Sub: Requesting guidance for our B.E final year project "Handwritten recognition using Neural network"

we are trying to convert handwritten document in to typed format.At the preliminary stage converting a single alphabet into binary value.we are using MATLAB 6.5.

We can convert typed Alphabet in "paint" into binary values.Using MATLAB could not get for our captured images.we capture images of an alphabet using webcamera.when we try to convert our capture images into binary value,we got all values as '1'.We can not load the captured images into the MATLAB.Only we can load reference images in MATLAB.

We also have thought of using light scanner arrangement for conversion of alphabet into binary values.Kindly give resources for conversion of handwritten alphabet into binary values.