JPH03134771A - Automatic generating system for picture form format - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the work efficiency by only allowing a reader to read format of a slip or a form to automatically generate a format to be processed by a computer. CONSTITUTION:A console device 2 and a reader 3 are connected to a processor 1 through a reader controller 4, and a printer 6 is connected to the processor 1 through a printer controller 5, and a storage device 8 is connected there through a storage device controller 7. The format of a slip or a form is only inputted from the reader 3 to generate a picture format to be processed by the computer, and it is so most suitably adjusted and outputted that all of this format can be displayed on a display device. Thus, the work process where a user generates the format on the display device is eliminated to improve the efficiency of the user.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention is applicable to computerizing a user's general business processing and converting documents and forms into computer processing screens and the like in the business program creation work that occurs. Concerning a method for automatically creating forms from the screen.

[Conventional technology] Traditionally, how to computerize user work.

Preparing the environment includes creating a slip screen format and a form format. These are created using the batch method, in which conditions are given externally using parameters, and the painting method, in which the products are created while interacting with the screen. In these methods, the operator performs column conversion while looking at the format of the screen or form being created, and draws one column at a time on the display. Tokuhara No. 1-175469 is related to this type of technology.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Normally, a user's work consists of a screen as input and a form as output. Currently, in order to create screens and forms for computer processing, the format drawn on paper is converted into column units on the display, and then drawn on the display. However, alignment calculations are difficult, column counting errors occur frequently, and the creation process is extremely time-consuming.

Furthermore, slips and forms often have blank spaces between rows and columns, and if drawn on the display as is, it often extends beyond the display screen. If you run a job with this protruding area, the screen will scroll while the job is being executed, which will affect the job execution performance. Therefore, it is necessary to fit as much as possible within the display screen, and all these adjustments have been made while being considered by the operator.

As described above, the time required for the user to create the format is enormous.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic screen form creation method that eliminates the user's format creation work, improves the efficiency of the user's business processing, and reduces the user's work.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, in a form processing device that processes forms, there is a first method that reads written information of a format from a written medium in which a form format is written.
a second step means for determining a character size per line of display from the read written information; a third step means for arranging cell information based on the determined character size; A fourth step of arranging out-of-cell information based on the arranged cell information, and a fifth step of compressing the character size information, the cell information, and the out-of-cell information so that they do not protrude outside the display screen. and sixth step means for determining the processing procedure for each item of the format displayed on the display screen.

Further, the fifth step means includes a seventh step means for deleting blank lines and blank columns, an eighth step means for synonymously converting character strings using a knowledge base, and a double-byte character string. This includes ninth step means for converting into half-width characters.

Further, the sixth step means includes a tenth step means for determining the character string of each item by matching it with the knowledge base.

A format similar to the format on a form or slip can be created by determining the standard character size from the form and determining the line position of the display based on this standard size from the millimeter positions of the ruled lines and characters.

First, the part surrounded by ruled lines is converted into a matrix, and after placement, the character strings not surrounded by ruled lines are placed while looking at the arrangement table for the part surrounded by ruled lines, so the characters on the form or slip are It does not depend on the expansion and contraction of the arrangement due to the size of
It can be placed at almost the same relative position on the slip or form, and -
I can't create a format that feels strange when I look at it.

By using the knowledge base and compressing character strings through synonym conversion, it is possible to efficiently fit them on the display, and it is also possible to select items to be processed first and compare them with the read format to determine the processing order. By adding , efficient business processing is possible.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail using the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

A central processor 1 that performs overall control includes a console device 2 for giving instructions from the operator and displaying created formats, and a reading device 3 for reading slips and documents via a reading device controller 4. It is connected. Additionally, a storage device 8 is used to store formats created by the printer 6 via the printer controller 5 for outputting processed slips and forms.
are connected via a storage device controller 7.

The processor 1 causes the reading device 3 to read a slip or form, and stores the input information in the input information storage area 10 in the storage device 8 . Based on the stored input information, the processor 1 uses the knowledge base 9 in the storage device 8 to create a slip,
Recognize the form of the form and the contents of each item used within it. The recognition result is stored in the recognition result storage area 11, and the processor 1 automatically creates a format based on the recognition result. The data is stored in the format storage area 12, a processing procedure is set based on the generated format, and the business program is executed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the flow of a series of processes during execution of an embodiment of the present invention.

