PURPOSE: To extract the features of a manual writing character easily, by finding the 1st and 2nd differential values of a character curve successively from the input information of the manual writing character, classifying a pattern by the combination of both the differential vlues and also classifying the input character in accordance with the appearance order of the pattern.

CONSTITUTION: An input character written on a tablet which is the character information to be recognized is inputted to a computer as a pen point position coordinate array (Xi, Yi=1Wn), removed at its noises and smoothed. The smoothed input character is initially differentiated and then secondarily differentiated. Both the differential values are expressed by positive, negative, 0, and ∞ in accordance with the shown patterns S (AWH). Provided that the secondary differential value does not exist in the pattern H. The patterns AWH are found from the combination of both the differential values. The input character is classified from the appearance order of respective patterns AWH to extract the features of the input character. If the patterns B, D, A, E appear in the counterclockwise direction, "0" is recognized. Consequently, the candidate character to time.