10. An apparatus for recognizing characters, the apparatus comprising: a recognition dictionary in which are stored reference vectors derived from writing samples provided by non-specified writers, each of the reference vectors representing a category; preliminary character recognition means for comparing a feature vector of each input character in an input character pattern to the reference vectors in the recognition dictionary to preliminarily determine the candidate category to which the input character belongs; a character information store in which the feature vector and the candidate category of each input character are stored; recognized character selection means for selecting, from the input characters stored in the character information store, each of the input characters that has been recognized with high reliability as a selected input character; writer-specific reference vector generating means for receiving the feature vectors of the selected input characters from the character information store, and for generating therefrom a writer-specific reference vector for each category, the feature vector of each selected input character being used to generate the writer-specific reference vector for at least one category different from the candidate category to which the selected input character belongs; and final character recognition means, operating in response to the writer-specific reference vector for each category, for finally determining the category to which each input character belongs.
13. The apparatus of claim 10, in which the writer-specific reference vector generating means includes: means for predicting, from the feature vector of each selected input character, a writer-specific feature vector for the at least one category different from the candidate category to which the selected input character belongs; and reference vector correcting means, operating in response to the writer-specific feature vector for each category, for correcting the reference vector for the category to obtain the writer-specific reference vector for the category.