JPH0416829B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a form in which information is recorded using symbols.

Office forms display numerical information that can be read visually; for example, checks display various types of information numerically along the lower edge, which can be read by machines. This numerical information includes various information such as bank, dealer, account number, etc., and is displayed in so-called computer characters, that is, modified Arabic numerals.

It is possible to read this numerical information using various principles, but currently optical readers, or OCR, or magnetic readers, or
MICR is common.

However, these optical and magnetic reading devices are quite complex and therefore quite expensive. This is due to the structure of computer characters, and as a result, reading devices have become complex and expensive. In other words, the shape of so-called computer numerals has to be observed in its entirety and compared with pre-stored digit shape information to determine what kind of digits have been read, which has led to the complexity of the apparatus.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and the number structure is made into a rectangular shape mainly consisting of vertical bars and horizontal bars, and at least a part of the vertical bar is directed above, below, left, and right of the number. 2 determined for each
belonging to at least one of the positions, and some of the vertical bars constitute a number that can be read by a mark reading method by arranging a plurality of vertical bars in parallel;
A form is provided that displays these numbers so that they can be read by scanning them in the left and right direction.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows numbers and some symbols in the form of the present invention. This number is the first
They have a shape that can be visually recognized in the same way as ordinary numbers, and they are less strange to the naked eye than computer numerals that are generally used on checks and the like. Second, the structure is centered around vertical bars to facilitate machine reading, particularly by a mark reading method. The reason why the vertical bar is the center is because it is a suitable configuration for reading the numbers by scanning them in the horizontal direction, for example, from the right end to the left end of the numbers.
These vertical bars are arranged so that they appear in four positions on the upper and lower halves at the right and left ends of each number, and especially on the right side, there are always two parallel bars on at least one of the upper and left halves. It is configured so that a vertical bar appears. Then, horizontal bars are combined with these vertical bars, and the joints between the vertical bars and horizontal bars are rounded, and other minimal shape modifications are made to make it useful for visually checking the numbers. ing.

Figure 2 a and b are the numbers "6" shown in Figure 1.
This example shows how to read numbers. When looking at each number, not just ``6'', the number of vertical bars that should appear is a maximum of eight at the top, two at the left and right ends of the bottom half of the number, respectively.
Therefore, the vertical bars that should appear in the upper half are U ₁₁ , U ₁₂ ,
Let U ₂₁ and U ₂₂ be the vertical bar that should appear in the lower half.
Let L ₁₁ , L ₁₂ , L ₂₁ , and L ₂₂ .

Then, as shown in figure a, above the number "6",
When scanning the hatched areas in the direction of the arrows in each lower half, there is one vertical bar U ₂₂ for the upper half, one vertical bar L ₁₁ for the lower half,
Three, L ₁₂ and L ₂₂ , are detected. If only this vertical bar is taken out and shown, it will be as shown in FIG. And, although it does not appear in the case of "6", it appears in the upper half of the dashed line as a vertical bar that appears in the case of other numbers.
There are U ₁₁ , U ₁₂ and U ₂₁ , and L ₂₁ in the lower half. Each of these vertical bars has a predetermined position in which it should appear relative to each other, and when scanning numbers, it is a tongue that does not appear in any other position. When a vertical bar appears at an unexpected position, it means that a blemish point other than numbers has been detected.

FIG. 3 shows detection signals when reading as shown in FIG. 2, and shows the relationship of each detection signal with respect to the time axis. in this case,
The scanning direction in Figure 2 is from right to left, while the time axis is from left to right.
The position of each signal on the diagram is exactly opposite to that in FIG.

Here, each signal appears at a predetermined position relative to each other, and the relationship between L ₁₁ and L ₁₂ has a particularly important meaning. That is, the signal L ₁₁ and
The time difference t with _L12 is in a predetermined multiple relationship with the time width T from the first vertical bar to the fourth vertical bar among the four vertical bars that should appear in each of the upper and lower halves of the number. Therefore, if the first and second vertical bars L ₁₁ and L ₁₂ are detected and the time difference t between them is known, the time width T from the first vertical bar L ₁₁ to the fourth vertical bar L ₂₂ can also be determined by oneself. Ru. However, this requires that the scanning speed for an entire number be substantially constant. In the present invention, it is also considered that scanning is performed by moving a form such as a check by hand, and there may be doubts as to whether constant speed scanning can be ensured in this case. It can be easily understood that sufficient constant speed can be obtained if the form is moved only by the amount of time the document is moved.

