JPH0757013A - Voting terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To smoothly and speedily cope with misentries of a candidate's name, a party name, etc., in a voting action by obtaining a candidate by combining a number adjacent to a character-recognized candidate number or a number and characters constituting the candidate number, etc., and showing it to a voter. CONSTITUTION:A character recognition part 2c extracts the characters from a coordinate data point string at an indicated position in a character input area, recognizes the characters, and outputs the recognized characters. A display control part 2e displays a screen for advancing a voting process, and characters, symbols, etc., written by the voter on a display device 3. A candidate selection control part 2f retrieves relative candidates and their parties by referring to a candidate data buffer on the basis of the candidate and part specified with the data written by the voter to make the voter select one of the relative candidates. Consequently, voter's handling is easy and voting data can correctly be obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voting terminal device for performing a search using online character recognition.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the election of members of the Diet, prefectural governors, members of the Diet, mayors of municipalities, members of the Diet, etc., postcards that are used as polling place admission tickets are mailed from local governments to voters in accordance with the Public Offices Election Act. , Voters bring the postcards to the polling place, confirm that they are who they are, by checking it against the electoral list, and a check of completion of acceptance is written in the voter list.

After the above-mentioned confirmation, when a ballot sheet is handed over, the name of the candidate is entered on the ballot sheet, and the ballot box is put in the ballot box for voting. After that, the ballot boxes are collected in a facility such as a gymnasium, the balloting work is performed by human tactics, and the voting results are totaled.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional election, the OA of the voting process has not progressed, and the counting work and the counting work are performed manually, so it takes a considerable time to finish the counting. I was spending.

On the other hand, in order to solve these problems, an electronic voting system has been proposed which processes from reception to voting and counting by computer. However, in the voting process in the current electronic voting system, the interface environment between the elector and the computer is not necessarily maintained, and there is a possibility that some people may not be familiar with the voting process.

That is, in the voting process, even if a candidate's name, political party name, etc. are input using a computer with integrated display and input, and the input data is character-recognized by online character recognition, an unspecified number of In some cases, it may not be possible to obtain correct voting data, because it may not be possible to completely recognize the individual handwriting of the above, or there may be an incorrect input due to a mistake in the electoral candidate name or political party name. Had to get the elector to re-enter the candidate and party names. Therefore, the re-input operation may be very troublesome for the elector, and it is necessary to provide an electronic voting system that does not place a heavy burden on the elector.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic voting system capable of smoothly and swiftly responding to entry errors such as a candidate for a candidate or a party name in a voting act carried out by an elector. .

[0008]

According to the present invention, in a voting terminal device that character-recognizes a number or name indicating a candidate written and input by an elector, the number adjacent to the character-recognized candidate number or the candidate number or name. It is characterized in that candidates are obtained by combining the numbers and letters that make up and are presented to electors.

[0009]

When a number or name indicating a candidate is input to the voting terminal device, the characters are recognized online, and (1) an adjacent number is acquired based on the recognition candidate number when the character is recognized, or (2) Obtain a selection number or selection name from a combination of numbers or letters that make up the number or name of the recognition candidate at the time of character recognition, and present these acquired selection candidates to the elector to encourage selection. By doing so, the elector can supplement the erroneous recognition by the character recognition processing and the erroneous recognition by the character recognition process when the candidate number is entered from the list by the elector and the number is entered. It is easy to handle, and the voting data can be obtained accurately.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic voting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a position input device 1 is for inputting and detecting a position designated by an elector. The processing control device 2 is composed of the following elements and controls the voting terminal as a whole. The display device 3 includes, for example, a liquid crystal panel display for displaying various data. The external storage device 4 stores voting data indicating candidates, political parties, etc. selected by the elector.

In the processing control device 2, the input control section 2a controls the position input device 1 in order to detect the coordinate data and the like of the designated position. The area discriminating unit 2b
It is determined which area in each voting process screen the position indicated by the input coordinate data is. The character recognition unit 2c extracts a character from the coordinate data point sequence at the designated position in the character input area, performs character recognition, and outputs the recognized character. The display control unit 2e causes the display device 3 to display a screen for proceeding with the voting process, characters and symbols written by the elector. The candidate selection control unit 2f refers to a candidate data buffer 9 to be described later to search for a related candidate or political party from the candidates or political parties identified from the data written by the elector, and searches from a plurality of related candidates. Let the elector choose one candidate.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the voting terminal device of the present invention. As shown in the figure, a display / input integrated device 6 including a position input device 1 and a display device 3 is arranged on the upper surface of the device body, and a stylus pen 5 is connected to the side surface of the device.

