JPH0135381B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an optical character reading device having a character recognition function for externally input facsimile information having different resolutions.

In recent years, a character recognition device has been developed that inputs the image signal of a facsimile (hereinafter referred to as FAX) directly to an optical character reading device (hereinafter referred to as OCR) without first recording it on recording paper. In such devices, if there is a difference in resolution between FAX and OCR, especially if there is a difference in resolution in the form transport direction (sub-scanning direction), conventionally a very complicated process is required to convert the resolution. Logic circuits had to be incorporated, which left many problems in actual commercialization.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an optical character reading device that can recognize externally provided facsimile information of different resolutions with an extremely simple configuration by adding a few circuits. The purpose is to

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 101 is a scanning unit provided in a form conveyance mechanism of the main body of an optical character reading device (hereinafter referred to as OCR), and 102 is a form conveyance drive unit. 103 receives image information from a facsimile (hereinafter referred to as FAX) sent via a line according to a predetermined transmission procedure, and if the signal is compression encoded, it is processed according to a predetermined algorithm. This is a receiving unit that performs decompression and decoding processing to restore the image signal at the time of scanning. 104 is a control unit that controls the conveyance drive unit 102 using control information SC given from the outside;
4 and included in the control information SC above.
The image signal a obtained from the scanning unit 101 or the receiving unit 103 according to OCR/FAX mode designation information
An image signal selection circuit (hereinafter referred to as MSW) that selectively outputs and controls the output of one of the image signals b obtained from the
). Reference numeral 105 indicates a numerical value of reading control information (hereinafter referred to as FC) included in the control information SC according to the OCR/FAX mode under the control of the control unit 104, that is, a numerical value corresponding to each resolution of OCR and FAX. This is a resolution constant converter that converts into .
106 receives the image signal (a or b) selected by the MSW 104A of the control unit 104;
This is a recognition unit that performs character recognition at the reading position according to the numerical information of FC obtained from the resolution constant conversion unit 105 under instructions from the resolution constant conversion unit 105. Among the above-mentioned functional parts,
Scanning section 101, conveyance drive section 102, control section 10
4. The recognition unit 106 uses the MSW 10 of the control unit 104
It has the same configuration as the existing OCR except for 4A. Further, the resolution constant conversion section 105
It converts numerical information of FC (reading target line start position l, reading line area d, etc.) into constants according to each resolution of OCR/FAX, and a calculation circuit for constant conversion or each calculation for each numerical value of FC Result (l,
l', d, d'...) table (memory) that stores them in advance
It may have any configuration.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the starting position l of the line to be read of the handled form and its line area d.

The operation of one embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. First, the operation in OCR mode will be explained. When control information SC including the position of the line to be read in the form, character type, and OCR operation mode designation is given to the control unit 104 from the outside, the control unit 104 causes the internal MSW 104A to select and output the image signal a obtained from the scanning unit 101. Switching control is performed as necessary. Next, in response to an external command to start reading, a command to start transport is output to the transport drive unit 102, and the output signal of the scanning unit 101 is monitored to detect the leading edge of the form. Next, the start position information l of the line to be read is obtained from the given FC. This value of l is a value that matches the resolution of the OCR transport system,
l=1 is equal to the distance that a form is transported during one OCR scan. The control unit 104 counts the number of scanning lines from the leading edge detection position of the form, and when the position l of the form shown in FIG. 2 reaches the scanning unit 101, the recognition unit 1
An image data import start command is output to 06. Furthermore, it waits for the scanning of the reading line area (FIG. 2 d) to be completed, and outputs a command to stop capturing the image and start reading to the recognition unit 106, and transports the image to the conveyance drive unit 102 in preparation for the next line to be read. Outputs a stop command. The character recognition process at this time is the same as the existing one, so its explanation will be omitted here. When character recognition for one line is completed, the control section 104 performs conveyance control in the same manner if there is a next recognized line, and outputs each command to each section. If there is no recognized line, a transport command is output to the transport drive unit 102 to transport the form to the pocket.

Next, the operation when reading a received fax image will be explained. Input of form information via FAX is performed using an external FAX connected to the receiving unit 103 via a line.
When the FC and FAX image reading mode designation is given to the control unit 104 from the outside, the control unit 104 outputs the MSW.
104A is switched and controlled to selectively output the image signal b obtained from the receiving section 103. Next, information of l is obtained from the FC by an external command to start reading.
Furthermore, this information on l is given to the resolution constant converter 105 along with an instruction of the sub-scanning direction to obtain a value l' converted to the sub-scanning resolution of the FAX. The control unit 104 outputs a command to start transferring the image signal b to the receiving unit 103, and counts the number of scanning lines. When the count value reaches l', the OCR transport system starts scanning the line to be read on the form. The same judgment as in the case where the image is transported to the unit 101 is made, and an image capture command is output to the recognition unit 106. Furthermore, the information d indicating the read line area is obtained from the above FC, and the above l→
Obtain the value of d′ in the same way as the conversion of l′. Then, when the counter in the control unit 104 counts the scanning line d' further from the scanning line position where it reached l', the receiving unit 103
In addition to issuing a command to stop image signal transfer,
A command to stop image capture and start reading is output to the recognition unit 106. Upon receiving this reading start command, the recognition unit 106 outputs information indicating the reading start and end positions and character pitch in the main scanning direction to the resolution constant conversion unit 105 along with the main scanning direction instruction from the FC. The converted value is obtained, and character recognition is performed using the cutout position according to the converted information. At this time, the influence of the difference in resolution on the character pattern appears as a deformation in the size of the character, but most of the deformation is absorbed by the existing normalization process. Furthermore, since the recognition algorithm at this time is the same as the existing one, its explanation will be omitted. When the recognition of one line is completed, the control unit 104 counts the number of scanning lines in the same way as above and outputs each command if there is the next line to be recognized, and if there is no next line to be recognized, it forces the line. Processing such as terminating the scan line or capturing scanning lines until the end of the form is performed.

With such OCR/FAX selective reading control means, it is possible to recognize FAX image signals having different resolutions from those of OCR by simply making slight changes to the conventional OCR control unit. Furthermore, since the image signal is recognized as it is, there is less deterioration in image quality and less difference in reading rate than when the image signal is subjected to logical processing of resolution conversion.

As detailed above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an optical character reading device that can easily recognize externally provided facsimile information of different resolutions with a simple configuration by adding a few circuits. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the starting position 1 of a line to be read on a form and its line area d, for explaining the operation of the above embodiment. 101... Scanning section, 102... Conveyance drive section, 1
03... Receiving section, 104... Control section, 104A...
. . . Image signal selection circuit (MSW), 105 . . . Resolution constant conversion section, 106 . . . Recognition section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A scanning unit that scans the form transported by the form transport mechanism and reads the character information recorded on the form, and a scanning unit that receives facsimile information given from the outside, reads this received information, and converts it into an image signal obtained during scanning. a receiving section to be restored; and an image signal selection circuit that selects either the image signal obtained from the receiving section or the image signal obtained by scanning by the scanning section based on internal/external reading mode control information given from the outside. and,
In accordance with the resolution corresponding to the selection state of this image signal selection circuit, there is a resolution constant conversion section that performs numerical conversion of the reading target line and character position information given from the outside, and according to the information obtained from this resolution constant conversion section, the above-mentioned 1. An optical character reading device comprising: a recognition section that performs character recognition of an image signal selected by an image signal selection circuit.