JP4309881B2 - ID card recognition apparatus and ID card recognition method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an identification card recognition apparatus and an identification card recognition method used in a business for processing, for example, a form image on which an identification card is pasted.

  When a mobile phone sales agent, etc., makes a mobile phone usage contract, a copy of an identification card such as a license or insurance card is pasted on a part of the application form written by the user. Fax to a contract center.

  In the contract center, after confirming the contents written by the user and the contents of the ID from the copy document of the application received by FAX, the data of the user (contractor) is registered and managed in a database such as a PC. .

  At this time, text data and image data obtained as a result of character recognition obtained by reading the image from the FAX, that is, by printing the image of the printed copy document on an optical character reader (hereinafter referred to as OCR) and recognizing the character. And register them on the PC.

By the way, in the predetermined identification card pasting column in the application form, the identification card is not necessarily copied in full size and pasted in the normal direction.
If only the part of the ID in the application form is copied at an arbitrary magnification or is not pasted in the correct direction, the correct image recognition result will be obtained by correctly cutting out the image in the ID range. Since it cannot be obtained, the operator registers the contents of the identification card by directly inputting a key into the PC.

  As a technique for recognizing an identification card, for example, a technique is known in which a license is read by a dedicated scanner, a ruled line is detected from the read license image, and the license letter is recognized based on the ruled line.

Further, as a technique for determining the orientation of an image and reading a character, a reference mark is printed on a predetermined part of three sheet angles of four sheet angles of a transmission target form, and a form obtained through a facsimile machine is used. There is already a technique for detecting and correcting the orientation of a form image by detecting a reference mark from the image of the image and recognizing characters from the corrected image (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP-A-2-12479

In the case of the above prior art, although the size and orientation of the entire form image can be detected, it cannot be handled when there is an image with a direction or expansion / contraction rate different from the form in a certain area in the form. , I can not recognize the identification card pasted on the form correctly.
Further, if the position of the character can be recognized by scanning all the images of the form and determining the position of the character, there is a problem that it takes too much time.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and provides an ID recognition device and an ID recognition method capable of recognizing a part of an ID at a high speed from an image of a form with an ID attached. It is intended to provide.

In order to solve the above-described problems, an identification recognition apparatus according to the present invention includes an image information acquisition unit that acquires an image from a form, and a black pixel and a white pixel among images of the form acquired by the image information acquisition unit. Is detected by the feature character detection means , which detects an image region appearing in a predetermined direction in a specific arrangement ratio, performs character recognition in the image region, and detects a plurality of feature characters of the identification card, and the feature character detection means Based on the position of the plurality of characteristic characters of the identification card and the reference position of the characteristic character of the identification card set in advance, the expansion rate and / or direction of the identification card image is obtained. And an image extracting means for extracting an image.

The identification card recognition apparatus according to the present invention includes an image information acquisition unit that acquires an image from a form, and a black pixel and a white pixel that have a specific arrangement ratio in a predetermined direction from the image of the form acquired by the image information acquisition unit. A feature character detection unit that detects an image region that appears, performs character recognition in the image region, and detects a plurality of characters of at least one type of “year”, “month”, and “day”; and the feature character detection Based on the positional relationship of the plurality of characters detected by the means and the reference position of the character of the ID card set in advance, the expansion rate and / or direction of the image of the ID card is obtained, and the ID card is extracted from the image of the form And image extracting means for extracting the image.
In the identification recognition apparatus, the image is characterized by an image area in which an arrangement ratio of black pixels a and white pixels b detected by scanning a form image in a predetermined direction in units of pixels is a: b: a: b: a. By providing the means for detecting the character, the characteristic character can be detected at high speed.
In the ID recognition device, the orientation of the image of the ID is obtained by counting the number of the upper side and the lower side of the characteristic character detected by the characteristic character detection means on the side where a part of the character protrudes. Is provided, the processing for calculating the position of the description item of the license from the positional relationship of the characteristic characters can be simplified, and the license can be recognized at a higher speed .

The identification card recognition method of the present invention is an identification card recognition method by an identification card recognition apparatus provided with an image information acquisition unit for acquiring an image from a form. In the identification card recognition method, a black pixel is detected from the image of the form acquired by the image information acquisition unit. Detecting an image area where white pixels appear in a specific arrangement ratio in a predetermined direction, performing character recognition in the image area, detecting a plurality of characteristic characters of the identification card, and a plurality of characteristics of the detected identification card Obtaining an expansion / contraction ratio and / or direction of an image of the identification card based on a character position and a reference position of a characteristic character of the identification card set in advance, and extracting the image of the identification card from the image of the form; It is characterized by having.

