JPS5878270A - Optical character reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To change the area in the vertical direction of a character to be cut as required, by cutting characters horizontally if a black cell exists in one column of a sensor and the height of the continuous black cell in this column is within a prescribed range. CONSTITUTION:A character height detecting circuit 14 and a horizontal cutting circuit 15 are added to the conventional device. The output signal of a binary circuit 7 is inputted to this circuit 14, and the circuit 14 measures the length of a continuous black cell in the vertical direction and recognizes the existence of a character to output a character height detection signal HC if said length is longer than A and shorter than B. A narrow character horizontal cutting circuit 15 outputs a narrow character horizontal cutting signal NAVH when a column C1 is white and only a column C2 is black partially and a column C3 and following columns are all white. Signals HC and NAVH are inputted to an AND circuit 16, and the output is sent to an OR circuit 17 together with a horizontal cutting signal VH, and the output of the circuit 17 is sent to a horizontal cutting flag circuit 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an optical character reading device that is modified so that the area in the vertical direction of characters to be cut out can be changed as required.

gt diagram shows an optical character reading device 9 according to the prior art.
This optical character reading device identifies characters by holding a scanner 1 in hand 2 and moving it horizontally over a sheet 3 on which characters are written. More specifically, the paper 3 is irradiated by the land 4, and the character pattern on the paper 3 is imaged onto the sensor 6 via the lens system 5.

This sensor 6 has 4 photoelectric conversion elements (hereinafter referred to as cells) arranged in a planar (two-dimensional) manner. At this time, since the reflected light from the background area of the paper 3 and the reflected light from the character area are different, the corresponding signals obtained in each cell are applied to the control and binarization circuit 7, and the level is judged to be white. A determination is made as to whether or not black is binarized. For example, the background area of paper 3,
In other words, the binary conversion determination result is output with the signal corresponding to black as @1''. An example of the character pattern on the paper 3 being imaged on the sensor 6 is shown in FIG. 2. The control and binarization circuit 7 is an example of the correspondence between the control and binarization circuit 7 and the binary signal output from the control and binarization circuit 7. Output signals corresponding to columns c, l '4s..., Cn sequentially from column C of the top row of birds, and then output signals corresponding to columns c, @c, of the next row of crows.
t c, j...Cn columns, then R, rows, l & then R
The scanning of one screen is completed by outputting signals corresponding to columns c, jc, IC1, . . . , Cn of m rows. The vertical extraction circuit 8 is a circuit that detects a character area in the vertical direction [6], and checks whether or not black cells exist from column C3 to column Cn for each row and determines the range in which the rows in which black cells exist are consecutive. The number (determined from the font size) is the vertical area. In FIG. 2, rows RJ to R are rows in which black cells -I-N are continuously present, and this range is set as a character area, and rows R1 to RJPN are set in the vertical character area register 9. Therefore, when detecting a vertical character area on the next screen, input the previous character area information from the vertical character area register 9 back to the vertical cutting circuit 8 so that the character area does not change significantly from the previous character area. The decision is made taking into consideration. The horizontal cutting circuit 10 is a circuit that judges whether or not a character has reached a predetermined position in the horizontal direction. When a part of the column is black, it indicates that the character has reached a predetermined position, and a horizontal cutting signal VH is output. The horizontal cutting flag circuit 11 is a circuit that is set so that the same character will not be identified twice once the VH signal is output. The cut-out determination circuit 12 is a horizontal cut-out circuit lO to V
When the H signal is output, the horizontal cutting flag circuit 11 also outputs the horizontal cutting 7? This circuit determines whether or not the p character should be identified based on the contents of BFVH. That is, before the horizontal cutting flag BFVH rises, the horizontal cutting signal VH
It is determined that the position in the horizontal (scanning) direction is correct when is output. At this time, the 0 character identification circuit 13, which is cleared every time a horizontal cutout 7-lag BFVHti character is read, is cleared once by the cutout determination circuit 12 in the character area (for example, RJ line to "gala line") when the horizontal position is determined to be correct. Identify characters based on .

