JP2002252691A - Portable phone terminal with ocr(optical character recognition) function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means capable of inputting printed information of a character and a symbol such as an address, a name and a phone number on a portable phone terminal by a simple input operation in a quick and sure way. SOLUTION: The present invention converts the character and symbol contained in image information captured by an image capturing part a of 2 fitted to a portable phone terminal body 1 to character information and symbol information by an OCR function provided to the portable phone terminal body 1 or the image capturing part a of 2, allowing the printed address, name and phone number to be entered to the portable phone terminal. Furthermore, on an Internet-connectable portable phone terminal, a desired homepage or server can be accessed by entry of a printed URL by the above means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a portable telephone and a PHS
The present invention relates to a mobile phone terminal such as a telephone, and particularly to a technique for inputting characters or symbols.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, portable telephones have been disclosed in
As described in the public information of JP-A-306750, a bar code reader reads bar-coded information, or a dedicated character information input device as described in the public information of JP-A-8-251308. Some recognize the character written in as character information.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems. In the conventional technology, when reading bar-coded information, there is a problem that the information to be read must be bar-coded first, and when inputting with a pen, it is necessary to write characters or symbols to be input each time. There is a problem that there is, and there is a problem such as erroneous input of characters and erroneous recognition. An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a system capable of reliably inputting characters or symbols in a portable telephone terminal by a simple method.

[0004]

(1) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an image capturing device in a portable telephone terminal, and characters or symbols included in an image captured by the image capturing device. Is converted into character information or symbol information (OCR function), and a character string obtained by the OCR function can be used as input information. (2) When the image capturing device and the mobile phone terminal are configured to be separable, the image capturing device has the OCR function.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the mobile phone terminal of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a main body of a mobile phone terminal, 2 is a device portion for capturing an image, 3 is a portion for displaying image and character information, 4 is a power switch of the image capturing device portion, 5 is an image capture button, and 6 is a telephone call. A button, 7 is a power button of the telephone, 8 is a speaker section, 9 is a microphone section, 10 is an antenna section, 11 is a character or symbol information input button section, and 12 is a function selection button section. The characters or symbols are input by the button unit 11, and the input characters or symbols are displayed on the display unit 3. The selection of inputting a character or a symbol can be changed by the function selection button unit 12. In addition, a plurality of necessary functions are assigned to the function selection button, and the function can be selected. In this embodiment, the mobile phone terminal refers to a phone terminal that can be carried around and is not used at a fixed position, such as a PHS phone or a mobile phone.

[0006] FIG. 1 shows a state in which the image capturing device 2a faces the back. While the power of the second image capturing device a is turned on, the display unit 3 has a function of continuing to display the image captured by the second image capturing device a. 2 is an image capturing device section a, and a joint section 1
3 has a structure provided with a rotation mechanism, so that it can be freely rotated 360 degrees and can operate the image capture button 5 while checking the image displayed on the display unit 3. ing.

[0007] The image projected by the image capture device section 2 is temporarily stored in the image information memory section (not shown) of the portable telephone terminal body 1 when the image capture button 5 is pressed. . At this time, the display unit 3 continues to display the recorded image information, and is ready to perform a work of converting image information of characters or symbols included in the captured image information into character information or symbol information.
Alternatively, if there is room in the recording capacity of the image information memory unit, the display unit 3 displays the captured image information in order to continuously record the image information without directly proceeding to the operation of converting the image information into character or symbol information. Is displayed for several seconds, it is also possible to return to the state of displaying the image information projected by the second image capturing device section a. Such a function setting
It can be selected by operating the function selection button section 12.

The portable telephone terminal body 1 has a function (OCR: Optical Character R) of converting characters or symbols included in the captured image information into character information or symbol information.
ecognition) (not shown). The OCR function includes software (program) capable of extracting characters or symbols included in image information as character information or symbol information, a software recording unit (not shown) for recording the software, and software. Run C
It is realized by a PU (Central Processing Unit: not shown), an extracted information recording unit (not shown) for recording extracted character information or symbol information, and the like.

By using the OCR function, characters and symbols included in the image information can be extracted as character information and symbol information from the image information once recorded in the image information recording unit. The extracted character information and symbol information are temporarily recorded in the extraction information recording unit, and can be handled in the same manner as information input using the character or symbol input button unit 11. As in the first embodiment of the present invention, if character information can be input from an image capturing device attached to a mobile phone terminal, a character such as a name, address, and a telephone number can be obtained from a printed matter such as a business card on the go. Information can be easily input to a mobile phone terminal.

Further, since it is not necessary to operate a character input button each time to input a name, an address, a telephone number, etc.,
It also has the effect of eliminating artificial erroneous input. Since the printed characters can be directly read as input information, a complicated procedure of temporarily converting the characters to be input to a barcode and reading the barcode with a dedicated barcode reader is not required. Also, there is no need to provide a dedicated handwritten character input mechanism, and erroneous input of characters and erroneous recognition on the device side are eliminated, so that character information and symbol information can be input easily without mistake. .

In a mobile phone terminal that can be connected to the Internet, characters and symbol information can be directly input by the OCR function as described above, so that a URL (Uniform Resource Locato) written in a printed matter such as a book or a magazine can be input.
r: address information of a homepage or a server) can be input in a short time without making a mistake, and it is possible to quickly and reliably connect to a homepage or a server having desired information on the spot.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the portable telephone terminal of the present invention. 2 having the same numbers as those in FIG. 1 have the same functions, and the description thereof will be omitted. In the second embodiment, 30 image capturing device sections b are connected to the mobile phone terminal 1 by a connection code 32, and image information is sent to the mobile phone terminal 1 via the connection code 32. I have. The image capturing device section b of 30 is held so as to be clipped by a holding section 33 attached to the mobile phone terminal 1 and has a removable structure.

