def normalize_character_image(char_image):
    # return char_image
    height, width = char_image.shape
    height_ratio = NORMALIZED_HEIGHT/height
    width_ratio = NORMALIZED_WIDTH/width
    scale_factor = min(height_ratio, width_ratio)

    char_image = rescale(char_image, scale_factor)
    char_image = img_as_bool(char_image)

    # threshold = filters.threshold_otsu(char_image)
    # char_image = char_image > threshold
    newheight, newwidth = char_image.shape

    width_padding = NORMALIZED_WIDTH - char_image.shape[1]
    height_padding = NORMALIZED_HEIGHT- char_image.shape[0]

    width_padding_tuple = (floor(width_padding/2), ceil(width_padding/2))
    height_padding_tuple =  (floor(height_padding/2), ceil(height_padding/2))

    return pad(char_image, [height_padding_tuple, width_padding_tuple], mode = 'constant', constant_values = 1)