AN IMPROVED HEAD SCANNER USING AN ADVANCED TEXT-RECOGNITION ALGORITHM TO IMPROVE PORTABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DEVELOP AN IMPROVED READER FOR PRINTED TEXT. THE PRESENT STANDARD IN THIS FIELD IS THE KURZWEIL READING MACHINE. THIS MACHINE HAS SEVERAL DISADVANTAGES, MOST NOTABLY ITS PHYSICAL SIZE AND WEIGHT, ITS COST, AND ITS POOR PERFORMANCE WITH CERTAIN SPECIALIZED TYPES OF FORMATS AND FONTS (E.G., CHEMICAL JOURNALS AND FADED PRINT ON DAMAGED PAPER). IT IS PROPOSED HERE TO DEVELOP A NEW SCANNER HEAD MECHANISM AND A NEW CHARACTER INTERPRETATION PROGRAM, RESULTING IN A PHYSICALLY SMALLER, ACCURATE, AND LESS COSTLY READING SYSTEMTHE SCANNER HEAD DESIGN IS MADE POSSIBLE BY IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN TYPES OF SOLID-STATE DEVICES ONLY RECENTLY AVAIL- ABLE. THE MINIATURIZATION IS MADE POSSIBLE BY RECENT AD- VANCES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUSTOM-DESIGNED CHIPS. THE IMPROVED CHARACTGER INTERPRETATION ALGORITHM IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE, FIRST, OF A CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH IN THE CON- CEPTUALIZATION OF THE CHARACTER-RECOGNITION PROBLEM, AND SECOND, BECAUSE OF DEVELOPMENTS INT HE FIELD OF EXPERT SYSTEMS. BOTH THE SCANNER HEAD DESIGN AND THE SOFTWARE ALGORITHM ARE SUPERIOR IN PRINCIPLE TO THOSE CURRENTLY IN USE, AND SHOULD MAKE POSSIBLE THE PRODUCTION OF A PORTABLE SCANNER HAVING SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS TO BE CURRENTLY-AVAILABLE TEXT READERS.