Abstract: A system is provided for detecting and locating touching, overlapping and broken segment characters in a binary information stream generated by scanning printed characters on a document surface with a linear sensor array. Fixed, variable and proportional pitch characters are accommodated. As the information stream is circulated through a shift register memory, selected cells of the memory provide a center cell memory window to plural trackers. The trackers are activated on a priority basis as center cells of the memory window satisfy a start condition, and trace between center cells satisfying an adjacency condition. Tracker information is qualified to identify valid information, and the valid tracker information merged to detect and center a valid character in a memory mosaic for output to succeeding systems.