JP2570571B2 - Optical character reader - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical character reader, and more particularly to an optical character reader capable of reading forms of different types (form formats) in a mixed manner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of optical character reading apparatus,
A form identification area (hereinafter, referred to as a common form) created between all forms to enable mixed reading of different types of forms
First, the form ID is read, the form identification number written in the read ID field is recognized, the form type is identified from the recognized form identification number, and the form format corresponding to the identified form is recognized. The information is automatically selected, and the form data is read in accordance with the selected form format information.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 60-45883 discloses a means for recognizing a character pattern input to a line buffer and a method for inputting the next character pattern when the recognized character pattern is not a form identification code. Describes a technique for performing mixed reading of a form in which the row position of the ID field is set arbitrarily by means for correcting the position of the form.

[0004]

However, in the conventional optical character reading apparatus, it is required that the number of characters in a field to be read first, that is, an ID field in which a form identification number is written is constant between forms. It is a prerequisite. For this reason, even if the number of digits and the position of the form identification number are common between forms, if the number of characters in the ID field in which the form identification number is entered differs between forms, mixed reading of forms of different types is performed. There was a problem that it was not possible. In particular, when the characters entered in the ID field are printed characters, if the form identification number starts in the middle of the entered character string in the ID field, it is very easy to cut out and recognize only the form identification number. It was difficult. That is, in general, printed characters are printed by a printer device, and therefore, right and left “print misalignment” easily occurs due to their characteristics. Therefore, when reading a printed character in the optical character reading device, a character pattern is cut out from a position before the position specified by the format information in consideration of the above-described “printing deviation”. For this reason, when cutting out the form identification number starting from the middle of the character string entered in the ID field, there is a possibility that even the character pattern before the form identification number may be cut out, and it is very difficult to cut out only the form identification number. It will be difficult. .

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to enable mixed reading of different types of forms even if the number of characters in an ID field differs between forms. Further, an object of the present invention is to provide an optical character reader capable of easily and accurately cutting out a form identification number even if the form identification number starts in the middle of a character string entered in an ID field.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image reading means for reading an image of a form and storing it as image data in a data storage means, the number of characters of a form identification number, and a cutout position. , Storage means for storing the forward / reverse cutout direction as information, and information stored in the storage means, and data storage means based on the number of characters specified by the information, the cutout position, and the forward / reverse cutout direction. Character pattern extracting means for extracting a character pattern from the image data stored in the printer, a form identification number is recognized from the character pattern cut out by the character pattern extracting means, and a form type is identified from the form identification number. And a form identification means.

[0007]

Therefore, according to the present invention, a character pattern is cut out from image data based on the number of characters of the form identification number stored in advance, a cutout position, and a forward / reverse cutout direction, and a form identification is performed from the cut out character pattern. The number is recognized, and the type of the form is identified from the recognized form identification number.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail based on embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a scanning unit which scans an image of a form (not shown) and stores the read image in the scan buffer 6 as image data (data 102).

Reference numeral 7 denotes a memory, in which form format information corresponding to each form of different types to be read, and the number of characters of the form identification number in the ID field, a cutout position, a forward / reverse cutout direction, and a type to be read. .

Reference numeral 2 denotes a selection unit, and a signal 1 from the scanning unit 1
In step S 01, the number of characters of the form identification number stored in the memory 7, the cutout position, and the forward / reverse cutout direction are selected and read out, and output as data 201.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a forward / reverse designated character number extracting section, which scans the scan buffer 6 in accordance with the data 201 from the selecting section 2.
Of the image data (data 601) stored in
A character pattern is cut out from the D field by a specified number of characters in a specified cutout direction from a specified cutout position.

