JP6160363B2 - Article information recognition device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention includes an imaging device that images an information display surface of an article, and an article information recognition unit that recognizes a character string indicating article information displayed on the information display surface based on a captured image of the imaging device. The present invention relates to an article information recognition apparatus.

Such an article information recognition apparatus is used, for example, in a logistics facility to recognize article information (manufacturing number, expiration date, etc.) of an article accepted by the logistics facility. The article information is displayed on the information display surface of the article as character information that can be identified by the operator.
Conventionally, an information display surface is imaged by an imaging device, and a character string of a predetermined area where article information is scheduled to be displayed on the information display surface is extracted from the captured image of the imaging device as article information. If it is recognized (hereinafter referred to as area character string recognition processing) and character strings cannot be extracted in the predetermined area, all character strings displayed on the information display surface are extracted and extracted. The character string is compared with the character string pattern defined as the article information (for example, information such as the character type of each character), and the character string satisfying the allowable condition is recognized as the article information (hereinafter referred to as the pattern). There has been an article information recognition device configured to be called recognition processing (see, for example, Patent Document 1 (particularly, paragraph [0053])).

JP 2006-103813 A

In the article information recognition apparatus of Patent Document 1, if a character string indicating article information is present in a predetermined region in the captured image, the character string is quickly extracted by region character string recognition processing and recognized as article information. can do.
However, when there are a plurality of types of articles, the character string of the article information is not always located in a predetermined area. Further, for example, the position where the character string of the article information is displayed may be changed by changing the design of the article. For this reason, there is a possibility that the character string cannot be extracted even if the region character string recognition process is executed for a predetermined region. In such a case, all the character strings displayed on the information display surface of the article are displayed. Extraction and pattern recognition processing are performed on the extracted character string, and there is a problem that it is difficult to quickly perform processing for recognizing article information displayed on the information display surface. In particular, when there are a plurality of types of articles, there are a plurality of character string patterns of the article information. Therefore, matching with the plurality of patterns must be performed, and the above problem becomes significant.

  Therefore, it is desired to realize an article information recognition apparatus that can quickly recognize article information displayed on the article information display surface.

An article information recognition apparatus according to the present invention for solving the above-described problems is an imaging apparatus that images an information display surface of an article, and recognizes article information displayed on the information display surface based on a captured image of the imaging apparatus. An article information recognizing unit to provide,
In the captured image, the character string indicating the item information includes an item character string indicating the type of the item information, and a content character string indicating the item information corresponding to the item character string,
A relative position in the captured image is defined between a frame surrounding the item character string in the captured image and a display scheduled frame in which the content character string is expected to be displayed in the captured image. And
The article information recognition unit
And event string detection process for detecting a pre-Symbol seed th string in the captured image,
Based on the relative position to the event character string detected in the event character string detection process, a display scheduled area corresponding to the display schedule frame is set in the captured image and exists in the display scheduled area. A character string extraction process for extracting the content character string;
An article information recognition process for recognizing the article information based on the content character string extracted in the character string extraction process;
It is characterized in that

That is, it is possible to extract a content character string existing in a display scheduled area set corresponding to the detected item character string, and recognize article information based on the extracted content character string.
The item character string is a character string representing the type of article information such as “manufacturing number” and “expiration date”. For example, as the item character string indicating the expiration date, other character strings such as “UseByDate” can be assumed, but variations thereof are limited. On the other hand, as a content character string, various variations in which the number of characters and the arrangement order of characters differ depending on the type of article can be assumed. Thus, the variation of the item character string is smaller than the variation of the content character string. For this reason, compared with the case where the pattern recognition process as described above is performed, for example, the article information displayed on the information display surface of the article can be quickly recognized.
Thus, an article information recognition device that can quickly recognize article information displayed on the information display surface of the article can be provided.

  In an embodiment of the article information recognition apparatus according to the present invention, the article information recognition unit stores in advance a set character attribute that is an attribute of a character used for the content character string in association with the item character string. A character string that evaluates the appropriateness based on the set character attribute for the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process performed on the display scheduled area for the item character string. When the suitability of the content character string evaluated in the character string evaluation process satisfies a set proper condition in the article information recognition process, the content indicated by the content character string is represented by the article information. It is preferable that it is comprised so that it may recognize as.

  That is, for the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process executed for the display scheduled area for the item character string, the appropriateness is evaluated based on the set character attribute stored in advance in association with the item character string. When the suitability satisfies the set suitability condition, the content indicated by the content character string is recognized as article information. Therefore, when a plurality of character strings are extracted in the character string extraction process, the content character having a higher appropriateness is obtained. A column can be recognized as article information. For this reason, based on the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process, the article information can be recognized more accurately, and the recognition accuracy can be improved.

  In an embodiment of the article information recognition apparatus according to the present invention, it is preferable that the set character attribute is a font of characters used for the content character string.

  That is, each content character string displayed on the information display surface may be displayed using a plurality of different typefaces. In such a case, the appropriateness of the content character string is evaluated based on the characters used in the content character string, and the content character string satisfying the set appropriate condition is recognized as the article information, so that the appropriateness is higher. The content character string can be recognized as article information.

  In the embodiment of the article information recognition apparatus according to the present invention, it is preferable that the set character condition is a vertical dimension of the character in the content character string.

  That is, the vertical dimension of each character string displayed on the information display surface may be different. In such a case, by evaluating the appropriateness of the character string based on the vertical dimension of the character string and recognizing the content character string satisfying the setting appropriateness condition as the article information, the content character with higher appropriateness is obtained. A column can be recognized as article information.

  In an embodiment of the article information recognition apparatus according to the present invention, the article information recognition unit is configured to store in advance the scheduled character number information determined as the number of characters of the content character string in association with the item character string. And, as a result of executing the character string extraction process, if the number of characters of the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process is less than the number of characters specified in the planned character number information, the display schedule It is preferable that the character string extraction process is executed on the display scheduled area after the area is expanded by a set dimension.

  That is, even if all the characters of the number of characters necessary for the content character string corresponding to the item character string are displayed on the information display surface, all the characters in the content character string are not present in the display scheduled area (that is, When the content character string is displayed deviating from the scheduled display area), the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process may be less than the number of characters necessary for the article information.

According to the above configuration, if the number of characters in the content character string extracted by the character string extraction processing does not satisfy the number of characters specified in the planned character count information, the display planned area after expansion is expanded by the set dimension. The character string extraction process is executed for the.
As a result, there is a high possibility that all character strings necessary as article information are present in the expanded display schedule area, so by executing the character string extraction process on the expanded display schedule area, There is a high possibility that the content character string corresponding to the event character string can be appropriately extracted.
In addition, even if the character string extraction process is executed for the expanded display planned area, if the extracted content character string is less than the number of characters required for the article information, the display planned area is further expanded to expand the display target area. If the character string extraction process is performed on the display scheduled area, the possibility of appropriately extracting the content character string corresponding to the item character string is further increased.

In other words, according to the above configuration, by limiting the area targeted for the character string extraction process, speeding up the recognition of the article information, and thus limiting the area targeted for the character string extraction process. The situation where the content character string is missing can be avoided as much as possible.
Thus, according to the above configuration, it is possible to avoid as much as possible the situation in which the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process is lost while speeding up the recognition of the article information.

  In an embodiment of the article information recognition apparatus according to the present invention, the article information recognition unit stores a recognition candidate character that is a candidate for a character used for the content character string in advance in association with the item character string. The at least one recognition candidate character is configured to store at least one presumed misread character preset as a character similar to the recognition candidate character in association with the recognition candidate character, and the item An extracted character determination process for determining whether or not each character of the content character string extracted in the character string extraction process performed on the scheduled display area for a character string is the recognition candidate character; If the character that is determined not to be the recognition candidate character by the extracted character determination process is the expected misreading character, the expected misreading character is referred to as the expected misreading character. It is preferable to perform the recognition result replacement processing for replacing said recognized candidate characters stored in association.

