JPS60179887A - Character reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To read out characters of which intervals are not fixed by finding out a circumscribed frame from the right and left, and upper and lower end parts of a character pattern, determining the segmenting areas of the character pattern and transferring the areas to a character pattern memory. CONSTITUTION:A character image is inputted to a line buffer 6b through an input part 6a. The entered block is accessed from the left end successively in the descending direction by a line buffer control part 6d and images on the line buffer 6b are successively checked by a black point detecting part 6e. At the time of a scanning line 6, the first black point is detected and the position X1 becomes the circumscribed frame on the left side. To find out the right circumscribed frame, scanning is continued up to a scanning line 10 detecting one white row and the row X2 arranged immediately before the scanning line becomes the right circumscribed frame. At the time of finding the right circumscribed frame, the image of the line buffer 6b is transmitted also to a projected information forming part 6f, so that the projected information of the lateral pattern is formed. If it is defined that the upper end and lower end of the projected information are Y1, Y2 respectively, a part surrounded by positions X1, X2, Y1, Y2 is detected by a character pattern area detecting part 6j.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character reading device α, and more particularly to pattern recognition of an optical character reading device tube, and particularly to cutting out character patterns.

Description of the Prior Art Conventionally, the character entry frame for handwritten characters consists of one frame for each character as shown in Fig. 1, and a recognition unit recognizes the pattern in the range corresponding to each character frame in the line buffer. was being transferred to. Therefore, it is necessary to write so that it fits within each frame, which tends to give a feeling of being constrained when writing, and when characters protrude from the frame, it may not be possible to cut them out properly.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional art, and therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a character frame for handwritten characters with multiple characters instead of the conventional one per character. It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel character reading device +'i which can cut out characters written in one character writing block (see FIG. 2) with irregular intervals between characters.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel character reading device which can also cut out characters written on a form whose character entry block does not have a dropout color.

Bottom of the Invention In order to achieve the above object, a character reading device according to the present invention includes a line buffer capable of storing three plurality of character patterns, a circuit having a function of searching for black dots in the line buffer, and a line buffer capable of storing a plurality of character patterns. a circuit that has a function of detecting a vertical or horizontal line of white dots in the buffer; a circuit that has a function of creating projection information of black dots in the vertical and horizontal directions in the row buffer;
a circuit having a function of detecting and cutting out individual character areas of the character pattern in the line buffer; a circuit having a function of transferring the character pattern of the line buffer to a character pattern memory; and recognizing the contents of the character pattern memory. The present invention is characterized in that it is configured to include a circuit, and is capable of reading characters written in a character entry block where the spacing between characters is not constant.

Principle of the Invention The present invention detects the left edge of a character pattern by searching for a black point in a line buffer, then searches for one column of self-effects to locate the right edge of that character, and then searches one line in the vertical direction. Searching for the own line of , a circumscribed frame of the upper, lower, left, and right character patterns is placed,
The area for cutting out the character pattern along the circumscribed frame that has accumulated is determined and transferred to the character pattern memory.

3. Detailed Description of the Invention Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

Conventionally, in the image imported into the line buffer, one character is written in each character frame as shown in Figure 5, so the area corresponding to the character frame on the form is transferred to the character pattern memory. Ta. However, if the character pattern protrudes beyond the raised character frame, the character pattern is cut off and becomes unreadable, so the character must be written within the character frame, giving a feeling of restriction when writing.

Therefore, the free pitch extraction according to the present invention, which reduces the feeling of restriction during entry, will be described below. FIG. 6 is an overall block diagram showing an embodiment of the character reading device according to the present invention, which is equipped with a free pitch cutout function. An image of the row buffer in the case of The dots in Figure 7 are
An image corresponding to the character entry block on the form,
It does not actually exist on the row buffer.

