Abstract: A computer device extracts an image feature of an image that includes one or more characters to be recognized. The image feature includes a plurality of image feature vectors. The device uses an attention mechanism to compute and output attention weight values corresponding to the target number of characters, based on the image feature vectors, through parallel computing. Each of the attention weight values corresponds to one or more respective characters and represents an importance of the plurality of image feature vectors for the respective characters. The device obtains at least one character according to the plurality of image feature vectors and the target number of attention weight values. Therefore, in a character recognition process, with recognition based on the foregoing attention mechanism, a character in any shape can be effectively recognized by using a simple procedure, thereby avoiding a cyclic operation process and greatly improving operation efficiency.