A system for performing optical pattern recognition includes a first detector neural network for detecting the presence of a particular optical pattern in an input image and a second locator neural network for locating and/or removing the particular optical pattern from the input image. The detector network and the locator network both comprise nodes which can take on the -1, +1, or undefined states. The nodes are arranged in layers and each node in a layer has a location corresponding to a pixel in the input image. A particular application of this neural network is in finding the amount field on a check and removing the line which borders the amount field.