Such an optical character reading device is suitable for a device that recognizes fixed-form characters standardized by the JIS standards and the like. This is due to the following reason. In other words, in an optical character reading (optical character reading) device, as shown in FIG. 2, all six columns are white, part of column C1 is black, and likewise column C8.

Column...If part of the Cn column is black, the toe 901 column is white, and there are M or more (HA≧M) columns that have some black in the columns after the C8 column. indicates that it has reached a predetermined position and outputs the horizontal cutting signal VH, and at the same time, if all of the C3 column is white and there are no more than M blacks in the columns after the C1 column, as shown in FIG. This is because the horizontal cutting signal VH is not outputted because it is regarded as dirt N'. On the other hand, in the case of characters such as handwritten characters that have large redundancy compared to standard characters, as shown in Figure 4, the C1 column is all white and the C overlap. When a part of the column is black and all the columns after column Cm are white, which is a narrow character width, that is, when HA<M, the optical character reading device does not output the horizontal cutout signal VH. As described above, the optical character reading device according to the prior art has a drawback in that the horizontal cutout signal VH is often output for narrow characters that are not in a standard size and are designed to be unaffected by dirt.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical character reading device that can cut out even narrow characters outside the surface plate and can also identify barcodes.

To achieve this purpose, the present invention separately counts the length of consecutive black cells in the vertical direction, and determines whether this number is within a predetermined range. ! If it fits within the range, it sends out a signal that it is a character.

The basis of the technical idea is that when the field of view 01 row of the senna contains all black and a predetermined number or more are consecutively black from the upper and lower ends, a signal indicating that it is a barcode is sent out. .

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Note that parts that are the same as those in the prior art are given the same numbers and redundant explanations will be omitted. As shown in FIG. 5, in this embodiment, a character height detection circuit 14 and a thin character horizontal cutting circuit 15 are newly added. Among these, the character height detection circuit 14 inputs the output signal of the binarization circuit 7 and calculates the length of consecutive black cells in the vertical direction from Rh to R11+M in FIG.
The height of the character is detected by counting the height of the character, and if it is greater than or equal to A and less than or equal to B (however, A and B are both positive integers < B), it is recognized as a character and the height of the character is determined. detection signal HC
to appear.

As shown in FIG.
The condition that the 3rd column is white, only the C3 column is partially black, and everything after the cs column is white, that is, even if there are less than M columns with some black in the 0th column after the C, column, one of the 01 columns is When the area is black, it is determined that the character has reached a predetermined position, and a fine character horizontal cutting signal NAVH is output. Then, a character height detection signal HC and a fine character horizontal cutting signal N
AVH serves as both inputs to the AND circuit 16.

The horizontal cutting flutter path 11 receives the horizontal cutting signal VH, which is the output signal of the horizontal cutting circuit 10, and the AND circuit 1.
The output signal of the OR circuit 17 having the output signals of 6 as both inputs is sent out.

Therefore, in the case of a character having a sufficient width, such as a regular character, ' is not only horizontally cut out as in the past, but also the horizontal cutout circuit 10 uses the horizontal cutout signal vHt-
Even if the character is so narrow that it cannot be transmitted, the character height detection signal EC from the character height detection circuit 14 is
The same horizontal cutting is performed (by the narrow character horizontal cutting signal NAVH from the narrow character horizontal cutting circuit 15) on the condition that the narrow character horizontal cutting circuit 15 is used. can be identified] by the character recognition circuit 13.

Figure 6 is JAN (Japan Article @Numb
er) This is between block lines showing another embodiment of the present invention in which a bar code representing information on the width of a book such as a book can also be identified. Accordingly, as shown in the figure, one embodiment further includes a barcode detection circuit 19. It has a state determination circuit 20 and a barcode identification circuit 21. Of these, the barcode detection circuit 19 determines that it is Perco V when all the dams 1 in the field of view of the sensor 6 contain black and a predetermined number or more are consecutively black from the upper and lower ends, and outputs a barcode detection signal BD. Send out. That is, the barcode shape, the seventh
As shown in FIG. 7(Jl) to FIG. 7(c), at least either the upper end or the lower end should be black and the black should be continuous to some extent.

