JPS5870376A - Optical character reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a work for arranging a tag unnecessary, by providing a position detecting mechanism on the way of a carrying path, detecting the surface and back, forward and reverse of the tag, and executing the forward and reverse processings at the processing part by using one head and the other head in case of the surface and in case of the back, respectively. CONSTITUTION:On the way of a carrying path 5 through which a tag (price card) 2 is fed, a sensor 6a for detecting a mark position put on this tag is placed, this sensor 6a detects in which direction the tag is fed, in the surface, back, forward or reverse direction, it is decided by a deciding part 6, and a result of decision is outputted to a processing part 9 of the optical character reader body. In the rear of said sensor 6a, heads 7, 8 for the surface and the back are provided, and a binary-coded character read signal from the heads 7, 8 is stored in a forward and reverse character picture buffer 9A. In this state, in case when a signal from said deciding part 6 is sent in the forward direction, it is read out as it is from said forward and reverse character picture buffer 9A, and in case when said signal is sent in the reverse direction, it is read out by exchanging the left and the right, by which the forward and reverse processings are executed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an optical character reading device that can read data displayed on a tag regardless of whether the data is displayed on the front or back, and whether it is in the forward or reverse direction.

Generally, data such as price and size are written on a tag (price tag) attached to a product. In order to manage the purchase and sales of products, it is necessary to batch process this tag data using a batch reader. However, conventional batch readers can only read tags placed in one direction, for example, the front side. Therefore, in the above-mentioned reading, it is necessary to align the tags in the forward direction of the front side, which requires a lot of time.

In addition, when reading tags placed separately on the front or back and forward or reverse in one scan, four optical character reading device bodies are required.

In this case, the arrangement of four optical character reading apparatuses has the disadvantage of being very expensive and large in terms of the price and installation space of the optical character reading apparatus itself.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a low-cost, small-sized optical character reading device that does not require the work of arranging tags and does not require as many as four optical character reading device bodies.

In order to achieve this object, the present invention includes a sensor of a position detection mechanism that detects the position of the mark attached to the tag in the middle of the conveyance path where the tag is sent, and an optical sensor that is controlled by the position detection mechanism. The present invention is characterized in that the head of the main body of the character reading device is provided opposite to the conveyance path.

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. In Figure 1, inside the hopper 1, there are tags 2 on which data such as product codes and prices are displayed, on the front side, on the back side,
They are stored without being aligned in either the forward or reverse direction. A feed row 23 is provided adjacent to the hopper 1 to send the lowest stacked tags 2 to a conveyance path to be described later. A belt 4 exists near the exit of the tag 2 on the feed roller 3 for pinching and feeding the tag 2. belt 4
extends to form a conveyance path 5.

Sensors 6a are placed on both sides of the belt 4 near the feed roller 3. This sensor 6a detects whether the tag 2 is being fed in the transport path 5, front side or back side, forward direction or reverse direction. The sensor 6a is connected to a determination section 6, which determines whether the tag 20 is front or back, forward or reverse, and outputs the determination result to a processing section of the optical character reading device main body, which will be described later.

Heads 7 and 8 of the main body of the optical character reading device are arranged on both sides of the bell l-4, facing the conveyance path 5 behind the sensor 6a in the tag 2 feeding direction. This head 7
and 8 are connected to a processing section 9 of the main body of the optical character reading device.

This processing section 9 is a forward character screen buffer section 9A and a reverse character screen buffer section 9A, respectively.
, a character identification section 9B, and a data processing and external interface 9C. This forward/reverse character screen buffer 9A
temporarily omit the binary signals from heads 7 and 8,
It has a function of storing and reading out, and if the signal from the stop/reverse direction determination unit 6 is in the forward direction, and if it is in the opposite direction, the left and right signals are swapped and read out.

In addition, the character recognition unit 9B extracts line features and partial features and adds them to the character recognition unit, and also applies a character extraction signal to the character recognition unit when character extraction is successful. Character recognition is then performed based on the line features and partial features, and if the character cannot be recognized, a signal is output. Further, the data processing and external interface constitutes a connection unit for processing information on which characters have been recognized and sending it to the outside.

Here, the operation of the optical character reading device of this embodiment will be explained. The tag 2 located at the lowest position in the hopper 1 is sent out from the feed roller 3 and runs in the conveyance path 5 while being sandwiched between the belts 4. In the middle of the conveyance path 5, the tag 2 passes between the sensors 6a. The sensor 6a detects the position of the mark (hole) 10 attached to the tag 2 as shown in FIG. 2(5).

The determination unit 6 calculates the time from the edge of the tag 2.

C and positions a and d, and the transportation state of tag 2 is detected as a second
The front side is in the normal direction as shown in Figure (B), the back side is in the normal direction as shown in Figure 2 (0), the front side is in the opposite direction as in Figure 2 (2), and the back side is in the reverse direction as in Figure 2 (G). The output of the determination unit 6 indicates that if the conveyance state of the tag 2 is on the front side in FIGS. 2(B) and (2), the head 8 is prepared for reading, and
0. On the back side shown in (G), the processing unit 9 is controlled to prepare the head 7 for reading. Figure 2 CB)
, (C'), (D).

The combinations of front, back, forward, and reverse shown in (g) are shown at a logical level in Figure 3.

Next, when the tag 2 is sent through the conveyance path 5 and the data of the tag 2 is input to the head 7 or 8, the output determined by the determination section 6 is corrected.

The above-mentioned processing is performed in the reverse character screen buffer 9A,
Data processing is performed via the character identifier 9B and the data is sent to an external device.

As explained in the embodiments above, according to the present invention, a position detection mechanism consisting of a sensor and a determination section is provided in the middle of the conveyance path to detect whether the tag is front, back, forward, or reverse. In the case of the back of the head, by using the other head and performing forward and reverse processing in the processing section, there is no need to align the tags as in the past, and four optical character readers are no longer required. , a low-priced and small-sized product was obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the optical character reading device according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the state of determining whether the tag is front or back, and FIG.・It is a correlation diagram showing reverse, forward, and reverse logic levels. In the drawings, 2 is a tag, 5 is a conveyance path, 6 is a determination section, 6a is a sensor, 7.8 is a head, 9 is a processing section, and 10 is a mark. Patent applicant: Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. Representative: Patent attorney: Shibu Mitsuishi (and one other person) Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] A sensor for a position detection mechanism is installed in the conveyance path where the tag is sent to detect the position of the mark attached to the tag, and the head of the optical character reading device, which is controlled by this position detection mechanism, is placed in the conveyance path. Opposite optical character reading device.