JPS6121580A - Reading control system of forms - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enlarge a ratio of an effective data volume placed on a hopper with a small number of types of forms by enlarging the data document volume of one unit and discrimination-processing this data trailing end with the aid of the following header document. CONSTITUTION:A mechanism control part 13 takes out forms from a hopper due to a command of a main control part 10, and sets the forms at a read position of an optically read-out information detector 14. Then a recognition control part 16 starts its recognition. When the forms are of header forms, a flag of a picture information memory part 12 is confirmed to be off. When the flag is off, the forms show a leading identification of a data unit, and therefore the flag of the memory part 12 is made on so that the subsequent data can be fetched as one unit. Whereas the forms are not a header, the flag of the memory part 12 is confirmed. When its state is off, the occurrence of errors is displayed. When the flag is on, the data identification processing is executed. Unless a hopper sensor detects the absence, the operation means a data unit boundary of the document. Namely, it is a trailing end of one unit due to the previous header forms and subsequent data forms, which is identified to show a top of the next lot data unit.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is an optical character reader (OCR) that performs high-speed mass processing.
), especially in operations based on batch processing of registered format forms, header forms and multiple data forms can be processed in one
When multiple units are considered as one group of processing batch,
In order to identify the end of processing for the final unit, the header form added at the end is read, and the additional header form is automatically discharged and collected according to the empty signal of the hopper that loads the input form, and the batch 1 group processing is completed. [Conventional technology] Character recognition technology began with the magnetic ink reader of the late 1950s and the postal code reader and sorter of 1968, and has been developed through years of research and development and high integration in semiconductors. With the rapid progress in technology, and advances in hardware processing power and flexibility, optical character readers (OCR) have become smaller and lower cost while maintaining high performance when realizing recognition algorithms. It has come to be used as a high-speed, large-volume data input device for electronic computers.

Conventionally, data input processing in the fi OCR is usually performed by batch processing in which forms in a pre-registered format are loaded into a hopper. FIG. 2(a) shows a conceptual top view of OCR in the conventional and one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2(a) shows an example of the format of a form. E; A plurality of forms 2t are loaded on the partition 1, and a mechanism control unit (not shown) drives the big roller 3a't to move the form 2 through the form path (
The form 2 is sent one by one to the aligner 4 and conveyed by a running roller 3bK disposed along the aligner 4.
The optical reading multi-information detector 14 configured by COD reads the printed or handwritten data written in the reading citator area registered for each format of the form 2, and performs recognition (not shown in this figure). Recognized by the control unit. The recognized forms 2 are conveyed to the stacker 5 and collected and stacked. In addition, 1a Fi form control, 1b
5a is a hopper sensor, 5a is a stacker sensor, and 14a is a form leading edge detector.

In the form 2, fo is a read theta area, fl is a form identification number (ID) area, and fd is a form data area. In the illustration, the form receiving area fd is shown in a single row, but of course, it can be provided in multiple rows depending on the settings. The arrow shown at the bottom is the running direction of the form 2.

Unlike data aggregation using heavy industry forms, the method for batch processing here is to use a data form (hereinafter referred to as data) and a header form (hereinafter referred to as header) or end which is recognized before and after it for reasons of reading control of the form. There is a case where the form (hereinafter referred to as end) vl- is added and the form is continuously loaded into a hopper and used as input data.

That is, ■ Continuous loading of header child data 10 headers 10 headers + data header is possible.

Continuous loading of header, child data, 10 headers + data +... is not possible.

@ Continuous loading of header + data + end + header + data + end is possible.

As shown in the above, header child data ten headers or header + data + end are read/output as one unit of processing, and since the header or end data is output when one unit is output, the output data format is also header. + data header, or header + data + end - The data data is broken up into small pieces, resulting in a low multi-processing efficiency of 1/3, and in the latter case, an end is required.

In batch processing in OCR, it is desirable to suppress the types of forms as much as possible and to have high processing efficiency for valid data0. [Problems to be solved by the invention] Without adding a header or an end after the header, when the header of one unit is read in the next unit, single or multiple data following the previous header is treated as one continuous unit, and as necessary. The objective is to provide highly efficient batch processing that processes consecutive data at once.

Concrete VcFi Corresponding to the above ■ and O, the loading order is header child data + data, 10 header + data...
...Data, header output order is header child data +
...data, ten headers + data...data.

The data between data 2 and the header is output as one unit, and the one unit is processed in a plurality of consecutive units and a final unit busy header is added. However, since no data follows the header added to the final unit, the header remains in the \OCR without being ejected. Therefore, for example, by detecting a hopper blank signal, etc., a signal indicating the end of the batch process is created, and the final header is automatically outputted from the OCR, a form with high processing efficiency of valid data in the OCR batch process is created. This is intended to provide a reading method.

[Means for solving problems]

The purpose of this is to treat an identification form indicating the start of a processing division unit and a plurality of consecutive data forms as one unit, and to provide means for identifying the end of processing for each unit by reading the identification form in the subsequent next unit. The control unit of the device executes a data reading process for each unit of the loading form using the identification means, and also reads the reading signal of the additional identification form placed at the end of the final unit and the blank signal of the sensor in the input hopper. This is achieved by the present invention in which the additional identification form is ejected as the processing of the loading form is completed upon sending out.

[Effect]

In the form reading method of the present invention, the amount of data for one unit is increased by combining header child data...data, and the end of the data for one unit is identified by the following header, so fewer types of forms can be used than before. It is possible to provide a means for effectively improving the efficiency of document reading by increasing the ratio of the amount of effective data to the amount of documents loaded in the hopper compared to the above method.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1(a) is a flowchart showing a form reading control method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1(b) is a flowchart showing its processing procedure.

