JPH1091701A - Form document system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system capable of similarly processing entry in a form document displayed on screen of a display and entry in a form document written on paper. SOLUTION: An electronic form document(EFD) of a prescribed form generated by a form document generating device 10 is registered in a form data base 18. A form document entering device 16 displays the EFD on the screen of the display, fetches a user's input to the display and sets up the input on the attribute data of the original EFD. On the other hand, an entered paper form document is fetched by a scanner 22 as a bit map picture and its picture is inputted to a form document recognizing/reproducing device 20. The device 20 analyzes the picture based on the original EFD retrieved from the data base 18, acquires the user's entery result and sets up the acquired result on the attribute data of the EFD. Thus the entry result becomes an EFD form in any entry method.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a form document system for reading a user's entry in a form document and performing a predetermined process on the read result.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mark sheet method is one of the input methods to an information processing system. Although this method has the advantage that input information can be entered with a single pencil, the layout of check boxes and the like is strictly determined, and it is difficult to create a sheet that is easy for the user to understand according to the purpose of use. Was.

On the other hand, the present applicant has proposed, for example, a form document system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-114610 as an input method for solving the problems of the mark sheet method. In this system, analysis information necessary for analyzing a form document, such as position information of a check box, is extracted and stored from form document data created by word processor software or the like. And
When a form document after the user entry is input, the contents of the user entry are recognized based on the analysis information, and the recognition result is supplied to application software for processing.

[0004]

The above-mentioned form document system has a form in which a form document is displayed on a display and a user inputs and enters the display in addition to a use form in which a user fills in a paper form document is read and processed. There is a use mode in which processing is performed according to the following.

[0005] In the latter case, the word processor used to create the form document data is used to fill in each entry field of the form document. For this reason, the user entry information is written directly into the electronic form document data. The system analyzes the form document data to obtain information entered by the user, and performs information processing based on the information.

On the other hand, in the former, writing is performed on a form document once printed on paper as an image, and this is taken into the system as an image. In this case, the user entry information is obtained as an image recognition result of each entry column in the image of the form document.

[0007] As described above, in the above-mentioned conventional system, the user obtains the user entry obtained by the system depending on whether the entry is made on the paper form document or on the form document displayed on the display. Since the form of the information is different, the application software at the subsequent stage has to perform processing corresponding to each case. The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and a form displayed on a display is provided. It is an object of the present invention to provide a form document system capable of handling entry to a document and entry to a paper form document in the same manner.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a form document system according to the present invention includes display contents of a form document and definition information of entry fields of the form document. Form creation means for creating form data having a data structure capable of holding the contents of a form, a form database for holding and managing form data, and electronically displaying a form document on a display or the like based on the form data. Electronic input means for acquiring form input reflecting the user entry by acquiring the user's input to each of the entry fields, and setting the acquired user input as the entry content of the corresponding entry field of the form data; and Form printing means for printing a form document on a predetermined sheet based on the A form image is obtained by optically reading the sheet on which the form document is printed, and an entry field is extracted from the form image based on the form data of the form document read from the form database, and the contents of the entry are image-recognized. Sheet recognition means for generating form data reflecting user entry by setting this recognition result as the entry content of a corresponding entry column of the form data.

According to this configuration, the result of the electronic entry by the electronic entry means on the form document and the result of the image recognition of the handwritten entry on the form document printed on paper or the like are output in the form of the same form data. So
User entries made in different ways can be treated the same, simplifying the configuration of processing software that processes user entry results.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the form data includes, as definition information of each of the entry columns, information on a position, a shape, and an entry content type of each entry column, and the sheet recognizing means includes: Based on the position and shape information of each entry column, extract the entry column part from the form image,
On the basis of the information on the type of entry in each entry field, an image recognition means corresponding to the type is activated to recognize the entry.

[0011] In this embodiment, the contents of the user to fill in each of the entry fields of the printed form document are determined based on the definition information of each entry field. The recognition is performed by operating the image recognition means corresponding to ()). For this reason, the entry result of each entry column can be obtained in a data format (for example, whether a check box is checked or not, a numeric entry column is numeric data) according to the entry content type, and set in the form data.

