A Multi-Level Perception Approach to Reading Cursive Script

Reading cursive script involves elements of visual perception at one level of processing and those of language perception and understanding at a higher level. The problem is approached as one in which a word image is transformed through a representational hierarchy of levels based on descriptions that use points, contours, features, letters, and words. Global control is hierarchical unti l an intermediate level after which it is heterarchical. Two modes of learning are defined: supervised training wi th user feedback and unsupervised adaptation to the writer.