JP3011469B2 - FAX-OCR system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to image data for performing predetermined processing based on image data transmitted from a facsimile apparatus, displaying the result, and correcting the displayed contents as necessary. FA having display device
It relates to an X-OCR system .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a financial institution such as a bank, an information processing device or the like installed in a district center is made to read a predetermined form by a facsimile device installed in each branch office or the like. Utilizing a system that transmits image data and causes the information processing device or the like to recognize the image data, convert the image data into character data, and perform predetermined processing (hereinafter, such a system is referred to as a “FAX-OCR system”) For example, we are conducting money transfer transactions.

[0003] A description will now be given of how a foreign exchange transfer transaction is performed using the FAX-OCR system.

[0004] At a counter of a business office, a customer submits a request for exchange transfer written by the customer to a receptionist who is a bank clerk, in order for the customer to make an exchange transfer to a bank. Then, the receptionist receives the exchange transfer request form from the customer, and submits the exchange transfer request form to the operator of the present system (the receptionist may also serve as the operator). When the operator causes the facsimile machine (e.g., FAXla in FIG. 2) installed in the sales office to read the exchange transfer request form, the facsimile apparatus reads the transfer request form and converts it into image data (normally compressed). Then, for example, the image data is transmitted to the information processing device installed in the district center via a communication line. The image data transmitted from the facsimile machine installed in the branch office is converted into character data by the information processing device, and after performing necessary processing related to the exchange transfer processing, the exchange transfer request message is transmitted to the host computer. Then, the exchange transfer processing is performed by the host computer.

[0005] As described above, the exchange transfer transaction requested by the customer is executed. The processing performed in the district center will be described in some detail as follows. That is, in the district center, it is necessary to check whether the data of the exchange transfer request transmitted from the business office is correct, and if not correct, it is necessary to make corrections. The processing for this is performed by a workstation connected to the information processing device. The exchange transfer request data is displayed on the workstation, and the operator visually checks whether or not the displayed data is correct. As a data display method for allowing the operator to perform a check, the data (that is, image data) of the exchange request written by the original customer is displayed together with the character data recognized by the information processing device. Therefore, the data received by the workstation from the information processing apparatus includes image data which is the content itself written in the exchange request along with the character data converted into characters.

[0006]

In an image display device such as a workstation used in a FAX-OCR system as described in the prior art, after one data process is completed, the next data process is performed. At this time (in the example of the above-described exchange transfer processing, after the check of one exchange transfer request data is completed, the check of the next exchange transfer request data is started, that is, until the display is completed), data for display is displayed. The received display screen data is created. In this case, since the data includes image data, the data amount is large, and the time required for screen display including the transfer time is long. This means that the operator has a longer waiting time from one transaction process to the next transaction process. For example, in the above-described currency transfer process, a waiting time of 3 to 7 seconds may occur. is there. Also, when it is necessary to process a large number of transactions in a short time, it is necessary to increase the number of workstations and the like, and accordingly, the cost and space for installing image display devices such as workstations are reduced. There was also a problem that it led to an increase.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the waiting time for the operator to perform the next process, and to process a large amount of data in a short time. It is an object of the present invention to provide a FAX-OCR system having an image data display device capable of reducing space.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve such problems, the present invention has been made as follows. That is, the FAX-OCR system of the present invention performs a recognition process based on image data related to a facsimile machine installed in a branch office of a financial institution and exchange processing transmitted from the facsimile machine via a communication line. A FAX-OCR processing device for performing predetermined information processing including the FAX-OCR
Consists of a workstation for transmission to the host device the top after the exchange transaction processing character data modification and confirm involving obtained by recognition processing of the processing unit, wherein the workstation, characters from the FAX-OCR processing unit receiving means for receiving data, a display unit, Oh character data relating to a plurality of exchange transactions processing received by the receiving unit, the display data is already being displayed on the display means
Irrespective of whether or not the display data creating means are simultaneously processed in parallel, each of which creates a plurality of data corresponding to the character data relating to each currency exchange transaction; the following table until one already determine Oh Luke not in view in Table <br/> display means, if the result displayed in the determination that it is no longer being displayed in the display data
Display data, and if the result of the judgment is not being displayed
By performing control so as to immediately display the next display data, the plurality of display data is displayed on the display means by one.
And an image data display device having a display control means for sequentially displaying the image data one by one.

