs, and circles, that have been produced by an automatic drawing recognition system. The user creates segmented rule bases for recognizing various symbols by describing the geometric structures of recognizable symbols and subsymbols. The rule bases each are compiled into a respective decision tree. Fetched input vectors and entities are placed in software "blackboards", and more particularly, into appropriate symbol slots and subsymbol slots thereof. The growing symbols and subsymbols on the blackboards are continually restructured until they form closed loops or the blackboards are filled. The decision tree then is applied to all possible permutations of the symbols and/or subsymbols to accomplish partial or complete recognition. An inference engine subsystem controls application of the decision trees to limited bits of the symbols and subsymbols, matching decision subtree segment labels to attributes associated with the blackboard data, and orders the matched data according to degree of matching to effectuate application of the decision tree to the linked lists.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.