JPH01161588A - Character recognizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To store a slip which is turned 90 deg. counterclockwise in a page buffer after turning the slip 90 deg. clockwise by simultaneously performing readout and writing of image data in parallel with each other by using two line buffers. CONSTITUTION:When the image inputted to a scanner section 1 is not turned counterclockwise, switches SW1 and SW2 are respectively connected with contacts E and F and the image data are transferred to an S/P converting section 4. On the other hand, when the image is inputted in a state where it is turned 90 deg. counterclockwise, the switch SW1 is connected with a contact A and the image data are transferred to a line buffer 2a. When the image data are stored in the buffer 2a by the quantity of eight lines, the switch SW1 is switched to a contact B and the switch SW2 is simultaneously connected to a contact C. The buffer 2a reads out the image data in accordance with the address designated from a line buffer address controlling section LBA3 and transfers the data to a converting section 4. While the image data readout is carried on, the image data are stored in a line buffer 2b by the quantity of eight lines.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an optical character recognition device, and more particularly to a character recognition device that recognizes images of characters written on a form rotated by 90 degrees.

[Conventional technology]

A character recognition method using a conventional optical character recognition device will be explained with reference to FIG.

In the figure, a form 10 has images such as characters (hereinafter referred to as images) written horizontally, and for some reason the image of this form 10 has been rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise (a) as shown in the figure. When the image data is input from a scanner (not shown) in the direction of the arrow, the scanner outputs the image data to a page buffer (not shown) that stores each form. The image data is rotated 90 degrees clockwise every 2 inches (for example, 2 inches lx), transferred to a line buffer (not shown), and then output to the character recognition section.

Figure 5 explains another character recognition method, (a
) As shown in the figure, the image data from the scanner is sampled as a finer mesh unit, and then (b
) As shown in the figure, each mesh is rotated 90 degrees clockwise (for example, tnl, m).

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the conventional device, the image of the form rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and inputted by ti is rotated clockwise for each line and transferred (Figure 4).
A method of rotating and transferring each mesh (Figure 5)
However, in the former case, the image cannot be transferred to the line buffer until it is completely input into the page buffer, so the time until the image is input into the page buffer is longer than the next character recognition section. The disadvantage was that processing could not be performed and efficiency was low. In addition, in the latter method, since image data is sampled and input for each mesh, the sampling time is limited by the access time of the memory used for the page buffer, and the disadvantage is that it takes a long time to load the page buffer. was there.

(Means for solving the problem) The present invention optically inputs an image written on a form,
It has a scanner unit that outputs image data, one input end, and first and second output ends, and the image data from the scanner unit is inputted from the input end, and the first or second output is performed at a predetermined timing. a first switching section that outputs image data by switching to the end;
a first line buffer section that inputs and stores a predetermined number of lines of image data for each address in the case of the output end of the image data;
When the first switching section is switched to the second output terminal, a second line buffer 7 section inputs and stores a predetermined number of lines of image data for each address; an address control unit that specifies an address so that the image data stored in the buffer is rotated by 90 degrees by address operation 5; a first line batza unit; and a second line buffer unit; 1st to connect to. It has a second input terminal, and can be switched to the first or second input terminal at a predetermined timing to connect the first or second line.
It is provided with a buffer section and a second switching section which inputs the image data and outputs it from the output end.

[Effect]

In the present invention, when the first output terminal of the first switching section is switched to the first line buffer section, the second switching section switches the second input terminal to the second line buffer section. Switching, switching of the second output end of the first switching section or the second line 2777
In this case, the second switching section switches the first input end to the first line buffer section while inputting the image data from the scanner to the first line buffer section. outputs the image data from the second line buffer, and while inputting it to the second line buffer, the first
0 [Embodiment] Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be explained using figures. 0 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. .

1 is a scanner unit that optically inputs the image of the form; 2
m, 2b is the image data from scanner section 1 8W1
It is a line buffer that stores a predetermined number of lines (eight lines in this case) by inputting it to either one by switching contacts A and B of SW1. Contact E of SW1 is a line buffer that stores the image from the scanner unit 1, This is for outputting the data without going through the line buffers 2m and 2b. 3 is line buffer 2
4 is a line back address control unit (hereinafter referred to as LBA) that specifies an address so that the image data stored in 2b is rotated 90 degrees clockwise by address operation; Contacts C, D
, F by switching the system scanner section 1. Line back 72m,
A serial/parallel converter (hereinafter referred to as S/P converter) connected to one of the 2b's and performs serial/parallel conversion on the input image data stores 8 meshes of input image data. and then output. This is to improve processing speed. 5 is S/
A page buffer compresses and stores the parallel image data inputted from the P converter 4 into one address every 8 meshes, and 6 is a page back address control that controls the address of the image data in the page buffer 5. (hereinafter referred to as PBA), T is a preprocessing unit that inputs image data from the page buffer 5, cuts out characters, and performs preprocessing such as normalization and thinning; 8 is a preprocessing unit that processes the image data from the page buffer 5; This is a character recognition unit that recognizes the characters that are displayed. Note that 9 is a scan control section.

Next, the operation will be explained. If the image input to the scanner section 1 is not rotated counterclockwise, SWl
is connected to contact E, and at the same time, SW2 is connected to contact F, so that image data from scanner section 1 is directly transferred to S/P conversion section 4. On the other hand, the image rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise.
If the input is made while rotated, SWl is first connected to contact A, and the image data is transferred to line buffer 2, and 8 lines of image data are stored.
Next, SWl switches to contact B, and at the same time SW2 switches to contact C.
connected to. In this state, line buffer 2
a reads out image data according to the address a1 specified from LBA3 and transfers it to the S/P converter 4.

