JP3762289B2 - Form identification device and form identification method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a form identification apparatus suitable for application to a character recognition apparatus that handles a plurality of types of forms, and particularly to a case where a plurality of types of forms in which character strings to be identified are not arranged at fixed positions are identified according to a form definition. It is related with a suitable form identification device.
[0002]
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a form identification method for identifying a form in accordance with a form definition with a plurality of identification items.
[0003]
[Prior art]
When it is desired to recognize a plurality of types of forms with the OCR apparatus, a form identification operation for classifying the forms in advance is involved. If this form identification operation is performed manually, a lot of time and labor are required. Therefore, conventionally, a method has been known in which a character that serves as a clue to distinguish the form type is printed at a predetermined position of the form and the form type is identified by recognizing this character. However, this method has a problem in that a character string for identifying each form must be arranged at a fixed position in advance at the time of form design.
[0004]
Therefore, in order to solve such problems, a dictionary (form definition) that collects features such as form size, binding hole area, corner cut area, and pre-print area for each of multiple types of forms to be processed. A technology has been proposed that makes it possible to identify the types of forms even for forms that do not have character strings for form identification placed at fixed positions by creating and matching this dictionary with input forms. 2000-298280).
[0005]
However, in the above-described prior art, as the number of forms to be identified increases, the speed of form identification processing decreases. In particular, because the character recognition process is involved in the check for the pre-printed area character identification items, the number of types of forms to be identified increases, and the identification processing speed decreases significantly. It came to be requested.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, conventionally, in a method for identifying a form type by recognizing this character by printing a character as a clue to distinguish the form type at a predetermined position of the form in advance, At the time of form design, there is a problem that the character string for identification must be placed in a fixed position in advance, and for each of the multiple types of forms to be processed proposed to solve this problem, In the technology for identifying forms using a dictionary that collects features such as form size, binding hole area, corner cut area, pre-print area, etc., the number of forms to be identified increases. Due to the significant decrease, higher-speed form identification has been demanded.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a form identification device and a form identification method capable of remarkably improving the processing speed in the form identification process for identifying the type of form in accordance with the form definition based on a plurality of identification items. The purpose is to do.
[0008]
Furthermore, the present invention creates a dictionary (form definition) that collects features such as form size, binding hole area, corner cut area, and pre-print area for each of a plurality of types of forms to be processed. A blank area check is added in the form identification process that makes it possible to identify the type of form even for forms that do not have a character string for form identification placed at a fixed position by matching with the input form. An object of the present invention is to provide a form identification apparatus and a form identification method that can significantly improve the processing speed of form identification.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention adds a function for checking a blank area on a form by adding a blank area of each form to be identified to a form definition in a form identification process for identifying a form according to a form definition by a plurality of identification items. Thus, the processing load that requires character recognition processing is reduced, and the form identification processing is speeded up.
[0010]
That is, the present invention provides, for each form type, a form definition in which a pre-print area that requires character recognition and a blank area in which no characters and symbols are recorded, and a form type using the form definition. The form identifying means is characterized in that the form identifying means performs an identification process according to the definition of the blank area before the identification process according to the definition of the pre-print area .
[0011]
Further, the present invention provides a form identification method for identifying a form according to a form definition based on a plurality of identification items, wherein the form is identified according to a form definition including an identification item that defines a blank area of each of the plurality of types of forms to be identified. It is characterized by identifying.
[0012]
Further, the present invention provides a form identification method for identifying a form according to a plurality of identification items including an identification item that requires character recognition, and defines a blank area for each of a plurality of types of forms to be identified, and the character recognition Before the identification item that needs to be checked, the identification item defining the blank area is checked.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0014]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an OCR apparatus provided with a form identification apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0015]
In FIG. 1, a form definition device 10 includes a scanner, and creates a form definition 20 for each type of form (p). The OCR device 30 identifies and recognizes the type of the form (p) based on the form definition 20 created by the form definition device 10 and outputs a recognition result 40. The hardware configuration shown in FIG. 1 is basically the same as that of a conventional OCR system. In the present invention, a function for checking the blank area on the form (p) (blank area identification item) is added to the form definition 20 by adding the blank area of each form to be identified. In FIG. 1, the form definition device 10 and the OCR device 30 may be integrally formed.
[0016]
2 and 3 are diagrams for explaining the configuration of the form definition 20 in the embodiment of the present invention. Among these, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a screen configuration example of the form definition device 10. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of field setting contents of the form definition.