The state determination circuit 20 only needs to detect one of these states.
Then, by inputting the barcode detection signal BD, the input dart (not shown) of the character identification circuit 13 is blocked, and the input f-) (not shown) of the code identification circuit 21 is opened. Allows information to be imported into this.

That is, the character identification circuit 13 and the barcode identification circuit 21 do not operate at the same time, but only one of them operates. In addition to the same function as the horizontal cutting circuit 15, it also has a function of detecting the width of the input signal in the horizontal direction. -Code identification circuit 2
Send to 1. Thus, the No. 1 code selection circuit 21 outputs information corresponding to the No. 4 code width signal BYH based on the No. 4 code width signal BYH. Furthermore.

The output of the cutout determination circuit 12 is input to the barcode identification circuit 21 .

Therefore, according to this embodiment, barcodes can be identified in addition to regular characters with sufficient width and narrow characters. More specifically, when the barcode detection signal BD is sent from the A-code detection circuit 19, the 9 barcode identification circuit 21 operates instead of the character identification circuit 13, and the barcode width signal from the narrow character horizontal cutting circuit 18 is activated. BVH will be introduced. At this time, at least the fine character horizontal clipping circuit 18 sends out the fine character horizontal clipping signal NAVH, and the horizontal clipping flag circuit 11 and clipping determination circuit 12 also operate, so that the same bar code will not be read twice.

As explained in detail above along with the embodiments.

According to the present invention, if there are black cells in one row of senna (To) and the height of consecutive black cells in that row is within a predetermined range, horizontal cutting is performed, so even if the character is narrow. Horizontal cutting of this can be done. Further, when a barcode detection circuit and a barcode identification circuit for detecting barcodes are added, horizontal cutting and identification of barcodes can be performed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

A block diagram showing an optical character reading device according to the prior art, FIGS. 2 and 4 are explanatory diagrams showing the positional relationship between the sensor and characters, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a reading target. , FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
The figure is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
a) to FIG. 7(C) are explanatory diagrams showing the positional relationship between Percot P and Senna, respectively. In the drawing. 1 is a scanner. 2 is the hand. 3 is paper. 4 is a lamp. 5 is the lens system. 6 is a sensor, 7 is a binarization circuit. 8 is a 1 direct cutting circuit, 9 is a vertical character area register, 10 is a horizontal cutting circuit, 1'l is a horizontal cutting flag circuit, and 12 is a cutting judgment circuit. 13 is a character recognition circuit. 14 company character height detection circuit, 15.18 is a thin character horizontal cutting circuit. 16 is an AND circuit, and 17 is an OR circuit. 19 is a barcode detection circuit. 20 is a state determination circuit, and 21 is a purpose identification circuit. Patent applicant Sumitomo Electric Industries Co., Ltd. Patent attorney Tsushibe Mitsuishi (and 14 others) Figure 1 Figure 2 HA Figure 3 Figure 4 fl-A Figure 7 (0) (b) (C)

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Characters, symbols, etc. are imaged on a sensor formed by arranging photoelectric conversion elements in a planar manner, thereby converting them into black and white levels for each photoelectric conversion element, and forming a row in which black O photoelectric conversion elements are present in a part. In an optical character reading device, horizontal extraction is performed by the presence of some black photoelectric conversion elements in a predetermined number or more columns following the sensor; (Tol) and the height of consecutive black photoelectric conversion elements in that row is within a predetermined range sufficient to represent a character, horizontal cutting is performed.] Device. (2) Characters, symbols, etc. are imaged on a sensor formed by arranging photoelectric conversion elements in a planar shape, converting them into black and white levels for each photoelectric conversion element, and some rows have black photoelectric conversion elements. In an optical character reading device that performs horizontal extraction by the presence of some black photoelectric conversion elements in a predetermined number or more columns following Even if the height of continuous black photoelectric conversion elements in that row is within a predetermined range that is sufficient to represent characters, if horizontal cutting is performed, one row of senna will be completely cut out. Including cases where the photoelectric conversion elements are black, if a predetermined number or more of photoelectric conversion elements are consecutively black from the upper and lower ends of the hair, it is determined to be a /4-code, and a separate barcode identification circuit is driven. An optical character reading device characterized by: