JPS62177682A - Character reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the work to classify mixed documents for a size beforehand and to improve work efficiency by detecting a sheet size, controlling FC information by the result, reading a character, classifying a document for the size and executing the discharging. CONSTITUTION:Respective documents are read by an optical scanning by a photoelectric converting part 11 and the image data are stored into a sheet buffer 12. A sheet size detecting part 13 detects the document size based on the image data and outputs sheet size information to an OCR control part 16. A system control part 19, based on the sheet size information from the control part 16, removes the format control (FC) information corresponding to the equivalent document from a floppy 18 and outputs through the control part 16 to a recognizing part 14. The recognizing part 14 cuts out the character pattern of the document by the FC information, executes the recognizing processing of the character with a dictionary 15 and outputs the result to the control part 16. a sorter part 17, in accordance with the instruction of the control part 16, classifies the document to complete the reading processing for the same size and executes successively the discharging processing to the same pocket respectively.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a character reading device that optically reads characters.

(Prior Art) In a conventional character reading device (hereinafter referred to as OCR), the vertical and horizontal sizes of one type of form to be read are set in advance in the OCR control unit, and a format is created based on the set size data. Control information (hereinafter referred to as FC information)
Accordingly, the document reading process was performed.

However, the above method has the disadvantage that when reading forms that have a mixture of various sizes, it is necessary to classify the forms by size in advance and perform processing for each size, which takes a very large amount of time. It was something to spend.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As mentioned above, when processing forms of various sizes, the forms of the same size are classified in advance, and the OC is applied to sheets of the same size.
It is necessary to set this in the R control section, and if there are a large number of documents of different sizes mixed together, the pre-processing work based on the document size classification described above will result in a huge loss of time and a decrease in work efficiency. bring about

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to be able to read and process even if forms of different sizes are mixed together without classifying them by size in advance.
Moreover, the present invention aims to provide a character reading device that can classify and eject read documents according to their sizes.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving Problems) In other words, in the character reading device according to the present invention, a photoelectric conversion section reads a form, outputs the image data, and stores it in a sheet buffer in units of forms. let and,
The sheet size detection section detects the form size based on the image data stored in the sheet buffer, and outputs sheet size information based on the detection result. Then, based on the sheet size information output from the sheet size detection section, format control data for character recognition is output, and character zero recognition of the image data stored in the sheet buffer is determined based on this format control data. Based on the sheet size information, the documents after character recognition are classified and stored in corresponding pockets for each size.

(Function) In the character reading device configured as described above,
Each sheet of the form is optically scanned by the photoelectric conversion section, and the image data is stored in a sheet buffer. Then, the sheet size detection section detects the form size based on the image data stored in the sheet buffer and outputs sheet size information. Then, format control data is output based on this sheet size information, and character recognition of the image data stored in the sheet buffer is performed based on this format control data. In this manner, when the character recognition process is completed, the forms are sorted and stored in corresponding pockets for each size based on the sheet size information.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of an optical character reading device according to the present invention.

This optical character reading device includes a photoelectric conversion section 11, a sheet buffer 12, a sheet size detection section 13, a recognition section 14, a dictionary 15, an OCR control section 16, a sorter section 17, a floppy disk 18, and a system control section 19. ing.

The photoelectric conversion unit 11 receives a command from the OCR control unit 16 to
The form is read by optical scanning and the data is output to the sheet buffer 12.

The sheet buffer 12 sequentially stores and holds the image data of each sheet output from the photoelectric conversion section 11. The sheet size detection unit 13 is connected to the sheet buffer 12,
By detecting the vertical projection and horizontal projection of the sheet image stored in the sheet buffer, the size of the sheet taken into the sheet buffer 12 is detected, and the sheet size information is output to the OCR control section 16. . The recognition unit 14 cuts out a character pattern from the sheet image stored in the sheet buffer 12, processes the character recognition through the dictionary 15, and converts the read information into OCRa.
It is output to the ill Ia section 16. The dictionary 15 stores standard patterns for character recognition, and the recognition unit 1
It is connected to 4. The OCR control unit 16 is connected to the sheet size detection unit 13, the recognition unit 14, and the system control unit 19,
It controls the entire apparatus and drives the sorter section 17 based on the sheet size detection result. Sorter section 17 is OC
R! , 11 Under the control of the tl1 unit 16, the document is classified and discharged based on the sheet size detection results.

The system control unit 19 controls the entire system, and supplies sheet size detection information and character reading result information from the OCR control unit 16.
It controls the retrieval of FC information stored in 8.