That is, in the character string extraction process, a character different from the character to be used for the content character string corresponding to the item character string may be extracted. For example, in the content character string indicating the expiration date, not all characters are used for numbers, so if, for example, “I” or “O” is extracted in the character string extraction process for the expiration date, There is a possibility of misreading the numbers “1” and “0”, which are similar figures.
According to the above configuration, when a character determined not to be a recognition candidate character is a misreading assumed character, the misreading assumed character can be replaced with a recognition candidate character associated with the misreading assumed character. In the case of the above example, the alphabet “I” or “O” is set as a misread assumption character, and the number “1” among the recognition candidate characters is used as the recognition candidate character corresponding to the alphabet “I”. If “0” is stored as a recognition candidate character corresponding to the alphabet “O”, the alphabet “I” or “O” as a misreading assumed character determined not to be a recognition candidate character in the extracted character determination process, It can be replaced with the numbers “1” and “0” as the recognition candidate characters associated with the “I” and “O”.
Thus, when the article information is recognized based on the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process, the recognition accuracy can be improved.

  In an embodiment of the article information recognition apparatus according to the present invention, two different item character strings corresponding to the article information having two different attributes are displayed at different positions on the information display surface of the article, and the article The information recognition unit is configured to be able to detect each of the two different item character strings in the item character string detection process, and one of the two item character strings different in the item character string detection process When only the character string is detected and the two content character strings are extracted in the display-scheduled area for the one item character string, one content character string is one of the two extracted content character strings. When the item information corresponding to the item character string is recognized, the other content character string of the two extracted content character strings is replaced by two different item character strings. It is preferably configured to recognize an article information corresponding to the Chi other disciplines string.

That is, only one of the two different item character strings corresponding to the item information having two different attributes is detected in the item character string detection process, and two content characters are displayed in the display scheduled area for the one item character string. When a column is extracted, if one content character string can be recognized as article information corresponding to one item character string, the other content character of the two content character strings is extracted. The column can be estimated to correspond to the other item character string that could not be detected by the item character string detection process.
Therefore, in the above case, by recognizing the other content character string of the two extracted content character strings as article information corresponding to the other item character string of two different item character strings, Even if only one of the two item character strings can be detected, the item information can be appropriately recognized by associating the two item character strings with the content character strings corresponding to the two item character strings.

The perspective view which shows the principal part of an article | item information recognition apparatus. The figure which shows the example of the item character string and content character string which were displayed on the information display surface Control block diagram of article information recognition apparatus Flow chart of processing executed by article information recognition apparatus Flow chart of processing executed by article information recognition apparatus Flow chart of processing executed by article information recognition apparatus Example showing multiple content strings extracted for the event string An example of a case where the reading result is misidentified in the character string extraction process The figure explaining correspondence with a recognition candidate character and a misreading assumption character The figure explaining recognition result substitution processing Diagram explaining expansion of display area The figure explaining matching with the content character string and item character string when only one of two item character strings is detected

An embodiment of an article information recognition apparatus of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.
In the present embodiment, the article information recognition apparatus is installed at a receiving location in the distribution facility. At the receiving location, in order to associate the product identification information of the cardboard case (hereinafter referred to as the product B) carried in from the manufacturer or the like in a state where the product is accommodated with the product information such as the manufacturing number or the expiration date of the product B, Reading of the item identification information and recognition of the item information are performed. The article information recognition apparatus of this embodiment is used for recognition of the article information.

FIG. 1 shows a receiving location of a physical distribution facility provided with the article information recognition apparatus.
The receiving place is provided with a transfer conveyor 5 for transferring the article to a storage facility such as an automatic warehouse, and an imaging device 50 capable of imaging the information display surface Bh of the article B being transferred is provided in the middle of the transfer path. It has been.

On the information display surface Bh of the article B, a barcode BC for identifying the type of the article B is displayed as shown in FIG. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, the item character string indicating the item information item, the first item character string S10 indicating the product number, and the item BC on the information display surface Bh of the item B, as shown in FIG. A second type character string S20 indicating the expiration date is displayed. Further, a first content character string M10, which is a character string representing a production number, is displayed on the lateral side of the first type character string S10, and an expiration date is displayed on the lateral side of the second type character string S20. A second content character string M20 that is a character string is displayed.
The display forms of the first type character string S10 and the first content character string M10, and the second type character string S20 and the second content character string M20 shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. Different types of display items (for example, a pair of the first type character string S10 and the first content character string M10, a second type character string S20, and the second content character string M20 are arranged side by side). ) Is also possible.

