KR20060007496A - A reading desk with camera - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a document holder for mounting a document, a camera for receiving an image of the document and outputting it as an electrical signal, a camera holder for mounting the camera and adjusting the position of the camera, and inputting an electrical signal output from the camera. An image and text recognition processing unit which performs image processing, converts an electronic text file through character recognition, converts it into a voice signal, and outputs the sound signal; and display means for receiving and displaying electrical signals output from the image and text recognition processing unit. And a camera including a control unit for controlling a state of the camera, the image and text recognition processing unit, and a display means.

According to the present invention, an image of a document is input to a camera, and the image can be enlarged and reduced to be provided to the display device in a form that is easy to read, and the disabled can see the document without inconvenience through color processing. Through image processing, the image is recognized as a character and then output through a speaker, etc., so that it can be helpful for acquiring information for the elderly, people with low vision, and visually impaired people.

Reading table, camera, display means, image processing, character recognition, voice output

Description

Reading table with camera {A READING DESK WITH CAMERA}

1 shows a reading camera according to the prior art.

2 is a view showing a reading table having a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram of an image and character recognition processing unit in a reading table having a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a view showing the appearance of a control unit in a reading table having a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention by way of example.

5 is a view showing a reading table having a camera according to another embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: reading camera 12: hole

14: focus and height adjustment ring 16: cable

18: monitor

200: reading desk 210: document holder

220: camera 230: camera holder

240: display means 250: control unit

300: image and character recognition processing unit 310: image processing unit

500: reading desk 510: document holder

520: camera 530: camera cradle

550: control unit

The present invention relates to a reading table having a camera, and more particularly, to receive an image of a document by using a camera and to enlarge the output on a screen. The present invention relates to a reading desk equipped with a camera that helps to acquire information of an elderly person, a person with low vision, and a visually impaired person.

The reading desk provided in the library is simply in the form of a desk, and the user is just sitting on the reading desk after reading a book and borrowing the book. However, there is no particular consideration for the elderly or people with low vision, and they have no choice but to read the book by using a magnifying glass on their own. In addition, for the visually impaired, there was no way to read books except for books in Braille.

Various methods have been proposed to solve this problem.

For example, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2000-0039262, entitled "Reading Camera", filed July 10, 2000 and published January 18, 2002, places a monitor and cable-connected camera on a book. It provides a function to enlarge the image of the desired part by operating the camera.

 As shown in FIG. 1, the user places a reading camera 10 on a book, places a portion to be read in the hole 12 of the reading camera, and then adjusts the focus with the focus and height adjustment ring 14 of the main body. This is to read through the monitor 18 connected to the reading camera 10 and the cable 16.

However, such a function is inconvenient to operate, and in order to read a book, the user needs to directly manipulate the camera, find a desired part, and input the part. It is also not helpful for the visually impaired.

An object of the present invention can be provided to the display device in a form that is easy to read by receiving an image of the document with a camera to enlarge, reduce it, through the image processing it is possible to view the document without discomfort, even people with color blindness, The present invention provides a reading table having a camera that can help an elderly person, a person with low vision, and a blind person acquire information by recognizing an image as a character through image processing and then outputting it through a speaker.

In order to achieve the above technical problem, the present invention provides a document holder for mounting a document, a camera for receiving an image of the document and outputting an electrical signal, a camera holder for mounting the camera and adjusting the position of the camera, and An image and text recognition processing unit which receives an electrical signal output from the camera and performs image processing, converts it into an electronic text file through text recognition, converts it into a voice signal, and outputs the sound signal, and an electrical signal output from the image and text recognition processing unit. It provides a reading table comprising a display means for receiving and displaying the input, and a camera including a control unit for controlling the state of the camera, the image and text recognition processing unit and the display means.

In the reading table provided with the camera of the present invention, the image and text recognition processing unit includes an image processing unit for processing image data of a document input from the camera and extracting a text portion of the image data, and a text portion extracted from the image processing unit. An image recognition unit for recognizing a character, a text file conversion unit for converting the character data recognized by the image recognition unit into a text file, a voice signal generation unit for converting and outputting the text file into a voice signal, and in the image processing unit It is preferable to include a video signal generator for outputting the processed image data to the display means.

In the reading table having the camera of the present invention, the image and text recognition processing unit, it is preferable to change and output the color of the document image input by the electrical signal so that a person with color blindness can recognize.

