JPH05334488A - Method and device for processing code - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable both of a human and a machine to read out a code by mixing code information indicating the meaning of a code to be read out by the human and its attribute information immediately when necessary in the area of the code concerned or its vicinity. CONSTITUTION:Figure (b) shows an expanded crosssectional drawing obtained by cutting A 10 in a new code HUMARS in the arrow direction. A black powdery layer 13 applied to the surface of paper 12 shows the meaning and attribute information of the HUMARS by deforming the surface layer into the ruggeness of small dots based upon a binary code. Where (p) is a pitch between the small dots. The layer 13 is printed out by a laser beam printer based upon a xerography method and a human can not detect the ruggedness of the small dots and does not care a bit. The small dot ruggedness of the printed HUMARS is read out by an optical scanner. An information processor connected to the scanner can recognize the A in the HUMARS as a code A based upon an output signal from the scanner.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a symbol processing method and a symbol processing device using a symbol which can be read by both humans and machines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Humans, when identifying objects and transmitting their thoughts to others, write so-called symbols such as various letters and marks on the surface of paper or articles to communicate with each other, We have sought to streamline the distribution of goods, money, and information. However, the method in which a machine reads these human-readable symbols is extremely inaccurate, which significantly impedes the transmission of goods and information.

For example, an optical character reader (hereinafter referred to as O
CR) reading accuracy depends on specific characters (eg English only)
Even if limited to fonts and fonts, usually 98% is the current technical level. Therefore, when inputting 100 characters into the machine, 2
Since the characters are erroneous, there has been a problem that a human has to input the erroneous characters on the keyboard instead of the machine. Alternatively, the applicable range is extremely limited so that the character type and font to be read are limited to ZIP code numbers and the like. Furthermore, reading symbols other than letters (for example, geometric symbols such as circles and lines) was almost hopeless.

On the other hand, when a bar code or the like is printed on an article and the information associated with the article is read by a machine, the reading accuracy is very good and efficient. However, the surface of the article
Significantly polluted by humans, meaningless and unaesthetic.
Further, the bar code information printed on the item may be the type of item, the release date, the
Limited to extremely simple items such as fixed price, complicated information processing is impossible. The same applies to the case of code information magnetically printed on a ticket for a vehicle.

[0005]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention drastically overcomes the above-mentioned drawbacks in human-to-human communication and in transmitting information associated with an article through a symbol entry such as a printed matter. The aim is to provide methods and means to overcome.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of using a symbol readable by both humans and machines, and further, a device for printing the special symbol, an object to be printed, and a reader for the same. An object of the present invention is to provide a symbol processing device including

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention corresponds to the above-mentioned symbols in the human-readable symbol area or in the vicinity of the symbol, and has the meaning of the above-mentioned symbols. And, if necessary, code information indicating the attribute information is mixed in a physical shape different from the physical shape of the human-readable symbol described above (hereinafter referred to as Human Symbol).
-Machine Readable Symbolic, HUMARS for short) is a symbol processing method that enables both humans and machines to read.

Further, the present invention recognizes the device for printing the HUMARS physical shape, the printed matter on which the HUMARS physical shape is printed, the HUMARS physical shape, and processes the information contained in the HUMARS. The information processing apparatus is a symbol processing apparatus composed of one or a combination of two or more.

[0009]

According to the present invention, code information that corresponds to the above-mentioned symbols in a ratio of 1: 1 and indicates the meaning of the above-mentioned symbols and, if necessary, their attribute information is provided in or near the human-readable symbol area. HUMARS, a new symbol that is mixed with a physical shape different from the physical shape of the human-readable symbol
The use of makes both human and machine readable.

[0010]

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example in which human-readable symbols are printed on paper by a laser beam printer.

In the figure, 1 is a capital letter "A" of the alphabet, 2 is a Chinese numeral representing the number "3", 3 is a circle having a certain radius, and 4 is a line representing a certain length. 5 is a paper on which these symbols are printed.

When such a character or symbol is read by a conventional optical character reader (hereinafter referred to as OCR), the reading accuracy is 99% or more because it is necessary to distinguish it from other characters. It is well known that things are extremely difficult. In addition, when geometric symbols such as circles and lines are mixed with characters, it is very difficult to read the circles and lines, and detecting the radius of the circles and the width of the lines is also practical in terms of the reading speed. It's extremely difficult.

The same applies to a magnetic reading device (hereinafter referred to as OMR) instead of an optical reading device.

This is because the two-dimensional shape pattern of the symbol is recognized by various pattern recognition methods as a reading method. Since the current pattern recognition method is immature, the recognition accuracy cannot be improved.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged dimensional diagram of the alphabet "A" printed by the laser beam printer. The character width is 3 mm, the character width is 3 mm, and the line width is 0.5 mm. In this case, the letter "A" has a physical shape made of black powder having an area of a shape that looks black according to the above dimensions and a substantially uniform thickness.

