JPH11226514A - Method and apparatus mail classification - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and an apparatus for mail classification which an recognize/treat town sections even in mail in which subsection is written between a town name indicating a district which is not subsection number setting and a town section. SOLUTION: In the recognition unit 15 of a mail classification apparatus, after a town name written in mail being recognized by a town name recognition part 39, an answer edition part 43 judges whether the town name recognized by referring to subsection information stored in the town name data base 38c of an address dictionary 38 is subsection number setting or not. If the recognized town name is judged to be a district which is not subsection number setting, and when subsection is written behind the recognized town name, the subsection skipped to do down section recognition treatment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail sorting apparatus and a mail sorting method for sorting mail by recognizing an address written on the mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional mail sorting apparatus, an address written on a mail is recognized as follows. That is, the surface on which the address of the mail is described is captured as image data, and a line related to the address is cut out from the captured image data, and detection / cut-out is performed in units of one character. Next, character recognition is performed based on the cut-out image data in character units, and the recognized characters are compared with information on addresses stored in an address dictionary, and these are compared in the order of postal code, town name, block, etc. Recognition processing is in progress. Note that the block recognition processing is performed sequentially from the end point of the town name recognized by the town name recognition processing toward the rear, and ends when recognition becomes impossible. In addition, if it defines here, for example, if there is an address of "1-2-3, Shibauracho", "Shibauracho" is a town name and "1-2-3" is a block.

As shown in FIG. 1, in an area where a small letter "C" is added to a postal matter followed by a small letter "C" after a town name "Ozuda Honcho", the small letter is also the name of the town name indicating the area. It is treated as a part (that is, it is used when recognizing a street name, and "Kanazawa City Ozuda Honmachi C" is stored in the street name database that stores the street name). C). Therefore, it is possible to perform the recognition processing of the block after the town name in the same manner as in the case where the small letters are not described after the town name. It should be noted that the small-letter number is an area to which a different postal code is assigned for each small letter.

[0004]

However, in an area that is not a small-numbered part, the small part cannot be recognized as a part of the town name indicating the area (for example, "1-2 Ozuda Honmachi, Kanazawa City" is a small part). If it is not the starting number, "Kanazawa City Ozuda Honmachi" is stored in the town name database,
"C" is not stored as a part of the street name), so in the case of a postal matter having an address as shown in FIG. 1, "Town" is the last character of the street name. Therefore, after the town name is recognized, the block recognition process is performed in order from the character after the last character of the recognized town name to the back, but immediately after the town name, a small letter “C” exists. It becomes unrecognizable. As a result, there is a problem in that the block described after the town name cannot be recognized at all, and the block recognition processing ends.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to recognize a block even in a postal matter in which a subscript is described between a town name and a block indicating an area that is not a subscript. It is an object of the present invention to provide a mail sorting processing device and a mail sorting processing method capable of processing.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is directed to a mail address in which a small letter is described between a town name and a block indicating an area that is not a small letter number. In the mail sorting processing apparatus for recognizing the mail and sorting the mail, there is provided a means for recognizing the street without recognizing the small letters after recognizing the town name.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a mail sorting apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention provides a mail sorting apparatus in which a small letter is described between a town name and a block indicating an area that is not a small letter number. Image acquiring means for acquiring the image of the above, storage means for storing the name of the town in advance, detecting means for detecting the name of the town from the image of the postal matter acquired by the image acquiring means, which is previously stored in the storage means. Recognition processing means for recognizing a town name detected by the detection means with reference to the town name, and recognizing the block without recognizing small letters described after the town name, and a recognition result of the recognition processing means. And a sorting means for sorting the postal matter based on

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a mail sorting apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention provides a mail sorting apparatus in which a small letter is described between a town name and a block indicating an area that is not a small letter number. Image acquiring means for acquiring the image of the above, storage means for storing the name of the town in advance, detecting means for detecting the name of the town from the image of the postal matter acquired by the image acquiring means, which is previously stored in the storage means. After recognizing and processing the town name detected by the detection means with reference to the town name, it is determined whether or not the character string described after this town name constitutes a numeric string by shifting backward one character at a time, and the determination result is obtained. And a classification unit for classifying the postal matter based on a recognition result of the recognition processing unit.

