JP3131859B2 - Information recognition device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recognition device,
More specifically, the present invention relates to an information recognition device that detects information written by a writing implement or a trajectory of the writing implement to recognize the entered information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an information recognizing apparatus for recognizing information such as characters on a paper such as a document written by hand is, for example, a scanner for reading information such as characters on a paper as an image, and a predetermined device. And a personal computer that recognizes and processes a character image read by the scanner as character data using the character recognition program of the present invention.Even an individual having a personal computer can use the scanner by preparing a scanner and character recognition software. is there.

Further, when high-speed character recognition is required, the apparatus is configured as a dedicated apparatus for performing higher-speed character recognition processing, so that it is more expensive than a personal computer.

A tablet for character input has also been put into practical use as a device for inputting and recognizing written characters by inputting the locus of a writing instrument to a computer using a touch panel or the like.

[0005]

However, such a conventional information recognition apparatus requires a large-scale apparatus such as a scanner, character recognition software, and a personal computer, even if the apparatus can be used by individuals. In addition, since the scanner is made to read each page, a separate reading process is required from the process of writing text, which limits the use environment and makes it difficult for anyone to use it easily. there were.

When a character input tablet is used, characters other than those written on a dedicated tablet cannot be recognized, and the use environment is still limited.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information recognizing device which recognizes entry information which can be easily used and which can be used in an expanded environment.

[0008]

The means of the present invention are as follows.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photographing means for photographing a writing surface on which information such as characters is written by a writing instrument, detecting the origin coordinates of the writing surface photographed by the photographing means, and detecting the origin coordinates. A coordinate detecting means for detecting the position coordinates of the entry information to be entered by the writing instrument, a data developing means for developing drawing data based on the origin coordinates and the position coordinates of the entry information detected by the coordinate detecting means, Recognizing means for recognizing entry information based on the drawing data developed by the data developing means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photographing means for photographing a writing surface on which information such as characters is written by a writing instrument, detecting the origin coordinates of the writing surface photographed by the photographing means, and detecting the origin coordinates. A coordinate detecting means for detecting the position coordinates of the writing implement from the apparatus; a data developing means for developing drawing data indicating a trajectory of the writing implement based on the detected origin coordinates and the position coordinates of the writing implement; And recognition means for recognizing entry information based on the drawing data.

[0011]

The operation of the means of the present invention is as follows.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the photographing means photographs a writing surface on which information such as characters is written by a writing instrument, the coordinate of the origin of the writing surface is detected by the coordinate detecting means. The position coordinates of the entry information to be entered by the writing implement from the origin coordinates are detected, and the drawing data is developed by the data development unit based on the origin coordinates detected by the coordinate detection unit and the position coordinates of the entry information. The entry information is recognized by the recognition means based on the drawing data developed by the development means. Claim 2
According to the invention described above, when an entry surface on which information such as characters is entered is photographed by a writing instrument by the imaging unit, the origin coordinates of the entry surface are detected by the coordinate detection unit, and the origin coordinates are detected by the coordinate detection unit. The position coordinates of the writing implement from are detected, the drawing data is developed by the data developing means based on the detected origin coordinates and the position coordinates of the writing implement, and the recognizing means based on the drawing data developed by the data developing means. The entered information is recognized.

Therefore, it is possible to detect the trajectory of the entry information such as characters being entered in real time and to recognize the entry information, and to input and use information to be entered in a notebook or a slip as necessary as data. be able to. As a result, the use environment of the information recognition device can be greatly expanded.

[0014]

An embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIGS. 1 to 8 show an embodiment of the information recognition apparatus of the present invention.

First, the configuration will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the information recognition device 1. In the figure, an information recognition device 1 includes a camera 2, an image detection unit 3, an image recognition unit 4, a detection RAM 5, a recognition RAM 6, a main memory 7, a processing device 8, a display memory 9, a display unit 10, and an I / O.
11. FIG. 2 shows the appearance and use state of the information recognition device 1.

The camera 2 has a charge coupled device (CCD).
As shown in FIG. 2, when the information recognition device 1 is mounted on the user's arm and placed opposite to the paper surface 20 as shown in FIG. The data is scanned and photographed in a predetermined photographing range, and the photographed images are sequentially output to the image detecting unit 3.