The identification card recognition method of the present invention is an identification card recognition method by an identification card recognition apparatus provided with an image information acquisition unit for acquiring an image from a form. In the identification card recognition method, a black pixel is detected from the image of the form acquired by the image information acquisition unit. And an image area where white pixels appear in a specific arrangement ratio in a predetermined direction, character recognition in the image area is performed, and a plurality of characters of at least one type of “year”, “month”, and “day” are detected. Detecting the expansion ratio and / or direction of the image of the identification card based on the detecting step, the positional relationship between the detected plurality of characters and the reference position of the character of the identification card set in advance, Extracting an image of an identification card from the image.
In the identification recognition method, a characteristic character is extracted from an image area in which an arrangement ratio of black pixels a and white pixels b detected by scanning an image in a predetermined direction in units of pixels is a: b: a: b: a. By detecting, the characteristic character can be detected at high speed.
In the above identification card recognition device, the characteristic character is determined by counting the number of the protruding part of the character among the upper part and the lower part of the detected characteristic character to determine the orientation of the image of the identification card. It is possible to simplify the process of calculating the position of the description item of the license from the positional relationship of the license and recognize the license at a higher speed .

In the present invention, an image area in which black pixels and white pixels appear in a specific arrangement ratio in a predetermined direction is detected from a form image acquired by the image information acquisition unit, character recognition in the image area is performed, Detecting multiple characteristic characters of the identification card, and based on the position of the multiple characteristic characters of the detected identification card and the reference position of the characteristic characters (such as “year”, “month”, “day”) The expansion rate and / or direction of the identification image is obtained, and the identification image is extracted from the form image.
In this way, identification characters pasted on the form by detecting the characteristic characters (such as “year”, “month”, “day”) included in the image part of the identification object to be recognized from the entire form image By obtaining the expansion ratio and / or direction of the image, the image portion of the license can be extracted from the form image at high speed.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the identification portion is recognized at high speed from the image of the form on which the identification card is pasted.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an identification card recognition system according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an application form.
As shown in FIG. 1, the ID recognition system includes an image scanner 2 (hereinafter referred to as “image scanner”) that acquires (generates) image information (image data) by scanning the surface of an application form 1 as a form with a CCD or the like. And a computer 10 connected to the scanner 2 and performing image extraction processing and character recognition processing of the license 23 on the image information (image data) read from the application form 1. Yes. The scanner 2 functions as an image information acquisition unit that acquires image information (image data) from the application form 1.

  The computer 10 includes an operation unit 11, a communication I / F 12, a memory 13 as a storage unit, a display unit 14, a hard disk device 15, and a CPU 16. The operation unit 11 is an input unit that is operated by a user such as a keyboard or a mouse.

In the memory 13, any one of “year”, “month”, and “day”, which are characteristic reference characters printed in advance on the license, in this example, the character type “day”, Positional data of multiple reference characters “day” (X and Y coordinates of the character “day” with the reference (0, 0) as the point where the license 23 is located (upper left corner, etc.) and the distance between each character Data, etc.) are stored.
The memory 13 stores a dictionary in which standard character images for recognizing characters are associated with text data.
The display unit 14 displays an image of the application form 1 captured by the scanner 2, a screen for character recognition processing from the extracted image of the license portion, text data of the character recognition result, and the like.
The hard disk device 15 is installed with an operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS) and control software that causes the CPU 16 to perform control operations of each unit, and these cooperate to realize the operation of the present system. In the operation description, the operation of the CPU 16 after the computer is started will be described.

  That is, the CPU 16 uses at least one kind of characteristic characters printed on the license from the image of the application form 1 acquired by the scanner 2, for example, “year”, “month”, “day”, and the like. Characteristic character detecting means for detecting a plurality of characters, the expansion / contraction rate of the license image based on the positional relationship between the plurality of characters detected by the characteristic character detecting means and the preset reference position of the characters of the license 23 And / or direction (vertical, horizontal, normal direction, upside down direction, etc.), and image extracting means for extracting the image of the license 23 from the image of the application form 1; the license extracted by the image extracting means It functions as character recognition means for performing character recognition on the 23 images.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a form, for example, an application form 1 for a mobile phone usage contract, is provided with an entry field 21 for an address, name, application contents, and the like, and an identification confirmation affixing field 22. . In the entry field 21, the applicant himself / herself is filled in with the ballpoint pen or the like.

  Precautions for attachment are pre-printed in the identification confirmation affixing field 22 and, for example, a license 23 or a health insurance card presented by the applicant himself as confirmation of the applicant himself / herself, etc. A copy of the ID is enlarged and reduced to a size that fits in the field and attached.

