JPH0916721A - Character recognition candidate selector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a character recognition candidate selector with which character parts such as a radical, left-hand radical and right-hand radical provided for a correct answer character can be easily designated. CONSTITUTION: A character recognizing part 11 recognizes a handwritten character and selects plural candidate characters to be the candidates of the correct answer character and a candidate rank storage part 12 stores these candidates in the order from high consistency. A character parts data base part 14 stores the character parts consisting of respective characters and a recognized candidate selection display part 13 displays the prescribed number of characters having high consistency and the character parts of those characters. When there is no correct answer character among these characters and the character parts provided for the correct answer character are designated out of the displayed character parts by a selection part 16 such as a mouse, the characters including those character parts are extracted out of the candidate characters and the prescribed number of such characters are displayed in the order of consistency. By repeating this operation, the correct answer character is found. Since the character parts are selected out of the display, the required character parts can be easily selected out of many character parts.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character recognition candidate selection device for analyzing an image of an input character and performing character recognition to select a character that is a candidate for a matching character. When there is no character that matches the input character in the specified number of characters selected in, the character "creation"
The present invention relates to a character recognition candidate selection device that selects a character candidate that matches a character that is input by designating each element that forms a character, such as "Hen".

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Information processing devices such as computers and workstations handle characters as character codes, and conventionally, characters have been input to these devices from a keyboard. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing demand for facilitating input work, and characters have been actively incorporated into information processing devices by recognizing handwritten characters. The captured image information of the handwritten character is compared with the character pattern of each character registered in advance, and about 10 characters are displayed in descending order of matching degree. When there is a character that matches the read character among the characters having a high degree of matching, the operator specifies the character and confirms the character.

When the correct answer character is not included in about 10 characters displayed in the order of high matching degree, it is necessary to select the correct answer character from many other candidate characters.
Various proposals have been made to facilitate the work. A device for selecting a correct answer character from a large number of other candidate characters when there is no correct answer character among the initially selected characters is called a character recognition candidate selecting device.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-189777 discloses a character recognition candidate selection device that selects a candidate character that matches the read character by inputting various information relating to the correct character. In this device, a candidate character is selected by the operator inputting hint information of a correct answer character such as on-phonetic reading, kun-reading, radical, number of strokes, and character type. This device is provided with a dedicated key associated with each of elements (hereinafter referred to as character parts) that form a character, such as a radical, a hem, and making. The operator designates a character part by pressing a dedicated key corresponding to the partial pattern of the correct character.

Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 205078/1992,
If the selected candidate characters can be divided into radicals, the character recognition candidate selection device that divides the read image into radicals and selects candidates for radicals and extracts Kanji with these radicals is selected. It is disclosed.

[0006]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention JP-A-58-1897
In the prior art disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 77, a list of character parts is created in advance and assigned to each key of the keyboard. Here, if a kanji character is to be recognized, the number of character parts will be about 100.
Therefore, there is a problem that it is a heavy burden on the operator to select a character part of the correct answer character from among these many keys.

Further, in the case of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-205078, if there are many radical candidates obtained as a result of dividing the read image and analyzing the image, one of them is radical. The character with has been selected as a candidate for the correct character. Therefore, when there are many radical candidates, it is not possible to perform sufficient narrowing down.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a character recognition candidate selection device capable of easily designating a character part such as a radical, a hem, or a structure of a correct character.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of characters to be compared when recognizing a character input as an image and elements constituting each character are stored in association with each other. Recognition target character storage means, and a plurality of recognition candidate character extraction means for extracting a plurality of recognition candidate characters that are candidates for a character matching the character input as an image from the characters stored in the recognition target character storage means. And a candidate character display means for displaying a predetermined number of characters having a high degree of matching with the characters input as an image among the recognition candidate characters extracted by the recognition candidate character extraction means and the elements forming the characters. , A candidate character for recognizing a character including an element designated by this element designation means and an element designation means for designating an arbitrary element among those displayed by this candidate character display means And it is provided in the character recognition candidate selection unit to elements matching character selection means for displaying selected from within.

