JPS6355115B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for reading characters displayed on a digital display device, such as a digital measuring instrument, which has a learning function and uses a video camera to read data displayed on the display section. .

In order to read character data displayed on a digital display, it is necessary to memorize (learn) the characteristic points of an entire character in advance in a reading device, and then to match the memorized pattern with the read pattern. It is determined whether or not they match, and the displayed characters are read based on the determination result. but,
With this reading method, the sizes and shapes of letters and numbers that can be determined based on one stored pattern are limited, and a computer with a large capacity of memory is required to store all possible patterns.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and provides a reading method that can not only read a single character but also read several digits with a limited memory capacity.

The figure is a block diagram of a reading device implementing the method of the invention. In the figure, DIS indicates a display unit of a digital measuring device or the like that is the object to be measured. VC is a video camera with a solid-state image sensor as a display reading device, and this camera scans and images the display section DIS and outputs a video signal. SC is a signal processing unit that binarizes the video signal, and ME is a memory that stores the output of the signal processing unit SC. The MT is a television camera for monitoring, and is used to monitor the screen read by the video camera VC, as well as to adjust the camera's focus and brightness, as well as to position the cursor to learning points during learning. CON is a control unit that performs various controls in addition to specifying an address when storing the output of the signal processing unit SC in the memory ME and controlling the timing of data reading. RM is a refresh memory that stores character information to be displayed on the cathode ray tube, CC is a controller that displays the contents of the refresh memory RM on the cathode ray tube, and CRT is the cathode ray tube mentioned above, which is equipped with a keyboard KB. .

As described above, the conventional reading method is performed by learning the characteristics of characters, but the reading method of the present invention, which uses limited memory capacity for learning, is performed as follows. First, the entire surface of the image sensor array of the video camera VC is placed on the X axis 248, for example.
Divide into 244 coordinates on the Y axis, and add X,
Add address Y. On the other hand, if the display on the screen is, for example, a 7-segment display character on the display DIS, then a digit number is assigned to each digit as shown in Figure 2, and a segment number is assigned to the segment of the display for each digit. (Note that P indicates a decimal point.) Then, the aforementioned XY addresses, digit numbers, and segment numbers are stored in the memory ME in correspondence with each other. How to remember
As shown in FIG. 3, the cursor K is moved to a predetermined point position by operating the keyboard KB while checking on the monitor television MT, and this is done by an entry operation (2G in the example shown). Like this
The character digits corresponding to the addresses and the points representing the segments are stored in memory in advance as numbers.
Memorized by ME. The points learned in this way become reading points when reading characters.
In other words, when reading, the video camera VC
By scanning the display unit DIS, the characters displayed on the display unit DIS of the object to be measured are imaged. As mentioned above, since the memory ME has learned the display character digits and segment numbers in correspondence with the XY addresses, the control unit CON stores the brightness data corresponding to the digits and segment addresses read by the video camera VC. is significant (for example, if it is an LED, it lights up)
The character displayed on the display device DIS is determined by comparing the read data with a pre-programmed pattern. For example, if 2B, 2C, 2F, and 2G are significant, the second
This becomes the character for the digit “4”. This character data is transferred from the control unit CON to the refresh memory RM. The transferred data is converted by the CRT controller CC into a form that can be displayed on the CRT, and then
Displayed on CRT.

If the position and size of the characters displayed on the display device DIS change, you can move the cursor position using the keyboard KB and learn the point position of each character in relation to the address. This can be read even if the position and size of the image are different. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the case of reading numbers was explained as an example, but by learning each point by appropriately positioning the cursor as described above, unit characters (V, A, W, Ω, etc.) can be read. Or you can also read Alphabet.

As explained above, according to the present invention, a character is read by learning a combination of character digit number and segment name, which requires less memory than the conventional method of learning character characteristics. It is possible to read a large number of characters based on the capacity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a reading device implementing the method of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are screen views for explaining the present invention, respectively. DIS...display section, VC...video camera, SC
...Signal processing unit, ME...Memory, MT...Monitor TV, CON...Controller, RM...
Refresh memory, CC...controller,
CRT...Cathode ray tube, KB...Keyboard.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When reading characters displayed on a digital display with a video camera, the digital display characters can be read by learning which part of the displayed character the reading address corresponds to by combining the digit number of the displayed character and the segment name. A method for reading a digital display, characterized in that: