JPH0739819A - Address reading and classifying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a reading rate of addresses and the efficiency of classification processing even when a part of the addresses are unrecognizable by deciding whether read characters and the addresses constituted of the stored exact addresses or a part thereof coincide or not and executing classification according to the results of the decision. CONSTITUTION:The address reading and classifying machine for executing reading of the addresses stated on transported postal matter from the postal matter and classifying by using the read addresses is provided with a memory 32 as a storage means which stores the exact addresses and the addresses constituted of a part of the exact addresses and a reading section 4 which reads the characters stated on the postal matter. Whether the characters read by this reading section 4 and the addresses constituted of the exact addresses stored in this memory 32 or a part of the exact addresses coincide or not is decided by a discriminating section 4b of the reading section 4. The classification is executed by controlling a classifying gate 9 as a classifying means via a driver 33 according to the results of the decision.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an address reading / sorting machine for reading an address such as an address written on a mail to be conveyed and performing classification using the read address.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The mail sorting work is roughly divided into a sorting work for sending collected mail to a destination post office and a sorting work for delivering arrived mail. There is a delivery division business.

Conventionally, as for the sorting work, the postal code automatic reading and sorting machine has been largely automated.
Automation was delayed for delivery division work. However, in recent years, in addition to the function of the automatic zip code reading / sorting machine, the postal items can be sorted up to the delivery district level by directly reading the address, that is, the address such as the town name, chome, or the kanji of the block code written on the postal item by OCR. Have been developed (automatic delivery classification work).

In such an apparatus, in order to search for an address, a word was used as a candidate, and the word was combined to obtain the address. However, in order to use the word as a candidate, the ward name (city name),
I searched for a character string in a database (address dictionary) that registered town name information. Words other than the originally existing ward name (city name) and town name were not registered in the address dictionary.

In the past, since words other than the correct ward name (city name) and town name were not registered, one character in the ward name (city name) and the town name is too long. Since it could not be recognized, the address word could not be determined and the address reading rate was reduced. In addition, the head part of the address is often hidden by postmarking or the like, and similarly, the address reading rate is reduced, resulting in deterioration of the processing efficiency of the address reading section.

[0006]

As described above, when the character strings constituting the ward name (city name) and the town name are too long,
Since one of the letters could not be recognized, it could not be determined as an address word, and the reading rate of the address declined,
In addition, the head part of the address is often hidden by postmarking or the like, and similarly, the address reading rate is reduced, and as a result, the efficiency of the classification process is deteriorated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an address reading / sorting machine which can improve the address reading rate and the efficiency of sorting processing even if a part of the address cannot be recognized.

[0008]

An address reading / sorting machine of the present invention is an address reading / sorting machine for reading an address written on a mail to be conveyed and performing sorting using the read address. , A storage means for storing an accurate address and an address composed of a part of the accurate address, a reading means for reading the character described in the mail, and a reading means for reading the character. Judgment means for judging whether or not the character and an accurate address stored in the storage means or an address composed of a part of the correct address are coincident with each other, and a division is made according to the judgment result of this judgment means. And means.

The address reading / sorting device of the present invention is an address reading / sorting device which reads an address written on a mail to be conveyed and classifies by using the read address. Storage means for storing the address formed by a part of the address, reading means for reading the characters described in the mail, and the characters read by the reading means and the storage means. A determination means for determining whether the stored correct address or an address composed of a part of the correct address matches, and when two candidates are listed in the determination result by this determination means, the correct address or the correct address is determined. Determination means for determining whether the address is composed of a part of the correct address, and as a result of the judgment of the determination means, if the above two candidates are an accurate address and an address composed of a part of the correct address, it is accurate. With a selection means to select the address It is composed of a classification means for performing classification in accordance with the selection result of the selecting means.

The address reading / sorting device of the present invention is an address reading / sorting device for reading an address written on a mail to be conveyed and classifying using the read address. Storage means for storing the address formed by a part of the address, reading means for reading the characters described in the mail, and the characters read by the reading means and the storage means. The first determining means for determining whether or not the stored accurate address matches, and the first determining means for determining, when the first determining means determines that they match each other, performs the first classification according to the determined address. When it is determined that the classification means and the first determination means do not match, the character read by the reading means matches the address composed of a part of the accurate address stored in the storage means. Second to decide whether to do When it is determined by the second determining means that the address composed of a part of the correct address matches, the classification is performed according to the address composed of a part of the accurate address determined. And a second sorting means for performing.

The address recognition apparatus of the present invention is a storage unit for storing an accurate address and an address composed of a part of the correct address, and a reading unit for reading the characters written in the mail. And a determination means for determining whether or not the character read by the reading means matches the accurate address stored in the storage means or the address composed of a part of the accurate address. .