[0017]
In the screen configuration of the form definition device 10 shown in FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 denotes the entire form image of the form (p) read by the scanner, and 11a to 11c are identification items to be checked on the form (p). It is an area. Among these, 11a is a corner cut area and 11b is a pre-print area. 11c is a blank (blank) area newly added in the embodiment of the present invention.
[0018]
In the processing in the form definition device 10, first, each type of form is prepared, and an operation of reading an image with a scanner is performed. Next, for each of the read forms, a form definition 20 having a plurality of identification items according to the definition contents as shown in FIG. 3 is created. Here, for each of a plurality of types of forms (p) to be identified, the form identification items include a form (paper) size, a corner cut area (11a), a binding hole area (not shown), and a pre-print area (11b). In addition to these identification items, identification items for the blank (blank) area (11c) are defined. Note that the blank (blank) area (11c) on the form (p) handled here is an area of a single color part (usually a blank part) where no characters, symbols, etc. are recorded on the form (p). Point to.
[0019]
In the processing in the OCR device 30, the form (p) is identified and characters are recognized based on the form definition 20 shown in FIG. FIG. 4 shows the flow of the processing, and FIG. 5 shows the details of the processing procedure of the form identification processing (step S2) in FIG. In this form identification process, the identification item check of the blank area (11c) is performed before the identification item check of the pre-print area (11b) that requires character recognition.
[0020]
Here, the form identification processing operation in the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the respective drawings.
[0021]
In the OCR device 30, the image of the form (p) to be handled is read by a scanner (step S1 in FIG. 4), and the form is defined according to the form definition having a plurality of identification items including identification items of the blank area (11c) as shown in FIG. (P) is identified (step S2 in FIG. 4), character recognition is performed (step S3 in FIG. 4), and output to the sorter (step S4 in FIG. 4) is performed. At this time, if a sorter having a plurality of output pockets is connected, the form (p) can be sorted by type. If the identification results in an error, processing such as outputting the corresponding form to the reject pocket is performed.
[0022]
Of the series of processing steps (steps S1 to S4 in FIG. 4), the form identification process (step S2 in FIG. 4) will be described in detail below.
[0023]
In this form identification process, the read form image is sequentially compared with the form definition 20 for each of the created form types, and all items are checked to see if they match (FIG. 5). Step S21 to Step S29).
[0024]
In this embodiment, first, it is checked whether or not “paper size” matches the form size registered in the form definition 20 (step S22 in FIG. 5). If the paper sizes do not match, the process proceeds to the next form definition process.
[0025]
On the other hand, if they match (as specified), then it is checked whether or not “corner cut” is as specified in the corner cut area registered in the form definition 20 (step S23 in FIG. 5). If the corner cut is not as specified, the process shifts to the next form definition process.
[0026]
On the other hand, if the corner cut is as specified, then it is checked whether or not “binding hole” is as specified in the binding hole area registered in the form definition 20 (step S24 in FIG. 5). Here, if the binding hole is not as specified, the process proceeds to the next form definition process.
[0027]
On the other hand, if the binding hole is as specified, then whether or not the “blank area” added in the embodiment of the present invention is as specified before performing the “pre-print” check. This is checked (step S25 in FIG. 5). Here, if the blank area does not conform to the designation of the blank area registered in the form definition 20, the process proceeds to the next form definition.
[0028]
On the other hand, if the blank area is as specified, it is next checked whether “pre-print” is as specified in the pre-print area registered in the form definition 20 (step S26 in FIG. 5). If pre-printing is not as specified, the process proceeds to the next form definition. Then, when the pre-printing is as specified, it is determined that it matches the corresponding form (step S27 in FIG. 5).
[0029]
The check according to the series of form definitions is repeatedly executed for all form types (form formats) to be identified while switching the contents (parameters) of the form definition 20 (steps S21 to S28 in FIG. 5). As for the form definition, only when the form to be checked complies with one type of form definition (that is, only when there is only one type of matching form definition), that form is set as the identification result (step S29 in FIG. 5). ). On the other hand, when there are a plurality of matching form definitions or 0 (not applicable), the identification is an error (abnormal end).
