JPS61163472A - Character recognizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve high speed, accuracy and simplicity of a recognizing processing by providing and correcting a display means to display in a lump all character patterns of unknown character string included in the field to which unrecognizable characters belong. CONSTITUTION:For the character read by a reading head 4 from a form P, a feature extraction 8, etc., is executed through an A/D converter 5 and a pre- processing circuit 7, etc., a character is recognized, and when the recognization can not be executed the signal to make special the unrecognizable character is inputted to a correcting circuit 11. Thus, at the first area 32 in a screen 31 of a display 12, the recognizing result of the character already read is displayed. At the second area 33, all character patterns of the known character string included in a product name field, to which the unrecognizable character belongs, are displayed in a lump. Thus, a controller can input a proper character corresponding to the unrecognizable character through a keyboard 13, etc., while the controller refers to the display, and the high speed, accuracy and simplicity can be improved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Technical Field of the Invention> This invention reads patterns of unknown characters, numbers, symbols, etc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as "characters") and stores them in a dictionary. The present invention relates to a character recognition device that recognizes unknown characters by comparing the geometrical features of this character pattern with a standard pattern. Provide equipment.

<Summary of the Invention> The character recognition device of the present invention is provided with a display means for collectively displaying all character patterns of an unknown character string included in a field to which an unrecognized character belongs, and corrected data is generated based on the display of the display means. The system is configured so that unrecognized characters can be corrected by inputting the input characters. Therefore, correction data can be input while referring to each character pattern in that field, and unrecognizable characters can be corrected quickly and accurately.

<Background of the Invention> Generally, in the recognition process of a character recognition device, a read unknown character pattern is unrecognizable (rejected) due to various causes. The causes of this are: ■ When a confusing character pattern that is difficult to read even with the human eye is input, ■ Noise caused by dirt or stains on the form on which the unknown characters are recorded, and when the unknown characters are read optically. (1) When a character whose shape is significantly deformed from the character shape assumed to be recognized by the character recognition device is input, etc.

It would be ideal if such unrecognizable states could be completely eliminated, but in reality it is extremely difficult to achieve this, so in actual character recognition devices, it is assumed that some unrecognizable states will occur. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a function to correct these unrecognized characters.

With conventional character recognition devices that have such a correction function, if the input character pattern is determined to be unrecognizable,
The character pattern of the unrecognizable characters 2 is displayed on the west side 1 of the display as shown in FIG.

In this case, it is possible to specify several characters (hereinafter referred to as "candidate characters") that have the possibility of corresponding to that character pattern. For example, a number ("candidate character" number) and display it as candidate character group 3. This allows the operator to:
The unrecognizable characters are corrected by selecting the correct character from the candidate character group 3 while referring to the character pattern 2, and manually inputting the supplementary number of that character using the keyboard.

However, with this method, only the character pattern of an unrecognized character is displayed on screen 1, so if this is a significantly deformed character pattern, the operator must decide for himself what the correct character is. This takes time, which hinders the speed of a series of character recognition processing operations, and also causes problems such as a loss of accuracy in character recognition due to erroneous determination of the correct character.

Attempts to deal with this situation include displaying not only unrecognized characters but also all unknown character patterns read from a form on the screen, and displaying character patterns for one line on a form to which unrecognized characters belong. A display method has been proposed.

With this method, the operator can refer to the interrelationships of a series of character patterns, making it relatively easy to select the correct character for an unrecognized character, but it makes effective use of the limited display screen. It is difficult to say that this method is accurate, and it also has disadvantages for the operator, such as the burden of having to selectively focus on only the necessary parts because even characters that are unnecessary for judgment are displayed.

<Purpose of the Invention> The present invention is intended to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and realizes effective use of displays, etc., and reduces the burden on the operator when correcting unrecognizable characters, thereby increasing the speed of recognition processing, An object of the present invention is to provide a character recognition device with improved accuracy and convenience.

<Configuration and Effects of the Invention> In order to achieve the above object, the character recognition device according to the present invention recognizes, for a character specified as an unrecognizable character, all character patterns of an unknown character string included in a field to which the character belongs. A display means is provided for displaying the characters all at once, and correction data is input based on the display on the display means, thereby correcting unrecognizable characters.

According to this invention, not only can unrecognized characters be corrected by referring to the interrelationship of input character patterns, but also it is possible to display only the minimum necessary character arrangement, which is quick and accurate, and also allows the operator to correct unrecognized characters. It is possible to perform correction work with less burden on users, and it is also possible to improve the effectiveness of using displays, etc. Therefore, the speed, accuracy, and simplicity of character recognition processing can be improved, and the object of the present invention can be achieved.

