JPH01283671A - information processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To usefully and efficiently use the surface of a sheet by providing a means for managing a discriminated specific character-string as attached information of document information. CONSTITUTION:An input means 5 inputs document information, a discriminating means 7 discriminates a specific character-string arranged regularly from the document information, and a managing means 11 manages the specific character- string as attached information of the document information. From the character- string which has been brought to character recognition from an OCR input sheet, a delimiting symbol, a continuance symbol and an end symbol are discriminated, and in accordance therewith, the character-string is registered in each item of a key word. In such a way, at the time of entering the character-string to be registered into each key word item on the OCR input sheet, only a necessary character-string is put close and entered, and it is unnecessary to leave a surplus space, therefore, the space of the OCR input sheet can be used effectively.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an information processing device, and more particularly, to an information processing device that stores document information in association with attached information consisting of a specific character string.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in this type of device, there is an information processing device that has a function of reading and saving a document as image data from a scanner. document information (hereinafter referred to as “
Add keywords of attached information to the document image),
By searching for the keyword, the desired document image is found from among several saved document images.

Several items are predetermined as keywords at this time, and each item is used by inputting the relevant information.

In this way, when entering keywords for each document,
Write the keywords for each item by hand on the OCR input sheet, read it with a scanner, and OC the handwritten characters.
A method is used in which keywords are input by having R recognized. Therefore, in the OCR input sheet, the positions of the input fields for each keyword item are predefined on the paper.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example described above, the OCR input sheet has predetermined fields for entering each keyword item, and therefore has the following drawbacks.

(1) The entry field for each keyword item requires space equal to the maximum number of characters that are allowed to be entered in that item.

However, depending on the item, the maximum number of input characters may be set to be larger than normal data in consideration of some exceptional data or future expandability. In such items, when entering regular keywords, there is always a blank space in the field, which wastes space on the OCR input sheet.As a result, when entering a large number of keywords, the OC
An extra R input sheet was required.

(2) Paste the document image corresponding to the keyword on the OCR input sheet When reading the document image from the scanner at the same time as the keyword, if the entry fields for each keyword item are in a fixed position, the document image will be There are also restrictions on where images can be pasted, and images that extend even slightly into the keyword entry field cannot be processed.

The present invention has been made in view of the drawbacks of the conventional examples described above, and its purpose is to write characters effectively and efficiently on a character recognition sheet, for example, an OCR input sheet, and to write a specific character string. The object of the present invention is to provide a flexible information processing device that can, for example, adjust the number of characters of a keyword and write it on several OCR input sheets separately.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the purpose, an information processing device according to the present invention stores information in which document information is associated with attached information consisting of a specific character string. In the processing device, an input means for inputting the document information, an identification means for identifying a specific character string arranged regularly from the document information inputted by the input means, and an identification means for identifying a specific character string arranged regularly from the document information inputted by the input means; The information processing apparatus is characterized by comprising a management means for managing the attached information.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, the input means inputs document information, the identification means identifies a specific character string arranged regularly from the document information, and the management means identifies the specific character string as an attachment of the document information. Manage as information.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Description of Configuration of Information Processing Apparatus (FIG. 1)> FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is the OCR (optical character reader) of this embodiment.
It is an information processing device with functions, and 2 is a CPU that controls the entire device. 3 is a ROM that stores a control program, an error processing program, a processing program according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 4(a) and (b) described later, etc.
, 4 is a RAM used as a work area for various programs and a temporary save area during error processing.

5 is a scanner that optically reads the OCR input sheet and inputs the image data; 6 is an image memory that stores the manual image data read by the scanner 5; and 7 is the input image data stored in the image memory 6. This is a character recognition unit that recognizes characters from character patterns and converts them into character codes. The character code that is the recognition result of the character recognition section 7 is stored in the image memory 6. 8 is image memory 6
A keyword identification section 9 identifies a keyword of attached information indicating the type of document etc. from the character-coded document information stored therein; 9 edits the keyword or normal character string identified by the keyword identification section 8; This is the string editing section.

Further, IO is an optical disk that stores the character strings edited by the character string editing section 9 as the latest document image data for each document;
Reference numeral 11 denotes a magnetic disk that stores keywords edited by the character string editing section 9, that is, management information (keyword management table to be described later) necessary for searching document image data in the optical disk LO. 12 is a keyboard equipped with various keys for the operator to input various information; 13 is a display section for displaying input procedures of the keyboard 12 by the operator; image data; and 14 is a transmission path for addresses, data, control signals, etc. It is a system bus.

<Explanation of Keyword Management Table (FIG. 2)> Next, a method of managing keywords by the information processing device 1 described above will be described.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a keyword management table of the magnetic disk 11 according to this embodiment. Magnetic disk 11 in the diagram
100 is a keyword management table of this embodiment, which is formed by associating a plurality of keyword items with image addresses. Reference numeral 101 denotes address information (Ai; i=o) indicating where in the optical disk 10 various document image data are stored.