As shown in FIG. 3, the control unit H is configured by, for example, a computer including an arithmetic device and a storage device, and executes various controls by executing programs stored in the storage device. It has become. An imaging device 50, a conveyor controller C1, a host management device Hu, and an article database DB are connected to the control unit H so as to be able to communicate with the control unit H.
The imaging device 50 is configured to capture an image in response to a command from the control unit H and to transmit the captured image to the control unit H. In the present embodiment, the control unit H and the article database DB correspond to an article information recognition unit.

The conveyor controller C1 is configured to control the transport operation of the transport conveyor 5 and to input detection information of the limit switch SW. The limit switch SW is configured to be able to detect that the article B has reached a suitable imaging position suitable for the imaging device 50 to image the information display surface Bh of the article B, and transmits detection information to the conveyor controller C1.
When the conveyor controller C1 receives the detection information of the limit switch SW, the conveyor controller C1 notifies the control unit H of information indicating that the article B has reached the preferred imaging position, and the control unit H receives the article from the notification from the conveyor controller C1. When it is determined that B has reached the preferred imaging position, the imaging device 50 is commanded to take an image, and a captured image of the article B located at the preferred imaging position is acquired.

  The control unit H detects the item character string detection process (first item character string S10, second item character string S20) that is a character string indicating the type of article information in the captured image captured by the imaging device 50. And a content character string (first content character string M10, second content character string M20) that is a character string indicating article information corresponding to the event character string, based on the event character string detected in the event character string detection process. ) Is scheduled to be displayed (first display scheduled area W12, second display scheduled area W22) is set as a captured image, and a content character string existing in the scheduled display area is extracted. Character string extraction process and a display scheduled area (first display schedule) scheduled to display the content character strings (first content character string M10, second content character string M20) extracted by the character string extraction process Region W12, second display And it is configured to perform, and product information recognition processing for recognizing an article information based on the constant region W22).

Further, the control unit H reads the information (article type ID) of the barcode BC with a bar code reader (not shown) and notifies the article database DB of the article type ID. The article database DB searches the specification information of the article B based on the notified article type ID, and transmits the specification information of the article B to the control unit H.
The specification information of the item B includes the dimension information of the item B, the attribute information of the characters of the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20 in the item B, the first content character string M10 in the item B, and The set character attribute which is the attribute information of the character of the second content character string M20, the information related to the character of the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20, the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20 Information indicating the positional relationship between the first-type character string S10 and the second-type character string S20, and the first content character string M10 and the second content. This is information including information on the number of characters planned as the number of characters of the character string M20, and does not include item information about each item B.

Incidentally, the information about the character strings of the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20 includes the character attributes such as the typeface of the character string and the vertical dimension of the character, and the character arrangement information of the character string ( What kind of character sequence a character string is expressed in).
That is, among the different types of articles, even if the character string is displayed as the first type character string S10, for example, “manufacturing number”, “manufacturing No.”, “LotNo.”, “Unique number”, etc. However, if the item type ID of the item B is known, it is possible to know what character sequence is used as the first type character string S10. Similarly, even if the character string displayed as the second type character string S20 is between different types of articles, for example, “expiration date”, “expiration date”, “expiration date”, “UseByDate”, etc. Various notations may exist, but if the item type ID of the item B is known, it is possible to know what character sequence is used as the second type character string S20.

The control unit H is configured to be able to execute an event character string detection process, a character string extraction process, a character string evaluation process, an extracted character determination process, a recognition result replacement process, and an article information recognition process as processes.
The item character string detection process is a process of detecting both the first item character string S10 and the second item character string S20 from the captured image.
In this detection, the control unit H performs a pattern recognition process based on the character specifications and the character arrangement information acquired from the article database DB. The pattern recognition process uses a general-purpose technique and will not be described in detail. The control unit H is configured to detect the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20 by the item character string detection process. At this time, only one of the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20 may be detected, and the process in this case will be described later.

  The character string extraction process will be described. In the character string extraction process, the first content character string M10 and the second type character string S20 existing in the display scheduled area (frame W12 described later) set for the first type character string S10 are taken from the captured image. This is a process of extracting the second content character string M20 existing in the display scheduled area (frame W22 to be described later) set for this.

