11. The device of claim 7 , wherein the grid of cells is a first grid of cells, wherein the description of the character symbol comprises a second grid of cells equivalent to the first grid of cells, wherein the comparing comprises configuring the computer to: for each local feature of the reference description which mandates a presence or an absence of a specified local feature and for each cell in the second grid of cells, verify the presence or the absence in the description of the image.
7. A device comprising: a computer configured to: generate a description of a character symbol from a binarized image; compare a template for the character symbol with the description of the character symbol based on a reference description, wherein the template comprises a grid of cells, a set of local features which may be present in the grid of cells, the reference description specifying which member of the set of local features should be present or absent in the grid of cells, and a threshold of an accepted deviation with the description of the character symbol; assign a penalty value to the description of the character symbol via a cost function when a discrepancy exists based on the comparing; select the template as a match candidate for the character symbol when the penalty value is below the threshold; recognize the character symbol based on the selecting.