In the reading table provided with the camera of the present invention, it is preferable to further include a speaker for reproducing a voice signal output from the image and text recognition processing unit.

In the reading table having the camera of the present invention, the control unit preferably controls the focus, angle, zoom state and position of the camera and the output of the image and text recognition processing unit.

The present invention also provides a document holder for mounting a document, a camera for receiving an image of the document and outputting it as an electrical signal, a camera holder for mounting the camera and adjusting the position of the camera, and an electrical signal output from the camera. And an image and text recognition processing unit for performing an image processing, converting an electronic text file through text recognition, converting it to a voice signal, and outputting the converted audio signal, and a controller for controlling the state of the camera and the image and text recognition processing unit. It provides a reading table having a camera.

Hereinafter, a reading table provided with a camera of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

2 is a view showing a reading table having a camera according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a reading stand 200 having a camera according to the present invention includes a document holder 210, a camera 220, a camera holder 230, and an image and text recognition processor (not shown). ), A display means 240, and a controller 250.

The document holder 210 can put a book or document on it and is configured to easily input the image of the book or document through the camera 220.

The camera holder 230 is mounted on the camera 220 and may include a device for adjusting the vertical position of the camera, thereby adjusting the position of the camera by a control signal from the controller 250. For example, a device for adjusting the angle of the camera from side to side, and a device for adjusting the position of the camera up, down, left, or right may be mounted on the camera holder 230.

The camera 220 receives an image of a book or a document placed on the document holder 210, converts the image into an electrical signal, and outputs the converted signal. The camera 220 may have a resolution of 640 * 480 in the case of a CCTV camera, 1024 * 768 or more in a digital method, and may use a camera having a zoom and focusing function. In particular, when the image of the document is input using the zoom function, the magnification ratio may be arbitrarily changed according to the performance of the camera.

 The image and text recognition processing unit receives an electrical signal output from the camera, performs image processing, transmits the image signal to the display means 240, converts it into an electronic text file through text recognition, and converts it into a voice signal and outputs it. .

The display means 240 displays an image received from the image and text recognition processor.

The controller 250 is connected to the camera 220, the image and text recognition processor, and the display means 240 in a wired or wireless manner to control a state. For example, functions such as up and down, left and right, focus, and angle of the camera and control functions such as whether to recognize a document and output it as a voice signal, adjust the brightness of the display means, and convert the color of the image displayed on the display means. Can be performed.

In addition, the reading table having a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a speaker for reproducing a voice signal output from the image and text recognition processing unit. Alternatively, the earphone jack may be provided so that the user may connect his earphone and listen to a voice signal.

3 is a view showing the configuration of the image and character recognition processing unit 300 in the reading table provided with a camera according to the present invention. As shown, the image and text recognition processor 300 may include an image processor 310, an image recognizer 320, a text file converter 330, an audio signal generator 340, and an image signal generator ( 350).

The image processor 310 serves to process image data of a document input from a camera.

First, it may play a role of extracting a text portion of an image of an input document. In more detail, only the text portion is extracted through document image rotation, line separation and extraction, and character separation.

Most images of documents input from the camera are not exactly horizontal. While adding the RGB values of the black pixels corresponding to the characters in the horizontal direction, find the direction where the character area and the space between the lines are best identified in the horizontal direction. The text is black with strong RGB values, and the space between lines has an RGB value close to white. Rotate the document in such a way that the distinction between the most black and the white is clear.

You can also separate lines based on the data used to rotate the document image. In other words, the part with the character and the part between the line and the line are clearly distinguished, so that only the image of the part corresponding to the character can be separated from the top.

When the image corresponding to one line of the document is separated, character separation is performed. By adding the pixel value in the vertical direction of the image corresponding to one line of the document, it is possible to distinguish between the character part, the character and the character, and the space. Since the letter has a constant ratio of width to height, by using the vertical size information of the letter, the width of each letter can be predicted more accurately, so that an image corresponding to one letter can be separated. The image of each character separated in this way is saved as a file.

Also, the image processor 310 performs image processing related to the document image. For example, one color in a document image can be changed to another. This feature is useful for color blind people and can be used to change color with color blindness to other recognizable colors. It may also be used when changing a color image into a black and white image.