Further, in the present invention, the data for displaying the form document input to the electronic entry means and the form printing means and the data of the user entry recognition result output from the electronic entry means and the sheet recognition means are stored in the form. Since the data has a common data format, the form data of the form document that has been completed once (that is, the form data generated by the electronic filling means or the sheet recognizing means) is supplied again to the electronic filling means and the form printing means. You can also. Therefore, the present invention can be applied to a usage form in which the same form document is filled in a plurality of times. In particular, according to the present invention, it is possible to receive an entry from each user while electronically displaying a form document according to each user's request and circulating the form document while changing the form.

Further, the form entry recognition apparatus according to the present invention converts form data having a data structure including definition information of entry fields of a form document and having a data structure capable of holding a user's entry content in each entry field into each form document. A form identifier that detects and stores a form identifier from an image of the form document and obtains form data corresponding to the form identifier from the form database; and a form identification unit that acquires form data corresponding to the form identifier from the form database. Based on the form data, specify the entry column portion of the image, recognize the entry content image,
An entry recognizing means for generating form data reflecting the user entry by setting the recognition result as the entry content of the corresponding entry column of the form data.

According to this configuration, the result of the electronic entry and the result of the handwritten entry in the form document can be handled as the same form data.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a form document system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a form document system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, a form document generation device 10 is a device used to design a form document, and a form creator creates a new form document with this device. Form document generation device 10
Provides a user interface similar to that of a word processor, and allows a form creator to create a form document like a word processor.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a form document generated by the form document generating apparatus 10. As shown in FIG.
The form document is composed of a fixed form section and an entry section. The standard part is a part in which a human-readable explanation is described, and this part can be created by a normal word processing function.
The entry section is the part where the human fills in and the part where the system recognizes the entry. There are a plurality of types of entry sections depending on the type of entry content. In the example of FIG. 2, a check box (entry sections 1 and 2), a numeric entry section (entry section 3), and a free entry section (entry section 4) ) Are shown. Creation of these entry sections can be performed by a dedicated creation tool provided for each entry section type, such as a check box or a numeric entry box. That is, by starting the creation tool and specifying the position, size, and the like with a mouse or the like, a desired entry section can be set in the form document.

As the user designs the appearance of the form document in WYSIWIG as described above, the form document generating apparatus 10 generates definition data representing the form document in the format shown in FIG. The definition data of FIG. 3 is composed of fixed section information and entry section information. The fixed part information is document data of the fixed part of the form document. on the other hand,
The entry section information is described for each entry section, and the type (type) of the entry section, the position in the form document, the size (width and height), and the like are set according to the user input. The information of each entry section is provided with an attribute area for setting the content of the user entry according to the type of the entry section. In other words, check the check box
A check attribute area for setting OFF is provided, a numeric string attribute area for setting numeric string data is provided in a numeric entry field, and an image attribute area for setting a bitmap image is provided in a free entry field. The definition data of the form document created in this way is called an electronic form document in the present embodiment. The electronic form document corresponds to the form data in each claim.

The form document generator 10 assigns a unique form identifier to the generated form document.
In the present embodiment, when a form document is displayed on paper or a display, for example, the form identifier is displayed as a number represented by a numeral at a predetermined position in the form document as shown in FIG. This form identifier information is
It is also set in the electronic form document (FIG. 3).

The electronic form document thus generated is registered in the form database 18 and
It is also supplied to the form document printing device 12 and the form document entry device 16 in response to a user request.

The form document printing device 12 generates display data of the form document based on the data of the electronic form document, and transmits it to the printer 14. The format of the display data generated by the form document printing device 12 may be, for example, a bitmap format or a page description language format, and may be any data format that can be processed by the printer 14. That is, the form document printing device 12 generates display data representing a display image of the fixed form portion and each entry portion based on the electronic form document supplied from the form document generation device 10 or the form database 18. Here, the display data can be generated for the fixed part by the same processing as the normal word processing data. On the other hand, for the entry section, display data is generated according to the procedure shown in FIG. That is, the form document printing device 12 extracts the entry section information from the input electronic form document (S10), and determines the type of the entry section based on the type (type) information described in the entry section information. (S12). In this example, three types of entry sections are provided: a numeric entry field, a check box, and a free entry field.

If the entry section is a numeric entry box, a rectangle is drawn according to the set values of the position, width and height in the entry section information (S14), and the rectangle is further divided into regions of the number of digits. For the rectangle, the partition lines are drawn by the number obtained by subtracting 1 from the digit number setting value of the entry section information (S1).
6). If a numeral string is set in the numeral string attribute area of the entry section information, the numeral string is drawn in the rectangle (S18).