That is, according to the first aspect of the invention, the image of the input character is analyzed and a predetermined number of characters selected in descending order of matching degree are displayed together with the element of the character.
Then, the element of the correct answer character is selected from the displayed elements. By selecting the element that the correct character has from the elements that have a high degree of matching, it is easier to specify the character element that the correct character has than when selecting from the elements of all the characters. it can.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of characters to be compared when recognizing a character input as an image, an element forming each character, and a position of each element in each character are described. And a plurality of recognition candidate characters that are candidates for a character that matches the character input as an image from the characters stored in the recognition target character storage unit. And a predetermined number of characters having a high degree of matching with the characters input as an image among the recognition candidate characters extracted by the recognition candidate character extraction unit and the elements forming the characters. A candidate character display means, and an element designating means for designating an arbitrary element displayed by the candidate character display means by designating a position within the character. And it is provided in the character recognition candidate selection unit to elements matching character selection means for selecting and displaying characters from the recognition candidate characters including the specified element by the element designation means.

That is, according to the second aspect of the present invention, the image information of the input characters is analyzed and a predetermined number of characters are displayed together with the elements of the characters in descending order of matching. Then, the character, the element of the character, and the position of the element in each character are stored in advance, and any element in the displayed characters is designated by designating the position in the character. For example, if a character element is designated on the display screen with a pointing device, a necessary element can be easily and quickly selected from the displayed elements.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the element matching character selecting means extracts the designated element character from the characters stored in the recognition target character storing means, the character including the element designated by the element designating means. And a duplicated character selection unit for selecting and displaying a character overlapping with the character extracted by the designated element character extraction unit and the recognition candidate character.

That is, according to the third aspect of the invention, all the characters including the element designated by the element designating means are extracted from the characters stored in the recognition target character storage means, and these characters and the recognition candidate characters are extracted. Characters that overlap with and are selected and displayed.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the candidate character display means displays each character in a distinguishable manner for each element based on the position information of each element stored in the recognition target character storage means. It has become.

That is, in the invention according to claim 4, the recognition candidate character is displayed so that it can be identified for each element based on the position information of each element of the character stored in advance. For example, by enclosing each element in a frame individually or by changing the display color for each element, it is possible to make the operator recognize which part is the element. This makes it possible to more appropriately and easily specify the character element.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, the element designating means includes pointing means for designating a position on the display of the candidate character display means, and the element displayed closest to the position designated by the pointing means. Is determined to be the specified element.

That is, according to the invention of claim 5, the element is designated by displaying the recognition candidate character and designating the position on the display by the pointing device.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of the configuration of a character recognition candidate selection device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The character recognition candidate selection device inputs a handwritten character as image information, analyzes the handwritten character, and performs character recognition to perform character recognition.
It has. The character recognition unit 11 is a circuit that obtains the degree of matching between the image of an input handwritten character and the character pattern of each character stored in advance, and ranks the matching order in descending order. The candidate rank storage unit 12 includes the character recognition unit 1
This is a portion for storing 2000 characters in order of highest matching degree obtained in 1. Here, 2000 character codes are stored. The recognition candidate selection display unit 13 is a circuit unit that displays five characters from the top to the fifth in descending order of matching degree.

The character parts database section 14 stores each character code and the character parts forming the characters of the character code in association with each other in advance. The character parts selection display unit 15 refers to the character parts database unit 14 and, for the five characters displayed in the recognition candidate selection display unit 13,
This is the part that displays the character parts of those characters. The selection unit 16 is an input device that inputs the result of the operator's determination as to whether or not the correct character that matches the read character exists in the characters displayed on the recognition candidate selection display unit 13. The selection unit 16 also has a function of inputting an instruction for selecting a character part included in the correct character from the character elements displayed on the character part selection display unit 15.

For example, in the displayed character parts,
The character part is specified by pointing the part of the character part included in the correct character with the mouse. The part-related character selection unit 17 is a unit that, when the character part is selected by the selection unit 16, selects a character including the character part as an element from the 2000 characters stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12. is there.

The character recognition candidate selection device includes a CPU (central processing unit) that performs the central functions of various processes, and a ROM (read-only memory) that stores various fixed data such as programs executed by the CPU and character part data. memory)
And a RAM (random access memory) as a work area. Further, it is provided with a display for displaying the selected character and each character part, and a keyboard and a mouse as the selection unit 16.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the stored contents of the character parts database section. The leftmost column stores the character code 21 of each stored character. Here, for convenience of description, a character pattern of the character is shown instead of the character code. The character part 22 included in the character is registered on the right side of these character codes. For example, the character "Q" 23 is the character part "Gate" 2
It is registered that it has two character parts of 4 and "mouth" 25. Similarly, the letters "mon" are "gate" and "ear".
It is stored that it is composed of the character parts of. The character parts database unit 14 stores the character codes and the character parts of all the characters to be searched in association with each other in such a table format.

