JPH0679349B2 - Optical reader - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a character reading device, and more particularly to a device for optically reading characters by scanning with a hand-held scanner.

(Prior art and its problems) In supermarkets and department stores, POS (Point of Sales) systems that collect sales information for individual items and manage inventory are in widespread use. Handheld optical readers are often used in this POS system. For example, there is the invention of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 59-6418, and the configuration thereof is shown in FIG.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a scanner, which reads characters while moving on the paper 3 with the hand 2. The hand scanner 1 is a lamp 4 for a light source,
It contains a lens system 5, a sensor 6, a control and binarization circuit 7.

The data scanned by the sensor 6 and binarized by the control and binarization circuit 7 is transferred to the buffer register 8 (buffer register 8
Is not always necessary). Vertical cutting circuit 9
The horizontal clipping circuit 16 detects the vertical and horizontal character areas, respectively. In the detected character area, the line feature extraction circuit 10 extracts and classifies the feature Ci of each line.

The partial feature extraction circuit 11 is sent from the row feature extraction circuit 10.
Further feature classification is performed from a plurality of signals of Ci and Di is output. The discrimination processing circuit 12 discriminates the character from the order of the signal Di sent from the partial feature extraction circuit 11, and outputs the result Dout. The sensor 6 arranged two-dimensionally consists of n × m pixels as shown in FIG. 3 and scans one character. The scanner 1 is horizontally moved by the hand 2 to read one character at a time. It is connected.

However, since it is difficult to move the scanner 1 horizontally with the hand 2, it is difficult to read correctly and the operability is poor.

(Means for Solving Problems) In the optical reading device of the present invention for solving the above problems, a field of view for accommodating a plurality of characters, symbols, etc. written on paper, more specifically, most of them is provided. The image sensor provided is used to binarize the video signal of the character, symbol, etc. to be read and stored in the memory as an overall binarized signal, and a partial binarized signal corresponding to one character is extracted from this. ,
It is configured so that they can be sequentially identified.

(Operation) The object of the present invention is to improve the conventional drawbacks, and by simply placing the scanner on the paper by hand, the field of view includes most of the characters, symbols, etc. described on the paper. An object of the present invention is to provide a handheld optical reader having good performance.

(Example) An example of the present invention is shown in FIG. 21 is Sukiana,
Just put the paper 23 with your hand 22, and the characters written on the paper 23 will be displayed.
It is for reading symbols and the like. The paper 23 is, for example, a price tag in which information in the POS system is described. Reference numeral 24 is a light source, 25 is a lens system, and 26 is a sensor, and has a field of view of information described on the paper 23, that is, almost the same size as the price tag. 27 is a control and binarization circuit, which converts the analog signal which is the output signal of the sensor 26 into a binarized signal, and sends it to the memory 28. The memory 28 stores binarized data of almost the entire field of view of the sensor 26.

FIG. 4 shows an explanation of the binarized data of the sensor 26.
It is the sensor 26 of p × q pixels, and is the entire field of view of the information writing portion of the paper 23.

Characters and symbols are identified by the identification circuit 30.
Since 30 is for identifying one character at a time, data for one character is fetched from the memory 28. The control circuit 29 takes out data corresponding to m × n pixels, which is the processing capacity of the identification circuit 30, from the memory 28 and stores it in the buffer register 8.

In FIG. 4, first, the data from the L1 row to the Lm row of columns B1 to Bn are fetched from the memory 28 and transferred to the buffer register 8.
The processing of the character lines after the buffer register 8 is the same as the conventional one. Next, the data from the L1 row to the Lm row of the B1 + 1 to Bn + 1 columns, that is, the data moved to one pixel sideways is stored in the memory 28.
From the buffer register 8. Similarly from B1 + 2
The L1 to Lm rows of Bn + 2 columns are transferred, and this is repeated to transfer the data of the L1 to Lm rows and Bq columns.

By this data transfer, the same scanning as moving the conventional scanner 1 with the hand 2 is performed.

When the lines from the L1 line to the Lm line to the Bqth column are finished, the line is moved downward. For example, if the field of view from line L1 to line Lm is about twice the height of the character, Zushi, that is, Up to this, the data from the B1 to Bn columns are first transferred, and the same operation is repeated thereafter. In this description, one pixel is horizontally moved, but it may be moved by two or three pixels.

(Effects of the Invention) The present invention uses a scanner having a sensor having almost the entire field of view of information written on a paper such as a price tag, and the character or the like that is the information written on the paper can be read simply by placing the scanna on the paper. It is possible to realize an optical reading device with extremely good operability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration example of a conventional device, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of binarized data of a conventional sensor,
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of binarized data of the sensor of the present invention. 1 ... scanner, 2 ... hand, 3 ... paper, 4 ... lamp, 5 ... lens system, 6 ... sensor, 7 ... control and binarization circuit, 8 ... buffer register, 9 ... ... vertical cutout circuit, 10 ... row feature extraction circuit, 11 ... partial feature extraction circuit, 12 ... identification circuit, 16 ... horizontal cutout circuit, 21 ... scanner, 22 ... hand, 23 ... paper, 24 ...... Light source, 25 …… Lens system, 26 …… Sensor, 27 …… Control and binarization circuit,
28: memory, 29: control circuit, 30: identification circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A hand-held optical reader which scans and identifies a plurality of unclearly arranged characters, symbols, etc. by using an image sensor composed of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a plane. An image sensor having a plurality of fields of view such as characters and symbols, a means for storing an entire binarized signal obtained by digitizing the output of the image sensor, a character from the stored binarized signal, And a means for extracting a partial binarization signal belonging to an area of a predetermined size capable of containing one character such as a symbol, and a means for identifying a character, a symbol, etc. by inputting the partial binarization signal, A partial binarized signal is sequentially taken out by shifting an area having a predetermined size by one pixel or a plurality of pixels smaller than one character to the left and right or the top and bottom in the stored whole binarized signal, and Optical reading apparatus characterized by identifying the degree letters, symbols or the like.