2017-RU-02: Digit recognition file:///Users/tort/Documents/BEBRAS/SVN_Bebras/2017/Worki...

2017-RU-02: Digit recognition

Task Attributes
Age Group / Difficulty:III hard, IV hard, V medium
Category: ALP
Keywords: recognition, minimization, digits
Answer type: constructive
Colour-blind-proof: yes

Digit recognition
A digit recognition system understand digits that look as follows:

Each digit is made up of up to 7 segments. To recognize a digit, not all the segments are necessary,
it is possible to understand a digit if only a some of the segments are visible.

Select those segments that are absolutely necessary to identify all of the ten digits (0...9)
unambiguously.

Use your mouse to select and deselect segments.

The correct answer is:

To understand, whether 4 segments are enough let us carry out the following reasoning. Since 0
and 8 differ only in one segment, this segment must be used in recognition, and we must select it:

1 sur 4 01/06/2017 12:53

2017-RU-02: Digit recognition file:///Users/tort/Documents/BEBRAS/SVN_Bebras/2017/Worki...

All the digits may be split into two sets depending on whether this segment is present in a digit: for
{0;1;7} it is not present, and for {2;3;4;5;6;8;9} it is present. Next note than 1 and 7 also differ in only
one segment, thus we also must select it:

Now, all the digits are split into 4 sets depending on whether they contain or not contain the two
selected segments: {1}, {0;7}, {4}, {2;3;5;6;8;9}. So, the two selected segments already allow to
recognize digits 1 and 4.

Now, let us find more digits that differ in exactly one element. These are 8 and 9. Let us select this
segment also:

Digits are split in the following sets with identical elements: {1}, {0}, {7}, {4}, {2;6;8}, {3;5;9}. Similarly,
6 and 8 also differ in only one element, let us select it:

After that, the four segments divide digits into the following subsets: {1}, {0}, {7}, {4}, {2;8}, {6}, {3;9},
{5}. Thus, four segments are not enough.

3 and 9 differ only in one segment. This segment also allows to distinguish between 2 and 8, so we
may select this element, and all the digits will be separated:

2 sur 4 01/06/2017 12:53

2017-RU-02: Digit recognition file:///Users/tort/Documents/BEBRAS/SVN_Bebras/2017/Worki...

If we now overlay the segments that we have identified as being unique, we get our solution:

Note, that the reasoning demonstrated that the answer is unique.

It's Informatics!
Pattern recognition algorithms generally aim to provide a reasonable answer for all possible inputs
and to perform "most likely" matching of the inputs, taking into account their statistical variation.
Pattern recognition is a branch of machine learning that focuses on the recognition of patterns and
regularities in data. One of the approaches to recognition is to extract specific features, that allow
uniquely identify objects.

Computer vision is an actively developping field of information technologies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_vision
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition

Wording
Digit recognition: examine the visible digits and perform the "most likely" matching digits

Segment: the smalletst part of a digit. In order to present numbers 0-9 you have 7 segments

Comments
2017-05-22 Ilya Posov (RU), iposov@gmail.com:
changed age groups as suggested in reviews; fixed text in the statement as suggested by Karsten
Schulz; added the next comment about the interaction

2017-05-22 Ilya Posov (RU), iposov@gmail.com:

The implementation of an interaction may greatly affect the simplicity of the problem and may make
it even quite easy and solvable in a short period of time. When user selects segments in the answer,
the segments should at least be highlighted also in all the digits. Digits may even arrange
automatically in groups of similar digits, so the solver would definitely know whether his answer
allows recognizing all the digits, though he or she would not know, whether the answer is optimal.

Workshop 2017

2017-05-31 Nicolette Venn (Australia), nicolette.venn@csiro.au

2017-05-31 Dimitris Mavrovouniotis (Cyprus), D.Mavrovouniotis@gmail.com

Replaced consists of several segments out of - with is made up of up to; deleted total; replaced a
subset with some; inserted the between of segments; replaced is with are; deleted sentence one in
the correct answer part; replaced this segments with this segment; replaced digit, with segment;
replaced indistinguishable with identical; replaced one segments with one segment

Changed the informatics part: Introduced pattern pecognition. Added the missing Wording part.

3 sur 4 01/06/2017 12:53

2017-RU-02: Digit recognition file:///Users/tort/Documents/BEBRAS/SVN_Bebras/2017/Worki...

Graphics
All images: self-made by Sergei Pozdniakov (RU), pozdnkov@gmail.com

Files
2017-RU-02-eng.html (this file)

Authorship
2017-04-25 Task Proposal: Sergei Pozdniakov (RU), pozdnkov@gmail.com

License
Copyright © Bebras – International Challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinking.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

4 sur 4 01/06/2017 12:53