Rotation and size invariant shape recognition apparatus

Claim 1

A SHAPE INDENTIFICATION APPARATUS COMPRISING: (A) FOLLOWER MEANS FOR FOLLOWING THE OUTLINE OF AN UNKNOWN SHAPE AND PRODUCING TIME VARIANT ANALOG WAVEFORMS MANIFESTIVE OF THE CONFIGURATION OF THE SHAPE; (B) MEANS FOR PROCESSING SAID WAVEFORMS TO PRODUCE A SUCCESSION OF BINARY NUMBERS MANIFESTIVE OF THE SUCCESSIVE DIRECTIONS OF MOVEMENT OF SAID FOLLOWER MEANS IN FOLLOWING THE OUTLINE OF THE SHAPE IN A CLOSED TRACE THEREOF; (C) MEANS FOR OBTAINING THE DIFFERENCE OF SUCCESSIVE PAIRS OF SAID BINARY NUMBERS TO PRODUCE A SUCCESSION OF BINARY WORDS EQUAL TO THE BINARY DIFFERENCE AND THE ALGEBRAIC SIGN OF THE DIFFERENCES, EACH OF SAID PAIRS OF BINARY NUMBERS INCLUDING ONE NUMBER FROM THE PRECEDING PAIR AND OCCURRING AT PREDETERMINED FIXED TIME INTERVALS DURING THE FOLLOWER ACTION (D) MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE PERIPHERAL LENGTH OF THE SHAPE BEING FOLLOWED FOR SAMPLING THE SUCCESSION OF BINARY WORDS AT TIME INTERVALS, THE DURATION OF WHICH IS A LINEAR FUNCTION OF THE PERIPHERY (E) MEANS FOR COMPARING THE SAMPLED WORDS WITH A STORED SUCCESSION OF WORDS DEFINING ALL OF THE KNOWN SHAPES AMONG WHICH RECOGNITION IS SOUGHT; AND (F) MEANS FOR PRECESSING THE SAMPLED SUCCESSION OF WORDS WITH RESPECT TO THE STORED SUCCESSION OF TO CORRECT FOR ANGULAR ORIENTATION OF THE UNKNOWN SHAPE.