There is a slip that is about to be processed by the computer (1000). The slip paper is read by a reading device 3 such as OCR, and input information is input (10
01). Based on the read input information such as ruled lines, characters, and images, display is performed on the display of the console device (1002).

The operator can check and modify the displayed contents (1)
003). The computer uses the read input information and the input information from the operator to recognize the input and output cuff fields, and displays the recognized input and output cuff fields (
1004).

Furthermore, confirmation and correction can be done here as well (1o05). After confirmation and correction, a format to be processed from now on is automatically created based on the read input information and the recognized input/output fields (1006). The generated results are displayed on the display (10°7), allowing the operator to check and modify them. The created format is stored in the format storage area 12 in the storage device 8 (1008). Create processing procedures based on the created format information etc. 10
09), business is executed (1010), and processing such as data input is performed (1011).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of automatic creation processing in a screen form format according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Preprocessing is performed (1100), which includes processing such as determining a standard character size and extracting characters to be enlarged. Each group of information (hereinafter referred to as a cell) surrounded by ruled lines is arranged (1
101), and information other than the information surrounded by the above ruled lines (
(hereinafter referred to as extra-cell information) is arranged (1102)
, post-processing is performed such as reduction processing to prevent the created result from extending beyond the display screen and order processing to determine the order of processing (1103).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of cell information, extra-cell information, and a slip to be processed in an embodiment of the present invention.

In the slip 15, the information is divided into two types: one surrounded by ruled lines and the other 1, such as "customer name", "code", "product name", etc., and "delivery note", "January", "date", etc. Can be divided. The above-mentioned information is called cell information, and the below-mentioned information is called extra-cell information.
00 to 110 are cell information, and 200 to 203 are outside cell information. This information is represented by a character string, a start position expressed in mm, and an end position. This information is created through input processing and recognition processing, and is also used to arrange and create formats when automatically creating formats.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of preprocessing in the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 in one embodiment of the present invention.

The preprocessing (1100) is the process of calculating the standard character size (
1200) and processing for extracting characters to be enlarged (120
1) consists of two processes. First, the size of one character on the slip @ slip that corresponds to one character on the display screen is determined. This is done by determining the standard character size 205 as the size of the most commonly used character among all the characters in the document or form to be read, and then adding the line pitch and character pitch as shown in Figure 6. Set the value. Using this size, cell placement processing will be performed thereafter.

Next, characters to be processed as enlarged characters are extracted. 7th
As shown in the figure, the values obtained by subtracting the line pitch and column pitch sizes from the standard character size are compared, and if the characters are larger than a certain value, they are recognized as enlarged characters.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of placement processing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Here, the structure of cells within a slip will be explained with reference to FIG.

The shape of normal slips and forms is made up of clusters of cells, and by arranging cells in units of cells, they can be arranged neatly. This group of adjacent cells is called a block.

In Figure 9, it is divided into blocks 115, 116, 117, and 118, 1 at the top left of each block.
Cells 19 and 120 are called reference cells. In the flowchart of FIG. 8, first find this reference cell (1300)
The starting point and ending point of this reference cell are converted into the number of rows and columns on the display screen, and based on this, the position of each cell in the block is calculated and arranged (1301
). Fine adjustment is performed in the vertical and horizontal directions (1302), and it is determined whether all cells have been placed (1303). If all cells have been placed, the process ends; if not, the next cell is placed. .

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing calculation formulas for determining the number of starting columns and the number of ending columns of the reference cell.

It is calculated by dividing the position value expressed in mm on the slip or form by the standard character size. This determines the number of rows and columns on the display screen.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of an embodiment of the present invention.

