JPH0516631B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention particularly relates to a form conveyance control device that controls a form conveyance mechanism of an OCR equipped with a sorter device.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] In an optical character reading device (OCR), a form to be read is conveyed to a character reading section and the recorded characters are read, and then the form is conveyed to a stacker. It is configured to OCR like this
On the other hand, a system can be considered in which a document sorting device (classifying device) is combined to automatically sort the documents after the reading process. In such a system, if the drive source for the form transport mechanism is single, even if a form transport failure occurs on the OCR side, all the form transport mechanisms will be stopped. For this reason, there is a problem that operability is degraded, such as the need to manually sort the forms remaining in the transport mechanism.

[Objective of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to reduce the manual transport and sorting of forms by an operator to the minimum necessary level when a failure occurs in the transport of forms in a system in which a sorter device is combined with a character reading processing device such as OCR. It is an object of the present invention to provide a form conveyance control device that can improve the operability of the system by making it possible to limit the amount of time required.

[Summary of the Invention] The present invention provides a system in which a character reading processing device and a sorting device are combined, which includes a first form conveying mechanism that conveys a form to a character reading section, and a first form conveying mechanism that conveys a form after being read to a sorting device. A second form conveyance mechanism is provided. The first conveyance failure detection means detects a conveyance failure when the form is conveyed by the first or second form conveyance mechanism. Further, the second conveyance failure detection means detects a conveyance failure of the form being conveyed by the sorter unloading mechanism of the sorter device.

According to each detection result from the first and second transport failure detection means, the transport mechanism stopping means stops the operation of the first form transport mechanism when a transport fault occurs in the first form transport mechanism. At the same time, a control operation is performed to stop the operation of the second form transport mechanism after a certain period of time. Further, the conveyance mechanism stopping means is configured to perform a control operation to stop the operation of the second form conveyance mechanism when a conveyance failure occurs in the sorter conveyance mechanism.

With such a configuration, when a document conveyance failure occurs on the character reading processing device side, the document is conveyed to the sorter device for a certain period of time by the second document conveyance mechanism before the conveyance mechanism completely stops. This makes it possible to significantly reduce the amount of manual sorting processing of forms by the operator.
Furthermore, when a transport failure occurs in the sorter transport mechanism, transport of documents to the sorter device can be reliably prevented.

[Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control system according to the same embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the overall configuration of the apparatus according to the same embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, in a system in which a character reading processing device (hereinafter referred to as an OCR section) and a sorter device (hereinafter referred to as a sorter section) are combined, the operation of the OCR section is controlled by an OCR control section 10. The operation of the section is controlled by a sorter control section 11. The system control unit 12 is, for example, a host computer, and controls the operation of the entire system.

The OCR control section 10 controls the operations of the character reading section 13 and the conveyance control section 14. Character reading section 13
The system photoelectrically converts the recorded characters on the form 21 scanned by the reading head 20 shown in FIG. 2, and performs OCR on the character pattern data obtained by this photoelectric conversion.
Output to the control unit 10. The OCR control unit 10 recognizes character pattern data from the character reading unit 13 and outputs the recognition result to the system control unit 12. The conveyance control unit 14 operates the form conveyance mechanism T1 of the OCR unit shown in FIG.
It drives and controls each of T2 and form transport mechanisms T3 and T4 of the sorter section. As shown in FIG. 2, the sorter section is divided into, for example, sorter blocks 1 and 2, and each block is controlled by a block control section 15, 1.
6.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the OCR unit includes a hopper 22 for storing the form 21, a normal stacker 23a and a reject stacker 23b for storing the form 21 after the reading process. Hoppa 22
The forms 21 inside are conveyed to the reading head 20 by the form conveyance mechanisms T1 and T2, and then conveyed to the sorter section or stackers 23a and 23b. The select gate 24a sets the conveyance direction of the form 21 to either the sorter section or the stackers 23a and 23b under the control of the OCR control section 10. On the other hand, the select gate 24b performs a selection operation under the control of the OCR control unit 10 to determine which of the stackers 23a and 23b the form 21 is to be stored in. The sorter section is provided with a plurality of sorter pockets 25 for each block 1 and 2, and the selection of blocks 1 and 2 during sorting is done through select gates 26a and 26.
It is configured to be executed by b. Further, form transport mechanisms T1, T2 and form transport mechanism T
3 and T4 have transport failure detection units 17 and 1, respectively.
8 is placed. Conveyance failure detection unit 17, 18
is equipped with a photoelectric sensor that detects the form 21 being conveyed, and detects the form 2 being conveyed within a certain time interval.
1 is not detected, a failure detection signal is output to the OCR control section 10 or the sorter control section 11.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the system control unit 1
When a reading command is sent from 2, OCR control unit 1
0 starts character reading processing of the form 21. That is,
The OCR control unit 10, through the transport control unit 14,
The motors A and B of the form transport mechanisms T1 and T2 are driven, and the motors C and D of the form transport mechanisms T3 and T4 of the sorter section are driven. As a result, form 2
1 is conveyed from the hopper 22 to the reading head 20. The OCR control unit 10 recognizes the character pattern data output from the reading head 20 and outputs the reading result, which is the recognition result, to the system control unit 12. The system control unit 12 includes an OCR control unit 10
In accordance with the reading results transferred from the OCR controller 10, the OCR controller 10 is instructed to specify the number of the sorter pocket 25 necessary for the sorting process. In this case, the system control unit 12 controls the form 21 if the reading result is reject.
are stored in the rigid stacker 23a, and if sorting is not necessary, the normal stacker 23a is stored.
Instructs the OCR control unit 10 to store the data in a.