When the entry section is a check box, a rectangle is drawn according to the set values of the position, width and height in the entry section information (S20), and the check attribute of the entry section information is set to "ON". If so, a check is drawn in the rectangle (S18). The drawing of the check can be performed, for example, by painting the rectangle or drawing a predetermined figure (for example, a cross) indicating the check in the rectangle.

If the entry section is a free entry section, a rectangle is drawn according to the set values of the position, width and height in the entry section information (S24), and image data is set in the image attribute area of the entry section information. If so, the image data is drawn in the rectangle (S26).

The form document printing apparatus 12 repeats the above processing for all the entry sections described in the electronic form document (S28). By such processing, FIG.
2 is generated from the electronic form document shown in FIG. 2, and the display data is supplied to the printer 14. And printer 1
Reference numeral 4 performs a printing process based on the supplied display data.
As a result, a paper form document having the appearance as shown in FIG. 2 is output from the printer 14. This paper form document is distributed to the user, and the user fills in the entry field.

The paper form document after the user entry is taken into the system by the scanner 22. Scanner 22
Is input to the form document recognition / reproduction device 20. FIG. 5 shows a processing procedure of the form document recognition / reproduction device 20. As shown in FIG. 5, the form document recognition / reproduction apparatus 20 receives a bitmap image of a form document from the scanner 22 (S30), cuts out an image at a predetermined form identifier position in the bitmap image, and converts the image into the image. The form identifier is recognized by performing a number recognition process (S32). Next, the form document recognition / reproduction device 20
Retrieves an electronic form document corresponding to the input form document from the form database 18 using the form identifier as a key (S34). Then, the entry section information is extracted from the electronic form document (S36), the entry of the entry section in the bitmap image is recognized based on the position and size information of the extracted entry section information, and the recognition result is converted to the electronic form document. It is set in the attribute area of the entry section (for example, check attribute) (S38). S above
When the processes of 36 and S38 are repeated, and the processes are completed for all the entry sections included in the electronic form document (S40), an electronic form document reflecting the input contents of the input paper form document is created.

That is, according to the above-described processing, an electronic form document holding the entered contents (that is, the recognition result) is reproduced based on the paper form document entered by the user. The form document recognition / reproduction device 20 outputs an electronic form document on which the recognition result is reflected (S4).
2).

FIG. 6 shows a form document recognition / reproduction device 20.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing in more detail a procedure of a process of recognizing the entry content of the entry section (that is, S36 to S40 in FIG. 5) in the process of FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, the form document recognition / reproduction device 20 extracts one entry section information from the electronic form document (S50), and determines the type of the entry section from the type description (S52). If the entry section is a numeric entry field, specify the entry range based on the position and size information of the entry section information, cut out the image of the entry range from the bitmap image of the form document, and By performing a number recognition process, a number string entered by the user is recognized (S54). Then, the recognized numeric string is set in the numeric string attribute area of the entry section information of the electronic form document (S56). If the entry section is a check box, the entry range is specified based on the position and size information of the entry section information, the image of the entry range is cut out from the bitmap image of the form document, and the image is analyzed. It is recognized whether a check has been entered (S58). Then, the on / off of the recognized check is set in the check attribute area of the entry section information of the electronic form document (S60). And if the entry section is a free entry field,
The entry range is specified based on the position and size information of the entry section information, an image of the entry range is cut out from the bitmap image of the form document (S62), and the cut out image is used as the image attribute area of the entry section information of the form document. (S64). By repeating the above processing for all the entry information of the electronic form document (S66), an electronic form document reflecting the handwritten entry on the input paper form document is generated. In the above,
Although the description has been given of the case where each entry section is sequentially processed in the order described in the electronic form document, the processing method is not limited to this. For example, each entry section may be implemented as an object-oriented component including a recognition program. In this case, each entry section is processed at any time in any order.