[0009]

The FAX-OCR system having the above-described configuration recognizes a facsimile machine installed in a branch office of a financial institution based on image data relating to a foreign exchange transaction transmitted from the facsimile machine via a communication line. Processing
A FAX-OCR processing device for performing predetermined information processing, including:
The exchange transactions modifications and sure character data relating to the processing
And a work station for transmitting to the host device after the recognition , the image data display device of the work station has a receiving means for receiving the FAX-O.
The data processing of the image data relating to the plurality of exchange processing transactions received from the CR processing device is simultaneously processed in parallel, and a plurality of display data for displaying the result on the display means is created. It is determined whether or not a plurality of display data created by the data creation means are already displayed on the display means so that only one display data is simultaneously displayed on the display means, and if the result of the determination is being displayed, the display is performed. The control is made to wait until it becomes possible, and to perform the display unless the result of the determination is displayed.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an image data display device, FIG. 2 is a system configuration example of a FAX-OCR system, FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of the image data display device, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a hardware configuration diagram of the FAX-OCR system, FIG. 6 is an example of an exchange request, and FIG. 7 is a screen display example. First, a system configuration of a FAX-OCR system using the image data display device of the present invention and a hardware configuration of the image data display device will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 2, 1a is a facsimile machine (hereinafter referred to as "F
AX ”) and is installed in each branch such as a bank. The FAX 1a is connected via a communication line 2 (for example, a public line is used as a communication line, but is not limited to this) to a FAX-OCR control device 3 installed in a district center for centrally managing each business office. Further, the FAX-OCR control device 3 is connected to a FAX-OCR processing device 4 installed in the same district center.
The FAX-OCR processing device 4 is further connected to a terminal control device 9, and the terminal control device 9 is connected to a host computer (hereinafter referred to as "H
OST ”). FAX-O
The CR control device 3 mainly performs a process of receiving image data (usually compressed) from the FAX 1a, and as shown in FIG.
2, communication control unit 33, workstation control unit 34,
As shown in FIG. 2, the FAX-OCR control unit 3 includes a disk unit 6a and a workstation (hereinafter, referred to as "WS"). The line control unit 35, the disk unit control unit 36, the image conversion unit 37, and the timer 38. 5a is connected. The FAX-OCR processing device 4 requests the recognition device 7 to perform recognition processing mainly based on the image data received by the FAX-OCR control device 3 ,
It performs various processes such as transmitting and receiving information to and from the WS 5b and the terminal control device 9, and as shown in FIG.
1, a memory 42, a disk device control unit 43, a photo printer control unit 44, a workstation control unit 45, a timer 46, a communication control unit 47, and a recognition device control unit 48. As shown in FIG. Processing unit 4
Includes a recognition device 7, a disk device 6b, and a photo printer 8.
Also, a plurality of WS5b, which are image data display devices of the present invention, are connected. The WS 5b, which is an image data display device of the present invention, includes a processor 50, a memory 51, an image decompression unit 52, a transfer control unit 53, a floppy disk device 54, and a disk device 5 as shown in FIG.
5, a CRT display 56 and a keyboard 57.