The image recognition unit 320 serves to recognize each letter stored separately from the image separation unit 310. In the process of recognizing a text image, first, a text image is input and thinning is applied. Thinning is the process of removing parts that are not conducive to character recognition. For example, Hangeul's initial letter 'ㅇ' and neutral 'ㅣ' stroke have a slightly bulge to the left at the top. The process of removing these parts is thinning. Next, we get the letter skeleton. Gothic fonts are thick, but they don't really help with text recognition. Therefore, the process of thinning thick lines so as not to reduce the length is the process of obtaining the character skeleton. After the process of obtaining the character skeleton, the information of the line having a thickness of one pixel is left. Stroke information is extracted using such character skeleton information. For reference, "a" is composed of a combination of two strokes represented by a horizontal stroke and a straight line component in a downward direction or a lower left direction at the point where the horizontal stroke ends. In this way, the image of the character is converted into information of consecutive strokes and converted into information capable of character recognition.

The stroke information obtained from the character image is compared with the character model stored in the character model DB (Database) to find the appropriate character. There can be several character models that can be interpreted as a single character image. In other words, identification may be very difficult by character image analysis such as 'ger' and 'ji'. In this case, the most appropriate letter is determined by considering the context with the previous sentence. As an example, it may be appropriate to determine if a character is a letter if there is no support for the preceding character and if a character is recommended as a possible character.

The text file converter 330 converts each character recognized by the image recognizer 320 into a text file format.

The voice signal generator 340 converts the electronic signal of the text file into voice. For example, it may be converted into a voice signal using a text-to-speech (TTS) function, which is output using a speaker or earphone.

The image signal output unit 350 serves to output the image signal processed by the image processor 310 to the display means 240.

4 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of the controller 250 in a reading stand having a camera according to the present invention.

As shown in the drawing, the control unit 250 includes switches, and inputs a control signal input through each switch to a camera, a character recognition processing unit, and a display means to perform control.

The power switch 410 is a switch that functions to apply power to the controller 250.

The camera up and down switch 420 is a switch that functions to move the position of the camera up and down.

The camera angle adjustment switch 430 is a switch for adjusting the angle of the camera up, down, left, and right to receive an upper portion, a lower portion, a left portion, and a right portion of the document.

The camera zoom switch 440 is a switch for adjusting the zoom of the camera, and is a switch for controlling the enlargement and reduction of the input document image by adjusting the camera magnification.

The camera focus control switch 450 is a switch for focusing the camera to obtain a clear image.

Camera left and right rotation switch 460 can be rotated 180 degrees left and right relative to the center. The switch may also be used as a left and right arrow for selecting a menu item when the menu item is displayed by selecting a menu.

The menu switch 465 is used when pressed to use various menus. In addition, when the image processing function is used, it is used to indicate various selection functions. The menu includes color change, screen brightness change, contrast change, and black and white change. Color change is used to change one color to another. This feature is useful for people with color blindness and is used to change color with color blindness to other recognizable colors. It is also used to change a color image to a black and white image.

After the menu is displayed through the menu switch 465, the selection switch 470 moves to a desired menu with the left and right arrows, that is, the camera left / right rotation switch 460, and then presses the selection key 470 to select a menu of the corresponding item. To be executed. It can be used mainly when selecting various image processing functions.

The liquid crystal display panel 475 is a liquid crystal panel for displaying the current state display and menu items.

Before and after the camera angle, the left and right button function exchange switch 480 has a function of mutually exchanging the front, rear, left and right switch functions of the camera angle adjustment switch 430. When the camera is rotated by the camera left / right rotation switch 460, the left and right directions before the camera rotation are changed back and forth after the camera rotation. Therefore, if you press the left or right button after rotating the camera, the camera actually moves back and forth, so it is difficult to move the camera to the desired document. Therefore, since the left and right and the front and rear directions are changed according to the rotation of the camera, it is necessary to interchange the front, rear, left and right switch functions of the camera angle control switch 430, which is used in this case.

Left and right light switch 485 serves to turn on and off the lights that can be installed on the left and right of the reading table according to the present invention.

The automatic document reading switch 490 automatically receives a document placed on the document holder 210 of the reading desk according to the present invention through a camera, recognizes a character, converts it into voice, and outputs it through a speaker or the like. It plays a role.

5 is a view showing a reading table 500 having a camera according to another embodiment of the present invention.