  The application form 1 is applied to a facsimile machine, etc., transmitted to the communication network, and received by the contract center. At the contract center, an image of the received FAX paper, that is, a state where an identification card is pasted on the application form 1 This image cannot be processed so that only the license part is corrected.

  In other words, the license on the fax paper image has a variety of positions in the identity verification item pasting field 22 and is transformed into various forms such as landscape, portrait, scale, and magnification. There may be. In addition, various characters previously printed on the application form 1 often protrude from the background of the license 23.

  The direction of the license 23 to be pasted on the application form 1 is pasted with the license 23 upside down if the normal direction is pasting the license in the license pasting field of the application form 1 A first case to be attached, a second case in which the license is attached in the longitudinal direction (a direction orthogonal to the normal direction), and a third case in which the respective cases are attached in a slightly inclined state are conceivable. The slightly inclined state is, for example, about 3 to 5 degrees in terms of human visual sense.

As shown in FIG. 2, the license 23 is printed with at least five letters (p1... P5) having the same size and the same date.
Therefore, in the present system, the position information of the central points of the five letters “p” (p1... P5), which serve as a reference for detecting the position where the license 23 is pasted, is registered in the memory 13. As shown in Fig. 3, the most probable combination is obtained by examining the position of the center point of the letters "d" (d1... Dn) detected from the image 1a of the application form to be recognized, corresponding to each other. Ask for.

  This problem of finding the optimal combination from among the combinations is called a “combination optimization problem”, and its solution methods include breadth-first search method, depth-first search method, genetic algorithm, and simulated annealing. Many methods are known, such as the method, and this method uses either method.

  If the most probable combination is required, it can be calculated from the relative position where there are items such as name, date of birth, address, license number, etc. on the image. The system cuts out the partial image of the license 23 and the description items therein according to the calculation result, and executes the character recognition process.

Here, with reference to FIG. 4, an outline operation of the identification card recognition system will be described.
In the case of this ID recognition system, when the application form 1 is set on the reading stand of the scanner 2 and the scanning start operation is performed, the scanner 2 scans the surface of the application form 1 to generate image data and generates the computer 10. Send to.

  In the computer 10, the CPU 16 scans the image data of the application form 1 received from the scanner 2 in the vertical direction to detect a plurality of characteristic characters “day” (S 101), and detects from the positional relationship of each characteristic character. The combination of a plurality of “days” is optimized (S102), and the expansion ratio and direction of the image of the license portion are detected.

  The CPU 16 cuts out the partial image of the license based on the detected expansion / contraction ratio and direction of the license portion, further cuts out the description items of the image (S103), and executes the character reading process for each item. By doing so (S104), the contents of the license 23 affixed to the application form 1 are converted into text data, stored in the memory 13, and displayed on the display unit 14.

  After that, when the operation unit 11 is stored or output by the user, the CPU 16 associates the text data in the memory 13 and the image of the license portion with each other and stores or outputs them to the storage location or output destination hard disk device. .

The details of the license image recognition process in this identification card recognition system will be described below with reference to FIGS.
When performing the license image recognition process, the CPU 16 first scans the image of the application form 1 read by the scanner 2 in a certain direction (vertical direction) (S101 in FIG. 5).

  Then, the CPU 16 counts the number of consecutive white pixels and black pixels obtained by scanning the image (S112), and as shown in FIG. A place where the ratio of the numbers is almost black: white: black: white: black = a: b: a: b: a is searched (S113), and a place (image region) where the word “day” should be detected is detected. .

Next, the CPU 16 tracks black pixels on the left and right sides of the detected location, and detects a black pixel range 32 that is continuous in the horizontal direction (S114).
Further, the CPU 16 traces the black pixels vertically from the black pixels at the end of the range 32 of black pixels continuous in the horizontal direction, and detects the range 33 of black pixels continuous in the vertical direction (S115).

  Then, the CPU 16 determines that the detected horizontal range 32 and the vertical range 33 of the black pixel are the size of the reference character set in the memory 13 in advance, that is, 1 mm wide × 2 mm vertical, 5 mm wide × 5 mm vertical. It is determined whether or not the following conditions are satisfied (S116).

As a result of this determination, if the condition is satisfied (Yes in S116), the CPU 16 performs character recognition processing on the images in the detected horizontal range 32 and vertical range 33, and the character recognition result is An area that is “day” is selected (S117).
The CPU 16 repeats the above processing until there is no place where the ratio of the number of consecutive black pixels and white pixels is a: b: a: b: a (S118). That is, the CPU 16 detects a characteristic character from an image area where the arrangement ratio of the black pixel a and the white pixel b is a: b: a: b: a. The arrangement ratio between the black pixel a and the white pixel b is the ratio of the pixel arrangement order and the number of pixels.

