JPH03222072A - Business card management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To manage business cards by providing a character code string deciding means and a character processing means and automatically inputting reading KANA (Japanese syllabary) of the name. CONSTITUTION:A guide is displayed on a CRT by the starting of this system, and a user sets a business card on a character recognition device 4 and presses a key 5. A recorded name and other character codes recognized according to prescribed procedure are stored in a RAM 5 in a prescribed order. When reading the back side, the back side is set, a character Y key is pressed, and when it is not necessary to read the back side, a character N key is pressed. When the picture reading and the character recognition are ended, it is temporarily stored in a work area of the RAM 3, and the character code which is the object of identification is compared with a prescribed English character code. When there is an affirmative decision, the recognized English character is read in Roman characters, converted to the KANA character, and temporarily stored in the work area. The information obtained from the surface of the cord and the reading KANA information converted from the English character name of the back face are displayed, and the confirmation of the user is obtained. When the N key is inputted, only the front side is displayed, and there is no reading KANA.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a business card management system that optically reads business cards and creates a management file in a storage device.

[Conventional technology] Conventionally, a business card information management file is created by optically reading the name or company name written on a business card, character-recognizing the read image information, and storing the recognition result in the form of a character code. A business card management system that creates business cards is known.

Business card information for management purposes includes company name, affiliation, position, name, phone number, and fax number. In this system, an operator inputs in advance the reading area of a business card and its information name from a keyboard input device, displays the result of character recognition on a display device, and confirms the contents. Next, after inputting additional information and correction information using the keyboard,
The input information and the corrected read information are registered and stored in the management file.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional system, each time name information is read from a business card, furigana must be input from a keyboard input device as the pronunciation of one name, making the operator's manual input instruction operation complicated. There was a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned points, an object of the present invention is to provide a business card management system that can automatically input the phonetic spelling of a name.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a business card that reads character images written on business cards, performs character recognition, and registers the results in a business card file in the form of character codes. In the management system, there is a determining means for determining whether the character code string subjected to the character recognition is an English character, and when the determination result of the determining means is positive, a The present invention is characterized by comprising a character processing means for reading the character code string in Roman characters as furigana information and converting it into a character code of kana characters. The present invention also provides a business card management system that reads a character image written on a business card, performs character recognition, and registers the character code in a business card file in the form of a character code. The type of the converted character code string is determined in advance for each type, and it is determined whether any of the specific character code strings is included in the character code string obtained as a result of the character recognition. It is characterized by comprising an identification means for identifying.

[Function] The present invention focuses on the fact that names are often written in English characters on the back side of business cards, and when the determination means detects that the result of character recognition is English characters, the name is written on the back side of the business card. It is determined that the name of the English characters on the back side has been read, and the character processing means reads the character code of the English character in Roman characters and converts it into the character code of the kana character. By using this conversion result as the furigana for the name of the important person written on the front side of the business card, it becomes possible to automatically input the furigana manually, which was required in the past. In addition, the identification means detects that there is specific information indicating the company name in a business card, such as °゛ Corporation゛, among the character recognition results, and identifies the type of character recognition result. , the user does not need to manually input the type of image information to be read as in the past.

[Embodiment 1] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 100 is a character recognition means that reads character images written on business cards and performs character recognition.

200 is a registration means for registering the result of character recognition in the form of a character code in a business card file.

Reference numeral 300 is a determining means for determining whether the character code string subjected to the character recognition is an English character.

Reference numeral 400 denotes a character processing means which, when the judgment result of the judgment means is affirmative, reads the character code string in Roman letters and converts it into a character code of kana characters as furigana information for the name written on the business card. The character code of the kana character converted by the character processing means is registered in the business card file by the registration means 200.

Further, a specific character code string indicating the type of business card information is predetermined for each type, and any of the specific character code strings is included in the character code string obtained as a result of the character recognition. The identification result of the identification means 500, which identifies the type of the converted character code string by determining whether or not the character code string has been converted, is also registered in the business card file by the registration means 200.

FIG. 2 shows a specific circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In Figure 2, l is the central processing unit (CPU)
, 2 is a read-only memory (ROM) in which a program for realizing the present invention is stored.

3 is a random access memory (RAM) used for temporary storage of data processed by the CPU l.

4 reads the character image from the business card and performs character recognition,
This is a character recognition device that outputs reading results in the form of character codes. 5 is a keyboard input device for instructing the CPU 1 to operate, and 6 is a CRT display device for displaying input/output information for the CPU 1.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a storage device for storing information read from business cards in correspondence with the type thereof, and a floppy disk storage device is used. The above-mentioned components are commonly connected to the bus 8,
Information is transmitted according to instructions from the CPU 1.

The operation of this circuit will be explained below according to the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 6 shows the operating procedure of a program implementing the present invention, which is executed by the CPU 1.

First, when you start the system, the guidance shown in Figure 3 is C.
It is displayed on the RT display device 6. The user sets the business card in a predetermined position for image reading by the character recognition device 4,
When the start key of the keyboard input device 5 is pressed, the control program shown in FIG. 6 is started.

In step Sl, the character recognition device 4 is activated by an instruction from the CPU l to read the image of the business card, and in step S2, the character recognition device (character recognition means) 4 performs character recognition according to the control procedure shown in FIG. The character codes for the given name, company address, affiliation, telephone number, and fax number are temporarily stored in the work area of the RAM 3.

Next, in step S3, the guidance shown in FIG. 3 is displayed. Here, when the user wants to read the back side of the business card, after setting the business card with the back side in the character recognition device 4,
is input from the keyboard input device 5. If you do not want to read the back side of a business card, enter the characters rNJ. letter r
Input YJ to send instructions to the CPU to read the back side of the business card.
1, the procedure moves from step s4 to step s5.

