JPH0537700A - Equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To relax congestion of transmission traffic and to send a beautiful picture without missing of information of an original picture even when an OCR cannot recognize a character by using the OCR so as to compress transmission data quantity through the character recognition thereby reducing the transmission time with respect to the facsimile equipment. CONSTITUTION:A picture read section 21 reads a transmission original 15 and a character segmentation section 22 segments character, information and a character recognition section 23 recognizes a character. The recognized character is coded by a character code generating section 24 and the result is sent. Character information unable to be recognized is stored in a picture buffer memory 26 as bit map information and compressed in a data compression section 27 and the result is sent together with character code information. The received character code information is given via a reception character code buffer memory 32 in a character pattern generating section 33 and synthesized in a bit map buffer memory 35 together with the bit map information expanded by a data expansion section 34 and outputted from a plotter output section 36.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to an optical character recognition means (hereinafter also referred to as OCR).
The present invention relates to a facsimile device having a function of directly reading characters on a document by using the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, research on character recognition has advanced,
The optical character recognition device (Optical Character Reader) used as a data input part of a computer or a personal computer,
It is becoming possible to achieve a fairly high recognition rate. on the other hand,
In conventional facsimile machines, ECM (Echo Canceller)
Method) Since the protocol is also standardized in G3, character communication can be performed between specific terminals.

For example, FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a general OCR input device. The device shown in FIG.
An image reading unit 1 for reading image information of a document is provided. The image reading unit 1 converts a transmission document into an electric signal in line units by a line image sensor 2, amplifies it by a video amplifier 3, and binarizes it by a binarizing unit 4. The digitized binarized data is input to the line buffer memory 5. The character information in the line buffer memory 5 is subjected to a thinning process and the like in a thinning unit 6, and a character cutting unit 7 determines a character string and a space between characters to cut out an image area for each character. Then, the feature extraction unit 8 normalizes the character size of the extracted characters, performs edge extraction processing, and the like, and the character recognition unit 9 recognizes the character while comparing it with the data in the recognition dictionary unit 10 to generate a character code. In Part 11,
Individual characters are coded while performing pattern matching using the character code pattern storage circuit 12. The character code generated in this way is stored in a buffer memory (not shown) and then sequentially sent out through the interface circuit 14. The control of each unit is performed by the microprocessor 13 for overall control, and the line image sensor 2 or the document is sequentially moved using the sub-scanning motor 18 to read the document line by line.

When the character code for one page is generated in this way, the characters recognized by the OCR are displayed on the host CRT (not shown). Here, for the unrecognized character, the operator inputs the character code using a keyboard or the like while looking at the document and corrects it. Therefore, if the OCR technology as described above is used in the field of a facsimile apparatus, it is possible to transmit higher-quality image information with a small amount of transmission information. Therefore, a facsimile apparatus having an OCR function is currently being developed. It's starting.

For example, conventional facsimile machines of this type include Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 1-256861 and 1-2915.
72 and JP-A-1-305485.

[0006]

However, in such a conventional facsimile apparatus, as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-305485, image information is transmitted between facsimiles in which OCR is incorporated. Although it is possible to prevent a character recognition error due to a transmission error that occurs due to the error, there is a problem in that when an unrecognizable character occurs due to OCR, it cannot be dealt with.

Further, in the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-256861, a facsimile machine on the receiving side distinguishes and processes received information as character code information or beat map information. However, if the characters cannot be recognized by a general OCR and cannot be converted into a character code, a character code such as “?” Is assigned and output, and the input operator looks at the manuscript again and corrects the character. Correction is performed by inputting on the keyboard. However, in the case of a facsimile machine having an OCR function, since the receiving side does not have a document and the above method cannot be used, fatal information loss occurs if the unrecognized character information is transmitted as it is, and the reliability of the facsimile information is reduced. There is a problem that you can not get.

Further, according to the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-291572, a facsimile machine on the transmission side selects character code information or bitmap information in accordance with whether the reception side can receive or not, and transmits it. It reduces the amount of information. However, even if the receiving side can communicate the character code information, if the OCR on the transmitting side cannot recognize the character, the character code cannot be converted and the information is lost.

Therefore, the present invention reduces the transmission time by compressing the amount of transmission information by character recognition of OCR to alleviate the congestion of transmission traffic, and even when the character cannot be recognized by OCR, the information of the original image is stored. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile device capable of transmitting a beautiful image without dropping it.