1.2...) is stored at the image address 102
~105 are each keyword item (Xi
; i=o, 1.2..., j=1.2.3...) are the first to fourth keyword items stored in the order of the items. At this time, each item of the keyword corresponding to the image address Ai is X1Nl, )(
if21 , )(ill , )(i(41
It will be. In this embodiment, the number of keyword items is four as shown in FIG. 2, but the number of keyword items can be set freely as long as it does not depart from the gist of the present invention.

Here, in order to display a target image from among the images stored on the optical disk, the operator first inputs the contents of each item of the keyword added to the target document image data from the keyboard section 12. Next, select the rows that match the entered content and the content of each item in the keyword management table 1.
00, and the document image data indicated by the image address on the same line is read from the optical disc 10 and displayed on the display section 13.

<Explanation of OCR entry method (FIGS. 3(a), (b), (c))> Next, FIG. 3(a) shows the method of entering keywords into the OCR input sheet according to this embodiment.

This will be explained using (b) and (C).

FIGS. 3(a), 3(b), and 3(c) are diagrams showing examples of entering keywords in this embodiment. In this example, the delimiter is ",", the continuation symbol is "(", and the end symbol is "〃
The keywords are divided into four categories.

FIG. 3(a) shows the first OCR input sheet, and numeral 31 in this figure is image data representing a map. Figure 3 (b
) indicates the second OCR input sheet. Also, Figure 3 (c
) shows the results of character recognition from the OCR input sheets shown in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b). The character strings written at the top of each sheet are sequentially recognized by OCR starting from the top row. 1
When characters are recognized up to the third line of the second OCR input sheet, the following character strings are read from the second OCR input sheet, and reading ends at the first line of the second OCR input sheet. do. The read character string is divided into keyword items N011 to N04 according to the delimiter "," as shown in FIG. 3(C), and these are stored in the keyword item table of the magnetic disk 11. be done.

In addition, the third image read from the scanner for OCR recognition
The image data in Figure (a) is also used when the image data 31 pasted on the OCR input sheet is stored on the optical disc.

Character Recognition Processing Procedure (FIGS. 4(a), (b))>The character recognition processing procedure in this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 4. Note that the process of displaying character strings on the display unit 13 and the process based on signals from the keyboard unit 12 are omitted here because they are similar to those of a normal information processing device, and only the character recognition process of the OCR input sheet will be explained here. do.

FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) are flowcharts showing the character recognition process of this embodiment.

First, the scanner 5 reads image data from an OCR input sheet and stores it in the image memory 6 (step Sl).

Here, in addition to the keyword in the image data, the optical disc 1
For example, in Figure 3(a),
If the image data 31 described in (b) and (c) is included, the input image data read here can also be used for storage.

Next, set the value of the variable indicating the keyword item No. to “0”.
, and a variable χ, (1=0.1...) that temporarily stores the keyword item contents.

Clear the contents of L-1) to “O” (step S2)
. Here, it is assumed that the number of characters in each item is the maximum number of characters, and each χ plate can store data for one character.

Then, the value of the variable i of the line indicating which line on the OCR input sheet is to be character-recognized by the OCR function is cleared to "O" (step S3). Here, it is assumed that a maximum of one line can be entered in the OCR input sheet, and the value of the variable i in the line is compared with the maximum value I. If i≧I, the process returns to step S1, and if i<I, the next step is Proceed to the process of (step S4)
.

After determining that i<1 above, the character in the i-th line of the OCR input sheet is recognized, and the resulting character string in the i-th line is set as a variable U. , ul, ..., uJ-1 (step S5
), where the - line consists of a maximum of J characters. Then, clear the variable j in the column indicating the string of characters to be processed to "O" (step S6), compare the value of the variable j in the column with the maximum value J, and if j≧J, the value of the variable i in the row is incremented by one and returns to step S4 again (step 86
~Step S8). This is done to move processing to the next line. Further, in step S7, if j<J, the keyword identification unit 8 checks whether the value of the variable Uj in the i-th row and the j-th column is the end symbol "〃", and if it is identified as the end symbol, the all character recognition process ends ( Step S9). Also, if variable UJ cannot be identified as a termination symbol, then the continuation symbol “~
The keyword identification unit 8 further checks whether the symbol is a continuation symbol, and as a result, when it is identified as a continuation symbol, the process returns to step S1 (step 5IO), reads the image data from the second OCR input sheet, and processes the step S2. When you identify the continuation symbol “((” in this way, it means that the keyword on the one OCR input sheet that is currently being recognized is the end, and the following keyword is Check from the OCR input sheet to be read. For example, in the case of Figures 3 (a), (b), and (c), Figure 3 (a)
In the first OCR input sheet, the continuation symbol" is entered, and the keyword item No. 1 to No. 4 "1" is entered.
Keywords up to ``987'' are recognized by identifying various symbols, keywords after that are checked from the second OCR sheet, and ``August 20th'' is recognized.

