18. The system of claim 17, further comprising: (e) means for receiving test characters; (f) means for generating sequences of feature vectors for said test characters by mapping in chirographic space; (g) means for computing probabilities that said test characters can be generated by said hidden Markov models; and (h) means for decoding said test characters as recognized characters associated with said selected hidden Markov models having greatest probabilities.
18. The system of claim 17, further comprising: (e) means for receiving test characters; (f) means for generating sequences of feature vectors for said test characters by mapping in chirographic space; (g) means for computing probabilities that said test characters can be generated by said hidden Markov models; and (h) means for decoding said test characters as recognized characters associated with said selected hidden Markov models having greatest probabilities. 25. The system of claim 18, wherein said computing means comprises means for applying a Viterbi algorithm to calculate, a posteriori, probabilities that said selected test character can be generated by said hidden Markov models.