JPS61237181A - Optical reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve operability by binary-coding and storing the video signal of an object to be read and thereafter, discriminating successively the signal of one character portion. CONSTITUTION:When a scanner 21 is placed on a form 23 by hand, a character, a symbol, etc. on the form 23 are read by a sensor 26, binary-coded 27, and thereafter, stored in a memory 28. In the memory 28, the binary-coded data of almost the whole of the visual field of the sensor 26 is stored. The data of one character portion in the memory 28 is read successively by a discriminating circuit 30. In such a case, a controlling circuit 29 fetches the data corresponding to (m)X(n) picture elements being the processing capacity of the discriminating circuit 30 and supplies it to the circuit 30.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field) The present invention relates to a character reading device, and particularly to a device for optically reading characters by scanning with a hand-held scanner.

(Prior art and its problems) PO5 (Point of 5), which collects sales information for each item and manages inventory at supermarkets, department stores, etc.
ales ) system is widespread. Hand-held optical readers are often used in this POS system. For example, there is an invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-6418, the structure of which is shown in FIG.

1 is a scanner, which reads characters while moving the hand 2 over the paper 3. The hand scanner l has a lamp 4 for the light source,
It incorporates a lens system 5, a sensor 6, and a control and binarization circuit 7.

The data scanned by the sensor 6 and binarized by the control and binarization circuit 7 is sent to the buffer register 8 (buffer register 8
is not necessarily required).

A vertical cutting circuit 9 and a horizontal cutting circuit 16 detect character areas in the vertical direction and horizontal direction, respectively.

Within the detected character area, the line feature extraction circuit 10 extracts and classifies the features Ci of each line.

The partial feature extraction circuit 11 further performs feature classification from the plurality of signals Ci sent from the row feature extraction circuit IO and outputs Di. The identification processing circuit 12 identifies characters from the order of the signal Di sent from the partial feature extraction circuit 11, and outputs the result Dout. The two-dimensionally arranged sensors 6 have a shape of ζnXm as shown in FIG.
The scanner consists of 2 pixels and scans one character, and the scanner 1 is moved horizontally with the hand 2 to read each character one by one.

However, since it is difficult to move the scanner 1 horizontally by hand 2, it is difficult to read the scanner correctly, and the operability is poor.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The optical reading device of the present invention that solves the above problems has a field of view that accommodates a plurality of characters, symbols, etc. written on a sheet of paper, more specifically, most of them. It is configured such that a video signal of characters, symbols, etc. to be read is binarized using an image sensor, and stored in a memory, and a signal corresponding to one character is extracted from the binarized signal and can be sequentially identified. .

(Function) The purpose of the present invention is to improve the conventional drawbacks, and by simply placing the scanner on the paper by hand, the field of view covers most of the characters, symbols, etc. written on the paper, and the scanner can be easily operated. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a convenient hand-held optical reader.

(Example) An example of the present invention is shown in FIG. Reference numeral 21 denotes a scanner, which reads characters, symbols, etc. written on the paper 23 by simply placing it on the paper 23 with the hand 22. The paper 28 is, for example, a price tag on which information for a POS system is written. 24 is a light source, 25 is a lens system, and 26 is a sensor, and the field of view is approximately the same size as the information written on the paper 23, that is, the price tag. 27 is a control and binarization circuit that converts the analog signal, which is the output signal of the sensor 26, into a binarized signal and sends it to the memory 28. memory 28
Binarized data of almost the entire field of view of the sensor 26 is stored in .

FIG. 4 shows an explanation of the binary data of the sensor 26. It is a sensor 26 of pxq pixels, and has a field of view of the entire information writing portion of one sheet 28.

Characters and symbols are identified by the identification circuit 30, and since the identification circuit 80 identifies each character, the memory 28
Extract data for one character from inside.

The control circuit 29 takes out data equivalent to mXn pixels, which is the processing capacity of the identification circuit 30, from the memory 28 and stores it in the buffer register 8.

- In FIG. 4, data from rows Ll to rows Lm in columns Bl to Bn is first taken out from the memory 28 and transferred to the buffer register 8. Processing of character lines after buffer register 8 is the same as in the conventional case. Next, from Bl+1 to B n +
Data from row Ll of column 1 to row J, m, that is,
The data moved horizontally by one pixel is transferred from the memory 28 to the buffer register 8. Similarly, from B l+2 to B n +
The data from the Ll row to the Lm row of the second column is transferred, and this process is repeated to transfer the data from the Ll to the Lm row and the Bq column.

This data transfer results in the same scanning as moving the conventional scanner 1 by hand 2.

When the Bq columns from the Ll row to the Lm row are completed, the rows are shifted downward. For example, if the field of view from Ll to [, m lines is about twice the height of the character, the field of view is approximately - pixel shift, that is, from L- line to L 3m line, first B, 1
Transfer the data from column Bn to column and repeat the same operation thereafter. In this explanation, the image is moved horizontally one pixel at a time, but it may be moved two to three pixels at a time.

(Effects of the Invention) The present invention uses a scanner that has a sensor that has a field of view for almost all of the information written on paper such as price tags, and reads the information written on the paper, such as characters, just by placing the scanner on the paper. , it is possible to realize an optical reading device with very good operability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an example of the configuration of a conventional device, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of binary data of a conventional sensor.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of binary data of the sensor of the present invention. 119. Scanner, 2-11, 3-m-Paper, 4-m
-Lamp, 5-m-lens system, 6--sensor 7--
- control and binarization circuit, 8-m-buffer register,
9-m-vertical extraction circuit, 10-eleven line feature extraction circuit,
11-m partial feature extraction circuit, 12. - identification circuit, 1
6---Horizontal cutting circuit, 21-1-scanner, 22-
1st move, 28-m-paper, 24--light source, 25--
lens system, 26---sensor, 270. -Control binarization circuit, 28--Memory, 29-m-Control circuit, 8
0-m-identification circuit. Figure 1 Figure 2 Fan Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a hand-held optical reader that scans and identifies characters, symbols, etc. using an image sensor consisting of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a planar manner, a field of view of multiple parts of the written characters and symbols is detected. an image sensor having an image sensor, a means for storing a binary signal obtained by digitizing the output of the image sensor, and a means for storing a binary signal corresponding to one character or symbol from among the stored binary data. It consists of an extracting means and a means for identifying characters, symbols, etc., and when extracting one character of the middle character symbol of the stored binary data, the binary signal corresponding to one character is sequentially digitized horizontally or vertically. An optical reading device characterized by identifying a plurality of characters and symbols by shifting and extracting a pixel or a plurality of pixels for identification.