  In the case of recognizing characters from an image as described above, conventionally, all characters are generally recognized from the entire image. However, when all characters of the entire image are recognized, several hundred characters are recognized. In some cases, the process speed may be significantly reduced.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, by utilizing the fact that the character “day” font is lined up at equal intervals, a range in which the character “day” is likely to be present is specified in advance from the arrangement of white and black pixels. By recognizing only the specified range, “character”, which is a characteristic character of the license 23, can be detected very quickly.

  The CPU 16 repeats the above process to detect a plurality of “day” characters, calculates a distance (interval) between the characters, and calculates a reference distance between the characters stored in the memory 13 in advance. In comparison with (interval), the expansion / contraction ratio such as the enlargement ratio or reduction ratio of the image of the license portion is obtained. The reference distance may be the actual size of the license or may be a distance (interval) multiplied by a certain magnification.

  When obtaining the expansion / contraction rate of the image of the license portion, the CPU 16 cuts out a range corresponding to the expansion / contraction rate from the image on the FAX sheet and temporarily stores the image of the license portion in the memory 13.

Then, the CPU 16 performs a character recognition process with reference to the dictionary for the image of the license portion in the memory 13 and stores the character recognition result in the memory 13.
The CPU 16 associates the text data, which is the result of this character recognition process, with the partial image of the license 23 temporarily stored in the memory 13 and registers it in the database constructed in the hard disk device 15.

Next, an application example of the license recognition process will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, strictly speaking, the letters “day” have different shapes in the upper part and the lower part from the center. By detecting this subtle difference, the processing can be further speeded up.

  That is, after recognizing (detecting) “day”, which is a characteristic character of the license 23, the CPU 16 investigates the upper or lower pattern of each character “day” and detects the protruding portion 35. . In this process, the CPU 16 determines whether the upper half portion or the lower half portion of the character has the protruding portion 35.

Then, the CPU 16 counts the number of “days” having the protruding portion 35 at the upper part of the character and the number of “days” having the protruding portion 35 at the lower portion, and determines the direction (up and down) of the license 23 with the larger one. To do. That is, the CPU 16 determines the orientation of the image of the license 23 by counting the number of the upper part and the lower part of the detected character “day” on the side where a part of the character protrudes.
In this way, by detecting the direction of the protruding portion 35 and determining the direction of the character (upper: normal direction or lower: reverse direction) in advance, a plurality of “day” characters can be combined and optimized. Since it is no longer necessary to determine whether it is up or down, the license 23 can be recognized at a higher speed.

  Conventionally, a license is read by a dedicated scanner, and a ruled line is detected from the read image of the license 23, and the license is recognized based on the ruled line. In the case of forms such as copies and faxes received by facsimile machines, the ruled lines are often interrupted, and there is often a problem that the license cannot be recognized. However, in the license recognition system of this embodiment, the ruled line Instead, the image of the license 23 can be recognized more stably by detecting a plurality of “days” printed thick on the license pasted on the application form.

  Further, even when the license is arranged on the application form 1 in the normal direction or in the direction opposite to the normal direction (approximately 0 degrees or 180 degrees), the image portion of the license 23 can be recognized.

  Furthermore, when the “day” of the characteristic character is not detected in the initial vertical scanning, the image is rotated by 90 degrees, and the license image recognition process is performed, so that the direction orthogonal to the normal direction is obtained. The image portion of the license 23 arranged at (90 degrees or 270 degrees) can also be recognized.

  Normally, the character recognition function can recognize a character even if the character image is tilted to about ± 5 degrees. Therefore, according to the license recognition method of the above embodiment, when the license 23 is placed in the range of 0 ° ± 5 °, 90 ° ± 5 °, 180 ° ± 5 °, 270 ° ± 5 °. It becomes possible to recognize. If it is a normal application form, most license images can be recognized if this range is targeted.

  Further, if the image is rotated not only at 0 degrees and 90 degrees, but also at 10 degrees, such as 10 degrees, 20 degrees,... 170 degrees, and the license image recognition process is performed, 10 degrees ± 5 degrees, 20 degrees ± 5 degrees… 170 degrees ± 5 degrees can be targeted, and 190 degrees ± 5 degrees, 200 degrees ± 5 degrees… 350 degrees ± 5 degrees are also targeted due to the feature that characters can be recognized even if the day is upside down. It is possible to recognize licenses placed in all directions.