That is, in the character reading device configured as described above, first, each document of various sizes is read by optical scanning by the photoelectric conversion unit 11, and the data is transferred to the sheet. It is output to the buffer 12. The sheet buffer 12 takes in a form pattern based on the data output from the photoelectric conversion section 11 in response to a read command from the OCR control section 16. In this case, according to the form image imported into the sheet buffer 12,
As shown in FIG. 2, the sheet size detection section 13 detects the size of the input form.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the sheet buffer 12 and the sheet size detecting section 13 for explaining the form size detecting means. A form image 22 to be detected is taken into a sheet buffer 12 that can detect up to the maximum sheet size. Then, the vertical projection 23 and horizontal projection 24 of the sheet buffer 12 that has taken in the form image 22 are detected, and the vertical and horizontal sizes of the form image 22 are detected based on the detection results of the vertical projection 23 and horizontal projection 24. It is configured as follows. That is, when the form image 22 is set in the sheet buffer 12,
A margin corresponding to the size of the form image 22 is created in the sheet buffer 22 as indicated by diagonal lines. This state differs depending on the size of the form image 22, so
By detecting the vertical projection 23 and horizontal projection 24 of the sheet buffer 22 in this state, the form image 22 is
It is possible to detect the size of

Note that, if the form image 22 is captured at an angle, the sheet buffer 12 may, for example,
The inclination angle θ is detected by determining the coordinates of at least two of the four points forming the sheet size, and the information is output to the sheet size detection section 13. The sheet size detection unit 13 corrects the sheet size obtained from the vertical projection 23 and the horizontal projection 24 based on the information on the inclination angle θ, and performs correct sheet size detection.

In this way, when the sheet buffer 12 finishes capturing the form pattern, the sheet size detection section 13
outputs the detected sheet size information to the OCR control section 16. This OCR control section 16 is a sheet size detection section 13.
The sheet size information from is output to the system control unit 19. Based on this sheet size information, the system control unit 19 retrieves the FC information stored in the floppy disk 18,
The FC information corresponding to the corresponding form is output to the recognition unit 14 via the OCR control unit 16. The recognition unit 14 cuts out the character pattern of the form sent from the sheet buffer 12 based on the FC information, processes the characters for recognition using a dictionary 15, and sends the reading results back to the system control unit 19 via the OCR control unit 16. Transfer to.

When the character recognition process for the form is completed as described above, O
The CR control unit 16 controls the sorter unit 1 based on the sheet size information.
Drive 7. The sorter unit 17 sorts the forms for which the character reading process has been completed according to the same size according to instructions from the ○CR control unit 16, and sequentially discharges them into the same pocket.

Incidentally, if the character information of the form is not required, the OCR control section 16 may make a pocket determination based on the sheet size information and drive the sorter section 17.

In this way, the sheet buffer 12 and the sheet size detection unit 13 detect the size of a large number of forms with different sizes, and if necessary, the recognition unit 14 detects the letters H.
OE is performed. Then, the documents whose size has been detected are sequentially sorted and discharged into pockets of the corresponding size by the sorter section 11.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the sheet size is detected by the sheet size detecting section, and the FC information is controlled based on the detection result to read and fit the characters, thereby allowing documents of different sizes to be read. This makes it possible to read a mixture of documents, and also to sort and output the read documents by size. Therefore, even when a large number of forms of different sizes coexist, there is no need to classify them by size in advance, which improves work efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an optical character reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the relationship with the sheet buffer and sheet size detection section shown in FIG. 1 above. This is a diagram. 11... Photoelectric conversion unit, 12... Sheet buffer, 1
3... Sheet size detection unit, 14... Recognition unit, 15
. . . Dictionary, 16 . Vertical projection, 24...Horizontal projection of the sheet buffer 12. 1a1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A photoelectric conversion unit that reads a form by optical scanning and outputs image data; a sheet buffer that stores the image data output from the photoelectric conversion unit in units of forms; and a sheet buffer that stores the image data in the sheet buffer unit. sheet size detection means for detecting the form size based on the image data and outputting sheet size information; and format control data for character recognition based on the sheet size information output from the sheet size detection means. A format control data output means for outputting, a character recognition means for performing character recognition from the image data stored in the sheet buffer based on the format control data, and a form for each size after character recognition based on the sheet size information. A character reading device characterized by comprising: a sorting means for sorting and storing the characters in corresponding pockets.