Next, referring to FIG. 2, the above-described FAX-OC
An outline of an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on an exchange transaction operation in a financial institution using the R system. It is assumed that an operator belonging to a bank branch has been requested by a customer to perform an exchange transfer transaction. When an operator receives a transfer request written by the customer at the sales office window, for example, as shown in FIG. 6 from the customer (step), the operator causes the FAX 1a installed in the business office to read the transfer request (step). ). As a result, the FAX 1a reads the transfer request form, converts it into image data (compressed), and sets the FAX-OC installed in the district center via the communication line 2.
It transmits to the R control device 3. The image data received by the FAX-OCR control device 3 is temporarily stored in the disk device 6.
After being stored in a (step), it is transmitted to the FAX-OCR processing device 4. Next, the FAX-OCR processing device 4
Converts the image data received from the FAX-OCR control device 3 into character data using the recognition device 7. When converting the image data into character data, the entire received image data (that is, the entire content of one transfer request form is converted into image data) may be uniformly converted into character data,
Or, after first converting a specific part of the image data to character data, determine which part of the image data is to be converted to character data by the character data,
Only the determined portion may be converted into character data. If the amount of image data is large,
The image data contains the original image data (for example,
If a bank mark or pattern is printed on the transfer request, the mark or pattern is mixed with image data to be converted to character data, the conversion time to character data can be reduced. The latter is more effective for improving the conversion rate to character data, but in the present invention, the method for converting to character data may be any of the methods described above, and is not limited to the above method. When the conversion from the image data to the character data is completed, it is continuously determined whether or not the transfer processing is based on the character data. As this determination method, for example, a method using a character at a specific position of character data, that is, as shown in FIG.
A method of determining whether or not the transfer processing is to be performed based on the character corresponding to the position ("789" in the example of FIG. 6). In this embodiment, "789" is printed on the form position corresponding to the request form section K in the transfer request form. Therefore, when the image data of the transfer request form is converted into character data, the request form division K The character corresponding to the position is “789”
It is what becomes.

In the case of the transfer process, the character data is stored in the disk device 6b together with the image data corresponding to the character data (ie, the image data to be converted into the character data) (step). Next, FAX-OC
The R processing device 4 performs a predetermined process based on the character data of the transfer process stored in the disk device 6b in a step, edits the data into a predetermined format, and if necessary, combines the image data with the display unit of the WS 5b. Is displayed on the CRT display 56 or the like (step). The operator who belongs to the district center looks at the transfer transaction data displayed on the display unit of the WS 5b at the step, confirms it, and if necessary, corrects the transfer transaction data using the operation unit such as the keyboard 57 of the WS 5b. Is pressed, the FAX-OCR processor 4 determines that the transfer data displayed on the display unit of the WS 5b is correct, edits the transfer data into a predetermined message format (not shown), It transmits to HOST10 via (step). From the above,
Exchange transfer processing is performed.

Next, the processing of the WS 5b (that is, the image data display device of the present invention) which is the central part of the present invention will be described. First, the outline of the present invention will be described with reference to the conceptual diagram of the apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. That is, if the receiving means M1 is FAX1a or a higher-level device (for example, FAX-OCR
When image data (and character data) is received from the processing device 4), the display data creating means M2 creates a plurality of display data to be displayed on the display means M4 based on the received data. The display control means M3 controls so that only one of the plurality of display data created by the display data creation means M2 is displayed at the same time (that is, sequentially), and displays it on the display means M4.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail mainly with reference to FIGS. This processing is performed by a program stored in the floppy disk device 54 or the disk device 55 in advance and loaded into the memory 51. This program is an operating system that manages jobs 1J1 and 2J2 (see FIG. 4) that mainly execute data processing related to image data and the like, manages jobs 1J1 and 2J2, and performs basic control of hardware of an image data display device. (Not shown)
It is composed of Also, job 1J1 and job 2J2
Operate in parallel under the control of the operating system. In the following description, job 1J1 and job 2J2
The processing of each job is performed in cooperation with the operating system.

