JPS60140490A - optical character reader - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Application This invention relates to an optical character reading device that recognizes multiple types of character shapes.

(B) Prior art Hitherto, for example, the Hunt 8 scan optical character reading system shown in Fig. 1, which uses a system (OCR-B, 407 font, etc.) to recognize multiple types of character shapes using only one recognition unit, has been known. ing. This optical character reading device has a scanner 1, which is moved horizontally over a paper 6 on which characters are written, to identify the characters. In FIG. 1, a lamp 4 illuminates a paper 6, and a character pattern on the paper 3 is imaged onto a two-dimensional sensor 6 via a lens system 5.

This sensor 6 has a photoelectric conversion element (hereinafter referred to as a cell).
They are arranged in Xm squares. Since the light reflected from the paper 6, the light reflected from the background area of the paper B, and the light reflected from the character area are different, the corresponding signals obtained in each cell are added to the control and binarization circuit 7. A determination is made as to whether to binarize white or black based on the level determination, and the binarization determination result is output. FIG. 2 shows an example in which the character pattern on the paper filter is imaged on the cell array, that is, on the sensor 6. The figure shows an example of the correspondence between each cell and the binarized signal outputted from the control and binarization circuit 7, and a nomiturn made up of nXm cells is called a screen. VA is vertical character area, HA
indicates a horizontal character area.

The control and binarization circuit 7 sequentially selects C from the 01 column of the top front R1.
2, 03, . . . , the signals corresponding to the Cn columns are output, and then the signals corresponding to the CI, G2 . . . , Cn columns, then 33 rows, and finally the Rm rows of Cs, C2, -, Cn columns, thereby completing the scanning of one screen. The vertical extraction circuit 8 is a circuit that detects a character area in the vertical direction, and checks whether or not there are black cells in each row from column C1 to column Cn, and detects the range in which the rows in which black cells exist are continuous ( (determined from the character size), it is considered a vertical character area. In Figure 2, R.

The rows from row RjfN to row RjfN are rows in which black cells exist continuously, and this range is defined as character area VA from row Rj to RJ
-4-Set line N to vertical character area register 9.

In addition, when detecting the vertical character area on the next screen, the previous character area information is returned from the vertical character area register 9 to the vertical cutting circuit 8, taking into consideration that there will be no major change from the previous character area. It has been decided.

The horizontal cutting circuit 10 is a circuit that determines whether or not a character has reached a predetermined position in the horizontal direction.In the vertical character area, for example, when column C1 is entirely blank and part of column C2 is black, When the character reaches a predetermined position, a horizontal cutting signal VH is output.

The horizontal cutting flag circuit 11 is a circuit that is set so that the same character will not be identified twice once the VH signal is output. The cutout determination circuit 12 is a circuit that, when the horizontal cutout circuit 10 outputs the VH times signal, determines whether or not a character should be identified based on the contents of the horizontal cutout flag BFVH outputted from the horizontal cutout flag circuit 11. That is, when the horizontal cutting signal VH is output before the horizontal cutting flag BFVH is set, it is determined that the position in the horizontal (scanning) direction is correct.

The horizontal cutting flag BFVH is cleared when it is determined that the character has passed under the condition that the Gx column is all self.

The identification circuit 16 identifies characters in the vertical character area VA (for example, rows Rj to R5+s) when the cutout determination circuit 12 determines that the horizontal position is correct.

The scanning direction detection circuit 14 is a circuit that detects whether a character is read from the left or from the right. In the detection method, if part of the C2 column is black and part of the C3 column is black, it is determined that the scan was performed from right to left, and in other cases, it is determined that the scan was performed from left to right.

The editing section 15 has a function of rearranging the identification results by the identification circuit 16 according to the output of the scanning direction detection circuit 14.

←・) Problems The optical character reading device of the above-mentioned type has the following drawbacks. (1) For example, '1'', 'i', 'L'
Even if the number ``ichi'' is the same, the characteristics of the character remain the same, making it complicated to develop identification algorithms for classifying and identifying character feature sequences. (11) For example, the number ``ichi''
To recognize the character shape, use 1111″1″l, t+
It is necessary to recognize the three letters ``L'', ``K'',
Since the number of recognized character types is also required for each character shape, it is necessary to increase the storage capacity. However, if the storage capacity is increased too easily, the recognition processing time will increase, and the operability of the hand scan optical reading device will deteriorate. To prevent this, it is necessary to limit the types of characters that can be recognized.