Corresponding to each screen displayed on the display device 3,
As shown in FIG. 3, the area data buffer 7 which defines the area in which the position input device can input an instruction is provided with coordinate data (7a, 7b, 7c, 7c) of start and end points of the corresponding area for each area.
d) and data (7e) indicating the processing form of the corresponding area are stored.

As shown in FIG. 4, the recognition candidate data of each character obtained by the character recognition processing unit 2c is stored in the recognition data buffer 8 as shown in FIG.
To store. The individual information of each candidate running for the election is stored in the candidate data buffer 9 shown in FIG. The candidate data buffer 9 includes political party name data 9b, candidate name (kana, kanji) data 9b and 9c, and age data 9
d, photographic image data 9e, and candidate number 9f.

Next, a candidate input process by handwriting input,
The input data recognition by character recognition, the candidate search process, and the search candidate confirmation process will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 10.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the overall flow of the voting process according to the present invention. When the voting terminal device is activated, system initialization processing is performed (step S
1), and subsequently the screen 1 shown in FIG. 14 is displayed on the display controller 2e.
It is displayed on the display device 3 through the control of (step S
2). The system initialization process is for initializing process data for performing the voting process in the apparatus of this embodiment or for performing a process such as memory reservation.
Then, the stylus pen and the transparent tablet which are the position input device 1 detect the designated coordinate values, the switch state of the stylus pen, and the state information of the stylus pen. The information detected at this time is, in the case of the present embodiment,
The data obtained as a result of interrupting the tablet driver at regular intervals is stored in a position data buffer (not shown) and is referred to.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a list of candidates, for example, as shown in FIG. 13 is posted near the voting terminal device at the polling place, and the elector corresponds to the candidate who wants to vote from this list. It is assumed that the number to be entered is input using the voting terminal device. When the elector brings the stylus pen close to the screen (transparent tablet) in order to perform the input according to the guidance on the display screen shown in FIG. 14, the designated coordinates at that time are input via the position input device 1 via the input control unit 2a. Is detected and stored in the position data buffer (step S3). Subsequently, the area discriminating unit 2b discriminates the display screen and compares the detected designated coordinate data with the area data in the area data buffer 7 (FIG. 3) corresponding to the screen to discriminate the corresponding area. A determination process is performed (steps S3 to S5).

As a result, if the corresponding area includes the handwritten character recognition processing, the character recognition processing unit 2c checks the initialization flag for character recognition, and the flag is OF.
If F, handwriting character recognition initialization processing and handwriting character recognition flag ON processing are performed (steps S6 to S).
9).

Then, the character recognition processing section 2c carries out a character recognition process for the characters input in the input frame 10 in the area (step S10). Then, the display control unit 2e
A recognition result display process is performed (step S11). By these processes, in the embodiment, input of the candidate number and
Character recognition and recognition next candidate data acquisition processing is performed.

If it is determined in step S6 that the area discriminating unit 2b discriminates the area from the character recognizing processing, the character recognizing processing unit 2c determines that the handwritten character recognition initialization flag is set. Is checked, and if this flag is ON, forced recognition processing is performed to forcibly recognize a character being input (steps S12, S).
13).

Then, the character recognition processing section 2c performs a handwritten character recognition initialization reset process and a handwritten character recognition initialization flag OFF process (steps S14, S1).
5). After that, the candidate selection control unit 2f performs selection (instruction) processing according to each screen and each area (step S1).
6).

Next, the above-mentioned recognition result display processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This process is called from the main routine shown in FIG. 6 (S1 in FIG. 6).
First, the presence or absence of the character recognition result based on the pen state information of the stylus pen 5 is determined (step S20).
As a result, if there is a recognition result, the center of gravity of the input character is calculated from the size of the input character in the stylus pen status information, the input frame 10 is discriminated from this center of gravity, and the corresponding character in the recognition data buffer 8 is identified. Character recognition candidate data is stored in the position (steps S21 to S23). Then, the first candidate character is displayed as shown in FIG. 15, and the process returns to the main routine (step S24).

The above-mentioned selection process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When this processing is called from the main routine shown in FIG. 6 (S16 in FIG. 6), the area discrimination processing unit 2b discriminates the screen displayed on the screen, and a selection (instruction) button for each screen. Perform each process.

On the screen 1 shown in FIG. 15, it is determined whether the elector has finished writing the candidate number and has instructed the "OK" button 11 (steps S30 and S31). Subsequently, the candidate selection control unit 2f performs a candidate search process using the recognition candidate data acquired by the handwritten character recognition process (step S32).