The processing of job 1J1 (job 2J2
Is also the same as the job 1J1). To put it simply, as shown in FIG. 7, the image data IM, which is information relating to an exchange transaction, and the character data CH, which is a recognition result of the image data, are represented by WS5.
The information is displayed on the CRT display 56 of (b) to allow the operator to confirm and correct the data as necessary. That is, the disk device 6 of the FAX-OCR processing device 4
The data of the money transfer processing (image data and character data as the recognition result of the image data are mixed) stored in b are received via the transfer control unit 53 (step S10). Next, the received image data (compressed to reduce the transfer amount) is decompressed by the image decompression unit 52 (step S11), and the decompressed image data and character data as a recognition result of the image data are converted into Based on the information, other information is added as necessary to create display screen data to be displayed on the CRT display 56 as shown in FIG. 7 (step S1).
2). Thereafter, the operating system requests the operating system to display the display screen data created in step S12 on the CRT display 56. The operating system determines whether another job (job 2J2 in this embodiment) is already being displayed. If it is determined that the job is being displayed, the process waits until the job can be displayed. If it is determined that the job is not being displayed, the job is displayed on the CRT display 56 (step S13). That is, the operating system performs exclusive control on use of the CRT display 56 for each job. Next, the operator of the WS 5b enters the CRT
The contents displayed on the display 56 are corrected and confirmed (step S14). This part will be described below with reference to FIG. That is, the CRT display 5
The important part of the contents displayed in 6 is the contents of the exchange request written by the customer of the sales office, and the image data IM displayed on the upper side of each display item is the character itself written by the customer, the lower side thereof Is the recognition result of the image data IM (that is, the recognized character). Therefore, the operator of the WS 5b checks whether the recognized character is correctly recognized based on the image data IM displayed together. When it is determined that the recognition has not been performed correctly ([Amount] in FIG. 7)
Column data shows this example), when it is determined that the character entered by the customer has not been recognized (the data in the [client] column of FIG. 7 shows this example), other recognition results When the operator discovers that there is some error, such as when it is correct but the content entered by the customer is incorrect, the operator can use the keyboard 57 to comprehensively determine based on the image data IM and other information displayed. Judge and correct the recognition result to correct data. As described above, the operator presses the completion key provided on the keyboard 57 after confirming that the data is correct after correcting the data displayed on the CRT display 56 if necessary, if necessary (step S15). ). As a result, the recognized characters (which may be corrected by the operator) recognized by the operator are converted to a predetermined transfer format and transmitted to the FAX-OCR processing device 4 via the transfer control unit 53. (Step S16). (In the FAX-OCR processing device 4,
After the transmitted recognition character is stored in the disk device 6b, it is edited into a predetermined message format (not shown) and transmitted to the HOST 10 via the terminal control device 9. As described above, since one exchange transfer transaction operation on the image data display device side has been completed, the display of the screen data relating to the transaction has become unnecessary, and the processing of switching the display screen is requested to the operating system (by this operation). The operating system determines that the job 1J1 has relinquished the occupation of the CRT display 56, and
The job issuing the occupation request of No. 6 is permitted to be occupied (step S17), and the process returns to step S10 again to receive data of the next transaction. Although the processing of job 1J1 has been described in detail above, the processing of job 2J2 is the same as that of job 1J1, and each processing from step S20 of job 2J2 is performed at step S10 of job 1J1.
Corresponding to the process from. As is clear from the above description,
Since the job 1J1 and the job 2J2 are processed in parallel under the management of the operating system, step S1
0 to step S12 (steps S20 to S
The process of 22) is performed in parallel. Therefore, as long as the data is obtained by the reception, the creation of the display data is performed in parallel, so that a plurality of display data are created. However, the portion related to the process using the CRT display 56, that is, steps S13 to S17 (steps S23 to S27) are sequentially performed by exclusive control of the operating system.

The description of one embodiment of the present invention based on the exchange transfer processing is completed above. Of course, the present invention is not limited to only the exchange transfer processing and the above-described embodiment, but has the following configuration. May be.

1. The number of jobs is not limited to two, but may be three or more. In addition, by increasing the number of jobs, preparing a plurality of connection lines between the transfer control unit 53 and the FAX-OCR processing device 4, etc., while any job occupies the CRT display 56, It is desirable that another job receives the data and completes the creation of the display data, and immediately puts the CRT display 56 in an occupiable state when the occupation is released.

2. In the above-described embodiment, as processing of the job 1J1, steps S10 to S12 (hereinafter, referred to as “first half”), which are parts that can perform processing in parallel with other jobs under the management of the operating system, CRT display 5 in which sequential processing is performed by exclusive control of the system
6 relating to the process using step 6, ie, step S13
Through step S17 (hereinafter, referred to as “second half”). However, the job is not configured in such a manner, and the second half is prepared independently as a single job, and the first half is prepared independently as a plurality of jobs, and the display data creation, which is the processing of the first half, is completed. After that, the process using the CRT display 56 may be requested to the independent second half job. Furthermore, a dedicated processor may be assigned to each of the first half jobs, and these jobs may be operated in parallel.