Although the process in which the user makes an entry in the paper form document and recognizes the entry has been described above, in the present embodiment, not only such an entry method but also the form document is displayed on the display screen of the computer. , And filling in the display. Such entry on a computer is referred to as electronic entry to distinguish it from handwritten entry in a paper form document. The form document entry device 16 realizes this electronic entry. The form document entry device 16 acquires an electronic form document requested by the user from the form document generation device 10 or the form database 18, and displays a display image of the form document on a display screen based on the electronic form document. The form document entry device 16 provides an interface for the user to enter the display.
The user uses the mouse, keyboard, or the like to input the contents of the entry in each entry section using the mouse, the keyboard, or the like, for example, in the same operation as in document editing. The form document entry device 16 acquires this user input content and sets it in the attribute area of the corresponding entry section of the electronic form document.

FIG. 7 shows a processing procedure of electronic entry by the form document entry device 16. In the present embodiment, the entry in each entry section is performed by moving a cursor to the entry section with a mouse or the like, and then inputting data with a keyboard or the like. For example, the entry in the numeric entry box can be performed by hitting a numeric keypad or the like, and the entry in the check box can be performed by a method of sequentially inverting the on / off attribute in response to a mouse click. The entry in the free entry column can be performed by activating the drawing tool. When the input is made in this manner, the form document entry device 16
The position at which the entry was made is obtained (S70), and based on information such as the position of each entry section information of the electronic form document, the entry section at which the entry was made is specified (S72), and the entry section is entered. The type is determined (S74). If the result of this determination is that the entry section where the input has been made is a numeric entry field, the entered numeric string data is set in the numeric string attribute area of the entry section information (S76). If the entry is a check box, the on / off input result is set in the check attribute area of the entry information (S78). If the entry section is a free entry section, an image drawn by a drawing tool or the like is set in the image attribute area of the entry section information (S80). The above processing is executed every time the user performs an input.

By the above processing, an electronic form document in which the user's electronic entry is reflected is created. In addition,
Since the form document entry device 16 and the above-described form document generation device 10 have many functionally common parts, in implementation, for example, the form document entry device 16 and the form document generation device 10 may be configured as a common device. Conceivable.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, even if the form document is printed on paper and handwritten, or the form document is displayed on a display or the like and electronically filled, the result of the entry is obtained. Is generated and an electronic form document of the same format is generated. The completed electronic form document generated in this manner is input to the form document processing device 24 that performs information processing based on the entry result. The form document processing device 24 can be constructed as application software for processing the result of filling out a form document, and an example is a tallying program for performing tallying of a questionnaire.

In this embodiment, regardless of the entry method of handwritten entry or electronic entry, the entry results are collected in a unified data format of an electronic form document in the system. It is only necessary to be configured to process data of one data format called an electronic form document, and it is not necessary to perform separate processes for handwritten entry and electronic entry as in the related art. In the present embodiment, the form document printing device 1
2. Since the form document entry device 16, form document recognition / reproduction device 20, and form document processing device 24 are all configured to perform processing based on a common electronic form document, the system can be easily operated. Further, in the present embodiment, the form document entry device 16 and the form document recognition /
Since the data output from the reproduction device 20 is the same electronic form document format as the data input to the form document entry device 16 and the form document printing device 12, the form data of the form document that has been entered once by the user is restored. It can also be printed or displayed and accept further entries by the same user or another user.

Next, an example of a use form of the system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 8, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

For example, when conducting a questionnaire, the form document generating apparatus 10 generates a questionnaire form in the form of an electronic form document, registers the form in the form database 18, and stores the form document of the questionnaire in the form of a questionnaire target person. Distribute according to the processing environment. That is, an electronic form document is directly transmitted via a network or the like to a person having a computer equipped with the form document entry device 16, and a form document printing device 12 is transmitted to a person without such a computer. Then, a paper form document is generated by the printer 14, and the paper form document is distributed. The person who receives the questionnaire form document fills out the questionnaire form document by electronic entry or handwriting according to the processing environment of the person. In the case of electronic entry, the result of the entry is directly written into the electronic form document by the form document entry device 16. In the case of handwritten entry, the result of image recognition of handwritten entry is written in the electronic form document by the processing of the form document recognition / reproduction device 20. That is, no matter which entry method is used, the result of the entry is in the form of an electronic form document in which the entry contents are set. Such a completed electronic form document is input to a form document processing device 24 having a questionnaire totalizing function. Form document processing device 24
Performs the totalization of the questionnaire by totalizing the attribute information of each entry section of the input electronic form document.

