1. An improved ANN adapted to associate a component norm (C_norm) to each component of an input pattern having p components in the process of evaluating the final distance between the input pattern and the prototypes stored in the neurons of the ANN comprising: data-in transmitting means for applying input patterns components to each neuron; global memorization means to store the p component norms and apply said p component norms to each neuron; a plurality of n neurons; each neuron comprising: a prototype memory to store the p components of a prototype; and, distance evaluation means connected to said prototype memory, to said global memorization means and to said data-in transmitting means; addressing means for simultaneously applying the input pattern component, the corresponding component norm associated therewith and the corresponding stored prototype component to said distance evaluation means in each neuron; means for applying a distance norm (D_norm) to the distance evaluation means; wherein said distance evaluation means are adapted to perform the elementary (or partial) distance calculation between the corresponding components of the input pattern and the stored prototype using the corresponding component norm associated thereto and to combine said elementary calculations in the distance evaluation process to determine the final distance using a distance norm (D_norm).