Next, the operation of the recognized character candidate selection device shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

The degree of matching between the character image information input to the character recognition unit 11 and each character is calculated. For example, if the character pattern input as an image is 32 pixels in length and width × 32
It is assumed that the pixel is composed of a gray value pattern. When the predetermined corner of this pattern is the origin, the density of the pixel represented by the position coordinates (i, j) is represented by p (i, j). However, i and j are positive integers of 1 to 32, respectively. The density of each pixel represented by p (i, j) is 0 to 1
It has been normalized to take any value between.

The character recognition section 11 stores a character code to be recognized and its representative pattern. When the character code is “Z”, the density of the pixel at the position coordinates (i, j) in the representative pattern of this character code is qz.
Let (i, j) be represented. The degree of matching between the input character pattern and the representative pattern of the character code “Z” is Sz.
Sz can be calculated by the following equation.

[Equation 1] Here, (p, qz) represents the inner product calculation when p and qz are vectors of dimension number i × j, and [p] [qz]
Each represent the norm of the vector. (1)
The matching degree Sz obtained by the expression takes a value of 0 to 1, and the larger the matching degree, the better the matching.

The character recognizing unit 11 obtains the matching degrees Sz for all the characters to be recognized, and the matching degree Sz is 200
Select 0 character code. These 2000 characters will be called candidate characters. Here, the k-th character code with the highest degree of matching (k is an arbitrary positive integer from 1 to 2000) is represented as Z (k). The character recognition unit 11 transfers the 2000 character codes thus obtained to the candidate rank storage unit 12. The candidate rank storage unit 12 stores these 2000 character codes as a combination with the rank k. In addition, the upper 5 of the candidate characters
The data up to the th is transferred to the recognition candidate display unit 13. These 5
The candidate characters will be specifically referred to as recognition candidates.

The recognition candidate selection / display section 13 displays the five characters of the selected display target recognition candidates in the order of their matching degree. If there is a correct character that matches the read character among these five characters, the operator selects that character from the keyboard or the like. For example, a number is assigned to each of the displayed characters for display, and the operator specifies the correct character by inputting the number from the keyboard. If there is no correct character, "N"
Press the key. When the correct character exists and is selected, the selected character code is output to the information processing device (not shown) as the correct character.

When there is no correct answer character among the displayed five characters, the character parts selection display 15 is activated. The character part selection display unit 15 retrieves the character parts of the five characters from the character part data database unit 14 registered in the format shown in FIG. Character parts selection display section 1
5 displays the character parts for these 5 characters.

FIG. 3 shows an example of handwritten characters for character recognition. The shape of the read character "Michi" is slightly distorted because it is handwritten.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the display contents of the character parts selection display section. This figure shows a display screen as a result of analysis of the handwritten character "road" shown in FIG. The column 31 in the leftmost column is a column for displaying the five recognized recognition candidate character patterns. As a result of recognizing the handwritten character "Ro", "Ren", "Dance", "Cross", "Jump",
There are five "corners". On the left side of each character pattern, there is provided a column 32 for displaying character parts forming each character. The character parts included in the recognition candidate "賂" are "shellfish" and "each". Further, it is shown that the character parts included in the recognition candidate "dance" are "feet" and "for". In this way character parts are not always radicals,
Hen, it may be a part of them rather than making.

Based on such a display, the operator selects one of the character parts displayed by the selection unit 16. The parts-related character selection unit 17 selects a character including the specified character part from the 2000 character sets stored in the candidate rank storage 12. That is, a set of characters including the selected character part is selected from the character part database unit 14. This set of characters is set A. Next, a set of characters stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12 is set as a set B, and an intersection set of the set A and the set B is obtained. This is set C. After that, the set B stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12 is replaced with the intersecting set C. As a result, only the character including the designated character part is selected as the candidate character. Since only 2000 character codes are registered in the candidate rank storage means 12, the character set A having the designated character parts is obtained from the character part database section 14 storing the character parts. There is.

When the operator designates another character part, a set of characters including the designated character part is extracted from the character part database 14 and is set as a new character set A. Then, the intersection set of the character set after the replacement stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12 and the set A is taken, and this is obtained as a new set C. This is replaced with the contents stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12. By repeating this processing as long as the character parts are designated, a set of characters having all the designated character parts is obtained.
In this way, it is gradually narrowed down to a set including correct characters.