Various other methods of fixing the image capturing device to the portable telephone terminal can be considered, such as using a magic tape (registered trademark) or using magnetic force. Since the image capturing device b of the image capturing device 30 is detachable, the image capturing is performed by directing the lens unit 31 attached to the image capturing device b to the image to be captured irrespective of the position and orientation of the mobile phone terminal body. It has become possible. At this time, when a character or a symbol to be captured is a printed matter, a mechanism is provided (not shown) that can adjust the focus and directly capture the printed character or symbol to capture as information.

In the first embodiment and the second embodiment,
The image capturing device can be removed from the mobile phone terminal, and if a wireless function is used to transmit the captured image information to the mobile phone terminal, the connection code will not bother you. Images can be captured. At this time, as a method of realizing the wireless function, for example, it is possible to use a communication means using infrared rays.

Further, as described above, when the portable radio terminal and the image capturing device are separable, the portable telephone terminal and the image capturing device are connected by a connection cord, and In either case, OCR is required in the image capture device.
It is also possible to provide a function to send only the character information or symbol information extracted from the captured image to the mobile phone terminal body.

In this case, it is possible to connect to any mobile telephone terminal according to the standard specification of a method of inputting information from the outside of the device connected to the mobile telephone terminal, and it is possible to connect any type of mobile phone terminal. It is possible to input directly and easily from a printed matter in a short time without error. If the mobile phone terminal has an Internet connection function, the URL written on printed materials such as books and magazines
Can be input in a short time without making a mistake, and it is possible to quickly and reliably connect to a homepage or a server having information to be known on the spot.

When the image capturing device is provided with the OCR function, the capacity of the image recording unit (memory) and the CPU mounted on the mobile phone terminal can be reduced. Is possible. Furthermore, if the image capturing device has a structure with an independent power supply,
It is possible to further reduce the weight and size of the mobile phone terminal body.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, an image capturing device section and a character or symbol included in an image captured by the image capturing device section are converted into character information or symbol information in a portable telephone terminal. Conversion function (OC
R function), and the character string obtained by the OCR function can be used as input information, so that characters or symbols can be input directly and easily from a printed name, address, or telephone number. It is possible to input without mistake in time.

When the mobile phone terminal has an Internet connection function, the user can input a URL described in a printed matter such as a book or a magazine in a short time without making mistakes. It is possible to connect to the server quickly and reliably on the spot. Further, if the image capturing device section is detachable from the mobile phone terminal and the wireless function is used to transmit the captured image information to the mobile phone terminal, the connection code is troublesome. It is also possible to take in an image and character information and symbol information contained in the image without the need.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of a mobile phone terminal to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a mobile phone terminal according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mobile phone terminal body 2 Image capture device part a 3 Display part 4 Power switch of image capture device 5 Image capture button 6 Talk button 7 Telephone power button 8 Speaker part 10 Microphone part 11 Character or symbol information input button part 12 Function selection Button part 13 Joint part 30 Image capturing device part b 31 Lens part 32 Connection code 33 Image capturing device part b holding part

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. An image capturing device, comprising: a function (OCR: Optical Character Recognition) for converting characters or symbols included in an image captured by the image capturing device into character information or symbol information.
A mobile phone terminal that can use character strings obtained by the OCR function as input information. 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image capturing device, and a function (OCR: Optical Character Recognition) for converting characters or symbols included in the image captured by said image capturing device into character information or symbol information.
A mobile phone terminal that can connect to the Internet, making it possible to use character strings obtained by the OCR function as input information. 3. The mobile phone terminal according to claim 1, wherein the image capturing device is integrated. 4. The mobile phone terminal connectable to the Internet according to claim 2, wherein the image capturing device section is integrated. 5. The mobile phone terminal according to claim 1, wherein the image capturing device is separable. 6. The mobile telephone terminal connectable to the Internet according to claim 2, wherein the image capturing device section is separable. 7. The portable telephone terminal according to claim 1, wherein the image capturing device is separable, and is connected to the image capturing device by wire. 8. The mobile phone terminal connectable to the Internet according to claim 2, wherein the image capturing device unit is separable and is connected to the image capturing device unit by wire. 9. The mobile phone terminal according to claim 1, wherein the image capturing device section is separable, and receives image information from the image capturing device portion by wireless or infrared rays. 10. The mobile phone connectable to the Internet according to claim 2, wherein the image capturing device is separable, and receives image information from the image capturing device by wireless or infrared rays. Terminal. 11. The image capturing device section is separable,
A mobile phone terminal, wherein an OCR function is added to the image capturing device unit, and character information or symbol information obtained by the OCR function is received through a wired connection. 12. An image capturing device section is separable,
A mobile telephone terminal connectable to the Internet, characterized in that an OCR function is added to the image capturing device section, and character information or symbol information obtained by the OCR function is received through a wired connection. 13. An image capturing device section is separable,
A cellular phone terminal, wherein an OCR function is added to the image capturing device unit, and character information or symbol information obtained by the OCR function is received by radio or infrared. 14. An image capturing device section is separable,
An OCR function is added to the image capturing device section, and character information or symbol information obtained by the OCR function is received by wireless or infrared rays.