JPS6174087A - Word reading device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To read words including external character precisely and rapidly by retrieving words at a character position by a recognized character from a word dictionary composed of the words including both the internal character and the external character and outputting as a reading result. CONSTITUTION:An input word, which is written on a slip 1 and should be read, is scanned and photoelectrically converted by a scanning means, and recognized at a character recognizing means 2. Character position information in the word of a mark showing a recognizing result and a recognizing impossibil ity is stored in a recognizing result memory means 3. At a word determining means 4, by using a recognizing result 10 stored in the recognizing result mem ory means 3 and character position information, the word is retrieved from a word dictionary 5 by a word retrieving means 6. By replacing the mark showing recognizing impossibility by the retrieved external character, an input word can be precisely read.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a word reading device that recognizes characters constituting a word as single characters and uses the results to read the word.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional word reading devices, the letters that make up a word are
Each character was recognized, and among the resulting combinations of candidate characters, those that matched words in a word dictionary created in advance were used as reading results.

With this method, words that consist only of characters to be recognized (internal characters) can be read, but words that include characters that are not to be recognized (external characters) cannot be recognized.
could not be read automatically. For this reason, the reading results of external characters are always misread or unreadable, and it is necessary for humans to make judgments and correct the reading results. In addition, in a word reading device of another type (see Tokusho No.) previously proposed by the applicant of this invention, external characters with similar shapes for each internal character are stored in advance in order of frequency of use. When inputting external characters, select from among the recognition candidate characters output by the character recognition means.
By selecting and specifying a character whose shape is similar to the custom character to be input, the corresponding custom characters are displayed, and the user can select and input from among them.

[Problems that the invention is expected to solve]

In conventional word reading devices such as those mentioned above, the simplest method for correcting the reading results based on human judgment is to enter character codes such as JIS Kuten numbers. . However, according to this method, it is necessary to check each character code to be inputted using a code book or the like, and therefore, there is a problem in that it takes a very long time to input characters.

Other methods have the advantage of not having to check the character code of the external character you want to input when inputting a external character, but they also select recognition candidate characters that resemble the shape of the external character you want to input. After all, it takes a considerable amount of time to generate a headline for something that you want. There was a problem. On the other hand, with conventional word reading devices, it is possible to increase the number of words to be read by increasing the types of inner characters, but the problem is that increasing the number of inner characters in this way leads to a decline in recognition performance. was there.

This invention was made to solve this problem, and when at least one of the characters constituting the word to be read is recognized and at least one is unrecognizable, By searching a word dictionary consisting of words that include both characters for words in which the recognized character is in that character position, and reading the character corresponding to that character position for unrecognized characters. ,
The object of the present invention is to obtain a word reading device that can accurately and quickly read words including external characters.

[Means for solving problems]

The word reading device according to the present invention includes character recognition means,
At least one of the letters that make up the word to be read
is recognized, and at least one becomes unrecognizable, a word search method is used to search the word dictionary for a word in which all of the recognized characters are in the corresponding character position, and the word becomes unrecognizable. The word is read by replacing the character in the searched word existing at the character position with an unrecognizable character and outputting it as a reading result.

[Effect]

In the word reading device of the present invention, when at least one of the characters constituting the word to be read is recognized and at least one is unrecognizable, the word reading device is configured to read a word consisting of both internal and external characters. Search the word dictionary in which the recognized character is at that character position, read the character corresponding to that character position for the unrecognized character, and output it as a result. Enables users to read words accurately and quickly.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a word reading device which is an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a form,
2 is a character recognition means for recognizing characters into individual characters; 3 is a recognition result storage means for storing the recognition result by the character recognition means 2 and the character position within a word; 4 is a word determination means for determining a word from the recognition result. Means 5 is a word dictionary storing words including both internal characters and external characters, and 6 is a word search means for searching the word dictionary 5 for words in which a specific internal character is included in a specific position.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the character recognition operation in the word reading device of FIG. 1. In the figure, 7 is the input word, 8 and 9 are the characters that make up the input word 7, and 1
0 is the recognition result of the input word 7, and 11.12 is the recognition result of each character 8 and 9 constituting the input word 7, respectively.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a word dictionary in the word reading device of FIG. 1. In the figure, 13 is a word in the word dictionary 5, and 14 and 15 are internal and external characters constituting the word 13 in the word dictionary 5, respectively.