For example, when the character parts "respective" 34 of the recognition candidate "case" 33 are specified, all the characters including "respective" are selected in the character part database unit 14 to be set A. Then, the intersection set C of the character set B and the set A stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12 is obtained, and this is replaced with the set B. Next, when the operator specifies "foot", all the characters including "foot" in the character parts database unit 14 are selected and set as set A. The intersection set of the set A and the set B is obtained, the obtained set is replaced with the set B, and registered in the candidate rank storage unit 12.

The obtained set B is displayed in the same display format as in FIG. 4 in the order of highest matching degree. In this case, the set B is only “road”. However, when there are a plurality of characters in the set B, the correct character is designated or another character is displayed in the state where those characters are displayed. Wait for parts to be specified. In this example, the recognition candidate character is selected by two instructions, but the number of times the character parts are designated is any number of times until the correct character is displayed.

Modification

Next, a case will be described in which the character parts database section 14 stores position information indicating in which part of each character the character parts are arranged. In the modification, when displaying the recognition candidate character based on this position information, the operator can easily recognize which part of the character is the element. Also,
The operator can easily specify the character parts based on the position information.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the stored contents of the character parts database section provided with the position information of the character parts. The leftmost column 41 in the figure represents the character code. Here, for convenience of description, a corresponding character pattern is displayed instead of the character code. On the right side of each character code, the character parts 42, 43 that make up the character
And the position information 44, 45 in each character for each character part
Is registered. For example, the character “question” 46 is shown to be composed of character parts “gate” 47 and “mouth” 48. In the position information, the upper left corner of each character is the origin (0,0) of the two-dimensional plane, and the lower right corner is the coordinate (1,1). That is, when the area where each character part is present is surrounded by a rectangle on this coordinate, the position is defined by the coordinates of the two vertices of the upper left corner and the lower right corner.

For example, the position information 49 of the character part "gate" 47 is represented as (0,0)-(1,1), and (0,0)
It is arranged in a rectangle whose upper left corner is (0) and lower right corner is (1, 1). Similarly, the position information 51 of the character part "mouth" 48 is (0.2, 0.4)-
(0.8, 1), and "0.2" to "0.
8 ", and that it is arranged in a rectangular area shown in the range of" 0.4 "to" 1 "in the vertical direction. In this figure, the number of character parts included in one character. Is 2, but the number of character parts differs depending on the character, and when registering in the character part database, the number of character parts may be a fixed value such as 2 or 3, or registered by character. The number of character parts that can be created may be variable.

Similar to the embodiment, 2000 characters are extracted based on the matching degree with the read image and stored in the candidate ranking storage unit 12 together with the ranking of the matching degree. For the top five of them, the character part selection display unit 15 displays which part the character part of each character is based on the positional information of the character parts so that the operator can easily recognize it.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the display of the recognition candidate characters based on the position information of the character parts. When the handwritten character “Michi” shown in FIG. 3 is used as the input character,
It is assumed that "賂", "dance", "crossover", "jump", and "corner" are selected as highly consistent characters. Based on the position information of the character part "shell" corresponding to the character "賂", a rectangle 61 surrounding it is displayed, and a rectangle 62 is displayed by the position information of the character part "each". Similarly, the character parts “legs” and the like corresponding to the recognition candidate “dance” are displayed surrounded by rectangles 63 and 64, respectively. of course,
When the character “question” shown in FIG. 6 is selected and the entire recognition candidate “question” is (0,0) − (1,1),
The character part "mouth" is (0.2, 0.4), (0.8,
It will be surrounded by a rectangle whose diagonal vertex is 1).

Next, a method of designating character parts will be described.

First, when there is no pointing device such as a mouse, character parts related to the correct answer character are selected by the keyboard. At this time, when the positional information as shown in FIG. 6 is provided, serial numbers are assigned to the character parts of the character in the displayed order. For example, when one recognition candidate has two character parts, the character parts included in the first recognition candidate are given numbers “1” and “2”, and the second recognition candidate is covered. Number the rare character parts with "3" and "4".
The numbers "2n-1" and "2n" are assigned to the nth character. Even when the number of character parts of each recognition candidate is different, serial numbers are similarly given to the character parts of those characters.

