JPS5935068B2 - Recognition device for characters, figures, etc. - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a character recognition device that is most suitable for optical reading devices for characters, graphics, etc.

In the case of this type of recognition device, in order to confirm the reading pattern information such as optical characters such as a fly fender spot scanner, characters read by a figure reading device, figures, etc., this reading pattern information and a pre-prepared A so-called fixed point matching method that uses a mask having a viewing window for each mesh is known as one means for comparing and symmetrical information with a plurality of standard pattern information. However, when characters, figures, etc. are optically scanned and read using an optical character/figure reading device, the quality of the letters, figures, etc. seen from an optical standpoint is not necessarily constant; Due to the extremely unstable quality of the target text and graphics, such as stains on the backing paper, scratches on the text and graphics, and non-uniformity of the wires that make up the characters and graphics, the above-mentioned fixed point matching Recognizing characters and figures using the method was extremely inaccurate and inefficient. The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned situation, and it is possible to detect a reading pattern at specified coordinates within a certain area in reading pattern information from target characters, figures, etc. The reading pattern information is determined by comparing the information with a specified mask from a plurality of masks prepared in advance, and as a specific means, at least several meshes are detected within the area of the specified mask. Characters and figures that can shorten the processing time by making decisions over a wide area at once, and reduce the number of types of standard patterns required to reduce the capacity of the storage device. The aim is to provide a reading information storage device that stores a certain amount of reading information read by an optical reading device such as characters and figures, and a large number of standard patterns given in advance. a standard pattern information storage device that stores information, a converter that outputs a coordinate designation signal, a mask designation signal, and a threshold designation signal corresponding to the specified standard 5 quasi-pattern read out by a control signal from a control device; an adder for adding a certain amount of information obtained by masking certain read information in the read information storage device designated by the signal using mask information extracted from a mask selection circuit in response to the mask designation signal; A comparator that compares the added value in the adder with a certain constant based on the threshold value designation signal, a counter that counts the output in response to a certain value or more in the comparator, and a count output of the counter This is a recognition device for characters, figures, etc., characterized in that it is equipped with a collation device that collates the specified standard pattern information with the specific standard pattern information and outputs the code information.

That is, the read information actually contains extra noise and blurring depending on the condition of the paper on which the characters are written and the quality of the characters, and if this remains the case, good recognition cannot be achieved. The present invention deals with such information by setting a mask containing a plurality of meshes, counting the number of black spots in the mask, and comparing the counting result with a predetermined threshold to determine whether the entire mesh is black or white. This eliminates the effects of noise and blur mentioned above. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to an embodiment of a recognition device for characters, figures, etc. shown in the accompanying drawings.

In the accompanying drawings, a read information storage device 1 is a memory such as a shift register, for example.
For example, read information for each unit, such as a single character, is read by an optical character, figure, etc. reading device (not shown) such as a flying spot scanner, and is subjected to preprocessing such as normalization. (hereinafter simply referred to as read information) is sequentially input and stored.

Further, the standard pattern information storage device 2, so-called reference lens pattern memory, stores in advance a large amount of standard pattern information required to represent characters, figures, etc. According to the control signal, the standard pattern information stored in the standard pattern information storage device 2 is sequentially read out to the converter 4, and the coordinate designation signal a corresponding to the read specific standard pattern information is read out.
1 mask designation signal b and threshold value designation signal c to the same converter 4.
It is designed to output from. Here, the coordinate designation signal a is a signal that sequentially designates the center point of the range to be read using, for example, XY coordinates, and is given to the read information storage device 1, and the mask designation signal b teeth,
A plurality of pieces of mask information prepared in advance are sent to the mask selection circuit 5 in relation to the coordinate designation signal a,
Performing selected masking on the read information of a certain area whose coordinates are specified from the read information storage device 1,
Certain information confirmed within the masking area, such as black dots (hereinafter referred to as black dots) of characters and figures, is sent to the adder 6, and the adder 6 uses, for example, a parallel adder. In this comparator 7, the sum of the black points in the masking area selected as described above is obtained and the sum is given to the comparator 7. given from converter 4. The threshold designation signal c and the added value are compared.