Next, the operation of the word reading device according to the present invention will be explained using FIGS. 1 to 3 above. Input words 7 to be read written on the form 1 are scanned by a scanning means (not shown) and photoelectrically converted, and preprocessing such as binarization is performed by a preprocessing means (not shown). Character recognition means 2
Now, the characters 8 and 9 constituting the input word 7 are recognized character by character using known technical means such as pattern matching. Now, if the character 8 of "cho" that makes up the input word 7 is an internal character and the character 9 of "shima" is an external character, the character 8 of "cho" is recognized, but the character 9 of "shima" is recognized. The recognition result 10 becomes as shown by the recognition result 11 of the character 8 for "long" and the symbol "◆" 12 (corresponding to the recognition result of the character 9) representing unrecognizability. This recognition result 10
The recognition result 11 of the character 8 for "long" and the character position information within the word of the symbol "◆" 12 representing unrecognizability are stored in the recognition result storage means 3.

Next, the word determining means 4 determines a word as described below. Using the recognition result 10 and character position information stored in the recognition result storage means 3, the word search means 6 retrieves from the word dictionary 5 the recognition result 11 of the character 8 whose first character is "long" and the number of characters is 2. Search for words. In this case, the word 13 "Nagashima" is searched. Here, the symbol "◆" 12 representing unrecognizability, which is the recognition result of the character 9 of "Shima", which is the second character of the input word 7, is replaced with the second character of the searched word "Nagashima" 13. By replacing it with the external character 15 of "Shima", input word 7 ("Nagashima J
)ft can be read correctly. In fact, when recognizing carefully handwritten kanji, a recognition rate of nearly 100% is obtained for single internal characters, and it is almost impossible to recognize external characters.

In this way, according to the word reading device of this invention,
To automatically and quickly read words including both internal characters and external characters without increasing the number of internal characters.

In the above embodiment, a case has been described in which only one matching word exists as a result of searching the word dictionary 5 using the recognition result by the character recognition means 2, but the present invention is not limited to this. , if there are multiple corresponding words in the word dictionary 5, output the one with the highest frequency of appearance, and if it is not the desired one, sequentially output all the corresponding words in the word dictionary 5. It may also be possible to make the selection possible.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in a word reading device, when at least one of the characters constituting a word to be read is recognized and at least one is unrecognizable, a word containing both internal characters and external characters can be read. From the word dictionary constructed with It has the excellent effect of being able to accurately and quickly read words that include both internal and external characters without increasing the number of characters.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a word reading device which is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining character recognition operation in the word reading device of FIG. 1, and FIG.
The figure is a diagram showing an example of the rules for a word dictionary in the word reading device of FIG.
- Recognition result storage means, 4... word determination means, 5...
word dictionary, 6... word search means, 7... input word,
10... Recognition results, 13... Words in the word dictionary 5. In each figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or equivalent parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a word reading device that recognizes and reads words made up of multiple characters, a character recognition means that recognizes each character constituting a word, a result recognized by this character recognition means, and a character position within the word are provided. a recognition result storage means for storing recognition result storage means, a word dictionary storing words including both recognition target characters (internal characters) and non-recognition target characters (external characters), and a recognition result storage means for storing a specific internal character from this word dictionary. comprising a word search means for searching for a word containing at a specific position, and when the character recognition means recognizes at least one of the characters constituting the word to be read and at least one becomes unrecognizable, Using the word search means, search the word dictionary for a word in which all of the recognized characters are in the corresponding character position, and search for a word in the searched word that exists in the unrecognized character position. A word reading device characterized in that a word is read by replacing it with an unrecognizable word and outputting it as a reading result.