<Description of Embodiments> FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of a character recognition device which is an embodiment of the present invention. The character recognition device shown in FIG. The pattern is optically read by a reading head 4, converted into a digital electrical signal by an A/D converter 5, and converted into black and white into binary data, and the pattern is temporarily stored in an image memory 6. The next preprocessing circuit performs so-called preprocessing such as smoothing, noise removal, and thinning processing on this character pattern in order to improve the accuracy and facilitate the subsequent feature extraction processing. The feature extraction circuit 8 is
Geometric features of unknown characters necessary for character recognition, such as the presence or absence and number of intersections, branch points, loops, etc., are extracted from the preprocessed pattern. The dictionary collation circuit 9 sequentially collates the features extracted in this way with the features of the standard pattern for each character stored in advance in a predetermined order in the dictionary 10, and determines that the -degree is a predetermined value. Characters with a level equal to or higher than the unknown character are identified as characters corresponding to the unknown character, and the results are output. On the other hand, when the degree of matching with the standard pattern is low and it is not clear what kind of character the unknown character is, this dictionary matching circuit 9 determines that the unknown character is an unrecognized character, and outputs a signal to that effect as a result output. .

These result outputs are given to a correction circuit 11, which does not make any corrections even if the unknown character is recognized correctly, but on the other hand, if an unrecognized state occurs, the correction circuit 11 does not make any corrections. Perform corrections for invalid characters. This modification circuit 11 is connected to a display 12 for displaying as described below and a keyboard 13 used for inputting modification data, and these are connected to a CPU (Central Processing
Unit).

FIG. 2 shows an example of a form P in this embodiment, in which a product name 14, quantity 15, and product code 16 are arranged and recorded. In this example,
In each line, the product name 14, quantity 15, and product code 16 each form a field, and this field division function is well known as a general function in conventional character recognition devices, and is not used in this embodiment. It is also assumed that each field can be identified through format control, etc.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step 21,
An unknown character is read from the form P shown in FIG. 2, and in the next step 22, character recognition is performed by performing the above-mentioned feature extraction and collation. Then, in step 23, if the recognition has been performed correctly, the character is given as a result output, and if it is unrecognizable (rejected), a signal for specifying the unrecognized character is given to the modification circuit 11 in FIG. 1 as a result output. .

In step 24, the presence or absence of a jet is determined from such result output, and if the determination is "NO", the recognition process is completed without performing the correction process, and the process moves to the next reading operation;
”, proceed to the next step 25, this step 2
5 is a step of displaying unrecognizable characters, an example of which is shown in FIG. 4. In this example, among the input characters shown in FIG. Therefore, it is assumed that a rejection occurs in this "Y". In this case, the recognition result of the already read character is displayed on the first screen of the screen 31 of the display 12.
is displayed in area 32 of "Cabbage".
A "?" mark indicating rejection is displayed in the location corresponding to "Ya". Further, in the second area 33, all character patterns of the unknown character string included in the product name field to which the unrecognizable character (ie, "ya") belongs are collectively displayed as a bit image. In addition, in the figure, the second area 33
The "?" mark 34 displayed within the area indicates the position of an unrecognized character, and the number "1" displayed in the third area 35 indicates the position of an unrecognized character that exists in the read form and is still unrecognized. Indicates the number of unrecognized characters that have not been corrected.

Returning to FIG. 3, when such a display is made in step 25, the operator of this device refers to this display in the next step 26 to find the correct character (in this example) corresponding to the unrecognized character. ``Y'') is input through the keyboard 13.

This input, that is, the manual input of the corrected data, does not necessarily have to be done using a keyboard, but may also be done using a bench-touch method or other methods.Once such corrected input is completed, in the next step 27, data is entered based on the entered corrected data. Then, the unrecognized character is corrected. Although not shown, in step 27, the "?" mark for the corrected character is erased, and 1 is subtracted from the number displayed in the third area 35 of FIG. to display the new number of unrecognized characters. Fourth
In the example in the figure, when the correction of "Y" is completed, the number display will be "
1” to “0”. Note that such subtraction/change of the number display is executed using a counter in the CPU or the like.

In the next step 28, it is determined whether all unrecognized characters have been corrected, in other words, whether the number display has reached "0", and if it is not "0", the process returns to step 25 and the same process is performed. The correction is repeated, and when all unrecognizable characters have been corrected, the determination in step 28 becomes "VB2" and the series of processing ends.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of a character recognition device that is an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of character recording on a form, and Fig. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the screen display of the display in this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the display of unrecognizable characters in a conventional character recognition device. 11... Correction circuit 12... Display 13... Keyboard 1.13...
・Screen 32.33.35...When in the 1st to 3rd area Applicant Tateishi Electric Co., Ltd.
Island show "-δ + 3 a"

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) After reading the character pattern of an unknown character by the reading means and extracting the geometric features of the character pattern by the feature extraction means, the means for comparing the geometric features of the character pattern and the standard pattern in the dictionary. a character recognition device that recognizes the unknown character by comparing it with the character pattern, the character recognition device identifying the character pattern that has a low degree of matching with the standard pattern as an unrecognizable character among the character patterns subjected to the comparison; Display means for collectively displaying all character patterns of unknown character strings included in fields to which unrecognized characters belong; input means for inputting correction data for unrecognized characters given by the display; and input correction data for unrecognized characters. A character recognition device comprising: correction means for correcting unrecognizable characters based on data. (2) The display means is provided with a number display area for displaying the number of unrecognizable characters for which correction has not been completed, and the correction means displays a number in the number display area each time correction is performed. 2. The character recognition device according to claim 1, further comprising counter means for changing the display by subtracting the number of characters displayed one by one.