  Further, in the conventional method, there is a case where a recognition result shifted by one line is sometimes obtained because the ruled lines are arranged at equal intervals. In this embodiment, the character “day” is evenly displayed on the image. Since they are not arranged, there is an effect that it is difficult to obtain a shifted recognition result.

  In addition, “date”, which is a characteristic character on the license, can be recognized as “day” even if it is flipped upside down, so it can be detected as “day” without being rotated 180 degrees like other characters. The processing from the image of the application form 1 to the image of the license portion can be made extremely fast.

  In addition, this invention is not limited only to the said embodiment. In the above embodiment, the description has been made with the letter “day” of the license, but other than this, for example, an insurance card or a passport can be recognized by the same method. For example, “year”, “month”, “number”, or the like may be used as long as there are a plurality of characters in the identification card to be recognized in addition to “day”.

The figure which shows the structure of the identification card recognition system of this embodiment. The figure which shows an application form. The figure which shows the image of an application. The flowchart which shows the outline | summary operation | movement of the identification card recognition system of FIG. The flowchart which shows the detail of a license image recognition process. The figure for demonstrating the detection method of the character "day." The figure which shows judging the direction of a license by the difference in the shape of the upper part and the lower part of the character "day".

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Application form, 2 ... Scanner, 10 ... Computer, 11 ... Operation part, 12 ... Communication I / F, 14 ... Display part, 15 ... Hard disk drive, 16 ... CPU.

Claims (8)

Image information acquisition means for acquiring an image from a form;
A feature of the identification card is to detect an image area where black pixels and white pixels appear in a predetermined direction in a specific arrangement ratio from the image of the form acquired by the image information acquisition means , perform character recognition in the image area, and Characteristic character detection means for detecting a plurality of characters;
Obtaining the expansion rate and / or direction of the image of the identification card based on the position of the plurality of characteristic characters of the identification card detected by the characteristic character detection means and the reference position of the characteristic character of the identification card set in advance, An ID recognition apparatus comprising: an image extracting unit that extracts an ID image from a form image. Image information acquisition means for acquiring an image from a form;
From the image of the form acquired by the image information acquisition means , an image area in which black pixels and white pixels appear in a specific arrangement ratio in a predetermined direction is detected, character recognition in the image area is performed, and “year” Characteristic character detection means for detecting a plurality of characters of at least one kind of “month” and “day”;
Based on the positional relationship of the plurality of characters detected by the characteristic character detection means and a reference position of the character of the identification card set in advance, the expansion rate and / or direction of the image of the identification card is obtained, An identification device comprising an image extraction means for extracting an image of an identification card from the inside. The characteristic character detection means includes:
Means is provided for detecting characteristic characters from an image region in which the arrangement ratio of black pixels a and white pixels b detected by scanning the image in a predetermined direction in units of pixels is a: b: a: b: a. The identification card recognition apparatus according to claim 1. The image extracting means includes
Means for determining the orientation of the image of the identification card by counting the number of the side from which a part of the character protrudes among the upper part and the lower part of the characteristic character detected by the characteristic character detection means; The identification device according to claim 1, further comprising: In the identification card recognition method by the identification card recognition apparatus provided with image information acquisition means for acquiring an image from a form,
A feature of the identification card is to detect an image area where black pixels and white pixels appear in a predetermined direction in a specific arrangement ratio from the image of the form acquired by the image information acquisition means, perform character recognition in the image area, and Detecting multiple characters;
Based on the position of the plurality of characteristic characters of the detected identification card and the reference position of the characteristic character of the identification card set in advance, the expansion rate and / or direction of the image of the identification card is obtained, and from among the images of the form Extracting an image of the ID card;
The identification method characterized by having . In the identification card recognition method by the identification card recognition apparatus provided with image information acquisition means for acquiring an image from a form,
From the image of the form acquired by the image information acquisition means, an image area in which black pixels and white pixels appear in a specific arrangement ratio in a predetermined direction is detected, character recognition in the image area is performed, and “ year” Detecting a plurality of characters of at least one kind of “month” and “day”;
An expansion / deformation rate and / or direction of the image of the identification card is obtained based on the positional relationship of the detected plurality of characters and a reference position of the character of the identification card set in advance, and an image of the identification card is selected from the image of the form Step to extract and
The identification method characterized by having . And detecting a characteristic character from an image area in which the arrangement ratio of black pixels a and white pixels b detected by scanning the image of the form in a predetermined direction in units of pixels is a: b: a: b: a. The identification method according to claim 5, wherein: The method includes a step of determining the orientation of the image of the identification card by counting the number of the upper side and the lower side of the detected characteristic character from which a part of the character protrudes. The identification method according to claim 5 .

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