[0030]
In this way, in the form identification process for identifying a form according to a form definition with a plurality of identification items, the blank area of each form to be identified is added to the form definition 20 and the blank area (11c) on the form (p). By performing the pre-printing check function with character recognition before checking pre-printing, it is possible to reduce the degree of shift to pre-printing check with character recognition, which requires a lot of processing time, and efficient form identification processing Can be executed. That is, the check of the blank area (11c) described above is significantly faster than the check by character recognition. Therefore, by checking the blank area (11c), the number of form definitions that need to be recognized can be remarkably reduced, and the overall processing speed is greatly improved without impairing the identification performance. be able to.
[0031]
Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
[0032]
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, in checking the blank area (11c) in the above-described embodiment, it is necessary to strictly confirm that all the pixels included in the blank area (11c) are white. From the viewpoint that it is only necessary to reduce the form definition to perform character recognition, as shown in FIG. 6A, the form identification is performed at a higher speed by checking only the pixels (shaded portions) appropriately thinned out. Processing can be executed. Further, in a system having a high cache performance and a high access speed to a continuous memory, as shown in FIG. 6B, a higher speed can be expected by checking pixels that are continuous for a certain interval in a lotus shape.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the processing speed can be remarkably improved in the form identification process for identifying a form in accordance with a form definition by a plurality of identification items. For example, for each of multiple types of forms to be processed, create a dictionary (form definition) that collects features such as form size, binding hole area, corner cut area, character presence area, pre-print area, and this dictionary. By matching with the input form, it is possible to remarkably improve the processing speed in the form identification process that makes it possible to identify the form type even for forms that do not have a character string for identifying the form in a fixed position. .
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an OCR apparatus including a form identification apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a screen configuration example of a form definition device for explaining a configuration of a form definition 20 in the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of field definition contents of a form definition for explaining the configuration of the form definition 20 in the embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing flow of the OCR device in the embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for form identification processing in FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of blank area identification processing for explaining another embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 ... Form definition device 11a ... Corner cut region 11b ... Pre-print region 11c ... Blank region 20 ... Form definition 30 ... OCR device 40 ... Recognition result p ... Form

Claims (6)

In the form identification device that identifies a specific form from among multiple types of forms based on the identification items defined for each form type,
An image input means for inputting an image of a form to be identified;
A form definition storage means for storing, for each type of form, a form definition that defines a blank area of a single-color part in which no characters, symbols, etc. are recorded on the form as identification items for identifying at least the form;
Based on the form image input by the image input means and the form definition stored in the form definition storage means, the presence or absence of the defined blank area in the input image is checked by thinning out pixels. A form identification device comprising: form identification means for identifying a type of a form in which the image is input by determining whether or not the defined blank area exists in the input image. In the form identification device that identifies a specific form from among multiple types of forms based on the identification items defined for each form type,
An image input means for inputting an image of a form to be identified;
A form definition storage means for storing a form definition in which a blank area and a pre-printing area in which a single-color part is not recorded on the form as an identification item for identifying at least a form;
Based on the image of the form input by the image input means and the form definition stored in the form definition storage means, the character of the form is recognized by recognizing the character in the defined pre-print area in the input image. Before identifying the type, it comprises form identifying means for identifying the type of the form in which the image is input by determining whether or not the defined blank area exists in the input image. A form identification device characterized by that.   The form identifying device according to claim 2, wherein the form identifying means identifies the presence or absence of the defined blank area by thinning out pixels. In the form identification method for identifying a specific form from among multiple types of forms based on the identification items defined for each form type,
An image input step for inputting an image of the form to be identified;
A form definition storage step for storing, for each type of form, a form definition that defines a blank area of a single-color part in which no characters, symbols, etc. are recorded on the form as identification items for identifying at least the form;
Based on the image of the form input by the image input step and the stored form definition, the input image is checked by thinning out pixels for the defined blank area. A form identification method comprising: a form identification step for identifying a type of a form in which the image is input by determining whether or not the form-defined blank area exists. In the form identification method for identifying a specific form from among multiple types of forms based on the identification items defined for each form type,
An image input step for inputting an image of the form to be identified;
A form definition storage step for storing a form definition in which a blank area and a pre-print area in which a single color portion where no characters, symbols, etc. are recorded is defined as at least an identification item for identifying a form,
Based on the image of the input form and the stored form definition, before identifying the type of the form by recognizing characters in the defined pre-print area in the input image, the A form identification method comprising: a form identification step for identifying a type of a form in which the image is input by determining whether or not the defined blank area exists in the input image. 6. The form identification method according to claim 5 , wherein the form identification step includes an identification step of identifying the presence or absence of the defined blank area by thinning out pixels.

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