The system according to the present embodiment can be applied to a case where a document is circulated to a plurality of users and entered by each user, such as when a created document is approved by each department. Also available. That is, in this embodiment, since the user's entry result is finally in the form of an electronic form document, the completed electronic form document is supplied to the form document entry device 16 and the form document printing device 12 again. Thereby, further entry to the form document can be accepted. Therefore, for example, Mr. A sends a document created by the form document generation device 10 to Mr. B in the form of an electronic form document, and Mr. B electronically inputs his / her opinion with the form document entry device 16 and fills out the form. The result electronic form document is printed by the form document printing device 12 and circulated to Mr. C. Mr. C further makes an entry for this, and the entry result is sent to the scanner 2.
2 to the system, and finally a form document reflecting the entry results of Mr. B and Mr. C can be obtained. In this case, in order to maintain the consistency of the content of the form document, the result of this entry is reflected every time each user performs an electronic entry or inputs the result of the handwritten entry into the system. It is necessary to register the created electronic form document in the form database 18.

The form document generating device 10, form document printing device 12, form document entry device 16, and form document recognition / reproduction device 20 in the above embodiment.
May be realized as software executed on a computer, or may be configured as a hardware circuit.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Regardless of whether the user fills out a form document by handwriting or electronically, the results are summarized in a unified data format called form data.
A processing application that processes the entry result may process the form data, and it is not necessary to perform separate processes for handwritten entry and electronic entry as in the related art.

Further, according to the present invention, the data for displaying the form document input to the electronic entry means and the form printing means and the data of the user entry recognition result output from the electronic entry means and the sheet recognition means are included. Since it is a common data format called form data, form data of a form document that has been completed can be supplied again to electronic filling means and form printing means, and entry to the same form document is performed multiple times. It is possible to cope with a use form that is performed separately.

According to the present invention, the information for displaying and printing the form document and the information for recognizing the user entry are combined in one form data, so that the management of the form document can be performed. It will be easier.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the overall configuration of a form document system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an example of a form document generated by a form document generation device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of definition data (electronic form document) in the system of the form document of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a print processing procedure of an entry unit in the form document printing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an overall processing procedure of the form document recognition / reproduction apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing in detail a processing procedure of an entry unit in the form document recognition / reproduction apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the form document entry device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a method of using the form document system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 form document generation device, 12 form document printing device, 14 printer, 16 form document entry device,
18 form database, 20 form document recognition / reproduction device, 22 scanner, 24 form document processing device.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A form document system for presenting a form document to a user as a printed matter or an electronic display and acquiring the contents entered by the user with respect to the form document. Form creation means for creating form data having a data structure capable of holding user's entry contents for each of the above-mentioned entry fields, a form database for holding and managing form data, and a form document based on the form data. Is displayed electronically on a display or the like, a user input to each entry field of this display is acquired, and the acquired user input is set as the entry content of the corresponding entry field of the form data to reflect the user entry. Electronic data entry means for generating data, and Form printing means for printing a form document on a predetermined sheet, optically reading the sheet on which the form document is printed to obtain a form image, and forming the form based on form data of the form document read from a form database. Sheet recognition means for extracting form fields from the image, recognizing the contents of the form by image recognition, and setting the recognition result as the contents of the corresponding form fields of the form data to generate form data reflecting the user form; and A form document system comprising: 2. The form document system according to claim 1, wherein the form data includes information on a position, a shape, and a type of an entry of each entry as definition information of the entry. Based on the information on the position and shape of each entry column in the form data, the entry column portion is extracted from the form image, and based on the information on the entry content type in each entry column, the image recognition means corresponding to the type is activated and entered. A form document system characterized by recognizing contents. 3. The form document system according to claim 1, wherein the form data reflecting the user entry generated by the electronic entry unit or the sheet recognition unit is further transmitted to the electronic entry unit and the printing unit. A form document system that can be supplied. 4. A form entry recognizing device for analyzing a picture obtained by optically reading a form document to obtain user entry information, the information including definition information of entry fields of the form document and corresponding to each entry field. A form data having a data structure capable of holding the contents of the user, a database for holding and managing each form document type, and detecting a form identifier from an image of the form document;
Form identification means for acquiring form data corresponding to the form identifier from the form database; and, based on the form data acquired by the form identification means, an entry field portion of the image is specified, and the entry content is image-recognized, A form recognition unit for generating form data reflecting a user's entry by setting the recognition result as an entry in a corresponding entry column of the form data.