The use of computer aided design requires line drawings and m p s to be digitized and stored in databases. The input of line drawings and nwps into data bases requires vectorization of lines, and recognition of symbols and characters. This paper addresses two aspects reluted to the input process. The first aspect is an autonwtic algorithm for the separation of character strings ,f?ona m p s . The second aspect is an algorithm .for line thinning. The proposed algorithms are based on directional morphology operations. The character string extraction algorithm is independent of font style, size, and language and is suitable for a variety of nwp styles with straight or curved lines. The presented experimental results demonstrate very good performance of the algorithms even in cases where the character strings touch or intersect lines in the map. 257 0-8186-7128-9/95 $4.00 0 I995 IEEE
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.