JPH0758499B2 - Character recognition device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character recognition device, and more particularly, to a character recognition device that recognizes a character unit and then a word unit.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in this type of character recognition device, for example, "Automatic recognition of character figures for computer input" edited by The Institute of Electrical Engineers, P251-
It is disclosed in No. 252, and recognition processing is performed as follows with addresses, family names, first names, product names, sentences, etc. as recognition targets. First, the input character pattern (image pattern) obtained by scanning the form is cut out for each character to recognize the character. As a result of this recognition, a plurality of candidate characters are obtained, and when it is not possible to uniquely determine, for each of the plurality of candidate words obtained by combining the candidate characters in units of the preceding and succeeding characters or words, a word dictionary prepared in advance is used. Matching is performed and the names of the words existing in the word dictionary among the candidate words or the character names forming the words are output as the recognition result.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional character recognition device, for example,
In place name For example, multiple words that have the same place name, have the same reading, and differ only in the marked characters are used without distinction by the writer. It is necessary to register all of the words, which causes a problem of increasing the word dictionary and eventually the processing time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a simple character recognizing device having a high processing speed.

(Means for Solving Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention includes a first recognition unit that cuts out an image pattern obtained by scanning a form for each character to recognize characters. A character recognition device comprising a second recognition unit that recognizes a word by matching a candidate word in which candidate characters of the recognition result are assembled in word units with a word in a word dictionary. For the words of the same-sound agreement that differ only in the same-sound agreement character, the representative word in which the same-sound agreement character is replaced with a special character is stored in the word dictionary in advance, and a table of the same-sound agreement character with the special character as an address is stored. It is provided.

In a preferred embodiment, the second recognizing unit masks the same-sound agreement characters of the same-sound agreement candidate word when matching with the representative word, and when they match, refers to the table. The obtained homonymous characters are sequentially replaced with the special characters of the representative word for matching.

(Operation) According to the present invention, since the character recognition device is configured as described above, the technical means operates as follows. The second recognizing unit (for example, a word matching unit described later), when matching the candidate word assembled from the candidate characters from the first recognizing unit with a word in the word dictionary, if the word is a representative word, Works, for example, to mask and match the same-sound agreeing characters among the characters forming the same-sound agreeing word as a candidate word. As a result, if the two match, the second recognition unit refers to the table corresponding to the special character indicated by the representative word, and for the words obtained by sequentially replacing the homophones obtained as a result with the special characters of the representative word. , It works to match the candidate words of the homonym agreement.
As a result of this collation, when they match, the second recognition unit sequentially outputs the character names (for example, character codes) forming the matched words as the recognition result. Therefore, it is only necessary to register one representative word in the word dictionary without registering a plurality of words with the same phonetic agreement individually, and it is possible to share the same phonetic agreement characters even for words having different meanings. The number of words can be reduced and the processing time for recognition can be shortened.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character recognition device showing an embodiment of the present invention. The character recognition device of this embodiment comprises a character recognition unit 1, a word collation unit 2, a word dictionary 3, and a homophony agreement character table 4.

2 (a) and 2 (b) show format examples of the word dictionary 3 and the homonym agreement character table 4 (that is, both are memories), and FIG. 3 shows candidate character examples for input character pattern examples. It is shown.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

First, an optical signal, which is reflected light when the surface of a document is scanned, is input to the character recognition unit 1 and photoelectrically converted. The input character pattern (image pattern) obtained as a result is cut out on a character-by-character basis, and a candidate character name obtained by performing recognition processing on the cut-out pattern is output to the word matching unit 2. The word matching unit 2 divides the candidate character names obtained from the character recognition unit 1 into word units, and when there are a plurality of candidate character names for each character, combines them to assemble a plurality of candidate words,
The candidate words and the words stored in the word dictionary 3 are compared with each other by referring to the homophone synonymous character table 4. Words to be recognized are registered in the word dictionary 3 in advance. Also With respect to the same-sound agreement words like this, the same-sound agreement characters marked with are replaced with special characters and registered as one word (that is, a representative word). In the example of the word dictionary shown in FIG. 2 (a), "no", "no", etc. are replaced with "(A)" and registered. The same-sound agreement character table 4 stores actual characters corresponding to the special characters given to the same-sound agreement words in the word dictionary 3 (same-same agreement characters with a mark). Second
In the example of FIG. 2B, for example, "no", "no", "no", and "no" are stored corresponding to the special character (A) of FIG. 2 (a).

The operation of the word matching unit 2 will be described with respect to the input character pattern "Toranomon" in FIG. In this case, since there are a plurality of candidate characters for “gate”, the candidate words are “Toranomon” and “Toranoquest”, which are a combination of them. Next, the candidate word is the word dictionary 3
Check if it exists inside. When the candidate word matches a word in the word dictionary 3, the character name forming the word is output as, for example, a character code. Further, as in the input character pattern example of FIG. 3, when a character other than the special character indicating that the same-sound consent character is applied is matched, the same-sound consent character corresponding to the special character is taken out from the same-sound consent character table 4. , The word in the word dictionary 3 is replaced with the special character, and the word is compared with the candidate word. When there is a matching word by this collation, the character names forming the word are output with a character code. In the example of FIG. 3, the candidate word “Torano Q” does not exist in the word dictionary 3, but for the candidate word “Toranomon”, the word “Tora (A) gate in the word dictionary 3 shown in FIG. "Corresponds. Further, the same-sound consent characters in the column (that is, the address (A)) corresponding to the special character (A) in the same-sound consent character table 4 shown in FIG. 2 (b) are sequentially taken out and replaced with the special characters (A). When collated, if the homonymous synonym “no”, it matches “toranomon”. Therefore, the input character pattern "Toranomon" is correctly recognized.

Further, when the candidate word “Toramon” for the input character pattern “Toramon” is output from the character recognition unit 1, the same operation can be performed. further Regarding also, by registering the circled character in the word dictionary 3 by associating the marked character with the (A) column of the homonymous agreement character table 4 shown in FIG. 2 (b). Just do it.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the homonym agreement character table 4
By using, only some characters of the word character string are different and it is not necessary to individually register words having the same reading, so that the word dictionary 3 can be made compact. Also, As in the example above, it is possible to share the same-sound synonymous character with a mark between words having different meanings.

Therefore, the word dictionary 3 can be miniaturized without deteriorating the performance, and a small-scale hardware and high-speed character recognition device can be realized.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a homonymous word is registered as a representative word in the word dictionary, and a special character indicated by the representative word is used as an address of the homonymous character. Since the table is provided, the word dictionary can be downsized and the recognition processing speed can be increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character recognition device showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b) are diagrams showing a format example of a word dictionary and a homonym agreement character table, and FIG. 3 is a book. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of an Example. 1 ... Character recognition unit, 2 ... Word matching unit, 3 ... Word dictionary, 4 ...
Homophone agreement character table.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A first recognition unit for recognizing a character by cutting out an image pattern obtained by scanning a form for each character, a candidate word in which candidate characters of the recognition result are assembled in a word unit, and a word dictionary. In a character recognition device including a second recognition unit that recognizes a word by matching it with a word in the same character, only one part of the constituent characters is a same-sound consensus character A character recognition device characterized in that a representative word in which synonymous characters are replaced with special characters is stored in advance in the word dictionary and a table of homophone synonymous characters corresponding to the special characters is provided. 2. The second recognizing unit masks the same-sound agreement characters of the same-sound-consensus candidate word when matching with the representative word, and when they match, refers to the table. The character recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the obtained homophonic characters are sequentially replaced with the special characters of the representative word for matching.