The "Customer Name" 130 of the slip 20 becomes the reference cell, and the starting point 210 and ending point 212 are matrix-calculated using the calculation method shown in FIG. is converted to point 221. Slip 2
The starting point 212 of the cell of the "address" 131 of 0 is set to the point 222 of format 21 because the starting row and ending column points of the reference cell have the same value. The end point 223 of "Address" 131 is the end point 223 because there is no reference.
Calculate the matrix based on the values of and find the ending number of rows and ending columns. The starting point 214 and ending point 215 of the cell of "Name" 132 of the slip 20 are the ending matrix number of the reference cell and "Address" 131.
Point 22 of format 21 by the ending matrix number of cells in
4 and point 225 are found.

"Number" 133, empty 41'J When the starting point starts from the middle of the previous cell and there is space within the standard character size, such as cell 134, the starting points 216 and 134 are the starting line points of the standard cell. Adjust to 210.

Therefore, the starting point 216 of "number" 133 is format 2
1 point 226. End point 217 is point 2 of format 21
It will be 27. Similarly, the starting point 218 of the blank cell 134 is
Format 21 point 228, end point 219 is point 229
is converted to In this case, the character string in the cell "Number" 228 is two characters, but in the cell 138 of the created format 21, it contains three characters.

If the size is increased by adjusting in this way, the string within the cell will be centered to maintain a good balance. The table 22 is created by the method described above. In the table 22, the cell number, the value of the position on the form, and the value converted to the first row and column on the display are registered. After cell placement, characters outside the cell are placed. The arrangement of characters outside the cells is done based on the table described above. The location of strings outside cells is important in relation to nearby cells, so simply converting them to a matrix is not enough.

I can't get the correct placement.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining an example of arrangement of character strings outside cells according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The arrangement of characters outside the cell is determined by searching the table created for the cell arrangement described above based on the start position of the character outside the cell, and finding the starting row and column of the cell with the closest value.

For example, in Figure 12, cells 140 to 143 are in table 1.
45.

To find the start position of the character string outside the cell of "Year, Month, Day" 144, search the starting row position of the table based on the start row position of "Year, Month, Day" 144, and find the cell with the closest value. . In this example, the cell is “Name” 140. This "name"
The starting line number 2 of the cell 14o becomes the starting line of the character string "year, month, day" 144.

Similarly, the starting column position of the table is searched based on the starting column of "year, month, day" 144, and the nearest cell "amount" 143 is found. The starting column number of this cell is the desired column number. As a result, in this example, the character string "year, month, day" 144 is placed in the 2nd row and 8th column. This completes the process of placing characters outside cells.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the post-processing shown in FIG. 3 in one embodiment of the present invention.

In the post-processing here, the created format is adjusted to fit as much as possible within the display screen (140
0) and order settings for efficiently executing business processes (
1401).

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of the adjustment process.

First, center the string in the cell (1500)
, checks whether the created format is larger than the display screen (1501).

If it is larger than the display screen, the blank rows and columns that are the largest in layout are deleted (1502). After deleting, check whether the created format is larger than the display screen (1503), and if it is still larger, convert the strings with synonyms to the shortest synonyms, and (150
4). It is checked three times whether it is larger than the display (1505), and if it is still larger, the character string is converted from full-width characters to half-width characters (1506).

Finally, centering adjustment of the created format within the display screen is performed (1507).

finish.

In addition, in the flowchart of FIG. 14, step 15o
After step 6, the display screen is centered and the process ends. However, after step 1506, a check is made to see if the created format is larger than the display screen. If it is larger, the item field is changed from one line to multiple lines. It is also possible to add processing to reduce the number of digits in the details.

FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining an example of the synonym conversion process in step 15o4 in FIG. 14.

In "Customer Address" 155, the item character string is larger than the number of input digits, and it protrudes from the display screen. In such a case, the character string "Customer's address" 155 is synonymously converted into a shorter character string such as "Customer's address" 157 using the knowledge base 156. This allows it to be reduced to fit on the display screen.

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining an example of the conversion process from full-width characters to half-width characters in step 1506 of FIG. 14.

For characters with half-width characters such as katakana characters,
Convert to the appropriate half-width characters. In the character string "Customer Code" 160, by converting the "Code" into half-width characters, it becomes possible to fit it within the display screen like "Customer Code" 161.

Normally, the processing order of each item is from top to bottom and left to right, but depending on the contents of the slip or form,
In some cases, it may be better to perform the processing in the reverse order, such as from right to left. For such cases 1. The computer automatically determines the processing order so that processing can be carried out efficiently.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing order determination processing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The slip 3o is an example in which the order is normally given from left to right.