[0010]

The invention according to claim 1 is
An image reading unit that converts a transmission document into image information and reads the image, a character cutting unit that extracts character information from the image information,
A facsimile apparatus having an OCR function, comprising a character recognition unit for performing character recognition for character encoding based on character information, wherein the transmitter recognizes characters recognized by the character recognition unit. Character code transmission processing means for encoding and transmitting processing, and bitmap information transmission processing means for transmitting character information that could not be recognized by the character recognition section as bitmap information are provided, and on the receiver side, Characteristic pattern generating means for converting the transmitted character code information into character pattern information, and data synthesizing means for synthesizing the transmitted bitmap information and character pattern information are provided. According to a second aspect of the present invention, the bitmap information transmission processing unit replaces image information in which only the character area recognized by the character recognition unit is replaced with white data. The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that it is transmitted as map information, and the number of recognized characters recognized by the character recognition unit and / or the number of character blocks and the number of recognized characters cut out as character information by the character cutout unit. Based on the character recognition rate represented by, it is automatically selected whether the information to be transmitted is only bitmap information or bitmap / character code mixed information in which bitmap information and character code information are mixed. It is characterized by doing so.

[0011]

Therefore, in the invention described in claim 1, the character information recognized by the character recognition unit (OCR) is converted into a character code, and the unrecognized character information is transmitted to the other party together as bit map information, and on the receiving side. The character code information is converted into a character pattern, combined with the bitmap information, and output. Therefore, the character information recognized and encoded by OCR is
By compressing the data, the transmission time can be shortened, the congestion of the transmission traffic can be alleviated, and beautiful characters of the original image or more can be transmitted. Character information that cannot be recognized by the OCR is sent as normal bitmap information, so that there is no loss of information and high reliability can be obtained.

According to the second aspect of the invention, especially when the original is composed of pictures and characters, the character information recognized by the character recognition unit is converted into a character code, and other information, that is, The remaining information excluding the recognized character area from the image information is transmitted as bitmap information. For this reason, the original image information will not be lost even in a mixed picture / character document, high reliability will be obtained, and the total amount of data will be reduced due to data compression, so that pictures and beautiful characters can be transmitted in a short transmission time. it can.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the type of transmission information is selected based on the character recognition rate represented by the ratio of the number of character blocks in the document and the number of recognized characters that can be recognized from the character blocks. Therefore, for example, in the case of a manuscript where the number of character blocks themselves is small and information such as a picture occupies most, or in the case of a manuscript with a large number of character blocks but a low character recognition rate, send only bitmap information However, the efficiency is good and improvement in image quality cannot be expected so much. On the contrary, in the case where the above is reversed, the amount of transmission information is reduced by transmitting the bitmap / character code mixed information, and the image quality is improved. In this way, a predetermined reference value is set for the number of character blocks and the character recognition rate so that appropriate transmission information can be automatically selected according to the content of the document.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are views showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the invention of claim 1. First, the configuration will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the OCR of the facsimile apparatus according to the present embodiment includes an image reading unit 21 and a character cutting unit.
22 and a character recognition unit 23. On the other hand, the character code transmission processing means on the transmitter side reads the transmission original 15 and cuts it out, converts the recognized character data recognized by the character recognition unit 23 into a character code in the character code generation unit 24, and once converts it into a character code buffer. Store in memory 25. Then, the modulated signal transmitted to the modem in the communication control unit 28 is transmitted to the public line through the NCU (network control unit) 29.

The bit map information transmission processing means stores unrecognizable character data that could not be recognized by the character recognizing section 23 in the image buffer memory 26, compresses the data by the data compressing section 27, and then the same as the above character code information. Then, it is modulated by the communication control unit 28 and sent out to the public line through the NCU 29. On the other hand, the character pattern generation means on the receiver side demodulates the character code information received by the NCU 30 by the modem of the communication control unit 31, stores it in the received character code buffer memory 32, and then the character pattern generation unit 33. It is converted into information.

The data synthesizing means comprises a bit map buffer memory 35, which decompresses the bit map information, which is data-compressed on the transmitter side, by the data decompressing unit 34 and returns it to the original, and synthesizes the data with the character pattern information. And restore the image information. The plotter output unit 36 prints the combined image information on a recording sheet and outputs the received document 16.