The image detecting section 3 executes a writing character sampling flow or a writing tool trajectory sampling flow, which will be described later, based on the image taken by the camera 2, detects the origin coordinates of the writing surface to be written, and stores it in the detection RAM 5. Writing implement 30 for writing and writing on paper 20
A process of sequentially detecting the position coordinates based on the tip trajectory or the position coordinates of the data written on the paper surface and writing the detected position coordinates in the detection RAM 5 is performed.

The image recognizing section 4 executes a later-described handwritten character recognizing flow based on the origin coordinate data detected by the image detecting section 3 and written into the detection RAM 5, the position coordinate data sequentially written, and the neighborhood area change data. Then, the data being written is expanded in the recognition RAM 6, character data recognition processing is executed based on the expanded data, and the recognized character data is stored in the main memory 7.

Detection RAM (Random Access Memory)
Reference numeral 5 denotes a stack memory S for writing position coordinate data, a writing tool tip position coordinate as a data memory area for writing origin coordinate data on the paper surface 20 detected by the image detecting unit 3 and position coordinate data being written. A coordinate memory Z for writing data, and a data memory D for writing change data in the vicinity of the tip end position of the writing implement which sequentially changes in correlation with the position coordinate data written in the coordinate memory Z are formed.

The recognition RAM 6 forms a memory area for expanding the character data being written based on the origin coordinate data and the position coordinate data being written when the image recognition unit 4 executes the above-described character recognition processing. , As shown in FIG.
A block memory B is formed, and each block memory B
1. Develop the data being written for each of B2. In addition, in each of the block memories B1 and B2 shown in FIG. 3, in addition to the character data development areas B1a and B2a, the character coordinates (X
i, Yi) and an area B1 for writing the character size (Fi), respectively.
b, B2b and areas B1c, B2c for writing the recognition flag and the character code, respectively, are also provided. In addition, R for recognition
In the AM 6, a memory area T for temporarily storing position coordinate data written in the stack memory S in the detection RAM 5 is also formed.

The main memory 7 stores various processing programs to be executed by the processing device 8 and also stores the image recognizing section 4.
To form a memory area for storing the recognized character data.

The processing device 8 sequentially reads out character data recognized by the image recognizing unit 4 and stored in the main memory 7, writes the character data into the display memory 9, and displays the data on the display unit 10, or via the I / O 11. It executes processing for transferring character data to an external computer.

The display memory 9 forms a memory area corresponding to the display area of the display unit 10. When character data read from the main memory 7 is sequentially written by the processing unit 8, the character data is written to the display unit 10. Transfer sequentially.

The display unit 10 is constituted by a liquid crystal display panel, and displays character data sequentially written and transferred to the display memory 9. The display unit 10 may include a liquid crystal display panel and a light source, and irradiate the liquid crystal display panel with the light source and project the light onto a wall surface, a paper surface, or the like.

The I / O 11 controls data transfer between the processing device 8 and an external computer, and outputs character code data input from the processing device 8 to an external computer or the like.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

First, the handwritten character sampling flow executed by the image detecting section 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. This processing is repeatedly executed at a fixed sampling timing.

Referring to FIG. 4, first, the paper surface 20 shown in FIG.
The origin coordinates on the left end and the reference X axis on the upper end are detected (step S1). Next, the detected origin coordinates and the reference X
Based on the axis data, the coordinates of the tip position of the writing implement 30 are detected and stored in the coordinate memory Z in the detection RAM 5 (step S2).

Note that the origin coordinates and the reference X axis are
However, the coordinates of the origin and the reference X-axis or Y-axis may be entered on the paper surface and detected.

At this time, the tip position is detected by storing the tip shape of the writing implement 30 in advance, and the detected position coordinate data (Xi, Yi) is stored in the coordinate memory Z in the detection RAM 5.
Then, the previously stored data is shifted and stored.

Next, the data in the vicinity of the detected coordinates is shifted and stored in the data memory D in the recognition RAM 6 by the previously stored data (step S3). That is, the data of the area near the tip of the writing implement 30 is stored.
Next, it is determined whether or not the difference (change) between the coordinate data stored in the current sampling and the coordinate data stored in the previous sampling is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (step S4). Judgment is new data written in a position completely different from the position, and if they are equal,
Since there is no change from the previous sampling time, this processing ends. If it is within the range of the predetermined value, the data such as the thickness of the line previously stored is compared (step S5). If there is no change in the data, the process is terminated. If there is a change, the change data is obtained and stored together with the coordinate data in the stack memory S in the detection RAM 5 (step S6). finish.