On the other hand, the slip 31 is an example in which processing is reversed from the normal one, such as from right to left.

In the normal processing procedure, first, "Year 165, Month 16", Day 1
67 is automatically displayed, and the operator inputs a code related to the name, for example, a name code added for each customer. The computer searches the database for the name corresponding to the name code and automatically displays it in the name field 169. Similarly, the product code is automatically displayed in the product name field upon input from the operator. Therefore, this processing order is sufficient for the slip 30. However, in the case of slip 31, the field positions of "Name", "Code", "Product Code", and "Product Name" are different from those in Slip 30, and when processed from top to bottom and left to right. , the name field and product name field appear before entering the name-related code and before entering the product code, respectively, making the process cumbersome. Therefore, in such a case, the processing order should be changed to 173 → 174 → 175 → 177 → 17.
Processing is performed to replace the data in the order of 6 → 179 → 178 → 180. This replacement is also performed using the knowledge base.

After completing the placement adjustment process, first, the field table 32
is created, the corresponding item name is searched from the input item classification table 35 of the knowledge base 33 based on each item name, and the classification is determined as to whether it is an input item that the operator must input. . For display items related to input items, check whether there is a display item before the input item, and if there is, change the order. In the example of the slip 31, "code" and "product code" are listed as input items from among the items in the field table 32. Before these two items, "name" and "product name" are listed. There are display items related to each input item, so
The order is rearranged to match the order of the processing order table 34, and it becomes possible to set the correct processing order using the knowledge base.

According to this embodiment, simply by having a reading device read the format of a slip or form, a format to be processed by a computer is automatically created, eliminating the work process of having to be created by an operator, resulting in a significant improvement in work efficiency.

In addition, since it is optimally adjusted to fit within the display screen, it is possible for operators to perform business processing (
Confirmation, etc. can be done quickly, and operation becomes easy.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a screen format to be processed by a computer can be created by simply inputting the format of a slip or document through a reading device such as OCR, and moreover, it is possible to create a screen format for processing on a computer. By optimally adjusting and outputting the image to fit the image, the user no longer has to create it on the display, which has the effect of greatly improving user efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the flow of procedures when an operator uses the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a series of processing steps in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a slip format displayed on a display screen and a table of input information in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of preprocessing according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of the standard character size when arranging according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1. A diagram for explaining a method for extracting enlarged characters according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of arrangement processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. Diagram for explaining the relationship between each item in the example, No. 10
The figure is a diagram showing a calculation method for converting read input information according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. , and FIG. 12 are diagrams for explaining a method for arranging character strings outside cells according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
14 is a flowchart of post-processing according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 14 is a detailed flowchart of adjusting storage in a display screen according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 15 is a synonym of 1, an embodiment of the present invention. Diagram for explaining the outline of the conversion method, Part 1
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an overview of a half-width character conversion method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 6 FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining a method for determining a processing procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1...Processor. 2...Console device. 3...Reading device. 6...Printer. 8...Storage device. 9...Knowledge base. 10... Input information storage area. 11...Recognition result storage area. 12...Format storage area. Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 8 Figure 4 Figure 10 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 11 Figure 0 Figure 12 □ 8041850 Enter the date in the 8th column Figure 14 Figure 3 Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a form processing device that processes a form, a first step means for reading written information of a format from a written medium in which a form format is written, and from the read written information. a second step means for determining the font size per line of display; a third step means for arranging cell information based on the determined font size; and a third step means for arranging cell information based on the arranged cell information. a fifth step means for compressing the font size information, the cell information, and the extra-cell information so that they do not protrude outside the display screen; and a sixth step means for determining a processing procedure for each item. 2. In claim 1, the fifth step means includes a seventh step means for deleting blank lines and blank columns, and an eighth step means for synonymous conversion of character strings using a knowledge base. and a ninth step means for converting full-width characters into half-width characters. 3. The automatic screen form creation method according to claim 1, wherein the sixth step means includes a tenth step means for determining the character string of each item by matching it with a knowledge base.