JPH05324905A - Print character detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce possibility for the erroneous detection of printed lines caused by dot-shaped dust or floating dots caused by rear face printing by changing a judge range size and a judge parameter corresponding to character sizes and checking the fine range of the judge parameter such as character line segment width or character height. CONSTITUTION:Based on image data stored in a memory, a control circuit discriminates whether printing is performed or not, detects left edge characters by successively scanning the judge range having line width H and lateral width D corresponding to the character sizes and next calculates the number of black dots in the lateral direction of a judge range 11. This number of black dots defines it as a threshold value that the width of line segments constituting characters is continuously two dots at a minimum, the presence/absence of character line segments is detected and this is defined as the first condition of character detection. Further, the number of black dots in the longitudinal direction of the judge range 11, the presence/absence of longitudinal character line segments is detected while defining it as a threshold that the height of the line segments is eight dots, this is defined as the second condition of character detection, and data satisfying these two conditions are discriminated as printed characters.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printed character detecting device for detecting the presence or absence of a printed character, and more particularly to a printed line detecting device for detecting a printed line of a passbook in a cash automatic transaction system for banks.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, automatic cash transaction systems have a function of printing the transaction contents in a passbook, and detect printing lines to prevent duplicate printing and empty lines on previously printed lines. The device is built-in. A general print line detection device stores a print line of the passbook in a magnetic stripe of the passbook or a host computer of a bank, and detects the print line based on the data of the print line, A method of detecting a printed line by optically detecting a printed line of an actual passbook and a method of detecting the printed line by further combining the two methods are known.

The printing line detecting device for optically detecting the printed lines is designed to image a predetermined area position (date printing column) in each line of the passbook as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 56-103783. It has been proposed to perform optical scanning by a sensor, count the number of black level dots by printing, and detect that there is printing when the number of black level dots is a predetermined number or more.

[0004]

Since the printing line detecting device according to the prior art described above detects the presence or absence of printing by counting the total number of black dots in a predetermined area (date printing field) of the passbook, the scanning area When there are a plurality of dot-like dusts or stains in the inside, and when there are black dots that are raised due to printing on the back side, there is a problem that the print is erroneously determined. That is,
Since the presence / absence of printing is determined based on the number of black dots in all the areas within the predetermined operation area, dust or the like may be erroneously determined as a printing dot.

In the printing line detecting device according to the prior art, the number of black dots is different depending on the character type (for example, 1 and 8), the printing density, and the character size of the characters printed on the passbook. However, there was a problem that it was difficult in reality. That is, when the smallest number of dots is the reference threshold, there is a problem that it is erroneously recognized as a printed line due to dust, and conversely, when the largest number of dots is the reference threshold, there is a problem that characters with a small number of dots cannot be detected. There is a problem that it is difficult to set the threshold value.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and to reduce the possibility of erroneous detection of a print line due to dot-like dust or embossed dots due to printing on the back surface, which can reduce the possibility of print character detection. It is to provide a device.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a printed character detecting apparatus according to the present invention comprises an image scanner which optically scans a search range wider than the printing range to detect the dots, and The memory includes a memory that maps and scans the dots scanned by the scanner as image data, and a control unit that detects the presence or absence of printing based on the image data in the memory.

[0008]

In the printed character detecting device constructed as described above, the control means sets the judgment range which is the same height as the character length and wider than the character width, and the width of the horizontal line segment within the judgment range. Also, when the number of dots in the height in the vertical direction is equal to or larger than a predetermined number, it is determined as a print character. The specific determination of the control means is to set a dot number determination value m that is the same as or narrower than the line segment width d that constitutes a character and a dot number determination value n that is the same as or lower than the character height a, and set the horizontal value within the determination range. When the number of dots in the direction exceeds or is the same as the judgment value m, and the number of dots in the character height exceeds or is the same as the judgment value m, it is judged as a printing character, so that there are many spot-like stains Even if there is a protrusion, the possibility of printing is sufficiently reduced.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A print character detecting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the printed character detecting device in this embodiment is configured to provide an image sensor 1 for optically scanning a date column of a passbook 2 and an analog signal proportional to light reflected from the paper surface by the image sensor 1 in a predetermined manner. A converter 3 for discriminating between black dots and white dots according to a threshold value and outputting the same, a shift register 4 and a data latch 5 for temporarily storing the dot data from the converter 3, and mapping the dot data as image data. And a memory 6 for storing the data, and a control circuit 7 for determining whether or not the line is a print line based on the dot data stored in the memory 6.

The print character detecting device configured as described above is
The printing column of the passbook 2 is sequentially scanned while moving the passbook 2 in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction of the image sensor 1, and an analog signal proportional to the reflected light from the paper surface is output. This analog signal is converted by the converter 3 into a binary signal of white and black, and stored in the memory 6 through the shift register 4 and the data latch 5. The image data stored in the memory 6 in a mapping manner is as shown in FIG.
Character height H of characters 20 to 24 in consideration of print line deviation
The vertical width that can be detected even if it is shifted up and down by half a line is scanned, and in this search range, the black dot indicated by a black circle in this example indicates “03-18” (March 18th).