In the mail sorting apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention, the invention according to the fourth aspect is characterized in that the recognition processing means performs recognition for the block recognition processing based on the determination result. It is characterized by detecting a start position.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mail sorting apparatus which obtains an image of a mail having a small letter between a town name and a block. Means, storage means for storing in advance the small name information indicating whether the name of the street and the name of the street is a small number starting area,
Detecting means for detecting a street name from the image of the postal matter obtained by the image obtaining means, and recognizing and processing the street name detected by the detecting means with reference to the street name and small-size information previously stored in the storage means; The recognition processing means for determining whether or not the recognized town name is an area having a small font number, and performing recognition processing of the block described after the recognized town name based on the determination result; and And a sorting means for sorting the mail based on the recognition result.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 6 recognizes an address of a mail having a small letter between a town name and a block indicating an area which is not a small letter number. In the mail sorting method for sorting mail,
After recognizing the street name, the block is recognized without recognizing the small letters.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 7 recognizes an address of a mail having a small letter between a town name and a block indicating an area that is not a small letter number. In the mail sorting method for sorting mail,
After acquiring the image of the postal matter, detecting the name of the town from the acquired image of the postal matter, performing recognition processing of the detected town name with reference to the previously stored town name, and performing the recognition processing of the town name, after the town name, It is characterized in that the block is recognized without recognizing the described small letters.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 8 recognizes an address of a mail having a small letter between a town name and a block indicating an area that is not a small letter number. In the mail sorting method for sorting mail,
After acquiring the image of the postal matter, detecting the name of the town from the acquired image of the postal matter, performing recognition processing of the detected town name with reference to the previously stored town name, and performing the recognition processing of the town name, after the town name, It is characterized in that it is determined whether or not the described character string forms a numeric string while shifting backward one character at a time, and the block is recognized based on the determination result.

In the mail sorting method according to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the invention according to the ninth aspect includes detecting a recognition start position for the block recognition processing based on the determination result. It is characterized by.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mail service for recognizing an address of a mail in which a small letter is described between a town name and a block and classifying the mail. In the object classification processing method, an image of the postal matter is acquired, a town name is detected from the acquired image of the postal matter, and the town name recognized by performing recognition processing on the detected town name with reference to a previously stored town name. Is determined to be a small-numbered area, and based on the determination result, the block described after the recognized town name is subjected to recognition processing.

[0016]

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

In the embodiment of the present invention, in the case where a small letter is described between a town name and a block indicating an area where the address of the mail is not a small letter, skip processing is performed without recognizing the small letter. Block recognition is being performed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an external configuration of a mail sorting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mail sorting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. It is a block diagram showing composition of a recognition unit of a mail sorting processing device of an embodiment of the invention.

The mail sorting apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention reads a postal code, a town name, a block, and the like described in a mail P, and reads the postal code, the town name, and the like from the read contents.
Blocks and the like are recognized, and mail items P are classified based on the recognition results. Further, the mail sorting apparatus 1 prints a barcode corresponding to the recognition result on each mail P.

The main body 1a of the mail sorting apparatus 1 includes a supply unit 10 for setting a plurality of mails P in batches or rejected mails, and for supplying the set mails P one by one. A scanner unit 11 for reading the entire image of the surface on which the postal code and address of the postal matter P are supplied one by one from the supply unit 10 onto the transport path 19a, and a mail that has passed through the scanner unit 11. An ID code reading unit 12 for reading a barcode given to the article P, and a barcode printing unit 13 for printing a barcode corresponding to a postal code or address written on the postal matter P passing through the ID code reading unit 12. And bar code print unit 1
The postal matter P that has passed through 3 is recognized as a postal code, town name, block, or the like, or a video coding system (not shown) (V).
Classification based on predetermined classification information corresponding to postal code, town name, block, etc. input from CS), and classification for postal matter P not recognized or input, such as postal code, town name, block, etc. Recognize zip code, town name, block, etc. from the unit 14 and the image read by the scanner unit 11,
A recognition unit 15 for recognizing the bar code read by the ID code reading unit 12, a transport control unit 19 for controlling the transport of the mail P on the transport path 19a,
The operation panel 18 displays the read result of the postal code, town name, block, etc., and selects a processing mode according to the type of the postal matter P. The control unit 16 controls the operation of each unit of the postal matter sorting apparatus 1. And a reject data control unit 17 that manages reject data and the like relating to the postal matter P for which the postal code, town name, block, etc. could not be recognized by the recognition unit 15.

The sorting unit 14 stores the recognized mail P
And a plurality of sorting box groups 14B for storing the sorted mail items P.