During this time, image data from the scanner section 1 is transferred until 8 lines of image data are stored in the line buffer 2h. After that, when the reading of the image data in the line buffer 2a and the storage in the line buffer 2b are completed, SWI is connected to the contact A again, SW2 is connected to the contact, and the line buffer 21 is connected to the scanner section. Image data from 1 is stored, and line buffer 2b is LBA
The stored image data is read out under the control of S3.
A process of transferring the data to the /P conversion unit 4 is performed. In this process, all images of the form are input from the scanner 1, and SWI and SW2 are switched (SW1=A contact) until the image of the form is inputted to the scanner 1 and stored in the page buffer 5.

5W2=D contact, 5W1=B contact, 5W2-C contact combination).

Next, lineback 72a, LBA3. The operation of page buffer 5 will be explained with reference to FIG. Note that one line has 4096 meshes. (Hata) The figure shows a case where image data from the scanner unit 1 is stored in the 2-in buffer 2a when SWI is the A contact. The image data is stored from left to right (oooo~0FFF(H)) with the upper left of the buffer as the origin (0,0).
From the oldest address, data is written one address at a time from left to right, and finally 8 lines (oooo~
7FFF(H)) image data is stored.

The following K(1)) diagram shows that 8W2 is connected to the C contact, and LBA
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a case in which data is read by address control of No. 3; The line buffer 2a is sent to LBA3 from the bottom left starting from the bottom to the top (ooooo~0007 (river)), and when it reaches the top, it moves one mesh to the left and continues from the bottom to the top for each address. The data in the line buffer 21 is converted 90 degrees clockwise and transferred to the S/P converter 4.The transferred image data is converted into an S/P converter 4.
In the P converter 4, every 8 mesh operations (oooo~00
07゜0008~oooF',..., 7EE8~7F
FF(H)): IF seen.

This image data for every eight meshes is then compressed and stored for each address in the page buffer 5 shown in FIG. 3(e). The storage method is to start from the top right of the buffer and write to the address from top to bottom (0000-OFFF decompression)), and when it reaches the bottom, move one mesh to the left and write the entire image of the form again from top to bottom. Store data.

The state of these is shown in detail in Figure 3. (1) The figure is an image diagram of nine forms that have been input and rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise in the scanner section 1.

Lines lt, lz, and Is of this image are stored in line buffers 2m and 2b in units of 1 mesh and 1 address for each line (4096 meshes), and are read out after being rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise by LBA3. , and is stored in the page buffer 5 via the S/P converter 4. (b) The figure shows the state of the page buffer 5, and line 12.63 in the figure (a) is line 11, it, lsK in the figure (b).
Equivalent to. .

In this way, in this embodiment, there are two line buffs of 72 m.
, 2b are provided, and while image data from the scanner 1 is input to one line buffer 7, the other line buffer rotates the already stored image data 90 degrees clockwise under address control by LBA3. Since it is configured to output image data at all times, image data can be written and read at all times, and a form image rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise can be efficiently rotated 90 degrees clockwise and stored in the page buffer 5. be able to.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, since the reading and writing of p image data are performed simultaneously in parallel using two line buffers, it is possible to read and write p image data in parallel and at the same time. The rotated form image can be rotated 90 degrees clockwise and stored in the page buffer, and data can also be efficiently output to the character recognition unit.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 (
a) I (b) is a diagram showing the address control by LBA 3 when writing and reading image data of the line buffer 2a, respectively, and (C) is a diagram showing the state of writing image data to the page buffer 5. , FIG. 3(a) is a diagram showing a specific example of a form image, FIG. 3(b) is a diagram showing the result of storage in the page buffer, FIG.
Figure ('') t (b) is a schematic diagram showing the conventional method.・Page buffer, 6...Page buffer address control unit (PBA), 7...Preprocessing unit, 8...Character recognition unit, 9@...Scan control unit.Patent applicant NEC Corporation agent Masaki Yamakawa (12 people) Figure 2 (a) (b) (C) +-0 % (-bF≧ 4th (a) ◇ 5th (a) (b) Figure ( b)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A scanner unit that optically inputs an image written on a form and outputs it as image data, one input end, first and second output ends, and a scanner unit that optically inputs an image written on a form and outputs it as image data; Image data is input from the input terminal, and the first
or a first switching unit that outputs image data by switching to a second output terminal; and when the first switching unit switches to the first output terminal, a predetermined number of lines of image data are input for each address and stored; a first line buffer section for inputting and storing image data for a predetermined number of lines for each address when the first switching section is switched to the second output terminal; an address control unit that specifies an address so that the image data stored in the first and second line buffer units is rotated by 90 degrees by address manipulation; - Has first and second input terminals for inputting image data from the buffer section, and switches to the first or second input terminal at a predetermined timing to input image data from the first or second line buffer section. a second switching section that inputs data and outputs it from the output end, and when the first output end of the first switching section is switched to the first line buffer section, the second switching section switches the second input terminal to the second line buffer section, and when the switching of the second output terminal of the first switching section is the second line buffer section, the second switching section switches the second input terminal to the second line buffer section. A character recognition device characterized in that a first input terminal is switched to a first line buffer section.