If the continuation symbol cannot be identified in step S10, it is further checked whether the variable U is a delimiter "," (step 511). If variable U cannot be identified as a delimiter, the value of variable U is assigned to variable χ1 (step 5L2), and variable χ! The value of 1 is incremented by one (step 513).

Furthermore, compare the values of variable 1 and the maximum value in step 51.
4) If the result is l≧L, it means that incorrect data has been entered in which the number of characters entered on the OCR input sheet is greater than the maximum number of characters allowed for each keyword item. Yes, all character recognition processing is terminated as erroneous data has been found. At this time, an error is displayed. Further, when it is determined in step S14 that l<L, the process proceeds to the next step.

By the way, in step Sll, the variable U.

is identified as a delimiter, it means that information for one keyword item has been obtained, and the variable χ0. χ8.
...Add χl-1 to the variable clause of the keyword +1st (k=
o, 1, . . . k-1) in the keyword management table 100 (step 515). For example, FIG. 3(a) mentioned above.

(b), (Using the example of C, FIG. 3(a).

From the two OCR input sheets shown in (b), the delimiter “,” is recognized three times, so the keyword item No.
1-No, 4 is divided into four keyword management table 1
Registered as 00.

Next, increment the value of the variable by one (Step 516), compare the value of the variable with the maximum allowable setting number of keyword items (Step 517), and if ≧, enter it in the OCR input sheet. This means that contradictory data has been input in which the number of keyword items is greater than the maximum permissible number of keyword items in the keyword management table 100, and subsequent processing is interrupted and an error message is displayed. Further, if k<K in step S17 (step S17), the variable χ0. χ1. ....

Clear χ and -1 (step 518).

In this way, when the process of step S14 or step S18 is finished, the value of column j of variable UJ is incremented by one (step 519), and step S7 is performed again.
Return to and repeat the above process.

As described above, according to this embodiment, delimiters, continuation symbols,
By identifying the ending symbol and registering the character string in each keyword item accordingly, the following effects can be achieved.

(1) When entering the character strings to be registered in each keyword item on the OCR input sheet, only the necessary character strings are filled in and there is no need to leave extra space, making the space of the OCR input sheet effective. You can use it.

(2) Keywords can be entered on several OCR input sheets as needed, so other data can be entered on the OCR input sheet (for example, as shown in Figure 3 (a), the keyword (the image data corresponding to the keyword is pasted) Even if the line where you can write the keyword does not have enough space to write all the characters of the keyword,
Since characters that could not be entered can be entered separately on another OCR input sheet, the uses of the OCR input sheet can be expanded.

(3) O in a specific format depending on the structure of the keyword item
There is no need to prepare a CR input sheet, and input data of keywords having an arbitrary item structure can be entered simply by using an OCR input sheet in which character strings can be entered.

By the way, in this embodiment, the OCR input sheet was read from a scanner, but in carrying out the present invention, it is sufficient to obtain the read image data of the OCR input sheet, and the input device does not necessarily need to be limited to a scanner. In this case, for example, the present invention can be applied even to images received by facsimile communication medium, and here as well, the keyword characters entered on the OCR input sheet are The recognition tolerance range can be expanded.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the character string input by OCR recognition does not necessarily have to be a keyword. For example, the present invention can be effectively applied even when a character string such as a comment is appropriately divided into several sheets and inputted.

Alternatively, in order to identify the delimiter, continuation symbol, and end symbol in this embodiment, it is not necessary to define the corresponding symbol, and when a character string is read by the scanner, the delimiter state and continuation state are reliably identified.

It is sufficient if the three end states can be identified. Other ways to indicate these three states with letters include, for example, writing each keyword item on one line and using the end of the line as a separator, or writing only three lines on one sheet of paper, and writing three lines. If there are still keyword items for which no strings have been set even after reading up to the first line, there is a way to make it a continuous state.Furthermore, if a line is entirely blank, the end of that line is set to an end state. There are methods etc.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by giving a character recognition sheet a specific character string entry rule, the sheet surface can be used efficiently without wasting it, and the use of the character recognition sheet can be improved. It provides an information processing device that has expanded.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a keyword management table of the magnetic disk 11 according to the embodiment, and FIGS. ) is a diagram showing an example of entering keywords in this embodiment, and FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) are flowcharts showing character recognition processing in this embodiment. In the figure, 1... information processing device, 2... CPU, 3...
・ROM, 4...RAM, 5...Scanner, 6...
- Image memory, 7... Character recognition section, 8... Keyword identification section, 9... Character string editing section, 10... Optical disk, 11... Magnetic disk, 12... Keyboard section, 13 ...Display section, 14...System bus, 31.
...Image data, 100...Keyword item table, 101...Image address, 102...First keyword item, 103...Second keyword item, 104...
...Third keyword item, 105...Fourth keyword item. , 11 / Figure 2 (C) Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] An information processing device that stores document information in association with attached information consisting of a specific character string, which includes an input means for inputting the document information, and a specific character string arranged regularly from the document information inputted by the input means. An information processing apparatus comprising: an identification means for identifying; and a management means for managing the identified specific character string as attached information of the document information.