As a result of the comparison, if the number of black points is greater than the threshold value, the mask area is determined to be black. Therefore, the threshold value given under the above conditions is given as a certain constant in the specified standard pattern information or the specified masking area at the specified coordinates, and the slope of the readout information For example, if the added value is larger than the constant, it is determined that the area has a dark spot, and if the opposite is true, it is determined that the area is a white spot. When the information of the specified masking area at the specified coordinates is compared with the specific standard pattern information, the criterion should be that the result should be larger or smaller than the constant. It is.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a counter 8 is provided which operates upon receiving the comparison output when the added value is greater than or equal to the constant as a result of the above comparison operation, and the output of the counter 8 is The reading information such as characters and figures is sent to the reference device 9 and is sent to the output device 10 as a fixed output by referring to the delimiter signal T sent from the control circuit 3.

That is, the counter 8 counts the results for each mask defined according to the standard pattern information, that is, the judgment that the pattern is the same as the standard pattern because it is black, or that it is the same as the standard pattern because it is white. go. When the counting for one character with respect to the standard pattern is completed, the counting result is sent to the reference device 9, and if it is larger than a predetermined value, the character to be recognized is determined to be a character corresponding to the standard pattern. Note that the delimiter signal T is the end signal of all confirmation operations for one piece of standard pattern information selected from the standard pattern information storage device 2, and at the same time,
This is code information unique to standard pattern information.

Therefore, the collation device 9 compares the information for one character sent from the counter 8 with the code information of the specific standard pattern information described above to see if it corresponds to the code information, and compares the code information of the specific standard pattern information. Information corresponding to the code information can be output only when both pieces of information match.

Further, this collation device 9 may be of any configuration as long as it has the above-mentioned functions.Furthermore, after the recognition operation for one character based on the read information is completed, the collation device 9 extracts the next standard pattern information. , or the signal system for clearing the counter 8 and resetting other equipment, it goes without saying that a conventionally known command system may be used, and a detailed explanation will not be given here. As is clear from the above description, in this invention, the trend of read information in several mesh areas is judged at once, and the standard pattern information is finally referenced to determine the target character, figure, etc. Since it recognizes dirt on paper mounts, letters,
Quality of characters from an optical standpoint due to force deviation in shapes, non-uniformity of wires that make up characters and shapes, breaks, etc.
Or, it can accurately recognize characters, figures, etc. without being affected by quality deterioration due to variations in normalization processing, and at the same time uses a decomposition method based on three conditions: coordinate specification, mask specification, and threshold specification. Therefore, it has the advantage that the storage capacity of the standard pattern information storage device can be made extremely small.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figure is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the apparatus for recognizing characters, figures, etc. according to the present invention. 1... Read information storage device, 2... Standard pattern information storage device, 3... Control circuit, 4
......Converter, 5...Mask selection circuit,
6... Adder, 7... Comparator, 8...
...Counter, 9...Reference device, 10...
...Output device, a...Coordinate designation signal, b...
...Mask designation signal, c...1 threshold designation signal.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A read information storage device that stores read information obtained by optically sequentially reading characters, figures, etc. as a mesh pattern, and at least one mask configured to include a plurality of meshes corresponding to a standard pattern given in advance. and a standard pattern information storage device that stores standard pattern information in which the coordinates at which the mask is located in the mesh pattern are defined, respectively; an adder that adds up the number of meshes having the logic; a comparator that compares the output of the adder with a predetermined threshold value to determine whether the inside of the mask matches a standard pattern; and a comparison result of the comparator. A recognition device for characters, figures, etc., comprising: a reference device that determines whether read information is the standard pattern by accumulating the information for all masks for the standard pattern.