Tables 1 to 4 are examples of code tables showing the meanings of the symbols "A", "three", "circle", and "line" shown in FIG. 3 and their attribute information.

[0017]

[Table 1]

[0018]

[Table 2]

[0019]

[Table 3]

[0020]

[Table 4]

In the case of Japan, the ID code (character code) of the symbols "A" and "3" is a binary code defined by JIS. However, other codes are not defined by public institutions. Therefore, the appropriate code must be newly defined. For example, the typeface code of the symbol "A" distinguishes normal type, gothic type, italic type, etc., and the typeface code of the symbol "three" distinguishes Mincho type, Gothic type, text typeface, antic type, etc. .. The symbol type codes for the symbol "circle" and the symbol "line" are solid circles,
Distinguish solid lines, dotted circles, dotted lines, chained circles, chained lines, etc. Further, the size of each symbol and the position information within the page on which the symbol is printed are also encoded.

FIG. 1 (a) is an enlarged plan view showing an example of the physical shape of the symbol "A" of one embodiment of the new symbol HUMARS readable by both humans and machines according to the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a symbol "A" printed on paper. 11 is
The code information portion is formed in the area of the symbol "A" 10.

FIG. 1 (b) is an enlarged sectional view of the HUMARS "A" 10 taken in the direction of the arrow. In the figure,
12 is a paper, 13 is a black powder layer applied on the paper 12, and the black powder layer 13 is (Table 1) to (Table 4).
The surface layer (thickness d
Has) is deformed by the irregularities of small circles. Here, p is the distance (pitch) between the small circles.

The black powder layer 13 is printed by a laser beam printer using the xerographic method. The printing accuracy of the current laser beam printer is 600dpi for high-performance printers and 300dpi for normal printers.
Is. Therefore, the ability to form the above small circle irregularities is about 1 within 1 mm.
2 to 24 dots, diameter 42μ to 84μ (same as pitch p). Since humans usually have a pitch-discriminating ability of about 40μ, even if a human normally sees without enlarging the HUMAR S "A" as shown in Fig. 1 (a), he or she will not be able to see the small circle irregularities and it will not bother Small enough.

When the HUMARS printed on such paper is read by an optical scanner, the reading accuracy required for the optical scanner is about 400 dpi to 800 dpi.
Therefore, the small circle irregularities are read by the optical scanner.

Further, the information processing device connected to the optical scanner uses the output signal of the optical scanner, that is, the code information shown in (Table 1) to (Table 4), to calculate the HUMAR
It is possible to recognize "A" as the symbol "A".

In the above embodiment, the physical shape of HUMARS is
Although they are small circles, they may be elliptical or wedge-shaped, and their positions may be non-aligned or randomly arranged.

Further, in the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the physical shape of the code information is the physical shape of the HUMARS embedded in the human readable symbol information, but it is not always embedded inside. No need.

2 (a) and 2 (b) are views showing another example of the shape of the HUMARS "A". In the figure, 16 indicates symbol information having a human-readable physical shape, and 14,
Reference numeral 15 represents code information having a physical shape that can be read by a machine. The code information 14 of FIG. 2A is formed in the background portion of the symbol information 16, and for example, the symbol information 1
It is possible to make it readable only by a machine and not readable by humans by forming it with an extremely low density as compared with 6. The code information 15 of FIG. 2B shows an example formed in the vicinity of the area of the symbol information 16.

In both the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 and the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the positions of both physical shapes of a human-readable symbol and a machine-readable symbol (code) are close in location. That is the first feature of the present invention, and the second feature is that both symbols have a 1: 1 correspondence.

These features make it possible to read and recognize symbols simultaneously with the same read head.

The third feature of the present invention is that the human-readable symbols and the machine-readable symbols have different physical shapes. The embodiment of FIG. 1 is an example in which the black powder shape is different, but there are other means for forming different physical shapes. For example, it is possible to use light reflectance, hue, a combination of light and magnetism, a combination of heat and magnetism, and the like.

Next, as a fourth feature of the present invention, as shown in (Table 1) to (Table 4), the code information includes not only the meaning of the symbol itself but also the attribute information such as the typeface, size and position. To have.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the communication processing device according to the present invention. This embodiment has a function equivalent to that of a facsimile. In the figure, 2
1 is a paper on which symbol information to be transmitted is printed by HUMARS, 22 is a reading head for reading HUMARS, 23 is a reading device connected to the reading head 22, and a recognition device for recognizing HUMARS and converting it into corresponding code information, 26 is recognition A transmission device connected to the device 23 and transmitting the code information, 27 is a transmission device (whether wired or wireless) connected to the transmission device 26, and 28 is connected to the transmission device 27 to receive the code information. It is a receiving device. A printer device 24 is connected to the receiving device 28 and converts the code information into a HUMARS bitmap pattern or symbol information bitmap pattern and prints the pattern. 25 is a paper on which the pattern is printed.

