PURPOSE: To stably and speedily recognize a numeral or a partial code without generating misrecognition without being affecting by the deformation due to the slight inclination, etc., of a numeral or the like obtained by image pickup or a shape change due to dirt or the like.

CONSTITUTION: This method includes a (full) character segmenting part (S7) for segmenting a numeral or the like to be recognized based upon brightness data obtained from a video signal, a process (S81) for comparing the horizontal peripheral feature of each line element part obtained by dividing each character into prescribed numbers in the vertical direction with a prescribed reference value and successively executing ternarizing and a character recognizing process (S82) for recognizing the character by a prescribed decision tree based upon a feature corresponding to the ternarized data.