The Ni1000 is an artificial neural network

Artificial neural network

An artificial neural network , usually called neural network , is a mathematical model or computational model that is inspired by the structure and/or functional aspects of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of an interconnected group of artificial neurons, and it processes...

 chip developed by Nestor Corporation. The chip is aimed at image analysis applications, contains more than 3 million transistors and can analyze patterns at the rate of 40,000 per second. Prototypes running with Nestor's OCR

Optical character recognition

Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...

software in 1994 were capable of recognizing around 100 handwritten characters per second.