Abstract: A method and system for recognizing machine generated character glyphs in a graphic image that uses a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) to separately recognize the individual pixelcolumns of character glyphs and then combines these separate pixelcolumns together to form correctly recognized whole glyphs. This method and system can enable data to be automatically exchanged between applications where no alternative method of data interchange exists. The DFA minimizes its space requirements by storing the current input dimension of its state transition table as a sorted list of possible values that could be matched at the current state. This sorted list can then be binary searched for the current input pixel RGB value.

Abstract: A deterministic finite automaton uses binary search (and optionally hashing) method(s) of sparse matrix representation to recognize the graphical representations of characters or icons from a bitmap representation of the computer screen. This recognition can be applied to translate data from an unknown form of original specification (file format) into a known form of representation, such as HTML. Alternatively this recognition can be applied to another process that can “see” what is on the screen, and perform programmed actions, based on what it “sees”.