Next, the operation will be described. 2 is shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an original document and transmission data received by the facsimile machine of FIG. The transmission original document 15, which is an original image, is read by the image reading unit 21 in FIG. 1, the character portion is cut out by the character cutting unit 22, and the character recognition unit 23 performs character recognition. Here, as shown in FIG. 2, when “D”, “G”, and “L” cannot be recognized, the other characters are converted into character codes by the character code generation unit 24 and the character code buffer memory 25.
And the unrecognizable character data of “D”, “G”, and “L” are stored in the image buffer memory 26 as bitmap information. After the recognition process for one page of the manuscript is completed, the recognized character code string, the unrecognized character block string, the address information indicating the corresponding character position in each manuscript, and the character font size information. Is attached in character units, line units or block units, and the communication control unit 28
And separately transmitted through the NCU 29.

On the receiving side, this separate information is synthesized and developed in the bit map buffer memory 35 for at least one line which is a data synthesizing unit, and this is output to the printer by the plotter output unit 36. To generate "D" as seen in the received image of FIG.
For the other characters except "G" and "L", a character image better than the original image can be obtained by the code generator. Further, since even unrecognized characters such as “D”, “G”, and “L” are output at the normal bitmap level, important information is not lost, and the information of the facsimile apparatus is not lost. The reliability can be maintained.
Of course, it is also possible to correct the data and unify the character patterns by providing an input keyboard on the receiver side and visually confirming the unrecognized characters. By doing so, the document data on the transmitter side can be managed and stored on the floppy disk or the like as a word profile on the receiver side.

When performing OCR processing in this embodiment,
The method is not limited to the pattern matching method described in the conventional example.
Further, the recognized character may be a kana character or a kanji character other than the alphabet, and can be applied to handwriting recognition in addition to type recognition. 3 to 4 are views showing an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus according to the invention described in claim 2. In FIG.

Since the basic structure is substantially the same as that shown in FIG. 1, redundant description will be omitted and only characteristic parts will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the bitmap information transmission processing means according to claim 2 replaces the character area portion recognized by the character recognition unit 23 in the image information read by the image reading unit 21 with white data. White data replacement section 37
It is characterized by having.

Because of the above-mentioned configuration, as shown in FIG. 4, even if the transmission document 15 is composed of pictures and characters,
An area which can be cut out as a character block by the character cutout unit 22 in FIG. 3 and which can be recognized by the character recognition unit 23 is replaced by the white data replacement unit 37 with all white data. That is, when this is seen in FIG. 4, as shown in the recognition-processed transmission document 15a, the part excluding the unrecognizable "shi" and "za" is replaced with white data. In this way, the image information (15a) after the recognition processing is stored in the image buffer memory 26 as bitmap information,
The data is compressed by a normal compression method by the data compression unit 27 and is transmitted. For this reason, as the number of character blocks and the number of recognized characters increase, the image after the recognition process becomes closer to white, the data compression rate increases, and the recognized characters are converted into character code information. Therefore, the total amount of information to be transmitted is significantly reduced. Therefore, the transmission time of the facsimile can be shortened and the congestion of the transmission traffic can be alleviated.

Further, as shown in the received document 16 of FIG. 4, non-character portions such as ruled lines and illustrations or unrecognizable characters "shi" and "za" are transmitted with the same bitmap information as in the conventional art. There is no loss of information, equivalent image quality is obtained, and the recognized characters are combined and output by the character pattern generation unit 33 in FIG. 3, so characters that are more beautiful than the original image quality are displayed on the receiver side. Can be delivered.

FIGS. 5 to 6 are views showing an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the facsimile apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention on the transmitter side. The characteristic configuration according to claim 3 is that the transmission image is only bitmap information based on the character recognition rate calculated by the number of character blocks cut out by the character cutting unit 22 and the number of characters recognized by the character recognition unit 23. The method is selected from the case of transmitting by the method and the case of transmitting by mixing the character code information and the bitmap information.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, it has a page memory 38 for storing the image information for one page read by the image reading section 21. Then, the recognized character counter 39 counts the number of characters recognized by the character recognition unit 23,
The number of recognized characters is input to the OCR communication acceptance / rejection determination unit 40. The unrecognizable character counter 41 counts the number of characters that cannot be recognized by the character recognition unit 23.
It is input to the communication acceptance / rejection determination unit 40.