If there is a corresponding candidate, the display controller 2e causes the screen 2 as shown in FIG.
Is displayed, and the corresponding candidate 13 is displayed (step S3
3, S34). Also, if there is no applicable candidate,
The display control unit 2e displays a message (not shown) (step S35), and then the character recognition processing unit 2
The input character and the data of the recognition result are cleared by c (step S36). Then, the display control unit 2e displays the screen 1 shown in FIG. 14 so that the screen can be input again.

When the area discrimination processing unit 2b discriminates the screen displayed on the screen and determines that it is the screen 2 (step S37), then the candidate selection control unit 2f
It is determined whether the candidate area 13 of the screen 2 shown in FIG. 16 has been selected (step S38). Here, when any of the candidate areas on the screen 2 is instructed to be selected, the display controller 2e displays the screen 3 shown in FIG. 17 (step S39), and the candidate selected as an elector is displayed. Make a final confirmation.

When the area discrimination processing unit 2b discriminates the screen displayed on the screen and the screen 3 is discriminated (step S40), then the candidate selection control unit 2f
It is determined whether or not the "YES" button 15 on the screen 3 shown in FIG. 17 has been selected (step S41). Here, "Y
When the "ES" button 15 is selected and instructed, a voting process is performed (step S42). On the other hand, "NO" button 1
When 6 is selected, the screen 1 shown in FIG. 14 is displayed so as to be ready for input again (steps S43, S).
44).

The above-mentioned handwritten character recognition processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This process is called from the main routine shown in FIG. 6 (S10 in FIG. 6).
And executes the handwritten character recognition process. The elector is
When handwriting input is performed in the input frame 10 in the screen 1 shown in FIG. 3, coordinate value data is stored in the position data buffer based on the detected state information of the stylus pen. When storing the coordinate value data, in addition to the coordinate value data, the stylus pen switch state changes from ON to O.
The stroke delimiter data at the time of FF is also stored in the position data buffer. Further, the coordinate data input into the input frame 10 is stored in the position data buffer at the same time as the output data buffer (not shown).
And is displayed on the display device 3 as handwriting data. In this embodiment, the position data stored in this way is
By combining the frame inspection processing and the time inspection processing,
Performs character cutoff processing for stroke data.

The state of the pen switch is judged (step S
50), the pen switch is ON and the first to the input frame 10
When stroke start point data is input (step S
In step 51), the frame inspection processing is performed (step S53). On the other hand, if it is not the start point of the first stroke, the position data is stored in the position data buffer (step S52).

Further, the pen switch state is OFF for a certain period of time.
If it is determined that there is no input to the input frame 10 within a certain time (steps S54, S56), the time cutoff process is activated when data is present in the position data buffer (step S54). S57). Further, in step S54, the state of the pen switch changes from ON to O.
If the stroke has changed to FF, that is, one stroke of the character by the elector has been written, the stroke delimiter data is stored in the position data buffer (step S55).

When the stroke data cut-off processing is completed as described above, the position data series of the stroke data is analyzed to perform character recognition (step S58,
S59). In this character recognition, direction value conversion and position code conversion processing are performed for each stroke from the analyzed position coordinate series data, and matching with the recognition dictionary is performed based on these pieces of information. Then, as a result of matching with the recognition dictionary, the first to fourth candidates are stored in the recognition data buffer 8 (FIG. 4) as the recognition result, and the size of the input character, the upper left coordinate value, and the recognition candidate data are stored in the stylus pen state. Store in information and return to main routine (step S
60, S61).

The above-mentioned candidate search processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the elector inputs the candidate number on the screen 1 shown in FIG. 15, the handwritten character recognition unit 2c recognizes the input candidate number. When the candidate finishes inputting the candidate number and the elector directs the “OK” button 11 on the screen 1, this process is called from the selection (instruction) process.

Then, using the number composed of the first candidate in the recognition data buffer 8 stored in the handwritten character recognition process as the input number, the candidate number 9f of the corresponding candidate is stored in the candidate data buffer 9 as described above. More search is performed (step S70).

In this case, as shown in FIG. 15, the elector has input the candidate number and the candidate number "16" has been recognized by the handwritten character recognition processing. The candidate data acquisition unit 2d determines whether or not there is a candidate corresponding to the recognized candidate number (step S71).
If there is a corresponding candidate, then it is determined whether the recognized candidate number is "1" (step S72). If the candidate number is "1", the candidate data corresponding to the candidate numbers "1", "2" and "3" is stored in the search data buffer (not shown) (step S7).
5). On the other hand, when it is determined in step S72 that the candidate number is other than "1", the process is step S73.
Then, it is judged whether or not the candidate number is the end of the registered candidate number. If the candidate number indicates the end, the data of the three candidates from the end are stored in the search data buffer as search candidates (step S76). If it is determined in step S74 that the candidate number is not the end, the corresponding candidate number and candidate data before and after this number are stored in the search data buffer (step S74).