[0012]

According to the present invention, in the above-mentioned structure, the address described on the mail is read from the mail to be conveyed, and the read address is used for classification. The address formed by a part of the address is stored in the storage means, the character described in the mail is read by the reading means, and the read character and the accurate character stored in the storage means are stored. It is determined whether the address and the address composed of a part of the correct address match, and the classification is performed according to the determination result.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows an automatic mail sorting machine as an address reading sorting machine of the present invention, which has the following configuration. That is, the postal items P, such as postcards and sealed letters, are set in the supply unit 1 collectively and in a standing position. The postal matter P in the supply unit 1 is sequentially taken out and conveyed one by one from the frontmost postal matter P by the take-out unit 2 and given to the postal matter P by the reading unit 4 arranged in the middle of the take-in conveyance path 3. The postal code and address information (address information) are read. The reading unit 4
Is a photoelectric conversion unit 4a for photoelectrically converting the postal code and address information on the postal matter P, and a discrimination unit for discriminating the postal code and address information by recognizing a character pattern according to the output of the photoelectric conversion unit 4a. 4b and is well known.

Next, the postal matter P which has passed through the reading section 4 is conveyed to the sorting section 11 through the conveying path 3. The sorting section 11 is provided with a plurality of sorting transport paths 5a to 5g vertically provided by a gate mechanism section (not shown).
In addition, it can be selectively distributed based on the above-mentioned postal code, the reading result of the address information, and the like.

A plurality of pockets (collection boxes) 6 are provided below the sectioned conveying paths 5a to 5f along the lower surface thereof.
.. are arranged in a plurality of stages (stages A to G), and the postal matter P sent to the sorting conveyance paths 5a to 5g is stored in a predetermined pocket 6 based on the reading result of the reading unit 4. It is designed to be collected separately.

A conveyance detector group (not shown) for detecting the conveyance of the postal matter P on the conveyance path is provided on the conveyance paths 3, 5a, .... Address information and the like are written on the surface of the mail P. The address information is composed of a plurality of lines of character information. In such postal matter P, addresses such as "ward, city name", "town name", and "street number" that should be read as address information (for example, "1-2-3 Umeda, Adachi-ku" as shown in FIG. 3) The place name is written, but the postmark is stamped on the character "foot").

An operator panel 7 as an operation panel is provided above the supply unit 1. FIG. 1 shows an electric circuit. That is, the control unit 31 uses the classification designation table stored in the memory 32,
The sorting designation data corresponding to the address information supplied from the discrimination unit 4b is read out, and the mail P is placed in the pockets 6, ... Corresponding to the read sorting designation data (addresses of pockets 6, ...). It can be transported. For example, by outputting a sorting gate control signal in response to a transportation detection signal from a transportation detector (not shown) in the middle of the transportation path 3, the driver 33 is used to control the sorting gates 9. It is like this. The memory 32 stores addresses (classification designation data) of each postal code, pockets 6 corresponding to address information as classification designation tables.

Further, the control unit 31 controls the entire transport system by driving the transport mechanism unit 36 such as the transport path 3 with the driver 35. Next, regarding the photoelectric conversion unit 4a and the determination unit 4b of the reading unit 4,
This will be described with reference to FIG.

That is, the photoelectric conversion unit 4a obtains a pattern signal by optically scanning the postal matter P and photoelectrically converting it. For example, a light source for irradiating the postal matter P with light, and It is composed of a self-scanning CCD image sensor which receives the reflected light and converts it into an electric signal.

The output of the photoelectric conversion section 4a is supplied to the discrimination section 4b. The discrimination unit 4b includes an address area detection unit 42, a character recognition unit 43, a town name recognition unit 44, an address dictionary 45, and an address recognition unit 48.

The address area detection unit 42 detects the mail P
It is well known that the area in which the address information is described is detected based on the shape, position, etc. of the area from among the information described in (1).

The judgment result of the address area detecting section 42, for example, the coordinate value of the judged area is output to the selecting circuit 51 in the character recognizing section 43. The output of the photoelectric conversion unit 4a is output to the binarization circuit 50 in the character recognition unit 43.

The character recognizing unit 43 includes the photoelectric conversion unit 4
A binarization circuit 50 for binarizing the read signal from a, a binarization signal from the binarization circuit 50 corresponding to the coordinate information supplied from the address area detection unit 42, or a mode selection key not shown. A selection circuit 51 for selectively outputting the binarized signal from the binarization circuit 50 in the area corresponding to the selection content selected by the line of address information corresponding to the address area supplied from the selection circuit 51. A character detection / cutout circuit 52 which detects and cuts out characters of an image one by one, that is, detects and cuts out character information corresponding to an address, and normalizes the detected and cutout character information supplied from the character detection / cutout circuit 52. The normalization circuit 53 for converting and sampling, and the character information supplied from the normalization circuit 53 are converted by, for example, a matching method with a reference pattern for letters and numbers in the dictionary 55. Te letter is constituted by recognizing circuit 54 characters like numbers.

