@article{b48bb489cf3e4b7a8175092b8e9aae95,
title = "The use of context in pattern recognition",
abstract = "The importance of contextual information, at various different levels, for the satisfactory solution of pattern recognition problems is illustrated by examples. A tutorial survey of techniques for using contextual information in pattern recognition is presented. Emphasis is placed on the problems of image classification and text recognition, where the text is in the form of machine and handprinted characters, cursive script, and speech. The related problems of scene analysis, natural language understanding, and error-correcting compilers are only lightly touched upon.",
keywords = "Character recognition, Context Artificial intelligence, Error correction, Image classification, Natural language understanding, Pattern recognition, Scene analysis, Speech recognition, Spelling correction, Text processing",
author = "Toussaint, {Godfried T.}",
note = "Funding Information: The notion and importance of context is known to all of us. It is fundamental to many, if not all, spheres of human endeavour. Artists have courted it for thousands of years and scientists have fought it by manipulating experimental variables in order to observe phenomena {"}out of context{"}. Physicists have had a great deal of success, in contrast t o scientists working with living systems, because physical scientists have fewer variables to deal with and context is of less importance. The new field of pattern recognition is different from the physical sciences in that we are trying to mechanize, or externalize into a physical symbol system, a fundamental ability of living organisms. One could guess from this observation that trying to solve the pattern recognition problem, by emulating the methodology of the physical sciences in trying to obtain context-independent solutions to problems, would be a difficult task. The past 20 years experience testifies that this is, in fact, the case. Furthermore, the new realization that many problems cannot be satisfactorily solved by ignoring context is resulting in an extensive effort to find methods of incorporating contextual information at one level or another. The importance of context is realized and documented in such diverse fields as art,~6.7) philosophy of mathematics,(6t) psy-chology , (40, 55.7 2. loa, 109, t 20) anthropology, • . (79) artificial intelligence, 112.5 2.7 s. 12 31 statistics,~,*2, t s t) and, of * Copyright {\textcopyright} 1977 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Reprinted, with permission, from Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on Pattern Recognition and Image Processing, 6-8 June 1977, p. 1. t This research was supported by the National Research Council of Canada under grant number NRC-A9293.",
year = "1978",
doi = "10.1016/0031-3203(78)90027-4",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "10",
pages = "189--204",
journal = "Pattern Recognition",
issn = "0031-3203",
publisher = "Elsevier Ltd",
number = "3",
}