As shown, the reading table 500 having a camera according to another embodiment of the present invention includes a document holder 510 for placing a document, a camera 520 for receiving an image of the document and outputting the image as an electrical signal, An image and text recognition processing unit for receiving an electrical signal output from the camera and a camera cradle 530 for mounting the camera, performing image processing, converting it into an electronic text file through text recognition, and converting it into a voice signal for output. (Not shown), and a controller 550 for controlling the state of the camera, the image and text recognition processing unit, and the display means.

The difference from the reading stand 200 having a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 is the presence or absence of display means. That is, the reading table 500 having a camera according to another embodiment of the present invention does not include a display means, and when a user places a document on the document holder 510 and presses the automatic document reading switch of the controller 550, The camera reads an image of a document, and the image and text recognition processing unit converts it into a voice signal and outputs the same.

Therefore, the image and text recognition processing unit according to another embodiment of the present invention, the image processing unit for processing the image data of the document input from the camera and extracts the character portion of the image data, and the character portion extracted from the image processing unit And an image recognition unit for recognizing, a text file conversion unit for converting the character data recognized by the image recognition unit into a text file, and a voice signal generation unit for converting and outputting the text file into a voice signal. The difference from the image and character recognition unit 300 according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention is that the image signal generation unit is not included. This is a natural result in that a reading stand according to another embodiment of the present invention does not have a display means and automatically reads a document through a camera, converts it into a text file, and outputs a voice signal.

In addition, a reading table including a camera according to another embodiment of the present invention may include a speaker for reproducing a voice signal output from the image and text recognition processing unit. Or, the earphone jack is provided so that the user can connect his earphone and listen to the voice signal.

Although the structure of the present invention has been described by way of example only, it is for the purpose of illustrating the invention only, the protection scope of the present invention is not limited by these examples, the protection scope of the present invention is defined through the description of the claims .

As described above, according to the present invention, an image of a document is input to a camera, and the image of the document can be enlarged and reduced to be provided to the display device in a form that is easy to read. In addition, by recognizing an image as a character through image processing and outputting it through a speaker or the like, it may be helpful for acquiring information of an elderly person, a person with low vision, and a visually impaired person.

Claims (8)

Document holder for mounting documents, A camera for receiving an image of the document and outputting the electrical signal; A camera holder for mounting the camera and adjusting the position of the camera; An image and text recognition processing unit which receives an electrical signal output from the camera and performs image processing to output an image signal, converts it into an electronic text file through character recognition, and converts it into a voice signal and outputs the converted audio signal; Display means for receiving and displaying an image signal output from the image and text recognition processor; Control unit for controlling the state of the camera, the image and text recognition processing unit and the display means Reading desk having a camera comprising a. The method of claim 1, The image and text recognition processing unit, An image processing unit for processing image data of a document input from the camera and extracting a character portion of the image data; An image recognition unit recognizing a character part extracted from the image processing unit; A text file converter converting the character data recognized by the image recognition unit into a text file; A voice signal generator for converting the text file into a voice signal and outputting the voice file; An image signal generator for outputting the image data processed by the image processor as an image signal Reading desk having a camera that includes a. The method of claim 1, The image and the character recognition processing unit, the reading table having a camera to change the output of the color image of the document image input by the electrical signal so that a person with color blindness can recognize. The method of claim 1, And a camera further comprising a speaker for reproducing a voice signal output from the image and text recognition processor. The method of claim 1, And the control unit comprises a switch for controlling the focus, angle, zoom state and position of the camera and an image signal and an audio signal which are outputs of the image and text recognition processing unit. Document holder for mounting documents, A camera for receiving an image of the document and outputting the electrical signal; A camera holder for mounting the camera and adjusting the position of the camera; An image and text recognition processing unit which receives an electrical signal output from the camera, performs image processing, converts the electronic text file through text recognition, and converts the text into an audio signal; Control unit for controlling the state of the camera and the image and text recognition processing unit Reading desk having a camera comprising a. The method of claim 6, The image and text recognition processing unit, An image processing unit for processing image data of a document input from the camera and extracting a character portion of the image data; An image recognition unit recognizing a character part extracted from the image processing unit; A text file conversion unit converting the character data recognized by the image recognition unit into a text file; Voice signal generator for converting the text file into a voice signal and output Reading desk having a camera that includes a. The method of claim 6, And a camera further comprising a speaker for reproducing a voice signal output from the image and text recognition processor.

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