In step S71, if there is no corresponding candidate as a result of the candidate search, an error is returned to the selection (instruction) processing. For example, when the recognized candidate number is “16”, the candidate number 15,
Candidate data corresponding to 16 and 17 are acquired as search candidates, and the screen 2 shown in FIG. 16 is displayed.

Next, another example of the candidate search process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 11 and FIG. When this process is called from the selection (instruction) process,
The candidate data acquisition unit 2d uses the recognition data buffer 8
The candidate number is combined based on the character recognition candidate data stored in (step S80). The character candidate data stored in the recognition data buffer 8 is shown in FIG.
In the case of the data shown in 2, here as the candidate number,
“16”, “14”, “36”, and “34” are generated.

Then, based on these candidate numbers, the corresponding candidate data is retrieved from the candidate data buffer 9 (step S81). As a result, the candidate data corresponding to the acquired candidate number is stored in the search data buffer, and the process returns to the selection (instruction) process (step S82,
S83).

As a result of the search in step S83, if there is no corresponding candidate, an error is returned to the selection (instruction) processing. As a result of the above processing, the candidate number "1"
The candidate data corresponding to “4” and “16” are acquired as search candidates, and the screen 2 shown in FIG. 18 is displayed.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. If the recognized candidate number or candidate name, etc. does not reach a certain standard in the similarity of each character or number, an error may be displayed to warn the elector.

Further, the tablet may be semitransparent or opaque instead of the transparent type, and the stylus pen may be the cordless type instead of the cord type. The display device 3 may be a plasma display instead of a liquid crystal display. Further, the position input means 1 and the display device 3 may be integrated.

The external storage device 4 may be a hard disk, a memory card or a silicon disk.
Regarding the handwritten character recognition processing in the processing control device 2, it has been stated that an input frame is provided as in the embodiment, and character recognition is performed in combination with time cutout processing frame cutoff processing, but a character recognition start button is provided. The recognition may be performed by instructing this.

Further, in the embodiment, as the recognition candidate, the data for four candidates is described, but other data may be acquired. Further, regarding the candidate data search processing based on the recognition result, the number of acquisition candidates does not have to be limited to the number of examples.

The present invention is not limited to the voting in the ordinary election,
For example, it can be used for the approval or disapproval of the policy entrusted to the vote, or for a referendum, a referendum, etc. to select the policy. Specifically, for example, a policy to support (approve) or deny (oppose) It can be applied when selecting by a number associated with the policy in advance. In short, the present invention can be variously modified without departing from the spirit thereof.

[0045]

As described above, by inputting votes using the device of the present invention, the contents of votes can be converted into data, and OA and paperless voting can be achieved. Furthermore, the election operation as a whole can be converted to OA, and a great effect can be achieved in improving the efficiency of the election as a whole.

Further, in the present invention, the elector is allowed to input the candidate number by handwriting, and by recognizing the character, the corresponding candidate is retrieved and acquired, and the elector is confirmed to thereby confirm the elector. It is possible to provide an easy-to-understand user interface.

Further, the candidate number which has been input and recognized in character and the candidate data in the vicinity of the candidate number are also retrieved to perform a process of confirming by the elector, thereby making a mistake in entering the candidate number due to a mistake in the elector side. Can be covered with.

Further, by searching for the corresponding candidate based on the number generated by the combination of the recognition candidate characters at the time of character recognition and performing the process of confirming by the elector, the retrieval acquisition rate due to the erroneous recognition of the character recognition. Can be covered, and the voting terminal device can exert a great practical effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a voting terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the device in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an area data buffer in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a recognition data buffer in the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a candidate data buffer in the above embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the overall processing flow of the voting terminal device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of recognition result display processing in the above embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a flow of selection processing in the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of handwritten character recognition processing in the above embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of a candidate search process in the above embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing another example of the candidate search process.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a storage state of character candidates in the above embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a list of candidates and candidate numbers in the above embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for inputting a candidate number in the above embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a screen in a state where a candidate number is being input in the above embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displaying data of candidates searched for by the candidate search process in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a candidate confirmation screen in the above embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displaying data of candidates searched for by another embodiment of the candidate search process.