That is, the forward / reverse designated character number extracting unit 3
If the cutout direction is specified as the forward direction, the ID
A character pattern is cut out from the first character of the field by a specified number of characters, and when the reverse direction is specified, a character pattern is cut out from the last character of the ID field by the specified number of characters.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a form identification unit, which is a character pattern (data 30) extracted from the forward / reverse designated character number extracting unit 3.
The form identification number is recognized from 1), and the form type is identified from the form identification number. Also, form format information corresponding to the identified form is selected and read from the memory 7 and output as data 401.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a character recognition unit which cuts out and recognizes a character pattern from the image data (data 601) stored in the scan buffer 6 in accordance with the data 401 (form format information) from the form identification unit 4. Read data.

Next, an operation specific to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a form in which a form identification number exists at the left end of the ID field. In FIG. 2A, the number of characters in the ID field is 6, and in FIG. Are two characters, and in FIG. 10C, the number of characters in the ID field is four characters. Two characters from the first character are form identification numbers, and the forms have different form identification numbers. That is, each form has a different type.

In this case, the selection unit 2 stores the number of characters of the form identification number “2 characters”, the cutout position “Xs”,
Select the cutout direction “forward” and read out the data 2
Output as 01.

The forward / reverse designated character number extracting section 3 stores the data 20
According to No. 1, the extraction of the character pattern from the ID field of the image data (data 601) stored in the scan buffer 6 is executed for two characters in the forward direction from the position of Xs.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when the number of characters in the ID field differs between forms, the character pattern indicating the form identification number is cut out from the ID field in accordance with the information from the selection unit 2. Mixed reading of different forms can be performed.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a form in which a form identification number exists at the right end of the ID field. In FIG. 3A, the number of characters in the ID field is 6, and in FIG. Are three characters, and in FIG. 3C, the number of characters in the ID field is four characters. Two characters from the last character are form identification numbers, and the forms have different form identification numbers. That is, each form has a different type.

In this case, the selection unit 2 stores the number of characters of the form identification number “3 characters”, the cut-out position “Xe”,
Select the cutout direction "reverse direction" and read out the data 2
Output as 01.

The forward / reverse designated character number extracting section 3 stores the data 20
According to No. 1, the extraction of the character pattern from the ID field of the image data (data 601) stored in the scan buffer 6 is executed for three characters in the reverse direction from the position of Xe.

In the forms shown in FIGS. 3A and 3C, the ID
The form identification number starts in the middle of the character string entered in the field. In this case, based on the information from the selection unit 2,
Since the character pattern is cut out from the last character of the ID field by the specified number of characters, even if the characters entered in the ID field are printed or handwritten, only the character pattern indicating the form identification number Can be cut out accurately and easily.

[0024]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the number of characters of the form identification number stored in advance,
A character pattern is cut out from the image data based on the cutout position and forward / reverse cutout direction, a form identification number is recognized from the cut out character pattern, and a form type is identified from the recognized form identification number. Therefore, even if the number of characters in the ID field is different between forms, mixed reading of forms of different types becomes possible. Also,
According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately and easily cut out the form identification number even if the characters entered in the ID field are printed or handwritten and the form identification number starts in the middle of the entered character string in the ID field. Becomes

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a different type of form in which a form identification number exists on the left end side of an ID field.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a different type of form in which a form identification number exists on the right end side of an ID field.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 scanning unit 2 selection unit 3 forward / reverse specified number of characters extraction unit 4 form identification unit 5 character recognition unit 6 scan buffer 7 memory

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An image of a form is read, a form identification number entered in a form identification area created on the form is recognized from the read image, and a type of the form is identified from the recognized form identification number. An optical character reader for reading form data according to the form format information corresponding to the identified form, wherein: an image reading means for reading the form image and storing it in the data storage means as image data; Storage means for storing the cutout position and the forward / reverse cutout direction as information; and reading out the information stored in the storage means, based on the number of characters specified by the information, the cutout position, and the forward / reverse cutout direction. Statement for extracting character pattern from image data stored in data storage means Character pattern extracting means; and a form identification means for recognizing a form identification number from the character pattern cut out by the character pattern extracting means and identifying the type of the form from the form identification number. Optical character reader.