Then, by ignoring the vertical bars that appear outside the time width T from the first bar L ₁₁ to the fourth bar L ₂₂ determined from the time difference t between _the first bar L ₁₁ and the second bar L 12. It is possible to avoid mistakenly detecting a combination of a number and a blemish point as another number. Also, if scanning starts from the center of the numbers for some reason, the third and fourth vertical bars L ₂₁ and L ₂₂ (U ₂₁ , U ₂₂ ) are detected first, and the adjacent ones within the time width T starting from this are detected first. It will detect some of the numbers that match. Regarding this, invalidity is determined based on, for example, the time between signals.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of an apparatus for reading recorded information on a form according to the present invention. In the same figure, the sensors S _U and S _L are connected to the signals U ₁₁ , U ₁₂ , U ₂₁ , U ₂₂ and L ₁₁ , L ₁₂ , respectively in FIG.
It detects L ₂₁ and L ₂₂ , and its detection output is sent to the waveform shaping circuit via amplifiers AMP _U and AMP _L , respectively.
It is applied to WF _U and W _L and converted into a rectangular pulse signal. The detection method of the sensor may be selected as appropriate, such as an optical type, a magnetic type that detects magnetic components in printing ink, or a method suitable for embossed numbers if they are printed.

The outputs of the waveform shaping circuits _WUF , _WFL are given to the pulse phase detection circuits _PDU , _PDL , and also to the reference pulse detector DET. Among these, the reference pulse detector DET detects the rising edge of the output of one of the waveform shaping circuits and supplies it to the pulse phase detection circuits P _U and P _L , and then outputs the output to the first bar.
Time width T from first bar U ₁₁ (or L ₁₁ ) to fourth bar U ₂₂ (or L ₂₂ ) based on time difference t between U ₁₁ (or L ₁₁ ) and second bar U ₁₂ (or L ₁₂ ) is calculated and given to address counter AC. The address counter AC is a clock generator based on the time width signal T.
When a predetermined number of clock pulses from CLK are counted, the data in the data storage units _MEMU and _MEML is transmitted to the data decoding analyzer ANL, and when several clock pulses are counted, various circuits are reset.

Returning to the pulse phase detection circuits PD _U and PD _L , these detection circuits are reference pulse detectors.
When the rising edge detection signal from DET is given, the pulse phase is detected by comparing the bar detection signal given from the waveform shaping circuits _WFU and _WFL with the clock pulse, and the pulse phase is detected by the data storage _MEMU ,
Give to MEM _L. These data stores MEM _U ,
Each output of _MEML is given to the data decoding analyzer ANL when a command is given from the address counter AC. The data decoding analyzer ANL has a preset matrix, and when a reset signal is given from the address counter AC, it decodes and analyzes data according to the matrix and sends out an output. This output may contain any of the numbers 0-9 or other symbols.

When the reading of one number or symbol is completed, the address counter AC is activated based on the time width signal T.
is the pulse phase detection circuit PD _U , PD _L , data storage
The number reading operation is completed by resetting _MEMU , _MEML , reference pulse detector DET, and own circuit AC, and outputting the data decoding analyzer ANL. The mode is then initialized for the next digit reading.

FIG. 5 shows the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 4 as a flowchart. That is, the U and L pulses are sampled by the start,
No further reading is performed unless there are two U or L pulses. If there are two of these, storage of address count, storage of pulse data, and activation of the address counter are performed sequentially for each. When the address count reaches a predetermined number, in this case "8", the stored U and L data are sampled, and when the address count increases several more and reaches, for example, "11", the data is analyzed, and then the mode is initialized.

FIG. 6 shows another example of numbers that can be used to record information in the form of the present invention, in which dots are used in place of the second vertical bar in FIG. It is possible to read using the mark reading method without impairing character recognition.

In the embodiment described above, marks are read by scanning one location in each of the upper and lower halves of the number, but the number of locations to be scanned may be further increased. You can also change the shape of the numbers as appropriate. 6th
The numbers in the figure are an example. Further, modifications may be made such as using another second vertical bar in addition to the second vertical bar used together with the first vertical bar for reference pulse detection. In short, it includes those in which a reference pulse is formed by detecting a plurality of vertical bars.

The forms used in the above embodiments include checks, bills, securities, credit cards, etc. as carriers of numerical information, as well as product labels.
Furthermore, a bar includes a collection of minute dots printed by a dot printer.

As described above, the present invention makes the numbers for information display suitable for the mark reading method, and also allows a part of the numbers to be read as a mark.
It is possible to provide a form in which numerical information can be read using a simpler principle than conventional forms in which reading is performed based on the overall shape of the numbers. Further, as a result, reading can be performed using a reading device with a simple configuration.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the shapes of numbers used in the form of the present invention, Figures 2a and b are explanatory diagrams showing how to read the numbers in the form of the present invention, taking "6" as an example, and Figure 3. 2 is a time chart showing the signals obtained by the reading method shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the device for reading the form according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is the operation of the circuit shown in FIG. 4. An explanatory flowchart, FIG. 6, is an explanatory diagram showing other examples of shapes such as numbers that can be used in the form of the present invention. U... Vertical bar on the top half of the number, L... Vertical bar on the bottom half of the number.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Replace each component part of an Arabic numeral with a vertical bar and a horizontal bar to create a numeral with a roughly rectangular outline, set four positions where the vertical bars should be placed above, below, left and right of this rectangular outline numeral, and set each The numbers have a vertical bar arranged in at least one position in each of the vertical and horizontal directions among these four positions, and at least one vertical bar in the two positions on the right side is a plurality of bars or dots at a predetermined distance from each other. A form in which information is recorded using composed numbers and symbols using the vertical bars.