Parallel execution of handwriting feature extraction for the reconfigurable parallel machine

The authors address a parallel algorithm for handwriting feature extraction on a RPM (reconfigurable parallel machine). Introducing the novel parallel architecture RPM, the authors have developed a very effective algorithm for feature extraction. The feature of handwriting is represented as a graph called a pattern graph. The proposed parallel feature extraction algorithm executes in O(1) time, while conventional algorithms require O(N²) time, where N × N is the size of input image. Dramatic improvement in execution time is due to the pixel per PE (processing element) mapping and the distributed programmable interconnection network. The number of PEs can be reduced by multiplexing a group of virtual PEs onto one PE