The CPU 1 starts up the character recognition device 4 again and reads the image on the back side of the business card. If the device can only read one side of the card, all you have to do is turn the business card over, insert it, and press the start key.

After reading the image and character recognition,
Go to step S6, detect the name in Roman letters, and read the character code of the name received from the character recognition device 4.
Temporarily store in the work area of M3. When using character codes such as the Japanese Industrial Standards, the English character codes are grouped into a predetermined range, so you can determine whether the character code is an English character by comparing the character code to be identified and the specified range. This is done by comparing with the alphabetic character code range.

If a positive judgment is obtained in this determination, the document processing device performs the same process as accepting Roman character input, reads the recognized English characters in Roman characters, and converts them into hiragana or katakana kana characters. Convert and temporarily store in the work area. At this time, the CPU 1 operates as the determination means 1 character processing means.

Next, the procedure advances to step S7, where the information obtained from the front side of the business card and the phonetic information converted from the English name on the back side of the business card are displayed as shown in FIG. 5, and the user's confirmation is obtained. Furigana information should be displayed above the name.

In step S4, if the user inputs the letter "N", the procedure advances to step S7, and only the information on the front side of the business card is displayed. In this case, the display shown in FIG. 5 will be a display without furigana for the name.

After checking the read information on the display screen in step S7, if it is necessary to store this business card information, the user inputs the characters rYJ.

If it is not necessary to memorize the business card information, the characters rNJ can be input manually. If the characters rYJ are input, the process goes to step S9;
The information stored in the work area is registered in a business card file stored in the form of a database in the external storage device 7. At this time, CPU 1 operates as a registration means. When the character rNJ is input, this control procedure ends.

As explained above, in this embodiment, since the English name written on the back side of the business card is automatically converted into kana characters, the user can input the furikana for the name from the keyboard input device 5 as in the conventional case. (This simplifies the user's input operations.)

Next, the operation of identifying the type of read information in the circuit of FIG. 1 in the second embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The control procedure shown in FIG. 9 is executed by the character recognition device 4.

In FIG. 9, in step 52-1, an image is read from the business card as shown in FIG. 7 and temporarily stored in the internal RAM. Next, in step 52-2, blank areas of the business card are detected in the read image as shown in FIG. 8, and the image is divided into a plurality of blocks.

In step 52-3, character recognition of the image is performed for each block. The types of information in steps 52-4 to 52-7 are identified for the character recognition results, and the recognition results are outputted to G:PtlI for each type and registered as files.

For example, in step 52-5, it is determined whether or not the kanji character code string °゛ Corporation °゛ is present in the recognition results (character code strings) for block a in Fig. 6. Since a positive determination is obtained, the recognition result of the characters in block a is determined to be a company name. Next, in the business card file in the external storage device 7, there is a block a in the company name field.
The recognition results are registered.

Regarding the name, it is determined whether or not there is a first and last name registered in a personal name dictionary provided in the internal memory. For telephone numbers, check whether the character code string ``location'' or °°telephone is present.For fax numbers, check whether the character code string ``FAX'' is present.For locations, check the character code string ``location'' or ``°°address''.
, check the presence or absence of "Tokyo 11, I + Prefecture". Subsequently, in the same manner, the recognition results of the character images in the areas c and d are also classified by the type identification process from step s2 to step 52-7.

In rare cases where the type cannot be determined, step 52-
By inputting the item 8, the information is registered as a file in the item for unidentifiable information. When such business card information identification processing is performed and the end of the data is detected in step S2-10, the company name, name, telephone number, fax number, and location are read from one business card.
Files will be automatically registered for each item. Therefore, at this time, the CPU 1 operates as an identification means.

In the second embodiment of the present invention, a business card is divided into a plurality of blocks, character recognition is performed for each block, and characteristic character strings included in the character string are detected. For this reason, for example, by automatically determining whether a character string is a name or a company name and storing it in a database, operators no longer need to separate the results of reading business cards each time. This has the effect of simplifying business card management.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the first embodiment of the present invention, by reading the English (Roman alphabet) name printed on the back side of the business card, the furigana of the name can be automatically added, simplifying the operation. .

Further, in the second embodiment of the present invention, since the type of character image that has been read and character-recognized can be automatically identified, the operator's instruction operation can be simplified and the processing time can also be shortened.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 shows a screen display of guidance for starting operation of the embodiment of the present invention. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the display of the guidance screen for reading the back side of a business card according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of the recognition information confirmation screen according to the embodiment of the present invention. is a flowchart showing the processing procedure for inputting furigana information according to the embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 7 and 8 are explanatory diagrams showing the contents and positions of business card information according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is an illustration of the present invention 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for identifying business card information according to an embodiment. 1...CPU, 2...ROM in which the program is stored3...RAM
. 4...Character recognition device, 5...Keyboard input device, 6...Display device, 7...External storage device, 8...System bus. Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) In a business card management system that reads a character image written on a business card, performs character recognition, and registers the character image in the form of a character code in a business card file, the character code string after the character recognition is a determination means for determining whether or not the character is an English character; and when the determination result of the determination means is affirmative, the character code string is read in Roman characters as furikana information for the name written on the business card, and a kana character is read. A business card management system characterized by comprising a character processing means for converting into a character code. 2) In a business card management system that reads character images written on business cards, performs character recognition, and registers them in the business card file in the form of character codes, a specific character code string indicating the type of business card information is pre-programmed for each type. and identifying the type of the converted character code string by determining whether any of the specific character code strings is included in the character code string obtained as a result of the character recognition. A business card management system characterized by having a means.