When the OCR control section 10 receives the number of the sorter pocket 25 from the system control section 12, it operates the select gate 24a toward the sorter section and specifies the number of the sorter pocket 25 to the sorter control section 11. The sorter control section 11 controls the block control section 15 or 16 having the corresponding sorter pocket 25 according to the designated number of the sorter pocket 25.
Indicate the number of the sorter pocket 25. By operating the block control unit 15 or 16, the select gate 26a or 26b, and the select gate (not shown) of the corresponding sorter pocket 25, the form 21 transported by the form transport mechanisms T1, T2 and the form transport mechanisms T3, T4 is activated. Sort.

By the way, when the OCR control unit 10 receives the failure detection signal from the conveyance failure detection unit 17, it determines that a conveyance failure of the form 21 has occurred in the form conveyance mechanisms T1 and T2, and performs the steps as shown in step S1 in FIG. The motor A is stopped to stop driving the form transport mechanism T1. Furthermore, as shown in step S2, a timer for drive control of motor B of form transport mechanism T2 is set. When this timer is set, the motor B is stopped after a certain period of time, and the form transport mechanism T2 is stopped.
outputs a control signal to stop driving.
Here, if a document conveyance failure occurs in the document conveyance mechanisms T3 and T4 of the sorter unit, the conveyance failure detection unit 18
A fault detection signal is output from the sorter controller 11 to the sorter controller 11. Upon receiving the failure detection signal from the sorter control unit 11, the OCR control unit 10 determines that a conveyance failure has occurred in the sorter unit (step S3). As a result, as shown in steps S9 and S8, the OCR control unit 10 stops the motor B of the form transport mechanism T2, and further stops the motors C and D of the form transport mechanisms T3 and T4.

Next, when the timer set in step S2 times up, the OCR control section 10 stops motor B to stop driving the form transport mechanism T2 (step S6). At this time, if the failure to transport the form is a failure to feed the form from the hopper 22 (OCR jam), the OCR control unit 10 stops motor B before the timer times up (steps S4, S6). Further, when the form 21 after the reading process is conveyed to the sorter section and sorted into the designated sorter pocket 25, the OCR control section 10 stops the motors C and D (step S8). After this, the reading process for the next form will be executed.

In this way, the form 21 after being read is processed.
If a transport failure of the form 21 occurs in the form transport mechanism T1 when the form 21 is being transported to the sorter section, the drive of the form transport mechanism T1 is stopped. At this time, since the form transport mechanism T2 is stopped a certain period of time after the stop of the form transport mechanism T1, the forms being transported by the form transport mechanism T2 are transported to the sorter section. Therefore, even if a transport failure occurs in the form transport mechanism T1, it is possible to automatically transport the forms in the middle of transport to the sorter section. For this reason,
The operator checks the form transport mechanism T where the transport failure occurred.
By simply performing operations such as removing the forms in Step 1, it is possible to omit the work of manually sorting the forms that have passed through the form transport mechanism T1.
Since most of the failures in the transport of forms occur at positions corresponding to the form transport mechanism T1, most of the forms that have passed through the form transport mechanism T1 are transported to the sorter section.

Note that when a transport failure occurs in the sorter unit, the form transport mechanism T2 is immediately stopped, so that the form being transported by the form transport mechanism T2 is prevented from being transported to the sorter unit.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, in a system in which a sorting device is coupled to a character reading device such as an OCR, a part of the transportation mechanism can be stopped when a document transportation failure occurs. It is also possible to automatically transport the forms that are being transported to the sorter section. Therefore, when a failure occurs in conveyance of documents, it is possible to minimize the manual conveyance and sorting of documents by the operator. Therefore, manual work by the operator can be significantly reduced, and the operability of the system can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the overall configuration of the device of the embodiment, and Fig. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment. It's a chat. 10...OCR control unit, 11...sorter control unit,
14...Transportation control unit, 17, 18...Transportation failure detection unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A first form transport mechanism that transports a form to be read to a character reading section of a character reading processing device; and a sorter device that sorts the forms after being read and processed by the character reading section. a second form transport mechanism that transports the form to the sorter transport mechanism; a first transport failure detection means that detects a transport failure of the form that is transported by the first or second form transport mechanism; a second conveyance failure detection means for detecting a conveyance failure of the form being conveyed, and a conveyance failure occurring in the first form conveyance mechanism according to each detection result from the first and second conveyance failure detection means; control operation of stopping the operation of the first form transport mechanism and stopping the operation of the second form transport mechanism after a certain period of time; and controlling the operation of the second form transport mechanism when a transport failure occurs in the sorter transport mechanism. 1. A form conveyance control device comprising: a conveyance mechanism stopping means that performs a control operation to stop the operation of the conveyance mechanism.