  FIG. 2 shows scheduled display areas set for the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20. That is, a frame W11 that surrounds the first type character string S10 without a gap is set, and the upper side located at the Y coordinate that is a distance Y11 upward from the upper end of the frame W11, and the Y coordinate that is separated by a distance Y12 from the lower end of the frame W11. A frame W12 is set that is surrounded by the lower side that is positioned, the left side that is located at the same X coordinate as the right end of the frame W11, and the right side that is separated from the left side by a distance X1 in the right direction. This frame W12 is a display scheduled area for the first type character string S10. Similarly, the frame W22 is set for the second type character string S20. A frame W22 is a display scheduled area for the second type character string S20.

Next, the character string evaluation process will be described. The control unit H associates the set character attribute used for the first content character string M10 with the first type character string S10, and sets the set character attribute used for the second content character string M20 to the second type character. It is configured to store in advance in association with the column S20. That is, the control unit H is configured to store in advance the set character attribute that is the attribute of the character used for the content character string in association with the item character string. In the present embodiment, the set character attribute is stored in association with the type of the article B.
The character string evaluation process is a process of evaluating the appropriateness based on the set character attribute stored in the control unit H when a plurality of character strings are extracted by the character string extraction process.
In some cases, a plurality of character strings are detected in the display scheduled area for the event character string. For example, as shown to Fig.7 (a), it is a case where the label R in which several character information was described was affixed on the location corresponded to a display plan area | region. In such a case, as shown in FIG. 7B, for a plurality of read content character strings, for example, based on the height score, which is an evaluation value of the appropriateness based on the vertical dimension of the character, and the typeface of the character A typeface score, which is an evaluation value of appropriateness, is calculated, the total values are compared, and the content character string having the highest total value is associated with the item character string.

Next, the extracted character determination process and the recognition result replacement process will be described. As shown in FIG. 8, this is a process for forcibly correcting a misread character when a character in the character string of the content character string is misread as a result of executing the character string extracting process. .
As shown in FIG. 9, the control unit H stores in advance a recognition candidate character that is a candidate for a character used in the content character string in association with the item character string, and for at least one of the recognition candidate characters, It is configured to store at least one erroneous reading assumption character preset as a character similar to the recognition candidate character in association with the recognition candidate character.
The extracted character determination process is a process for determining whether or not each character of the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process executed for the display scheduled area for the item character string is the recognition candidate character. is there. In addition, as shown in FIG. 10, the recognition result replacement process corresponds to the misinterpreted character when the character determined not to be a recognition candidate character by the extracted character determination process is a misread expected character. This is a process for executing a recognition result replacement process for replacing a recognition candidate character attached. That is, in the example of FIG. 10, “I”, which is a misread assumption character, is replaced with “1”, which is a recognition candidate character.

Next, the control executed by the control unit H will be described based on the flowcharts of FIGS.
When the control unit H detects that the limit switch SW has detected that the article B has reached the preferred imaging position, the control unit H instructs the imaging device 50 to acquire an image (steps # 101 and # 102). .
Subsequently, the product type ID is acquired from the barcode BC of the product B read by the bar code reader, and the specification information of the product B corresponding to the product type ID is acquired (step # 103).
The control unit H continues to cut out an area corresponding to the information display surface Bh from the captured image (step # 104). For the extraction of the area corresponding to the information display surface Bh, the dimension information in the specification information of the article B described above may be used, or the part corresponding to the article B by recognizing the boundary between the background and the article B in the captured image May be extracted.

Next, the control unit H performs the item character string detection process on the image cut out at step # 104 (step # 105).
Subsequently, the control unit H determines whether the number of item character strings detected in the item character string detection process is one or two (step # 106). When three item character strings are detected, the process proceeds to error processing (processing for notifying the operator that a reading error has occurred). If it is determined in step # 106 that the number of detected event character strings is two, the control unit H sets a display scheduled area for each detected event character string (step # 108).

The control unit H performs a character string extraction process for extracting characters existing in the frame W12 for the first type character string S10, and a character string extraction process for extracting characters existing in the frame W22 for the second type character string S20. Are respectively executed (step # 109).
When two or more content character strings are extracted in the frame W12 or the frame W22 in step # 109, the control unit H continues to execute the character string evaluation process (step # 112) and satisfies the appropriate setting condition. The content character string is selected as the content character string corresponding to the item character string (step # 113). In the present embodiment, the appropriate setting condition is a condition that the total value of the height score and the font score is the highest as described above.

