JPS6115478B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a medium (form) processing device typified by an optical character reading device, an optical mark reading device, and a card reading device. In particular, it relates to a method for handling jams that occur during reading and conveyance.

Taking an optical character reading device (hereinafter referred to as OCR) as an example, an overview of a form processing device and a conventional reading jam processing method will be explained.

Normally, in OCR, as shown in FIG. 1, documents on a hopper 1 are taken out one by one by a pick-up roller 2, and the documents are stopped at a reading station 3 and scanned, or the documents are scanned while in a running state. The character pattern is taken in and recognized, and stored in the accept stacker 5 or reject stacker 6 by the stacker selection mechanism 4 according to the result. Detectors 7, 8, 9, and 10 are arranged on the road, and the forms are processed one after another at regular intervals. However, in actual business, folded or wrinkled forms are to be processed, so that a so-called form jam occurs where a portion of the travel path becomes clogged. In these cases,
In order to prevent other forms from becoming jammed, OCR normally stops the entire running system that detects the occurrence of a jam. Jam detection is
It counts the time the form passes between two detectors on the road and the time it blocks one detector.
If it is longer than a certain length, we usually use a method of jamming it. However, since the length of the documents that are subject to processing is usually wide, a certain amount of time is required from the time a jam occurs until it is detected. It often happens that it is not clear which forms have been successfully processed. Conventionally, there is a method to deal with this problem, for example, if the forms form a batch, the process is re-processed from the beginning of the batch. However, this clearly has the disadvantage of reduced throughput. Next, it is possible to make the detection of jams in the form more sensitive and clearly distinguish unprocessed forms, but as mentioned above, this inevitably increases the interval between the forms, resulting in a reduction in processing speed. Next, there are methods such as placing a mark on the processed form, for example, or adding a number in conjunction with subsequent processing. However, it is necessary to use a complex control circuit to track and manage the forms that have been successfully processed through various data checks, and to place marks and numbering on the forms that are normal. There is a limit to the reliability of only inputting data to already processed forms, resulting in double processing of form data or conversely data evaporation. This method also has the disadvantage that it is not possible to process the same form more than once, making it inconvenient for data processing.

An object of the present invention is to provide a form jam that, when a form jam occurs, distinguishes processed forms from unprocessed forms and continues form processing smoothly without performing any processing on the form or reducing the throughput of the device. The purpose is to provide a processing method.

A feature of the present invention is that when a jam occurs, the last processed form data is displayed on a display device to distinguish between processed forms and unprocessed forms.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below. In Figure 2
A typical functional block diagram of OCR and a jam processing circuit of the present invention are also shown. The character pattern on the form 21 is photoelectrically converted by the video circuit 22, converted into black and white binarized by the preprocessing circuit 23, and subjected to preprocessing such as line edge smoothing and noise processing, cut out character by character, and sent to the pattern buffer 24. Stored. The character patterns in the PDF are sequentially read out by the recognition circuit 25, and as a result of recognition processing, the corresponding category is output as data. Next, the data editing circuit 26
edits the recognition result according to the format table information of the form given in advance to the format table 27 and stores it in the data buffer 28. In this embodiment, the data buffer is assumed to be in a two-buffer format, and the output control circuit 29 sequentially transfers the data in the buffer that has been stored by the editing circuit to the output device 3.
0, for example, to a floppy disk device.
Note that each data buffer normally has a capacity equivalent to one document. If there is character data that cannot be read by OCR on the form or if an error is detected as a result of data check, the contents in the data buffer are displayed on the display 32 by the keyboard/display control circuit 31. Note that there are many cases in which image patterns of characters that cannot be read by OCR are also displayed at the same time, but they are omitted here. The operator compares the content displayed on the display with the form, inputs correct information into the corresponding area from the keyboard 33, and performs correction processing. Further, when a form jam occurs on the travel path, the jam detection circuit 35 detects this based on a signal from the travel detector 34 and the drive unit 3
6 is given an instruction to stop running. The above is normal OCR processing, and the contents of each circuit are accomplished using well-known techniques. The present invention follows the jam processing circuit 37 described above, which is a typical configuration of OCR.