3. In the above-described embodiment, the display data can be corrected or the like. However, no key operation by the operator such as the correction is performed at all, and the image data display device merely displays the data, that is, the monitor display of the data is performed. You may just do it.

4. In the above embodiment, the fax 1a and the WS5
b between the FAX-OCR controller 3 and the FAX-OCR
The processing device 4 and the like exist, but these devices do not exist at all. In other words, the WS 5b has functions of all these devices (that is, reception, recognition, and display of image data from the FAX 1a). , WS5b alone may perform all the processing in the above-described embodiment.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be expected. That is, the FA according to the present invention
The X-OCR system includes a facsimile machine installed in a branch of a financial institution, and a predetermined information processing including a recognition process based on image data related to a foreign exchange transaction transmitted from the facsimile machine via a communication line. A FAX-OCR processing device for performing the following, and a workstation for correcting and confirming the character data relating to the foreign exchange transaction processing obtained by the recognition processing of the FAX-OCR processing device, and transmitting the corrected and confirmed character data to an upper-level host device, The image data display device of the workstation,
The receiving means processes the data processing of the image data relating to the plurality of exchange processing transactions received from the FAX-OCR processing apparatus at the same time in parallel, and creates a plurality of display data for displaying the result on the display means; The display control means includes:
It is determined whether or not a plurality of display data created by the display data creating means is already displayed on the display means so that only one is simultaneously displayed on the display means, and if the result of the determination is being displayed, Control is performed so as to wait until display is possible, and to display the display if the result of the determination is not being displayed.

For this reason, for an operator who performs a predetermined operation based on the display data displayed on the display means, if the operation of one display data is completed and the operation of the next display data is to be performed, the display means displays the data. The display data to be
Since the operator can be expected to have been created by the already displayed data creating means during operation, also the shorter the time to display the display data, the waiting time until the next operation is shortened Thus, a large amount of data can be processed in a short time. Therefore, the number of workstations to be installed can be reduced, so that the installation cost and installation space of the FAX-OCR system can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an image data display device.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration example of a FAX-OCR system.

FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of the image data display device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram of a FAX-OCR system.

[Fig. 6] Example of an exchange request

FIG. 7 is a screen display example

[Explanation of symbols]

 M1 reception means M2 display data creation means M3 display control means M4 display means 1a facsimile device (FAX) 2 communication line 3 FAX-OCR control device 4 FAX-OCR processing device 5b workstation (WS) 50 processor 51 memory 52 image data decompression Unit 53 transfer control unit 54 floppy disk unit 55 disk unit 56 CRT display 57 keyboard 6a, 6b disk unit (DK) 7 recognition unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Koji Motoiwa, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. 1-7-12 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo (56) References JP-A-58-86668 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A facsimile machine installed in a sales office of a financial institution, and recognition of the facsimile machine based on image data relating to an exchange transaction transmitted from the facsimile machine via a communication line.
A FAX-OCR processing device for performing predetermined information processing including processing, and correcting and confirming character data related to the currency exchange processing obtained by recognition processing of the FAX-OCR processing device. In a FAX-OCR system including a workstation for transmitting to a host device at a higher order, the workstation includes a receiving unit that receives character data from the FAX-OCR processing device, a display unit, and the receiving unit. The display data is already displayed on the display means,
Irrespective of whether or not there is a plurality of display data creating means for simultaneously processing in parallel, each creating a plurality of data corresponding to the character data relating to each currency exchange transaction, a plurality of display data created by the display data creating means Display data
Among one of determines Already Oh Luke not in the display on the display means, it is if the result displayed in the determination it displayed
Ku to wait for the next display data until said plurality on said display means by performing control so immediately for displaying the next display data to be the result displayed in the determination
A display control means for sequentially displaying the display data one by one , and an image data display device comprising: a FAX-OCR system.