When the content character string extracted in the frame W12 or the frame W22 in step # 109 is one, or when the processing in step # 113 is completed, the control unit H continues to determine the number of characters in the content character string. It is determined whether the number of characters is less than the planned number stored in the control unit H in association with the item character string (step # 110).
If it is determined in step # 110 that the number of characters in the content character string is less than the planned number of characters (step # 110: No, as shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B), the control unit H displays the display scheduled area. 11C is expanded by the set dimension X1a (step # 111), and then the process returns to step # 108 to execute the character string extraction process for the expanded display scheduled area.

  If it is determined in step # 106 that the number of detected event character strings is one, the control unit H sets a display scheduled area for the detected event character string (step # 114, see FIG. 12). Subsequently, a character string extraction process is executed for the display scheduled area set in step # 114, and it is determined whether the number of extracted content character strings is one or two (step # 115). When it is determined that the number of content character strings extracted in step # 115 is two, the extracted content character string is associated with one item character string (step # 116). If it is determined that the number of content character strings extracted in step # 115 is two, then it is determined whether one extracted content character string corresponds to one item character string (step # 117). If it is a corresponding one (step # 117: Yes), the other content character string is associated with the other item character string (step # 118). If it is determined No in step # 117, error processing is performed. After executing the process of step # 116 or step # 118, the process of step # 110 is continued.

  If it is determined in step # 110 that the number of characters in the content character string is greater than or equal to the planned number of characters (step # 110: Yes), the control unit H performs the extracted character string determination process described above (step # 121). As a result, if it is determined that the recognition result replacement process is necessary, the recognition result replacement process is executed (steps # 122: Yes, # 123). If it is determined that the recognition result replacement process is not necessary (step # 122: No) ) Or, when the processing of step # 123 is completed, the first content character string M10 and the second content character string M20 associated with the first type character string S10 and the second type character string S20 are obtained by the above processing. Article information recognition processing for recognizing article information based on the information is executed (step # 124).

  That is, the control unit H is based on the item character string detection process for detecting the item character string that is a character string indicating the type of article information in the captured image, and the item character string detected in the item character string detection process. A planned display area that is planned to be displayed when a content character string that is a character string indicating article information corresponding to the item character string is displayed is set as a captured image, and a content character string that exists in the display planned area is extracted. A character string extraction process and an article information recognition process for recognizing the article information based on the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process are executed.

  Moreover, the control part H performs the character string evaluation process which evaluates a suitable degree based on a setting character attribute about the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process performed with respect to the display plan area about the item character string. In the article information recognition process, when the suitability level of the content character string evaluated in the character string evaluation process satisfies the set proper condition, the content indicated by the content character string is recognized as the article information.

  Further, the control unit H is configured to be able to detect each of two different event character strings in the event character string detection process, and only one event character string of the two event character strings different in the event character string detection process. Is detected, and two content character strings are extracted in the display scheduled area for the one item character string, one of the two extracted content character strings corresponds to one item character string. When the item information is recognized, the other content character string of the two extracted content character strings is recognized as the item information corresponding to the other item character string of the two different item character strings.

[Another embodiment]
(1) In the above-described embodiment, an example is shown in which, in the event character string detection process, two items of the first event character string S10 and the second event character string S20 are detected as the event character string. In the character string detection process, one or three or more item character strings may be detected. When only one item character string is set, the processing of step # 106 and step # 114 to step # 119 in the flowcharts of FIGS.
Moreover, it is good also as a structure which acquires the number of item character strings detected by a item character string detection process from goods database DB based on goods classification ID. In this case, if the number of item character strings detected in the item character string detection process is smaller than the number of scheduled item character strings acquired from the item database DB based on the item type ID, an error as shown in step # 119 of the flowchart is performed. It is good also as a structure which performs a process.

(2) In the above embodiment, the configuration in which the barcode BC displayed on the information display surface Bh of the article B is read by the barcode reader has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. You may make it detect based on the captured image of the imaging device 50. FIG. Moreover, it is good also as a structure using RFID etc. instead of barcode BC.
Moreover, in the said embodiment, although it was set as the structure which acquires the information which concerns on the goods specification of the goods B from goods database DB based on goods classification ID, such as barcode BC, the conveyor controller C1 is based on the instruction | command of the high-order management apparatus Hu. The article B is configured to be transported to a suitable imaging position, and the article database DB is configured to transmit information related to the article specifications of the article B for which conveyance is instructed by the host management device Hu to the control unit H. Also good.