The recognition unit 15, as shown in FIG.
A zip code, a town name, a block, and the like are described based on the image of the mail P supplied from the photoelectric conversion unit 11a of the scanner unit 11 that converts all of the surface on which the address of the mail P is described into image data. Area detecting unit 31 for detecting each area, and a line detecting unit that detects and cuts out character lines in which the postal code, town name, block, and the like in the area detected by the area detecting unit 31 are line by line. A character detection unit 33 that converts multi-valued image data such as characters in a character line detected and cut out by the line detection unit 32 into binary image data, and detects and cuts out one character at a time; A postal code detecting unit 34 for detecting a number corresponding to a postal code from characters cut out and detected by the detecting unit 33, and a postal code detecting unit 34
A postal code recognition unit 35 for recognizing a postal code by referring to the postal code dictionary 36 based on the numbers detected by the method described above, and a character recognizing process for recognizing cutout characters and the like detected by the character detection unit 33 with reference to the character dictionary 37A The character recognition unit 37, which refers to the town name database 38c in the address dictionary 38, and combines the characters recognized by the character recognition unit 37 to recognize and process the town name. A block character detection unit 40 that detects and cuts out a block character such as a street or an address described after the town name in units of one character, and a block character dictionary 42 based on the block character detected and cut out by the block character detection unit 40. , And a postal matter P for associating a postal code and an address with each section box of the section box group 14B.
Combining the block characters recognized by the block character recognition unit 41 with reference to the partition specification table 44 storing the partition information and the like necessary for the partition processing, and the apartment house name database 38a and the large name database 38b in the address dictionary 38 The block name is recognized by combining the collective house name / large name recognition unit 45 for recognizing and processing the collective house name and the large name with the block character recognized by the block character recognition unit 41, and the zip code, the town name, and the block described above are recognized. And the like, and a storage unit 46 for storing necessary information such as the recognition result of the postal code, town name, block, etc. described above. .

The above-mentioned apartment house name database 3
8a stores an apartment name / apartment name, etc., a large name database 38b stores large user names such as government offices, and a town name database 38c stores an area classified by the mail sorting processing apparatus 1. I remember the name of the town.

The control unit 16 drives and controls the transport control unit 19 based on the determination result of the answer editing unit 43, and moves the mail P on the transport path 19a to one of the sorting boxes in the sorting box group 14B. Let it.

The reject data control unit 17 rejects data and postal items P according to the recognition result of the postal items P.
Is output to the video coding system.

The town name database 38c in the address dictionary 38
Is composed of a small town name and small region information indicating whether or not the region is an area where the small region number is a small number. If the small font information indicates “1”, it indicates that the street name is the area where the small font number is assigned, and if the small font information indicates “0”, the street name is not the small font number. Indicates that it is a region.

Next, the operation of the mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the recognition processing by the recognition unit of the mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, and shows the recognition processing after the street name in the mail address is recognized.

After the street name described in the postal matter P is recognized, in step A1, the block character recognition unit 41 performs a block number recognition process toward the rear of the recognized street name. The block number recognition process is performed for each layer.
When the recognition process becomes impossible, the process moves to the process of recognizing the apartment house name shown in step A2. Here, the process of recognizing a block number in units of one layer means that, for example, when the postal matter P is described as “XX town 1-2-3”,
○ "City" followed by the block number "1", "2",
This means that "3" is recognized one by one.

As will be described later, if a town name indicating an area that is not a small-numbered character is recognized, small-sized characters described after the town name cannot be recognized. Block number recognition processing is performed without recognition.

In step A2, if the name of the apartment complex is described after the block number, the complex apartment name / large name recognizing section 45 performs the process of recognizing the apartment complex name. The process of recognizing the apartment house name is performed by referring to the apartment house name stored in the apartment house database 38a in the address dictionary 38 and matching the character string recognized by the block character recognition unit 41.

In step A3, a ridge room number described after the apartment house name is recognized.

In step A4, if a large name such as a company name is described in the mail P, the recognition process is performed. The process of recognizing a large name is performed with reference to the apartment house name stored in the large name database 38b in the address dictionary 38.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show a case where a small letter is described between a town name and a block indicating an area which is not a small letter number in the postal matter P and skip processing is performed to recognize the block. This will be described specifically with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of an address described in a mail recognized by the recognition unit of the mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the small character recognition process by the answer edit part of the recognition unit of the mail classification processing apparatus of a form. As shown in FIG. 6, when the postal matter P is described as “1-2-3 Soybeanhonmachi, Kanazawa-shi”, if this area is a small-numbered starting number, the town name recognition unit 39 reads “Soybeanhonmachi, Kanazawa-shi "C" is recognized as a street name. Therefore, it is possible to perform the block recognition processing in the same manner as in the case where a town name indicating an area that is not a small-letter number is recognized.

