JPH0217590A - Optical character reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To recognize and process various character forms with one device by constituting a dictionary of a replacable memory card. CONSTITUTION:A document 7 is irradiated with a light source 3, and the image of the reflected light is formed on an image sensor 5 by a lens system 4. The output signal of the image sensor 5 is amplified by an amplifying circuit 6. A recognition processing unit 2 has a binarizing circuit 8 and a discriminating circuit 9, and a dictionary 10 for character discrimination attaches to the discriminating circuit 9. The dictionary 10 consists of a memory card like an IC card or an optical card, and the dictionary 10 is electrically or optically coupled to the discriminating circuit 9 when being inserted to the insertion hole of the recognition processing unit 2. Plural dictionaries 10 are preliminarily prepared in accordance with character forms of characters on the document.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is capable of scanning characters, symbols, etc. (hereinafter, only characters will be described as a representative, but symbols can also be detected) by scanning a document with a hand-held scanner. The present invention relates to an optical character reading device that reads characters (which are exactly the same).

[Conventional technology]

Generally, an optical character reading device irradiates light onto characters written on a document, forms an image of the reflected light on an image sensor, converts the output signal of the image sensor into an A/D converter, and converts the output signal of the image sensor into an A/D converter.
Characters are recognized by comparing the converted signal with a dictionary attached to the identification processing means. This dictionary contains I
C memory etc. are used.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Conventionally, a memory whose storage contents are fixed, such as an IC memory, has been used as a dictionary for the identification processing means, so there have been certain limitations on the shape and number of characters that can be identified.

However, in recent years, a wide variety of printers have come on the market due to the incompatibility of computers, word processors, etc., and in order to read the characters printed by these printers with an optical character reader,
It was necessary to prepare devices for each type of glyph.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to enable recognition and processing of various glyph shapes with a single device.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises the above-mentioned dictionary using a replaceable memory card.

[Effect]

Prepare multiple dictionaries made up of memory cards in advance, load the memory cards into predetermined positions according to the glyph shapes of the characters in the document, and read the glyphs in the range that is not stored in the memory. Exchange.

〔Example〕

An optical character reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and includes a hand scanner 1 and a recognition processing unit 2. As shown in FIG. The hand scanner 1 includes a light source 3, a lens system 4, an image scanner 5, and an amplifier circuit 6. A document 7 is irradiated by a light source 3, and the reflected light is imaged onto an image sensor 5 by a lens system 4. Image sensor 5
The output signal of is amplified in the amplifier circuit 6.

The recognition processing unit 2 has a binarization circuit 8 and an identification circuit 9, and the recognition circuit 9 is attached with a dictionary 10 for character identification. The dictionary 10 is made up of a memory card such as an IC card or an optical card, and is electrically or optically coupled to the identification circuit S by being inserted into the insertion port 11 of the identification processing unit 2.

Dictionary 10 is the original lfS? Multiple sheets are prepared in advance depending on the shape of the characters.

The signal output from the amplifier circuit 6 of the hand scanner 1 is
The signal is input to the binarization circuit 8 of the identification processing unit 2, where the analog signal 18 is converted into a binary digital signal. The binarized signal is input to the identification circuit 9.

In the identification circuit 9, characters are identified by comparison with the dictionary 10 described above.

The output of the identification circuit 9 is input to a required computer.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention allows a dictionary to be exchanged as appropriate depending on the shape of characters on a document, so a single optical character reading device reads a wide variety of character shapes or symbols, and processes them for identification. can do.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment, and FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the same. 1...Hand scanner, 2...Identification processing unit, 10...Dictionary, 11...
...Inlet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Optical character reading that has an image scanner and a means for identifying characters, etc., and recognizes the characters by comparing the characters, etc. in the image captured by the image scanner with a dictionary attached to the means for identifying characters. An optical character reading device, characterized in that the dictionary described above is configured by an exchangeable memory card.