Therefore, by repeatedly executing the writing character trajectory sampling flow, as shown in FIG. 6, by taking the difference α between the tip position coordinate data of the writing instrument 30 and the change data near the tip, which are stored this time and the previous time. The data on the paper surface 20 at the tip of the writing implement 30 being written can be sequentially stored in the stack memory S.

Next, the flow of handwritten character recognition executed by the image recognition unit 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. This process is repeatedly executed as appropriate.

In FIG. 7, first, all the data stored in the stack memory S in the detection RAM 5 is read out by the image detection unit 3 and stored in the memory area T in the recognition RAM 6 (step S11). Clear all data in S (step S12). Next, in step S11, the data stored in the memory area T is sequentially read (step S13), and completion of reading of all data is checked (step S14). When reading of all data is completed, the present process is terminated. When the reading of all data is not completed, it is determined whether the coordinate data of the read data is a new block of the block memory B shown in FIG.
The coordinates of the entry data developed in 2 are compared and discriminated (step S15).

Each of the blocks B1 and B2 in the block memory B has a capacity for storing data for one character.

That is, in the process of step S15, it is determined whether or not the data being written is data written on the paper 20 completely separated from the entry data developed in the previous block memory B.

In the case of a new block, the entry data developed in the corresponding block B1 or B2 is cleared (step S16), and the processing shifts to step S19 and subsequent steps. It is determined whether or not the block is a block adjacent to the block, that is, whether or not the block is a neighboring character in the entry of a character string including a plurality of characters (step S17). If it is not an adjacent block, the process proceeds to step S19 and subsequent steps. If it is the next adjacent block, the data in the block memory B is shifted (step S18). That is, the data of the block B1 in which the data has been developed first is shifted to the block B2.

Next, the read data is expanded into the block B1 or B2 in the block memory B according to the coordinate data (step S19), and the expanded entry data is subjected to character recognition processing (step S20). Next, with respect to the character recognized in this process, the character coordinate (Xi: minimum coordinate, Yi: maximum coordinate; lower left coordinate of the character) data and the character size data of the recognized character data are extracted from the adjacent character data. Is corrected based on the character coordinate data and the character size data of the character data to be developed, and is developed into each block B1 or block B2 (step S2).
1) Write a character code corresponding to the recognized character data of each block B1 or B2 into the main memory 7 (step S22).

Next, the next data read from the next memory T is designated (step S23), and the process returns to the step S14, and the character recognition processing of the steps S15 to S23 is repeated until the data is completed. Execute repeatedly.

The character code corresponding to the character code recognized by the above character recognition processing and stored in the main memory 7 is read from the main memory 7 by the processing device 8 and output to the display memory 9. , Display unit 1
Displayed as 0. Also, the character code data is transferred to a computer or the like connected to the outside via the I / O 11.

Therefore, by using the information recognition device 1 of the present embodiment, characters can be recognized with handwritten characters such as character symbols on paper and the like, and the handwritten character information can be directly input to a personal computer or the like. Note paper,
It is possible to input information to a personal computer or the like at the same time as entering notes and slips, making it easier to input handwritten character information, improving the man-machine interface, and the degree of freedom in the use environment of the information recognition device. Can be greatly expanded.

Next, as another embodiment, the image detecting section 3
An example in which the trajectory of the tip of the writing instrument 30 is detected by detecting the light emission of the light emitting element provided at the tip of the writing instrument 30 with the camera 2 will be described.

In the present embodiment, the trajectory of the tip of the writing instrument 30 on the paper surface photographed by the camera 2 is detected by the image detecting section 3, and it is determined whether the writing instrument 30 is in contact with the paper surface. Lighting element such as an LED is attached to the tip of the writing instrument 30 so that the tip is in contact with the paper surface.
The contact detection switch provided in the writing instrument 30 is operated, and the light emitting element at the tip emits light. By detecting this with the camera 2, the tip trajectory of the writing implement 30 can be detected. Illustration and explanation of the configuration of the writing instrument 30 are omitted.