(3) In the above embodiment, the configuration has been described in which the set character attribute is the typeface of the character used for the content character string and the vertical dimension of the character in the content character string. Good. In addition, any attribute other than the typeface of the character and the vertical dimension of the character, for example, three set character attributes including the number of characters are set, and any attribute of the character is set as the set character attribute.

(4) In the above embodiment, for a recognition candidate character that is a candidate for a character to be used in the content character string, one misread assumed character set in advance as a character similar to the recognition candidate character corresponds to the recognition candidate character. However, two or more misinterpreted characters may be associated with one recognition candidate character. For example, “I (capital letter“ eye ”)”, “i (capital letter“ eye ”)”, “L (capital letter“ el ”)” “l (capital letter“ el ”)” Corresponding to “1 (number“ 1 ”)” as a recognition candidate character may be considered.

50 Imaging device B Article Bh Information display surface J Article information recognition unit M10, M20 Content character string S10, S20 Item character string W12, W22 Display scheduled area X1a Set size

Claims (7)

An imaging device for imaging an information display surface of the article;
An article information recognition device provided with an article information recognition unit for recognizing article information displayed on the information display surface based on a captured image of the imaging device,
In the captured image, the character string indicating the item information includes an item character string indicating the type of the item information, and a content character string indicating the item information corresponding to the item character string,
A relative position in the captured image is defined between a frame surrounding the item character string in the captured image and a display scheduled frame in which the content character string is expected to be displayed in the captured image. And
The article information recognition unit
And event string detection process for detecting a pre-Symbol seed th string in the captured image,
Based on the relative position to the event character string detected in the event character string detection process, a display scheduled area corresponding to the display schedule frame is set in the captured image and exists in the display scheduled area. A character string extraction process for extracting the content character string;
An article information recognition process for recognizing the article information based on the content character string extracted in the character string extraction process;
The article information recognition apparatus which performs. The article information recognition unit is configured to store in advance a set character attribute that is an attribute of a character used for the content character string in association with the item character string, and
For the content character string extracted in the character string extraction process performed on the display scheduled area for the item character string, execute a character string evaluation process for evaluating the appropriateness based on the set character attribute, In the article information recognition process, when the suitability degree of the content character string evaluated in the character string evaluation process satisfies a setting proper condition, the contents indicated by the contents character string are recognized as the article information. The article information recognition apparatus according to claim 1.   The article information recognition apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the set character attribute is a typeface of a character used for the content character string.   The article information recognition apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the set character attribute is a vertical dimension of a character in the content character string.   The article information recognition unit is configured to store in advance the number of characters scheduled as the number of characters of the content character string in association with the item character string, and as a result of executing the character string extraction process, When the number of characters in the content character string extracted by the character string extraction process is less than the number of characters specified in the planned character number information, the display planned region is expanded by expanding the planned display region by a set dimension. The article information recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the article information recognition apparatus is configured to execute the character string extraction process. The article information recognition unit
A recognition candidate character that is a candidate for a character used for the content character string is stored in advance in association with the item character string, and at least one of the recognition candidate characters is stored in advance as a character similar to the recognition candidate character. It is configured to store at least one set of erroneous reading assumption characters in association with the recognition candidate character, and is extracted by the character string extraction process performed on the scheduled display area for the item character string The extracted character determination process for determining whether or not each character of the content character string is the recognition candidate character, and the character that is determined not to be the recognition candidate character by the extracted character determination process The recognition result replacement process is performed to replace the assumed misreading character with the recognition candidate character stored in association with the expected misreading character. The article information recognition device according to any one of claims 1 to 5. Two different item character strings corresponding to the article information of two different attributes are displayed at different positions on the information display surface of the article,
The article information recognition unit is configured to be able to detect each of two different item character strings in the item character string detection process, and one of the two item character strings different in the item character string detection process. When only the item character string is detected and two content character strings are extracted in the display scheduled area for the one item character string, one content character string of the two extracted content character strings Is recognized as article information corresponding to one item character string, the other content character string of the two extracted content character strings corresponds to the other item character string of the two different item character strings. The article information recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the article information recognition apparatus is configured to recognize the article information to be recognized.

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