The output of the character recognition unit 43, that is, the recognition circuit 54 is supplied to the town name recognition unit 44. Town name recognition unit 44
Is for recognizing the town name (Umeda, Adachi-ku) from the address read from the address dictionary 45 with respect to the recognized characters supplied from the character recognition unit 43, and the recognition result is output to the address recognition unit 48. . As shown in FIG. 5, the address dictionary 45 is composed of a plurality of hierarchies. The city name and the ward or city name in which this sorting machine is installed are registered in the 0th layer and the 1st layer, and the 2nd layer. All the town names handled by this sorting machine in the ward or city are registered in.

The address dictionary 45 shown in FIG.
It is used by the post office in Adachi City under the jurisdiction of. In the address dictionary 45, in addition to the kanji formal name and katakana formal name, words created by using a partial character string of the formal name as a kanji alias are registered. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, in addition to "Adachi-ku" which is a formal name of Kanji and "Adachiku" which is a katakana alias, "Tate-ku" is registered as a Kanji alias in the first layer.

The address recognition unit 48 recognizes the address by the town name supplied from the town name recognition unit 44, and classifies data for the address, that is, the pocket 6 in the post-classification unit 11,
It outputs data indicating ...

FIG. 6 shows the result of character detection and extraction by the character detection and extraction circuit 52. In FIG. 6, character breaks (called nodes) in the cutout result are represented by numbers, and character candidates (called arcs) existing between the nodes are represented by alphabets.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the result of the character identification processing performed on each of the character candidates (arcs). In order to recognize an address, it is necessary for the character identification candidate matrix to have a sequence of arcs from which the address can be read. In this example, the characters of arcs b, c, d, and e are all present up to the third candidate, but the characters of arc a (“foot”) are postmarked because the postmarks overlap. Not not. However, in the actual process, the arc sequence that matches the word written in the address dictionary 45 is obtained from the position of each node. In this case, therefore, even if the "foot" of arc a cannot be read, arc b "Stand" and Ark c "ku"
And can be matched with the address dictionary 45. Then, the connection is established by the connection of the hierarchical rule in the address dictionary 45 for address identification, and the address is determined.

Next, the operation of this structure will be described with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS.
For example, when the start switch (not shown) of the operation panel 7 is turned on, the control unit 31 drives and controls the transport mechanism unit 36, so that the postal items P accumulated in the supply unit 1 are taken out one by one. And is transported through the transport path 3. The address information on the postal matter P is read by the reading unit 4 during the transportation. Then, the control section 31 reads out the classification designation data corresponding to the address information supplied from the reading section 4,
The postal matter P is controlled to be transported to the pockets 6, ... Corresponding to the sorting designation data.

That is, the photoelectric conversion unit 4a optically scans the postal matter P and photoelectrically converts it to obtain a pattern signal, which is output to the address area detection unit 42 and the character recognition unit 43. The address area detection unit 42 detects the area in which the address information is described from the information described in the postal matter P, such as the shape and position of the area, and the detection result is sent to the character recognition unit 43. Output.

The character recognition unit 43 sequentially performs binarization, character detection, and character recognition of the pattern signal supplied from the photoelectric conversion unit 4a using the detection result of the area supplied from the address area detection unit 42, The result of the character recognition is output to the town name recognition unit 44.

The town name recognizing unit 44 stores the character identification candidate matrix of each character supplied from the character recognizing unit 43 in the internal memory, and combines each character by the character identification candidate matrix stored in this internal memory (candidate character). The character score of each layer of the address dictionary 45 is calculated. Those whose values are larger than a given constant value (threshold value) are obtained up to the top two candidates and output to the address recognition unit 48 as the recognition result of the town name.

Here, when two candidates are listed, it is judged whether they are official names or aliases representing the same town name, and if they are official names, the official name is used as the town name regardless of the score. recognize. Further, when the two candidates represent different town names, one of them is decided in consideration of the height of the score and the word arrangement as the address in the latter stage.

If only one candidate is listed, it is recognized as the answer. In this case, from each combination of the arcs of the character identification candidate matrix shown in FIG. 7, it is confirmed whether the contents of the first layer, that is, “Adachi-ku” and “Tachi-ku”, are matched and registered as an alias. Since there was a match with the existing "Tachiku", I get "Tachiku" as the answer.

