JPH0362283A - Optical character reading device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily extend the processing function of an optical character reading device just with change of a function extending part by providing an optical character reading part containing a basic function and the function extending part including a function which is not contained in the character reading part. CONSTITUTION:A function extending part 20 is provided to extend a function to an optical character reading part 10. Thus the part 10 can contain only a basic function. At the same time, the part 20 is provided with plural interface parts 25-1 - 25-n and therefore can be shared by plural parts 10. Thus the universal applicability is improved for an optical character reading device. When a process requiring a function that is not contained in the part 10 is instructed, a proper function of the part 20 is applied in accordance with the contents of the process (task). Thus a processing function can be extended with change of the part 20.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an optical character reading device for reading characters written on a form.

(Prior Art) In general, optical character reading devices that optically read characters written on various forms use optical scanning while transporting the forms. It is provided with functions for performing various processes, such as a scanner section that detects an image of a form, a character recognition section that cuts out a character pattern from the detected form image and performs character recognition.

In order to enhance the functions of such an optical character reading device, each part needs to be configured according to the function, which increases the size and cost of the device.

On the other hand, a market is being established by providing small and inexpensive optical character reading devices by limiting the processing functions to the necessary ones.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, when an optical character reading device with limited processing functions is introduced, new functions cannot be added in the past. For this reason, considering the potential diversity of processing tasks in optical character reading devices, even if new processing functions are developed, the devices will become obsolete before reaching the end of their useful life because this function cannot be added. (outdated).

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical character reading device whose processing functions can be easily expanded.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention detects a form image by optically scanning a form to be processed, and executes basic processing based on this form image. an optical character reading means having a function to perform the above, and a function expansion means for performing an extended function to perform processing different from the basic processing executed in the optical character reading means, When the optical character reading means is instructed to process the form, if the instructed processing content is a process that should be processed by a function other than the function of the optical character reading means, the function expansion is performed. 14 is configured to execute processing on the form using the extended function that the means has.

(Function) In the optical character reading device configured in this way, the optical character reading section has functions to perform basic processing, while the optical character reading section has functions that the reading section does not have. When the execution of the process used is instructed, the process is executed using the functions of the function extension unit according to the instructed process content (business content), so when extending the processing function, can be addressed by changing the extension.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an optical character reading device according to the same embodiment. In the same figure, IO is an optical character reading section configured with basic functions in an optical character reading device.

The optical character reading section 1O includes a reading control section 11. which controls the entire reading section 1G. A scanner [12, image processing unit 13, character recognition unit 14,
and an expansion interface section 15 are provided. The scanner unit 11 optically scans a form to be processed, and has a transport mechanism for transporting the form and a photoelectric conversion function. An image processing section 12 is connected to the scanner section 11, which binarizes the photoelectric conversion signal in the scanner section II, stores the obtained image data, and detects a character pattern from the image data. A character recognition section 14 is connected to the image processing section 13 and recognizes character patterns detected by the image processing section 13. Furthermore, an expansion interface section 15 is connected to the character recognition section 14 for interacting with a function expansion section 20, which will be described later.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a function expansion section that controls expansion functions in the optical character reading device. The function expansion unit 20 includes a function expansion control unit 21. which controls the expansion unit 20 as a whole. Function expansion control unit 21
An image buffer 22, a character recognition section 23, a hard memory 24, and a plurality of interface sections 25-1 to 25-n are provided. It is assumed that among the plurality of interface sections 25-1 to 25-n, the interface section 25-1 is connected to the extended interface section 15 of the optical character reading section IO. The image buffer 22 is connected to the interface 25-1, and is used to input and store image data from the optical character reading section 10 via the interface 25-1. A character recognition section 23 that recognizes character patterns is connected to the image buffer 22. Further, the hard memory 24 is connected to the function expansion control section 21 . The hard memory 24 includes an optical character reading unit IO.
Processing details (program) for functions that do not have
(hereinafter referred to as extended FW), a dictionary used for character recognition processing that the optical character reading unit 10 does not have (hereinafter referred to as extended dictionary), and the like are stored.

Reference numeral 30 denotes an external data processing section that interacts with the operator and processes the data read by the optical character reading section IO. The external data processing section 30 is connected to the reading control section 11 of the optical character reading section 10. Furthermore, it is assumed that a keyboard, a display device (CRT), etc. (not shown), which are input/output devices for controlling an interface with an operator, are connected to the external data processing section 30.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

Normally, basic character recognition processing is executed in the optical character reading section IO. The optical character reading section 10 in this embodiment is assumed to have a character recognition processing function for, for example, alphanumeric characters.

For this reason, it is assumed that the character recognition unit 14 is preset with a dictionary for alphanumeric recognition processing.

First, when performing character recognition processing on characters (alphanumeric characters) written on a form, the scanner section 12 irradiates light while conveying the form to be processed, and performs photoelectric conversion according to the reflected light. .

The signal obtained by photoelectric conversion is sent to an image processing section 13.
is output to. The image processing section 13 converts the output signal from the scanner section 2 into binary data and stores it as a form image. The image processing unit 13 detects a character pattern from the form image obtained by binarization, and cuts out the character pattern for each character. The extracted character pattern is output to the character recognition section 14. The character recognition unit 14 performs character recognition processing on the character pattern cut out by the image processing unit 14 using a preset dictionary. The recognition result in the character recognition processing section I4 is transferred to the external data processing section via the reading control section 11.

Next, a case will be described in which processing other than the character recognition processing function possessed by the optical character reading section IO is executed.