The main control unit 10 of the form reading device in the configuration shown in the figure is composed of, for example, a microprocessor (MPU), etc., and controls the other components according to the control program and control data stored in the control information storage unit 11 to read the form. The image information storage section 12 reads the data on the form and executes the data input operation for a host device such as a central processing unit (CPU (not shown)). It has a function of temporarily accumulating data in the read data area to be recognized which is selectively controlled by the scan control unit 15.

The mechanism control unit 13 sends out the documents 2 to be loaded in the hopper 1 one by one to the aligner 4, and sends out the documents 2 to be loaded in the hopper 1 one by one, and sends them to the stacker 5 via the information detector 14.
Control is performed based on the detection signals of the drive motor b, hopper sensor 1b, and stacker sensor 5a.

The recognition control unit 16 performs recognition processing on the read theta to be recognized which is temporarily stored in the image information storage unit 12, that is, noise removal in the scanning system and normalization of two character line widths.

It has a function of performing pre-processing such as character pattern separation/position normalization, feature extraction, matrix matching, similarity calculation, etc., while referring to the recognition dictionary 16a.

The form format te control unit 17 has a function of controlling the selection of the form format definition body 17a by scanning the valid designated form data area fd for each registered format in advance for each ID number fi.

Also, the data output restriction 1 part 18 recognizes it! ll ('f
The i1 section 16 section has a function of outputting and controlling the contents of the read data recognized by the upper section 6. The external recording medium 18a is, for example, a magnetic disk device for storing the output data.

In this embodiment, the form reading device is configured as described above.
The form reading control is executed according to the procedure shown in FIG.

In step (3), the main control unit 10 executes initial settings and sets off the flag in the storage area of the fourth storage unit 12 that temporarily stores read data to be recognized, thereby allowing the storage area to be used.

In step (3), the main control unit 10 causes the mechanism control unit 12 to send out 21 sheets of the form by using the big amplifier roller 3a from the hopper 1 to read the form, and also drives the traveling roller 3b to read the form 2. The reading position fl of the detector 14 [move 0 1000 order ■At this time, if the hopper sensor 1bK detects that the hopper is empty, it is considered an operation error and the operator is notified of this according to step ■' and a request is made to the stacker 1 for the form 2. do. If the hopper is not empty, proceed to the next step.

In step (3), the data area fok read by the detector 14 is temporarily stored in the storage unit 12 via the scanning control unit 15, and the recognition control unit 16 recognizes w1. t-start. At this time, the procedure
First, the ID number fit is recognized and the attributes of the form are identified.

If the form 2 is a header in step ■, the storage unit 12 is stored in step ■.
Make sure the flag is off.

When the flag is off in step (2), the form 2 indicates the beginning identification of the data unit, so the flag in the storage section 12 is turned on so that the subsequent data is taken in as one unit. - On the other hand, if the form 2 is not the header in step 2, check the flag in the storage unit 12 in step 2, and if it is off, the order is wrong in the order of the form array for batch processing loaded on stacker 1, so an error will be displayed to that effect. The occurrence is displayed and the operator is notified.

At this time, if the flag in the storage unit 12 is on, the data is continuous, so the process moves to step (2) following step (2).

Furthermore, when the flag of the self-storage unit 12 is on in step (2), it is a data identification process, and if the hopper sensor 1b detects empty in step (2), it indicates the data unit boundary of form 2. That is, the header at this time is identified as the end of one unit consisting of the previous header and the data following it, as well as indicating the beginning of the next lot data unit, and a flag is turned on in a separate storage area of the storage section 12. If necessary, if the recognition process associated with one unit of reading has been completed, the header and data for one unit can be deleted, or the next unit of data can be read with the flag turned on. \It may be stored by overwriting the previous unit.

In step ①, the data processing of the form 2 is completed, and the stacker 5
and return to step ■ to process the next order of forms.

When the hopper sensor 1b detects that the hopper is empty in step ■', the process moves to step [phase], where it is recognized that the header is used to identify the end of batch processing, and the header is discharged to the stacker 5, and the batch processing is completed. It ends. As the present embodiment operates as described above, the header not only identifies the beginning of each unit, but also indicates the end of the processing unit using the header child data, which can be used as an identification form in the same way as the conventional end. A form reading control system is adopted in which the form is stacked on the stacker 1 only by type, and the header arranged at the final position is used as an end stop, and the read data of a plurality of data following the header pressure is continuously treated as one unit. As described above, according to the present invention, when stacking forms with an array configuration of only the minimum form type header and data, it is possible to read and input the header and the following data as one unit of continuous read data. It is possible to provide a highly efficient form reading method.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1(a) is a block diagram of a form reading method in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1(b) is a flowchart showing the processing procedure, and FIG. 2(a) is a conventional example and an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2(b) is a conceptual top view of the optical reader (OCR) in FIG. In the figure, 1 is a hopper, and 1b is a hopper sensor. 2 is a form, 3a and 3b are rollers, 5 is a stacker,
10 is a main control unit. 12 is an image information storage unit. 13 is a mechanism control section. 14 is an optical reading information detector. 15ti scan control section. 16 is a recognition control unit. 17#'i form format control section. 18 is a data output control section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An optical reading device that arranges format forms in the same direction and loads them into an input hopper, conveys the forms one by one, and reads their data, reads an identification form indicating the start of a processing division unit and a plurality of consecutive data forms. 1 unit, and is equipped with means for identifying the end of processing for each unit by reading the identification form for the subsequent next unit, and the control unit of the device reads the loading form for each unit by reading the identification form. The additional identification form is discharged at the end of the processing of the loading form upon sending out a reading signal of an additional identification form placed at the rear of the final unit and a blank signal from a sensor in the input hopper. A form reading control method.