Furthermore, the match between each combination of the determined arcs (b to c) and the subsequent arcs (d to e) and each content of the second layer is checked, candidates are extracted, and these are extracted from the first layer. Compare with the answer to see if you can get the word sequence as an address.

If the address recognition unit 48 can determine that it is an address, it outputs the classification designation data for the determined address, and if it cannot be determined, the reject process is performed. And
The control unit 31 controls the sorting gate 9 ... Corresponding to the read sorting designation data and the detection signal from the transport detector, so that the mail item P corresponds to the pocket 6 ... Accumulated in.

As another method, the town name recognition unit 44 first creates a word only for the official name in the address dictionary 45 to obtain an evaluation score. Here, if a candidate is obtained, the address is output by the same processing as above. If no candidate is obtained, collation with an alias is performed, and if there is a match, that is taken as the answer, and the same processing as above is performed. Also, if no candidate is given, either by official name or by alias, it will be rejected.

As described above, according to the above embodiment,
In addition to the official town name, words consisting of part of the town name are registered in the address dictionary, and the recognition method is used by using the determination method such as the official name and the alias, or the official name and then the alias. It leads to improvement of recognition rate when doing.

Therefore, even if the character string of a word such as a ward name (city name) or a town name is too long to read all the characters, or if a part of the address is dirty due to postmarking, etc.
By registering words that are part of the town name in addition to the official town name, it is possible to perform classification processing without lowering processing efficiency efficiency, improve the address reading rate, and classify processing efficiency. Can be improved.

[0040]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide an address reading / sorting machine capable of improving the address reading rate and improving the efficiency of sorting processing even if a part of the address cannot be recognized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an automatic mail sorting machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of the automatic mail sorting machine of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an address description of the mail item in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a determination unit in FIG.

5 is a diagram showing an example of storage of the address dictionary in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of character detection / cutout by the character detection / cutout circuit of FIG. 4;

7 is a diagram showing an example of a character identification candidate matrix obtained by the town name recognition unit of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the processing of the town name recognition unit in FIG.

9 is a flowchart for explaining the process of the town name recognition unit in FIG.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 ... Supplying section P ... Postal matter 4 ... Reading section 4a ... Photoelectric converting section 4b ... Discriminating section 31 ... Control section 43 ... Character recognition section 44 ... Town name recognition section 45 ... Address dictionary 48 ... Address recognition section

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An address reading / sorting machine that reads an address written on a mail to be conveyed and classifies by using the read address, and is composed of an accurate address and a part of the accurate address. Storage means for storing the written address, reading means for reading the characters described in the mail, and the accurate address stored in the storage means and the characters read by the reading means. Alternatively, the address reading is characterized by comprising a judging means for judging whether or not an address composed of a part of an accurate address matches, and a classifying means for making a classification according to the judgment result of this judging means. Sorting machine. 2. An address reading / sorting machine which reads an address written on a mail to be conveyed and classifies the read address, and is composed of an accurate address and a part of the accurate address. Storage means for storing the written address, reading means for reading the characters described in the mail, and the accurate address stored in the storage means and the characters read by the reading means. Alternatively, when there are two candidates in the determination means for determining whether or not the address composed of a part of the accurate address matches, and the determination result by this determination means,
A judging means for judging whether the address is an accurate address or an address composed of a part of the accurate address, and as a result of the judgment of this judging means, the above two candidates are an accurate address and an address composed of a part of the accurate address. In the case of, a correct address is selected, and when both of the above two candidates are correct addresses, a selecting means for selecting an accurate address and a sorting means for performing sorting according to the selection result of this selecting means are provided. An address reading and sorting machine characterized in that 3. An address reading / sorting machine that reads an address described above from a mail to be conveyed and uses the read address to perform classification, and is composed of an accurate address and a part of the accurate address. Storage means for storing the written address, reading means for reading the characters described in the mail, and the accurate address stored in the storage means and the characters read by the reading means. First to determine if and match
When it is determined that the determination means and the first determination means match, the first determination means that performs the determination according to the determined address and the first determination means determine that the addresses do not match. In this case, the second determination means for determining whether or not the characters read by the reading means and the address composed of a part of the accurate address stored in the storage means match, and the second determination When it is determined by the means that the address composed of a part of the correct address matches, the second classification means for performing a classification according to the address composed of a part of the determined accurate address, and An address reading / sorting machine characterized by being equipped. 4. A storage unit for storing an accurate address and an address composed of a part of the correct address, a reading unit for reading characters written in a mail piece, and the reading unit. Address recognition, characterized in that it comprises a judging means for judging whether the read character and the correct address stored in the storage means or an address composed of a part of the correct address are coincident with each other. apparatus.