The control circuit 7 according to the present embodiment determines the presence or absence of printing based on the image data stored in the memory 6. The control circuit 7 has a vertical width H and a horizontal width according to the character size. The determination range 11 of D is sequentially scanned from the upper left end of FIG. 2 to detect the leftmost character “0”, and then the number of black dots in the horizontal direction within the determination range 11 is calculated. The number of black dots is determined as the first condition for character detection by detecting the presence or absence of a character line segment with a threshold that the width of the line segment forming the character is at least 2 dots in succession. Further, the control circuit counts the number of black dots in the vertical direction within the judgment range 11 and uses the height of the line segment as a threshold value as a threshold value to detect the presence or absence of the character vertical line segment and detect this. This is the second condition for detection. still,
In this embodiment, the threshold of the first condition is referred to as a character line width determination value parameter m, and the second condition of the threshold is referred to as a character height determination value parameter n.

Now, the outline of the detection of the printed characters in this embodiment is as follows: the control circuit 7 scans the image data shown in FIG.
By sequentially using the parameter m, which is the first condition, and the parameter n, which is the second condition, while sequentially moving to the right, the presence or absence of characters in one line is determined to be data that satisfies the two conditions as a print character. However, if this print character is present at one or more places in one line, it is determined that the line is a line on which numbers have been printed.

In the actual passbook printing, the characters printed in the date field are not limited to numbers and may be asterisks (*). Therefore, the printed character detecting apparatus according to the present embodiment sets the parameters m and n to numbers. The print line is detected by switching between the case and the case of an asterisk, and the detailed operation will be described below.

<Explanation of Number Printing Detection Operation> First, the control circuit 7 according to the present embodiment detects a printing character when the printing character is a numeral. Determination parameters m and n in this case
Is 8 dots in height a and 2 in line segment width d in FIG.
In the case of dots, the height of the judgment range H = 8, the width of the judgment range D =
10, and parameter m = 2 and parameter n = 8 are set. This setting is set to values of a ≧ n and d ≧ m as shown in Table 1.

[0015]

[Table 1]

The height H and the width D of the judgment range 11 are determined by the size of the character being printed. As shown in FIG. 3, the size of the character is height a, character width b, and line segment. When the width is d and the character spacing is c, H = a and D = b + c are set. Further, the parameter m is set to a value slightly smaller than the line width d of the printed character, and the print presence / absence determination value n is set to a value slightly smaller than the height a of the printed character, whereby dot-like dust or dirt,
Set a value that allows normal front printing to be determined to be printed without determining that the printed characters on the back side are printed.

Next, the control circuit 7 determines whether or not there is printing at the upper left end position of the judgment range 11 in the search range 10 stored in the memory 6, and if there is no printing, moves the judgment range 11 down one column. The presence or absence of printing is determined by shifting. The presence / absence of printing is determined until the lower limit of the determination range 11 becomes equal to the lower limit of the search range 10. Next, the determination range is shifted to the right by Db dots, and the presence or absence of printing is determined from the upper limit to the lower limit of the search range 10. By repeating this, the presence / absence of printing is determined for all areas of the search range 10. If one or more determination ranges 11 are "printed", the control circuit 7 determines that the line is "printed". In the case of the example shown in FIG.
When the determination range 11 is at the position shown in FIG. 2, it is determined that "printing is present".

<Explanation of asterisk print detection operation> When the above-mentioned numeral print cannot be detected, the control circuit 7 according to the present embodiment switches the judgment range 11 and the parameters n and m to detect the presence or absence of asterisk print. In this case, the asterisk indicates the character height a = as shown in FIG. 3 and Table 1.
4, since the width b = 8, the determination range 11 is set to the height H = 4.
The width D is set to 10 and the judgment parameters m = 6 and n =
Set to 4. Then, similarly to the above-mentioned number printing detection, the presence or absence of printing is determined by sequentially shifting the determination range 11 from the position of the upper left end, and by repeating this, the presence or absence of printing is determined for all the regions of the search range 10, and there is at least one determination range. If "printed", this control circuit 7 indicates that the line is "printed".
To determine. The asterisk determination parameter m is
The condition of m ≦ d × 3 is preferable because the center of the asterix is a 3-dot continuous pattern unlike the case of the above numbers. Thus, the parameter m is preferably selected according to the structure of the judgment symbol.

As described above, the printed character detecting apparatus according to the present embodiment changes the judgment range size and the judgment parameter according to the character size, and the judgment parameter is double in the subdivision range of the character line segment width and the character height. By performing the check, it is possible to sufficiently reduce the possibility that printing will occur even when there is a lot of dot-like stains and when the back side printing is raised.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the determination range size and the determination parameter are changed according to the character size, and the determination parameter is checked for the subdivision range, for example, the character line segment width and the character height. By carrying out the method, it is possible to sufficiently reduce the possibility that printing will occur even if there are a lot of dot-like stains or if the backside printing is raised.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a print character detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a search range and a determination range for determining whether or not to print.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a print character size.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Image sensor, 2 ... Passbook, 3 ... Converter, 4 ... Shift register, 5 ... Data latch, 6 ... Memory, 7 ... Control circuit, 10 ... Search range, 11 ... Judgment range.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printed character detecting device for detecting a printed character printed by dots by optical reflection,
An image scanner that optically scans a search range wider than the print range to detect the dots, a memory that maps and stores the dots scanned by the scanner as image data, and image data in the memory. An original control unit for detecting the presence or absence of printing is provided, and the control unit sets a determination range having the same height as the character vertical length and wider than the character width, and the horizontal line segment width and vertical direction within the determination range. A printed character detection device, characterized in that when the number of dots of height is a predetermined number or more, it is judged as a printed character.