1. A method of operation in an image processor system for recognizing one or more characters in an image of a target object, the method comprising: receiving, by a processor, image data representing an image of the target object; generating histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) features for the received image data; accessing, by the processor, a plurality of HOG character models stored in a nontransitory processor-readable storage medium, each of the plurality of HOG character models associated with a respective known character; for each of a plurality of image locations of the image, comparing each of the plurality of HOG character models to the generated HOG features of the image at the image location; determining a quality measure based at least in part on the comparing of each of the plurality of HOG character models to the generated HOG features of the image; and logically associating in a nontransitory processor-readable storage medium at least one known character with at least one image location based on the comparison to generate at least one candidate character location.