1. A handwritten character recognition device comprising: an input unit for receiving thereon one or more handwritten strokes forming a character; stroke extracting means for analyzing said handwriting in an X-axis direction and in a Y-axis direction, and extracting an X-axis direction input stroke and a Y-axis direction input stroke, said Y-axis direction being perpendicular to said X-axis direction; symbolizing means for converting each point and each direction change of said X-axis direction input stroke into an X-axis direction symbol string and for converting each point and each direction change of said Y-axis direction input stroke into a Y-axis direction symbol string, each of said symbol strings including one or a plurality of symbols which are representative of each point and each direction change of said one or more handwritten strokes; first storage means for storing X-axis direction basic symbol strings each including one or a plurality of symbols corresponding to X-axis direction basic symbol strokes of reference characters, and Y-axis direction basic symbol strings each including one or a plurality of symbols corresponding to Y-axis direction basic symbol strokes of the reference characters; means for obtaining correlation coefficients between each of said X- and Y-axis direction symbol strings and said basic symbol strings; second storage means for storing said correlation coefficients between each of said X- and Y-axis direction symbol strings and said basic symbol strings; degree-of-match calculating means for calculating, by referring to the first storage means and the second storage means, X-axis correlation coefficients between the symbols forming the X-axis direction symbol string and the symbols forming the X-axis direction basic symbol string and Y-axis correlation coefficients between the symbols forming the Y-axis direction symbol string and the symbols forming the Y-axis direction basic symbol stroke, and for producing X-axis degrees-of-match on the basis of said X-axis correlation coefficients and Y-axis degrees-of-match on the basis of said Y-axis correlation coefficients; and recognizing means for recognizing said character inputted to said input means on the basis of said X-axis degree-of-match and Y-axis degree-of-match.
1. A handwritten character recognition device comprising: an input unit for receiving thereon one or more handwritten strokes forming a character; stroke extracting means for analyzing said handwriting in an X-axis direction and in a Y-axis direction, and extracting an X-axis direction input stroke and a Y-axis direction input stroke, said Y-axis direction being perpendicular to said X-axis direction; symbolizing means for converting each point and each direction change of said X-axis direction input stroke into an X-axis direction symbol string and for converting each point and each direction change of said Y-axis direction input stroke into a Y-axis direction symbol string, each of said symbol strings including one or a plurality of symbols which are representative of each point and each direction change of said one or more handwritten strokes; first storage means for storing X-axis direction basic symbol strings each including one or a plurality of symbols corresponding to X-axis direction basic symbol strokes of reference characters, and Y-axis direction basic symbol strings each including one or a plurality of symbols corresponding to Y-axis direction basic symbol strokes of the reference characters; means for obtaining correlation coefficients between each of said X- and Y-axis direction symbol strings and said basic symbol strings; second storage means for storing said correlation coefficients between each of said X- and Y-axis direction symbol strings and said basic symbol strings; degree-of-match calculating means for calculating, by referring to the first storage means and the second storage means, X-axis correlation coefficients between the symbols forming the X-axis direction symbol string and the symbols forming the X-axis direction basic symbol string and Y-axis correlation coefficients between the symbols forming the Y-axis direction symbol string and the symbols forming the Y-axis direction basic symbol stroke, and for producing X-axis degrees-of-match on the basis of said X-axis correlation coefficients and Y-axis degrees-of-match on the basis of said Y-axis correlation coefficients; and recognizing means for recognizing said character inputted to said input means on the basis of said X-axis degree-of-match and Y-axis degree-of-match. 6. A handwritten character recognition device according to claim 1, wherein said recognizing means determines a reference character having X-axis degree-of-match and Y-axis degree-of match higher than a predetermined value as the character inputted to said input means.