In the OCR communication acceptance / rejection determination unit 40, the sum of the count values of the recognized character counter 39 and the unrecognizable character counter 41 becomes the number of character blocks cut out by the character cutting unit 22,
The value obtained by dividing the number of recognized characters of the recognized character counter 39 by the number of character blocks is the character recognition rate. And these results are
The switching of the changeover switch 42 is controlled by comparing with a value preset in the CR communication acceptance / rejection determination section 40.

Next, the operation will be described. As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, when reading is started, the image information read by the image reading unit 21 is stored in the page memory 38 in step 100. Next, when the character information is cut out by the character cutting unit 22 and the character recognition processing is performed by the character recognition unit 23 (step 101), the number of recognized characters is counted by the recognized character counter 39, and the result is the OCR communication acceptance / rejection determination unit.
It is compared with a predetermined value A of 40 (step 102).

If the number of recognized characters is A or more, step 10
If the character recognition rate is B or more, the process proceeds to step 104 to make a call, and the changeover switch 42 is switched in accordance with a predetermined protocol (step 105). If the receiver on the other side has the OCR reception capability in step 106, the transmission is performed in a mode in which the character code and the bitmap information are mixed in step 107.

If the number of recognized characters is smaller than A or the character recognition rate is smaller than B, a call is made in step 108 and according to the protocol of step 109,
The switching process of the changeover switch 42 and the like are performed, and the image information is transmitted only by the bitmap information (step 110). In this way, the number of character blocks and the character recognition rate of the manuscript are judged for each manuscript, and the mixed transmission of the character code / bitmap information or the transmission of only the bitmap information is automatically selected. Good image information can always be appropriately transmitted without paying attention to the content of the document.

In the present embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a facsimile apparatus is shown, but the present invention can also be applied to a single OCR, a fair copy machine or the like.

[0031]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a character image having a better quality than the original image can be transmitted and received by using the OCR communication mode, and even if there is a character that cannot be recognized by the OCR, normal bitmap information is used. Since it is transmitted as, the loss of information can be prevented, and the transmission time can be shortened as the transmission data amount is reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the recognized character information is converted into a character code and transmitted as bit map information without being included in the image information. Therefore, information other than the character information such as a picture is included. Even with a document that has been opened, it is possible to obtain the same advantageous effects as in the first aspect. Claim 3
According to the invention described, the case of transmitting a transmission image only with normal bitmap information and the case of transmitting with a mixture of character code and bitmap information are automatically selected according to the image state of the document, Facsimile images can be sent in the most suitable mode for originals and recipients.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the invention as set forth in claim 1.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transmission / reception image and transmission data of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the invention described in claim 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a transmission / reception image and transmission data of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the invention of claim 3.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional OCR device.

[Explanation of symbols]

15 Send original 15a Recognized transmission manuscript 16 Received original 21 Image reader 22 Character cutout 23 Character recognition part 24 character code generator 25-character code buffer memory 26 Image buffer memory 27 Data compression unit 28 Communication controller 29 NCU 30 NCU 31 Communication controller 32 Received character code buffer memory 33 Character pattern generator 34 Data decompression unit 35 bitmap buffer memory 36 Plotter output section 37 White data replacement part 38 page memory 39 recognition character counter 40 OCR communication acceptance / rejection judgment unit 41 Unrecognizable character counter 42 Changeover switch

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image reading unit for converting a transmission document into image information and reading the image, a character cutout unit for extracting character information from the image information, and a character recognition unit for performing character recognition for character encoding based on the character information. A facsimile apparatus having an OCR function, comprising: a character code transmission processing unit on the transmitter side for converting characters recognized by the character recognition unit into a character code and transmitting the character code; Bit map information transmission processing means for transmitting unrecognized character information as bit map information is provided, and a character pattern generation for converting the received character code information into character pattern information is provided on the receiver side. And a data synthesizing unit for synthesizing the transmitted bitmap information and character pattern information. . 2. The bitmap information transmission processing means transmits the image information in which only the character area recognized by the character recognition unit is replaced with white data as bitmap information. Facsimile machine. 3. Information to be transmitted based on the number of recognized characters recognized by the character recognition section and / or the character recognition rate represented by the number of character blocks cut out as character information by the character cutting section and the number of recognized characters. 3. The automatic selection of whether to use only bitmap information or bitmap / character code mixed information in which bitmap information and character code information are mixed is set. Fax machine.