The character image is input to the line buffer 6b through the input section 6a as shown in FIG. Next, the row buffer control section 6d sequentially accesses the inside of the reporter block from the left end to the bottom, and the black dot detection section 6e sequentially examines the images on the row buffer 6b. The first black is detected at scanning line 60 in FIG. 8, and this position x1 becomes the left circumscribing frame of the character. Next, when setting the right circumscribing frame, as shown in FIG. 9, scanning of the row buffer 6b is continued until one column of self-effects is detected. Since the self-effect is detected at scanning line 10 in FIG. 9, the column x2 one scanning line before is the position on the right side of the circumscribing frame. Also, when setting the right circumscribed frame, the line buffer 6 is also sent to the projection information creation unit 6f.
The image of b is sent, thereby creating the projection information of the lateral pattern. The upper end of this projection information is Yl
, the lower end is Y2, then the positions Xt, X(Y+, Y2
The area surrounded by (see FIG. 10) is detected by the character pattern area detection section 6J, and the area is transferred to the character pattern memo IJ6c, and the cutting out of the character pattern is completed. After the character pattern is transferred, the content of the p character pattern memory 176c is recognized by the recognition unit 6g, and the result is output to the outside.

Thereafter, in the same way, a point search, a white side search, and projection information are performed, a circumscribed frame of a character is set, and character patterns are sequentially cut out.

In this way, since the position of the character is searched, the character can be correctly extracted and recognized even if the spacing between characters is not a constant pitch or if the character extends beyond the writing frame.

The case where the character entry frame has a dropout color has been described above, but the case where the one character entry block does not have a dropout color will be described below.

FIG. 11 shows an image of the line buffer when the character entry block has a color other than the dropout color shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. In this case, the entry frame appears as an image on the line buffer, so first determine the position of the entry frame in advance using black point search and self-effect or self-run search. Similarly, by searching within the character entry block frame, character patterns can be cut out.

In the above explanation, characters are cut out sequentially from the left side, but characters can also be cut out from the right side in a similar manner.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, the present invention has the effect of being able to read characters written at unspecified intervals in a character entry block frame, rather than characters written in a character entry frame at regular intervals. It also has the effect of making it possible to read forms that use entry frames other than drop-out colors.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 shows a conventional character frame printed in dropout color, and Figure 2 shows a conventional character entry block printed in dropout color as a character witness block. (The pitch does not necessarily have to be constant)
, Figures 3 and 4 are diagrams showing character entry blocks for cases other than dropout colors (thicker than Figure 2. Figure 3 shows the text pitch guidelines), Figure 5 The figure shows an image of the characters written on the form in the character frame shown in Figure 1 on the line buffer, and Figure 6 shows an overall diagram of an embodiment of the free-pitch cutout character reading device according to the present invention. Block configuration diagram, Figure 7 is a diagram showing an image on the line buffer of characters entered in the form of the character entry block shown in Figure 2, Figure 8 is a diagram of the black dot search to fit the circumscribed frame on the left side. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the operation, and FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the automatic search operation and an example of the projection information for entering the right circumscribed frame. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the projection information. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a circumscribing frame, and is a diagram showing an image of characters written on a form in the character entry block of FIG. 4 on a line buffer. 6a...Character image input section, 6b...Line buffer, 6C...Pattern memory, 6d...Line buffer control section, 6e...Black dot and own line/self-interest detection section, 6f.
...Projection information creation department. 6g...Pattern recognition section, 6h...Overall control section, 6j...Character pattern area detection section Agent Patent attorney *m 8 Mongrel. Small x 1 x 2] - One sale;. Figure 10 Figure 11

Claims (1)

[Claims] A line buffer into which a plurality of character patterns can be written, a circuit having a function of searching for a black dot in the line buffer, a circuit having a function of detecting a vertical or horizontal line of white dots in the line buffer, and a circuit having a function of detecting a white dot in a vertical or horizontal line within the line buffer; a circuit having a function of creating black point projection information in vertical and horizontal directions; a circuit having a function of detecting individual character regions of a character pattern in the line buffer; and a circuit having a function of detecting individual character areas of a character pattern in the line buffer; 1. A character reading device comprising: a circuit having a function of transmitting data to the character pattern memory; and a circuit recognizing the contents of the character pattern memory.