JPS60144882A - Optical character reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To read easily characters despite mixture of a form set upside down by using plural photodetector to discriminate the corner cut and the round corner of the form and the inverting and converting a character pattern stored in a dictionary. CONSTITUTION:A photodetector 1 is packaged so as to touch the corner cut and round corner part of a form. When the form passes in the normal direction, a photodetector 2 is covered first by the form owing to the corner cut. Then the element 1 is covered by the form. In this case, an FF19 is not set by the functions of gate circuits 15, 16, 18, etc. Then the output of a terminal E is set at ''1'', and a normal character dictionary 11 is connected to a discriminating circuit 9. When a form set upside down passes through, the outputs of both photodetectors 1 and 2 are supplied simultaneously to gate circuits 15 and 16. Then the FF19 is set and the output of a terminal F is set at ''1''. In this case, an upside-down character dictionary is connected to the circuit 9 to perform collation with a read pattern set upside down. Then the read result is delivered.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to an optical character reading device.

Conventionally, this type of device checks in advance whether the characters on the form to be read are normal or upside-down.
The forms had to be aligned vertically. Furthermore, if an upside-down form is mixed in after reading has started, it is necessary to temporarily stop the apparatus, reset the direction of the form, and restart the apparatus.

As described above, in conventional devices, if a document is mixed in with an upside-down document, data is often read incorrectly or cannot be read, resulting in poor reading efficiency. In addition, there have been problems with operability, such as arranging the forms is troublesome.Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide an IT that can easily read the characters on the forms, even if the forms are upside down. It's about doing.

According to the present invention, an optical character reading device that optically reads characters printed, printed or handwritten on a form, and reads the characters by comparing the read characters with a reference character pattern and recognizing them. Provided with means for providing corner cuts and round corners on the form, identifying whether characters to be read are normal characters or upside down characters by identifying the vertical direction of the form, and selecting a corresponding character pattern according to the content,
To obtain an optical character reading device which can easily read characters on a form even if they are normal characters or upside down characters.

Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings showing one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the light receiving elements 1.2 are mounted as shown in the feed direction of the form 11, and the light receiving element 1 is mounted so as to correspond to the corner cut and round corner portions of the form 3. has been done.

``Also, the form 3 includes a form upside down like the form 3 in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 3, the optical reading device Jgc of this embodiment includes an OR gate circuit 15 and an AND gate circuit 16 into which the output of the light receiving element 1.2 is input, and a detection pulse delayed by a certain period of time after receiving the output from the OR gate circuit 15. an AND gate circuit 18 which receives the outputs from the AND gate circuit 16 and the detection pulse generation circuit 17, and receives the output to select whether the form 3 is in the normal direction or upside down. The flip-flop circuit 19 has a flip-flop circuit 19. The characters on the form 3 are irradiated by a lamp 4, and the reflected light passes through the lens 5 and is read and supplied to the light receiving element 6, where the photoelectric conversion circuit 7 converts the brightness of the light into an electrical signal, which is then sent to the binarization circuit 8. Supplied. The binarization circuit 8 converts it into a binarized character pattern and supplies it to the identification circuit 9.

On the other hand, the flip-flop circuit 19 is set or reset depending on whether the form 3 is in the normal direction or in the upside down direction, and enables either the AND gate circuit 12 or the questionnaire circuit 13. Connected to the input of the AND gate circuit 12 is the upside down character solving 10 and the AND gate circuit 1
The normal character dictionary 11"t? is connected to the input of 3.
6ru.

When a form in the normal direction passes over the light-receiving element 1.2, the corner cut of the form 3 causes the light-receiving element 2 to be hidden by the form first, and the light-receiving element 1 to be hidden a little later. The output is input to the OR gate circuit 15 and the AND gate (L) path a little later than the output of the light receiving element 2. The output of the OR gate circuit 15 is the output of the light receiving element 2, and the output of the CAND gate circuit 16 is the output of the light receiving element 1.

The pulse delayed by a certain period of time by the detection pulse generation circuit 17 and the output of the AND gate circuit 16 are connected to the AND gate circuit 1.
If the output of the AND gate circuit 16' is longer than the fixed-time delayed pulse of the detection pulse generation circuit 17, the AND gate circuit 18 does not generate an AND signal, and the flip-flop circuit is activated as shown in FIG. 19 is set no 1. Therefore, the output power of F is βl〃.
3 and the AND gate circuit 13 becomes valid. Therefore, in the case of a document in the normal direction, it is ANDed with the normal character dictionary 11, and is supplied as a normal character to the identification circuit 9, where it is compared with the 7+- reading pattern and the reading result is output.

Next, when the upside down form passes over the light receiving element 1.2, the output of the light receiving element 1.2 is simultaneously transmitted to the OR gate circuit 15.
and is input to AND gate (b) path 16. The AND gate circuit 18 receives a fixed time delay fL7' (the detection pulse and the output of the AND gate circuit 16, and performs an AND operation. Therefore, a small flip-flop 19 is set in FIG. The output becomes %l and is input to the AND gate circuit 12, and the AND gate circuit 111
2 becomes 1 effect. Therefore, when increasing the number of documents in the upside-down direction, the output from the upside-down character dictionary 1O becomes valid and is supplied to the identification circuit 9 through the OR gate circuit 14, where it is compared with the reading pattern and outputs the reading result.

As described above, the present invention uses a plurality of light-receiving elements to identify corner cuts and round corners of a form, thereby making it possible to easily read both normal characters and -E upside-down characters on a form.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the flow of forms fL in the normal direction, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the flow of forms in the upside down direction, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the U91J, which is a part of the present invention, and Fig. 4 The figure shows a time chart for a form in the normal direction. Figure 5 shows a time chart for lifting a form in an upside-down direction. 1... Light-receiving element 1.2... Light receiving screen 2
, 3... Ledger, 4... Lamp, 5...
...Lens, 6...Long, light receiving and receiving element, 7...
... light, conversion order, 8... binarization circuit,
9...Identification circuit, 10...'': Downside down yIY writing, 11...Normal handwriting lip, 12...
...AND gate circuit, 13...AND gate circuit, 14...OR gate circuit, 15...
... Shear gate 1: path, 16 ... AND gate circuit, 17 ... detection pulse generation circuit, 18
......AND gate circuit, 19...Flip-flop circuit. Figure 4 [Yes] --- "-1■'b"□ (3 to evening) 5th sentence

Claims (1)

[Claims] a corner-cut information medium; a plurality of light receiving elements arranged on a conveyance path of the medium in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the medium, at least one of which is disposed at a passing position of the corner cut; a medium direction identification circuit comprising means for identifying the vertical direction of the medium during conveyance based on a difference in the output timing of signals from the individual light receiving elements; and an optical means for determining a character pattern read from the medium. an inverting circuit for inverting character patterns stored in the character dictionary; an identification circuit for character patterns; and a signal from the direction identification circuit to convert the contents of the character dictionary to the An optical character reading device characterized in that the content of the inverting circuit is applied to an identification circuit, and when the signal from the detection circuit is in another state, the content of the inversion circuit is applied to the identification circuit.