When the jam processing circuit 37 receives the jam detection signal 301 output from the jam detection circuit 35, the output control circuit 29 inquires whether the output device 30 is transferring data (busy), and if it is busy, the transfer is completed. Wait until the busy state ends. That is, for data that has already undergone recognition processing and data editing processing and is being output as one form, the output transfer operation to the output device 30 is completed regardless of the form jam. As a result, when the contents of the data buffer are displayed on the display in subsequent processing, it is always possible to have one-to-one correspondence with the data finally output to the output device. Another example is to read the data directly from the output device without using the data in the data buffer as data for subsequent processing, or in the case of an online type, to transfer the data from the host system and use it. It's easy. Regardless of the form described above, the jam processing circuit subsequently instructs the keyboard/display control circuit 31 to display data 302 in the data buffer (corresponding data in other forms) on the display. When the operator generates a start key signal 306 by operating the keyboard to separate processed and unprocessed forms according to the content displayed on the display and continue the OCR operation, the operation of the jam processing circuit is completed and the OCR operation starts again. be done. Note that the operation of the jam processing circuit does not start immediately upon detection of a jam as described above, but can be easily started by pressing a corresponding key on the keyboard as necessary based on the judgment of the operator.

The jam processing circuit and its operation will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of the jam processing circuit, and FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram of each part in FIG. 3, where a shows the waveform when the output control circuit is not busy when a jam is detected, and b shows the waveform when it is busy. Note that FIG. 2 is also referred to in connection with the operation.

Referring to Figures 2, 3 and 4a,
When a jam occurs, the jam detection circuit 35 detects it and outputs a jam detection signal 301 (see FIG. 2). The jam detection signal 301 is input to the single signal generation circuit 38 shown in FIG. 3, and the single signal generation circuit 38 generates the jam detection pulse a,
Set flop 39. The flip-flop 39 outputs a jam processing mode signal f after being set. The jam detection pulse a is also input to the AND circuit 40, and the other input of the AND circuit 40 is the inverted signal b of the busy signal 304, which is at a high level and is taken as the AND of the AND circuit, and its output pulse c is input to the OR circuit 41. After that, it is output as a display activation signal 305, and becomes a display activation command. The keyboard/display control circuit 31 receives this command and displays the contents of the data buffer 28 on the display 32. Furthermore, if the output control circuit 29 is busy transferring data when the jam detection pulse a is output, the jam detection pulse a shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, since the inverted signal b of the busy signal 304 is at a low level, the AND circuit 40 cannot perform an AND operation with the jam detection pulse b, resulting in a waiting state.
When the busy state is released, the inverted signal b of the busy signal 304 rises, and at this rise, the single signal generation circuit 42
generates a pulse d, which is input to the AND circuit 43. The other input of the AND circuit 43 is the output of the flip-flop 39, which is the jam processing mode signal f, and since this is at a high level, the AND condition is met, and the pulse e is outputted, which passes through the OR circuit 41 and becomes the display activation signal 305. Become. As before, this signal becomes a display activation command, and the contents of the data buffer 28 are displayed on the display 32.

When a form jam occurs in this manner, the last read form data is displayed, so that processed forms and unprocessed forms can be distinguished.

Next, when the cause of the form jam is removed by removing the jammed form on the travel path, the travel detector 34 generates a release signal 307. On the other hand, a start key signal 306 is output by operating the keyboard 33. The AND circuit 44 which uses these as input signals performs an AND operation, and the reset signal g of the flip-flop 39 is output. When the flip-flop 39 is reset, the jam processing mode signal f falls, the jam processing mode is canceled, and the display disappears.

As described above, according to the present invention, when a form jam occurs, it is possible to distinguish between processed forms and unprocessed forms, so that processing can be continued without reducing the throughput of the form processing device. . Furthermore, processed forms and unprocessed forms can be easily distinguished without placing extra marks or the like on the forms.

As described above, according to the present invention, when a form jam occurs, processed and unprocessed forms can be easily distinguished from each other without marking unnecessary marks on the form, without reducing OCR throughput.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a normal running system of an optical character reading device, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a logic diagram showing details of the jam processing circuit in Fig. 2. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the time relationship of the signals of each part in FIG. 3. 1: hopper, 2: pick-up roller, 3: reading station, 4: stacker selection mechanism, 5...accept stacker, 6: reject stacker,
7-10: Running detector, 21: Form, 22: Video circuit, 23: Pre-processing circuit, 24: Pattern buffer, 25: Recognition circuit, 26: Data editing circuit, 2
7: Format table, 28: Data buffer, 29: Output control circuit, 30: Output device, 3
1: Keyboard/display control circuit, 32:
Display, 33: Keyboard, 34: Travel detection section, 35: Jam circuit, 36: Drive section, 37:
jam processing circuit, 38: single signal generation circuit, 3
9: Flip-flop, 40: AND circuit, 41
OR circuit, 42: single signal generation circuit, 43: AND circuit, 44: AND circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A form processing device for reading data on a medium such as a form sent along a passage, comprising means for detecting a jam of the medium in the passage, a storage means for storing data read from the medium, and a storage means for storing data read from the medium. display means for displaying a reading result of the storage means, and displaying the contents of the storage means on the display means when a jam of the medium is detected;
A form jam processing method characterized by distinguishing between normally processed media and unprocessed media.