On the other hand, the area in the above-mentioned "1-2-3 Ozu-Honmachi, Kanazawa-shi" described in the postal matter P is not a small font number (that is, it is determined that the small letter information is 0 in step B1). If so, the small letter “C” in (1) cannot be recognized, and “Kanazawa City Soybean Honmachi” is recognized as the street name by the street name recognition unit 39. Whether or not the area corresponding to the street name is a small letter number is determined by the state (0 or 1) of the small letter information stored together with the street name in the above-mentioned street name database 38c.

After "Kanazawa City Soybean Honcho" is recognized as a town name, recognition processing of the blocks described after the town name is performed in order toward the back of the town name. That is,
The block character detection unit 40 detects and cuts out the character after the town name in units of one character (in FIG. 6, six characters (1) to (6) are cut out), and the block character recognition unit 41 converts the character in units of one character. Recognition is performed, and the answer editing unit 43 recognizes the block. However, immediately after the street name (1)
Therefore, the conventional mail sorting processing apparatus cannot recognize the block at all, and the block recognition processing ends. Therefore, in the present invention, when a small character is described after the recognized town name, the skip processing (step B2) shown in FIG.
Block recognition processing has started.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the skip processing of step B2 shown in FIG. 7 by the answer editing unit of the recognition unit of the mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. In this skip processing, small letters are skipped by shifting the first character of the character string backward one character at a time until a digit string can be created as a character string combining the characters following the recognized town name, and the block recognition processing is performed. Of the recognition start position for the detection.

In FIG. 8, in step C1, a combination of characters after the town name is performed. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 6, a character string is formed by combining characters with "C" in (1) which is the character after the town name as the first character.

In step C2, it is determined whether or not a numeric string can be created from the character strings combined in step C1. If a character string is formed with “C” as the first character in (1), it is determined that a numeric string cannot be created.

On the other hand, when a numeric string is created in step C2, the first character constituting the numeric string is a recognition start position for the block recognition processing.

In step C3, "C"
To determine if there is a character behind If there is no character behind "C", it is determined that the block is not described in the postal matter P, and the recognition start position detection processing for the block recognition processing ends.

On the other hand, in step C3, if there is a character behind "C", the leading character is shifted backward by one character (step C4), and the character having "1" in (2) as the new leading character is shifted. A character string is formed by combining the columns (step C1).

As described above, the processing from step C1 to step C4 is repeated until the numeric string corresponding to the block is created. In the above-described repetition processing, if a character string is combined with “1” as the first character in (2), a digit string can be formed. Therefore, this position (ie, the position of (2)) is used as a recognition start position, Will be started.

In FIG. 6, since "1-2-3" composed of (2) to (6) is described as the block, 1 block is set in the same manner as in the ordinary block recognition processing as described above.
Block numbers are sequentially recognized in units of layers. Therefore, "1-
The block "2-3" can be recognized.

According to the above-described processing, it is possible to perform the skip processing on the small letters in the postal matter in which the small letters are described between the town name and the block indicating the area which is not the small letter number and recognize the block. Therefore, the recognition rate of the block described in the postal matter can be improved, and the address described in the postal matter can be grasped in more detail.

[0047]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the postal mail sorting apparatus, the small area written between the town name and the area indicating the area where the address of the mail is not small can not be recognized, so that the area can be identified. The case where recognition processing cannot be performed can be reduced, that is, the recognition rate of a block can be improved. In particular, in a mail sorting apparatus that sorts mail having a seven-digit postal code, the recognition rate of a block is improved, so that the mail is sorted quickly and efficiently in the order of delivering more mail. Becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a description example of a mailing address;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an external configuration of a mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a recognition unit of the mail sorting processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a recognition process performed by a recognition unit of the mail sorting processing device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an address described in a mail recognized and processed by a recognition unit of the mail sorting processing device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a small character recognition process by an answer editing unit of the recognition unit of the mail sorting processing device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a skip process by an answer editing unit of the recognition unit of the mail sorting processing device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 P Mail 1 Mail sorting processing device 10 Supply unit 11 Scanner unit 11a Photoelectric conversion unit 12 ID code reading unit 13 Barcode print unit 14 Sorting unit 14A Sorting unit 14B Sorting box group 15 Recognition unit 16 Control unit 17 Reject data control unit 18 Operation panel 19 Transport control unit 19a Transport path 31 Area detector 32 Line detector 33 Character detector 34 Postal code detector 35 Postal code recognizer 36 Postal code dictionary 37 Character recognizer 37A Character dictionary 38 Address dictionary 38a Apartment house name database 38b Large name database 38c Street name database 39 Street name recognition unit 40 Block character detection unit 41 Block character recognition unit 42 Block character dictionary 43 Answer editing unit 44 Classification specification table 45 Apartment name / large name recognition Part