Here, a case will be described in which character recognition processing is performed on kanji written on a form. When performing processing other than the functions possessed by the optical character reading section 10, the operator notifies the external data processing section 30 of this fact. In this case, notification will be given that kanji recognition processing will be performed. When such an instruction from the operator is input, the external data processing section 3o notifies the reading control section 11 of the optical character reading section 1O that kanji recognition processing will be performed. The control unit lo executes processing in response to notifications from the external data processing unit 30.

In this kanji recognition process, the process up to cutting out the character pattern in the image processing section 13 is performed in the same manner as described above, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.

The character pattern cut out by the image processing section 13 is output to the character recognition section 14. At this time, the reading control section 11 controls the character recognition processing section 14 to output the character pattern from the image processing section 13 to the expansion interface section 15 without performing recognition processing. Further, the reading control unit 11 sends a function expansion unit 2 connected to the expansion interface unit 15 to the expansion interface unit 15.
The transfer of the character pattern to be subjected to the kanji recognition process is notified to the interface unit 25-1 of 0. In this way, the notification indicating that the kanji recognition process will be performed to the function expansion unit 2o and the character pattern cut out by the image processing unit 13 are transferred to the function expansion unit 2o via the expansion interface unit 15.

In the function expansion section 20, data from the optical character reading section 1G is inputted at the interface section 25-1. When the function expansion control unit 21 determines that the data manually input to the interface unit 25-■ is to be subjected to kanji recognition processing, the function expansion control unit 21 transfers this character pattern data to the image buffer 2.
Store in 2. Then, it instructs the character recognition storage unit 23 to perform the kanji recognition process, and also transfers dictionary data for the kanji recognition process in the extended dictionary stored in the hard memory 24. The character recognition processing unit 23 executes a greeting recognition process on the character pattern stored in the image buffer 22 based on the dictionary transferred from the hard memory 24 . The recognition results obtained by the kanji recognition process in the character recognition section 23 are passed to the function expansion control section 21 . When the function expansion control section 21 receives the recognition result from the character recognition section 23, it transfers it to the optical character reading section IO side via the interface section 25-1. The recognition result in the function expansion unit 20 is transmitted to the expansion interface unit 1 of the optical character reading unit IO.
5 to the reading control unit 11.

The reading control unit 11 transfers this recognition result to the external data processing unit 30 as the recognition result of the characters recorded on the form.

Next, a case will be described in which, for example, reading a FAX sheet or processing ruled lines, etc., which are not included in the basic functions of the optical character reading section 10, are performed. When executing such a process that is not included in the basic functions, the external data processing unit 30 specifies execution of other processes (such as reading a fax sheet or processing ruled lines), similar to the kanji recognition process described above. be done.

In such a case, the reading control unit 11 requests the function expansion unit 20 via the expansion interface unit 15 to transfer the expansion FW corresponding to the specified process. The function expansion control unit 21 of the function expansion unit 20 controls the interface unit 2
Upon receiving a request from the optical character reading section 10 via the optical character reading section 5-1, the extended FW stored in the node memory corresponding to this request is read out.

Then, the function expansion control unit 21 transfers the read expansion FW to the optical character reading unit IO side via the interface unit 25-1. The reading control section 11 of the optical character reading section 1O holds the extended FW from the function expanding section 20, and executes processing according to this extended FW.

In this way, by providing the function expansion section 20 for extending the functions of the optical character reading section 10, it is possible to reduce the functions that the optical character reading section 10 has to only n essential functions. Normally, the optical character reading unit 1O includes a transport system for transporting forms and a photoelectric conversion system for optical scanning (included in the scanner unit 12).
However, it ends up being of a certain size structurally. Therefore, by making the functions of the optical character reading section 1O basic, the configuration of the device can be made as compact as possible.

Furthermore, by providing a plurality of interface sections 25-1 to 25-n in the function expansion section 20, the function expansion section 20 can be shared by a plurality of optical character reading sections io, thereby increasing versatility. It is.

Note that it is of course possible to provide a one-to-one correspondence between the optical character reading section IO and the function expansion section 20.

Furthermore, when the function is to be expanded, it can be handled by partially changing the function expansion unit 20.

In the above embodiment, the kanji recognition process, etc. that cannot be performed in the optical character reading section 10 is performed by transferring the character pattern to the function expansion section 20, but the function expansion section The extended dictionary may be received from 20 and the processing may be executed on the optical character reading section IO side.

Further, in the above embodiment, explanations have been given using kanji recognition processing, reading of a FAX sheet, and ruled line processing as examples, but the processing contents are not limited to these.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by providing an optical character reading section that performs a Feng Shui function and a function extension section that has a function that the reading section does not have, the optical character reading section performs a Feng Shui function. When performing processing that the character reading section does not have, the functions in the function expansion section are used to perform the processing, so processing functions can be easily expanded by simply changing the function expansion section. It is possible.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an optical character reading device according to a one-point embodiment of the present invention. lO-... optical character reading unit, 11... reading control unit,
12... Scanner section, 13... Image processing section, 1
4...Character recognition unit, 15...Extended interface unit, 20...Function expansion unit, 21...Function expansion control unit, 22...Image buffer, 23...Character recognition unit, 24.・Hard memory, 25-1 to 25-n...
Interface section, 30...external data processing section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An optical character reading means having a function of detecting a form image by optically scanning a form to be processed and performing basic processing based on this form image. , a function expansion means having an extended function for executing processing different from the basic processing executed in the optical character reading means; and instructing the optical character reading means to process contents regarding the form. and an instruction means for processing the form using the function expansion means when the processing content instructed by the instruction means is a process that should be processed by a function other than the function possessed by the optical character reading means. 1. An optical character reading device comprising: a processing control means for executing; and an optical character reading device.