Conventionally, when sending and receiving a document such as paper 21 in which characters and geometric figures are mixed, it is necessary to send and receive bit map information of about 0.5 to 1 Mb for one page.

According to the present invention having the above first to fourth characteristics, the document information for one page can be transmitted / received with a small amount of information of 50 k to 100 Kb. Therefore, the transmission / reception speed becomes about 10 times, and it is possible to construct a very high-speed communication device.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the information edit processing device according to the present invention. In the figure, 2
1, 22, 23, 24 and 25 are equivalent to those shown in FIG. Reference numeral 29 is a layout editing device for editing the layout of characters, geometric symbols, etc. using the HUMARS code information. 30 is this layout editing device 29
Connected between the display device 31 and the display device 31,
This is a display drive device for converting S information into display information (normally bitmap information) for display on the display device 31 and displaying it.

According to the information editing apparatus having the above-mentioned first to fourth characteristics of the present invention, the document information is edited at a low bit of about 50 Kb per page in the layout editing apparatus, so that it is processed at very high speed. be able to. Furthermore, by utilizing the fourth feature of the present invention, it becomes possible to freely edit the input document information such as enlargement, reduction, transformation, position conversion, etc. at high speed.

For example, when constructing a device for organizing business cards, a large number of business cards printed by HUMARs are read,
It is possible to easily create a new name list table in which names are arranged in the first column and addresses are arranged in the second column.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the information filing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numerals 21, 22, 23, 30, and 31 are equivalent to those shown in FIG. 32 is connected between the HUMARS recognition device 23 and the display drive device 30, and the recognition device 2
The filing device stores the HUMAR S code information recognized by the No. 3 and retrieves the stored code information and outputs it to the display driving device 30.

By utilizing the above-mentioned first to fourth characteristics of the present invention, information can be recorded, updated and retrieved at extremely high speed. Further, by utilizing the fourth feature, information can be recorded, updated and retrieved according to the attribute of the information.

Further, although FIGS. 5 to 7 show the embodiments of the communication processing device, the information editing processing device, and the information filing device, other information processing devices or other machines are connected to realize the features of the present invention. It is also possible to configure another system used.

For example, the TV program table printed by HUMARs can be read by the HUMARS reading head 22 and the contents of the TV program can be decoded by the HUMARS recognition device 23. Therefore, if a video recording device is connected to the HUMARS recognition device, it is extremely easy for humans to record while watching the TV program guide.

HUMARS recognition device 23 in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 8, the pattern recognition unit 33 that recognizes the pattern shape of the HUMARS and the code recognition unit 34 that recognizes the code information shape may be connected in parallel, and the connection unit 35 may be provided. In this case, the code information recognition unit 3
It goes without saying that the recognition accuracy is improved as compared with the configuration of only No. 4.

[0045]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, according to the present invention, in the human readable area of the symbol or in the vicinity of the symbol, the symbol is 1:
Uses the new symbol HUMARS, which corresponds to 1 and mixes the code information indicating the meaning of the above-mentioned symbol and, if necessary, its attribute information in a physical shape different from the physical shape of the human-readable symbol. This makes it possible to provide a symbol processing method that can be read by both humans and machines.

Further, by using the new symbol HUMARS, it becomes possible to transmit even a document having a mixture of characters and geometrical figures with a small amount of information, and a very high-speed communication device and input / output document information can be enlarged / reduced. It is possible to realize an information editing device capable of freely editing deformation, position conversion and the like at high speed, an information filing device capable of recording, updating and searching information at an extremely high speed.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A is an enlarged plan view showing an embodiment of a physical shape of a new symbol readable by both humans and machines used in the present invention, and FIG. 1B is an arrow of FIG. 1A. Enlarged sectional view cut from the direction

2 (a) is an enlarged plan view showing another embodiment of the physical shape of a new symbol readable by both humans and machines used in the present invention. FIG. 2 (b) is used in the present invention. Enlarged plan view showing still another embodiment of the physical shape of the new symbol readable by both humans and machines

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example in which a human-readable symbol is printed on paper by a laser beam printer.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged dimensional diagram of the alphabet “A” printed by a laser beam printer.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a communication processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an information edit processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an information filing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the HUMARS recognition device 23 in FIGS.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 symbol 11 code information part 12 paper 13 black powder layer 14, 15 code information 16 symbol information

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Code information which corresponds to the above-mentioned symbol in a one-to-one relationship with the human-readable symbol region and which shows the meaning of the symbol and, if necessary, its attribute information is provided to the human. A new symbol that is mixed with a physical shape different from that of a human-readable symbol (hereinafter Human-M
achine Readable Symbolic, abbreviated as HUMARS), is a symbol processing method that makes both humans and machines readable. 2. A device for printing a HUMARS physical shape according to claim 1, an object to be printed on which the HUMARS physical shape is printed, and the HUMARS physical shape being recognized to process information contained in the HUMARS. Symbol processing device which consists of one or a combination of two or more.