[Description of Codes] 1 ... Position input device, 2 ... Processing control device, 2a ... Input control unit, 2b ... Area discrimination processing unit, 2c ... Character recognition processing unit, 2
d ... Candidate data acquisition unit, 2e ... Display control unit, 2f ... Candidate selection control unit, 3 ... Display device, 4 ... External storage device, 5
... Stylus pen, 6 ... Integrated display / input device, 7 ... Area data buffer, 8 ... Recognition data buffer, 9 ... Candidate data buffer, 10 ... Character input frame, 11 ... "OK" button, 12 ... Recognition candidate character, 13 ... Candidate selection area, 1
4 ... Confirmation candidate, 15 ... "YES" button, 16 ... "N
"O" button.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Takayuki Tsuchida 2-9 Suehiro-cho, Ome-shi, Tokyo Stock company Toshiba Ome Factory (72) Inventor Naoko Shimojima 2-9 Suehiro-cho, Ome-shi, Tokyo Shareholders Company Toshiba Ome Factory (72) Inventor Katsutoshi Ishikawa 2-9 Suehiro-cho, Ome City, Tokyo Stock Company Toshiba Ome Factory (72) Inventor Kunio Ueda 2-9 Suehiro-cho, Ome City, Tokyo Stock Company Toshiba Ome Factory

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A position detecting means for detecting position information obtained by an elector writing down a number corresponding to a candidate to be selected, and a handwriting input based on the position information detected by this position detecting means. The character recognition means for recognizing the selected number and outputting at least one recognition candidate number, the candidate number storage means for storing the number corresponding to the candidate running for the election, and the candidate number storage means are referred to. Then, it is determined whether or not the recognition candidate number output by the character recognizing means is present. If the recognition candidate number is present in the table,
The candidate acquisition means for acquiring a neighboring number based on the number, the individual information storage means for storing the individual information of the candidates running for the election, and the number acquired by the candidate acquisition means and the recognition candidate number are included. A voting terminal device comprising: display control means for extracting and displaying individual information of the candidate from the individual information storage means; and selection means for selecting one candidate from the candidates displayed by the display control means. . 2. A position detecting means for detecting position information obtained by an elector writing down a number corresponding to a candidate to be selected, and a handwriting input based on the position information detected by this position detecting means. Number recognition means for performing a recognition process of the selected number and outputting at least one recognition candidate number, and a number combination means for generating a combination number by combining the numbers included in the recognition candidate number output from this character recognition means. And a candidate number storage means for storing the numbers corresponding to the candidates who are running for the election, and by referring to this candidate number storage means, it is determined whether or not there is a combination number generated by the number combination means. Then, the candidate acquisition means for acquiring the number of the candidate who is running, and the individual information storage means for storing the individual information of the candidate running for election, The display control unit displays the individual information of the candidate of the number acquired by the candidate acquisition unit from the individual information storage unit and displays it, and the selection unit that selects one candidate from the candidates displayed by the display control unit. A voting terminal device characterized by the above. 3. A position detecting means for detecting position information obtained by the elector by writing in the name of a candidate to be selected, and a name written in based on the position information detected by this position detecting means. Character recognition means for performing at least one recognition candidate by performing the recognition process of, and a name combination means for generating a combination name by combining the characters included in the recognition candidates output from the character recognition means, and a candidate for election. The candidate name storage means that stores the name corresponding to the candidate and the candidate name storage means are referenced to determine whether or not the combination name generated by the name combination means exists, and the candidate name storage means is established. The candidate acquisition means for acquiring the names of the candidates that are present, the individual information storage means for storing the individual information of the candidates who are running for the election, and the candidate acquisition means Therefore, it is provided with display control means for extracting and displaying the individual information of the acquired name candidates from the individual information storage means, and selection means for selecting one candidate from the candidates displayed by the display control means. Voting terminal device. 4. The character recognizing means performs a recognition process of numbers written and input by comparing with a dictionary in which standard patterns are stored, and stores at least one recognition candidate number and the written pattern and the dictionary in the dictionary. And outputs the degree of comparison with the standard pattern, and the number combination means performs a combination of the numbers included in the recognition candidate number with respect to the candidate number whose value of the degree of comparison satisfies a predetermined condition. The voting terminal device according to claim 2, wherein a number is generated. 5. The character recognition means performs a recognition process of a name input by handwriting by comparing with a dictionary in which a standard pattern is stored, and stores at least one recognition candidate and the written pattern and the dictionary. The degree of comparison with the standard pattern is output, and the name combination means
The voting terminal device according to claim 3, wherein a name is generated by performing a combination of characters included in the recognition candidate on a recognition candidate whose value of the degree of comparison satisfies a predetermined condition.