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A mail sorting apparatus for recognizing an address of a postal matter in which a subscript is described between a town name indicating an area that is not a subscript and a block, and classifying the postal matter, wherein the town name is recognized. And a means for recognizing the block without performing the recognizing process on the small letters. 2. An image acquiring means for acquiring an image of a mail having a small letter between a town name and a block indicating an area which is not a small letter number; a storage means for storing a town name in advance; Detecting means for detecting a town name from the image of the postal matter obtained by the mail processing, and recognizing and processing the town name detected by the detecting means with reference to the town name stored in advance in the storage means, which is described after the town name. A mail processing device, comprising: a recognition processing means for recognizing the block without recognizing a small letter; and a classification means for classifying the postal matter based on a recognition result of the recognition processing means. Sorting equipment. 3. An image acquiring means for acquiring an image of a mail having a small letter between a town name and a block indicating an area which is not a small letter number; a storage means for storing a town name in advance; Detecting means for detecting the name of the town from the image of the postal matter obtained by the method; and referring to the name of the town stored in advance in the storage means to recognize and process the name of the town detected by the detecting means. A recognition processing unit that determines whether or not the character string forming the number string constitutes a character string while shifting backward one character at a time, and based on the result of the determination, recognizes the block and processes the recognition result of the recognition processing unit. And a sorting means for sorting the mail based on the mail. 4. The mail sorting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the recognition processing means detects a recognition start position for recognition processing of the block based on the determination result. 5. An image acquiring means for acquiring an image of a postal matter in which a small letter is described between a town name and a block, and preliminarily stored a town name and small letter information indicating whether or not this town name is an area having a small letter number. Storing means, detecting means for detecting a town name from the image of the mail obtained by the image obtaining means, and detecting by the detecting means with reference to the town name and small letter information stored in advance in the storing means Recognition processing means for judging whether or not the recognized town name is an area having a small font number by recognizing the street name, and recognizing and processing the block described after the recognized town name based on the determination result, A mail sorting unit that sorts the mail based on the recognition result of the recognition processing unit. 6. A mail sorting method for recognizing an address of a postal matter in which a subscript is described between a town name indicating an area that is not a subscript and a block and classifying the postal matter, wherein the town name is recognized. And recognizing the block without recognizing the small letters. 7. A postal matter sorting method for recognizing an address of a postal matter in which a subscript is described between a town name indicating an area that is not a subscript and a block, and classifying the postal matter, An image is acquired, a town name is detected from the acquired image of the postal matter, a recognized town name is recognized with reference to a previously stored town name, and the detected town name is recognized and processed. A postal matter classification processing method, wherein the block is recognized without recognizing small letters. 8. A mail sorting method for recognizing an address of a postal matter in which a subscript is described between a town name indicating a region that is not a subscript and a block, and classifying the postal matter, An image is acquired, a town name is detected from the acquired image of the postal matter, a recognized town name is recognized with reference to a previously stored town name, and the detected town name is recognized and processed. A postal matter sorting method, comprising: judging whether a character string constitutes a numeric string while shifting it backward one character at a time, and recognizing the block based on the result of the judgment. 9. The mail sorting method according to claim 8, wherein a recognition start position for recognition processing of the block is detected based on the determination result. 10. A postal matter sorting method for recognizing an address of a postal matter having a small letter between a town name and a block and classifying the postal matter, wherein an image of the postal matter is acquired. The town name is detected from the image of the postal matter, and it is determined whether or not the recognized town name is an area having a small font number by performing recognition processing on the detected town name with reference to a previously stored town name, and the determination result is obtained. A postal matter classification processing method comprising: performing a recognition process on the block described after a town name recognized on the basis of the block.