As another means for detecting whether or not the writing instrument 30 is in contact with the paper surface, a pressure or the like applied to the paper surface 20 may be detected. Send it to the recognition device 1.

The writing tool trajectory sampling flow executed by the image detection unit 3 will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. This process is repeatedly executed at a fixed sampling timing.

In FIG. 8, first, it is determined whether or not entry with the writing instrument 30 has been started by detecting the presence or absence of an entry signal from the entry signal output device (step S3).
1) If there is an input of a writing signal from the writing signal output device, the camera 2 detects the origin coordinates and the X axis which are reference positions on the paper surface 20 shown in FIG. 2 (step S32).

The origin coordinates and the X axis, which are reference positions on the paper surface 20, are based on the coordinate data (Xo, Yo) at the upper left end of the paper surface 20 shown in FIG. Detect as X axis.

Next, coordinate data (Xi, Yi) at which writing is started using the origin coordinate and the reference X-axis data detected at step S32 as reference coordinates is detected by a writing signal (step S33), and the coordinate data (Xi) is detected. , Yi) are detected at the previous sampling timing and detected by the detection RAM 5.
Are compared with the coordinate data stored in step S34 (step S34). If they are the same, this process is terminated. If they are not the same, the current coordinate data (Xi, Yi) is
Then, the process is completed by writing the data into the stack memory S (step S35).

Therefore, by repeatedly executing the writing tool trajectory sampling flow, the writing tool 30 is in contact with the paper surface and characters are written, ie,
The entry locus of the entry information can be sequentially detected as coordinate data and sequentially stored in the stack memory S.

Subsequent to the writing tool trajectory sampling flow, the writing character recognition flow by the image recognition unit 4 shown in FIG. 7 is executed, and the character data being written is recognized.

Therefore, even when the method of detecting the trajectory of the writing instrument 30 is used, the handwritten character information can be recognized, the input of the handwritten character information becomes easy, and the man-machine interface can be improved. The degree of freedom of the use environment of the information recognition device can be greatly expanded.

In multimedia, handwriting input is one of the important functions. However, if the information recognition device of the present invention is used for handwriting input of a multimedia device, writing on a special panel surface such as a touch panel is possible. The range of use can be greatly expanded without being limited to this case.

The display unit 1 of the information recognition apparatus 1 of the present invention
When handwritten characters are projected by a small projector or the like using 0, the handwriting is performed directly on the paper surface or the like on which the handwriting is being written.

[0055]

According to the present invention, it is possible to detect entry information in real time and to recognize the information being entered, and to easily use the information recognition apparatus. as a result,
The use environment of the information recognition device can be greatly expanded.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an information recognition apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the information recognition device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a block memory formed in a recognition RAM 6;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a handwritten character sampling process executed by the image detection unit 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of coordinate data on a paper surface detected by an image detection unit 3;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a change in character data on a paper surface detected by an image detection unit 3;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a character recognition process performed by the image recognition unit 4;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a writing instrument trajectory sampling process executed by the image detection unit 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 information recognition device 2 camera 3 image detection unit 4 image recognition unit 5 detection RAM 6 recognition RAM 7 main memory 8 processing device 9 display memory 10 display unit 11 I / O

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/033-3/037 G06F 3/03 G06F 3/00 G06K 9/62

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A photographing means for photographing a writing surface on which information such as characters are written by a writing implement, detecting origin coordinates of the writing surface photographed by the photographing means, and writing by a writing implement from the origin coordinates. Coordinate detecting means for detecting the position coordinates of the entry information to be written; data developing means for developing the drawing data based on the origin coordinates detected by the coordinate detecting means and the position coordinates of the entry information; An information recognizing device comprising: a recognizing means for recognizing entry information based on the drawing data. 2. A photographing means for photographing a writing surface on which information such as characters is written by a writing implement, detecting origin coordinates of the writing surface photographed by the photographing means, and position coordinates of the writing implement from the origin coordinates. Based on the detected origin coordinates and the position coordinates of the writing implement, based on the drawing data developed by the data developing means. An information recognition apparatus, comprising: recognition means for recognizing entry information.