(, → 目 rwhite) This invention was made based on the above circumstances, and its purpose is to facilitate the development of identification algorithms.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an optical character reading device that can recognize a plurality of character types without changing the recognition processing time.

(E) Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, the same parts as in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the explanation thereof will be omitted. The optical reading device shown in FIG. 3 includes the scanner 1 shown in FIG.
6. A glyph display driver 17 and a glyph display 18 are added. The glyph selection switch section 16 is for the operator to select a glyph by looking at the glyph of the character printed on the label or by setting the switch. is input to the glyph display driver 17, and the glyph display driver 17 displays the glyph code corresponding to the input signal on the glyph display 18 by moving it.

On the other hand, an identification circuit (II) 19 is newly provided in parallel with the identification circuit (II 13'), and the identification circuit (1) 16
Similarly to ', the binarization circuit 7. Vertical character area register 9
．． and each signal from the cutout determination circuit 12 are input. The identification circuit (1) 13' and the identification circuit (n) 19 operate independently and in parallel, and are used to identify characters of different character shapes.For example, the identification circuit (INro') The character shape identification circuit (Tl) 19 identifies each of the character shapes of '1'' and outputs the identification results to the selection circuit 20.

A signal indicating the glyph selected by the glyph selection switch section 16 is also input to the selection circuit 2o.
Identification circuit (I) 1 that identifies the selected glyph and the corresponding glyph
3' or the identification circuit (ITN9) selects only one signal and sends it to the editing section 15.

Therefore, when the operator visually checks the paper drawer and operates the glyph selection switch section 16 and sets the switch for the glyph corresponding to '1'', that glyph is displayed on the glyph display 18 and the glyph can be confirmed. On the other hand, the character ``Pa1'' read on the paper tray is identified as °'ichi' by the identification circuit 13' through each circuit as described above. It is not identified in the old version 19. Only the identification result of the identification circuit (Ij 13') is sent to the editing section 15 via the selection circuit 2o and edited.

In the embodiment described above, the font selection switch 16 and the font display 18 are provided on the scanner 1 side, which is convenient because it is possible to easily switch and confirm the selection of font types. .

(F) Effects As explained above, the present invention provides a plurality of identification means for recognizing one type of character shape in parallel in order to recognize a plurality of types of character shapes, and recognizes the character shape selected by the character shape selection means. , by selecting the identification means corresponding to the selected character shape, the following effects are achieved. (1) Since each of the identification means operates independently, it is possible to independently develop an identification algorithm for each character shape, which is easier than developing an identification algorithm by mixing a plurality of character shapes. (11) Each identification means is a single character shape identification algorithm i.
l) Since the glyphs are processed in parallel, the processing speed, that is, the scanning speed does not decrease, and multiple types of glyphs can be recognized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a circuit configuration diagram of a conventional example, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the reading operation of FIG. 1, and FIG. 6 is a circuit configuration diagram showing one implementation of the present invention. 1... Srayana, 16'... Identification circuit (1), 1
6... Character shape selection switch section, 18... Character shape display, 19... Identification circuit ([),
20...Selection circuit. (Four other persons Figure 1 Figure 2 A Procedures Amendment Document Date of July 27, 1980 Patent Application No. 2515151 of 1988 2, Name of Invention Optical Character Reading Device 6, Amendment) Relationship with the case of the person who filed the patent application Patent applicant Address Name (21) Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. 4, Agent 6, Contents of amendment (1) The following amendments will be made in the specification. Page Line Before amendment After amendment 61 .6It L It l1llIf9 20 Srayana Scanner or above

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A glyph selection means for selecting one glyph from a plurality of glyphs, a plurality of identification means provided in parallel for each different glyph in order to recognize a plurality of glyphs, and the glyph selection means and identification selection means for selecting the identification means that recognizes only the glyphs selected by the character shape selection means, wherein the recognition of the optically read characters is performed by the identification means that recognizes only the glyphs selected by the glyph selection means. An optical character reading device characterized by: (2) The optical character reading device according to claim 1, further comprising a character shape display means for displaying the character shape selected by the character shape selection means. (3) The optical character reading device according to claim (2), wherein the character shape selection means and the character shape display means are provided in a hand scanner body.