For example, in the case of displaying each character part by enclosing it in a frame in the format shown in FIG. 6, first, the color of the frame of the character part to which the number "1" is first attached is changed to the color of other frames. And display it. For example, only the frame 62 to which the number “1” is assigned is displayed in red, and the other frames are displayed in black. In addition, the thickness of the frame and the line type such as a solid line and a broken line may be different as long as only one frame can be displayed so as to be distinguishable from other frames. Each time the operator inputs the "N" key, the frames with different display colors move in the order of the assigned numbers. And when you press the return key,
Character parts surrounded by frames with different display colors are specified. As described above, it is possible to easily specify the character parts without using the pointing device.

After that, a recognition candidate including the designated character part is selected from the characters stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12. That is, the set of characters including the selected character parts is set as set A, and the set of characters stored in the candidate rank storage unit 12 is set as set B, and the intersection set of these sets A and B is obtained. Swap the resulting set with set B. When another character part is specified, such a process is repeated, and the candidates are gradually narrowed down to include correct characters.

Next, the case of designating a character part with a pointing device such as a mouse will be described.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the arrangement of each character part is provided as the normalized coordinates within the character, first, the coordinates of each character part of the character to be displayed as a recognition candidate are determined. It is converted into position coordinates (x1, y1)-(x2, y2) on the display screen where the character parts are displayed. In this way, the conversion equation for expressing the coordinates of the upper left corner and the lower right corner of the frame circumscribing each character part on the display screen is expressed by the following equation.

(Equation 2) Here, S represents the display size of the character, and x and y represent the coordinates of the upper left corner of each character on the display screen.

The position coordinates shown in FIG. 5 are replaced with the coordinates obtained as a result of the equation (2), and this is stored as the display position of the character part. Here, the display position (x, y) is (10
0,100 × j). Here, j represents the jth recognition candidate. . In this case, the four sides surrounding the entire character are (x1, y1)-(x1, y2),
(X1, y2)-(x2, y2), (x2, y2)-
It is represented by (x2, y1) and (x2, y1)-(x1, y1). When the number of all character parts retrieved from the character part database unit 14 is n, the coordinates of the line segments on the four sides are obtained and stored for each of the frames surrounding these character parts. At this time, the total number of data in the character part frame is 4n. A serial number is assigned to the set of sides of the frame of these character parts, and the coordinates of the j-th side on the display screen are (Xj1, Yj1)-(Xj2, Yj
2). Here, j is a natural number from 1 to 4n.

Assuming that the coordinates on the screen designated by the pointing device are (u, v), the distance dj from the designated coordinate to the j-th side can be calculated by the following equation.

(Equation 3) However, ABS (x) represents a function for obtaining the absolute value of x, and SQRT (x) represents a function for obtaining the square root of x.

The distance d is calculated for all sides, the side having the smallest distance is selected, and the character part corresponding to the frame including the side is calculated, and this is discriminated as the designated character part. The processing after the selection is the same as that described above, and the description thereof will be omitted.

Next, an example in which an input bar is displayed near each character part and a character part is selected by pointing an arbitrary point on the input bar with a mouse will be described.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a display screen when the input bar is displayed together with the recognized characters. As shown in the figure, input bars 71 to 71 are provided around each recognition candidate.
74 is displayed. In this figure, four recognition candidates are displayed. One input bar is displayed on each of the upper, lower, left and right sides of one recognition candidate. Each input bar is described by the coordinates of its upper left corner and its lower right corner. When four recognition candidates are selected as a result of character recognition of the handwritten character "Michi" 75, the i-th input bar in the j-th character is represented as Bji. The coordinates of the upper left corner are represented by (Xji1, Yji1), and the coordinates of the lower right corner are represented by (Xji2, Yji2). Further, as a representative point of the input bar (Xjic, Yji
Define c). The coordinates of the representative point are ((Xji1 + Xj
i2) / 2, (Yji1 + Yji2) / 2). It goes without saying that the representative point may be determined by other methods.

In the parts-related character selection section 17, the positions of all the character parts possessed by all the character candidates are obtained by the equation (2), and the central position thereof is stored as the representative point of each character part. The position of the character part is (x1, y1)
In the case of − (x2, y2), the center coordinates are ((x1 + x
2) / 2, (y1 + y2) / 2).

To select a character part, the input bar closest to the target character part is clicked with a pointing device such as a mouse. The coordinates on the screen designated by the mouse are (x, y). For all displayed input bars, it is determined whether or not the input coordinates (x, y) are included therein. When all of the following four conditional expressions are satisfied, it is determined that the i-th input bar of the j-th candidate character includes the coordinates (x, y).

(Equation 4)

If there is no input bar satisfying this condition, it is assumed that the input bar is not instructed. When an input bar that satisfies the conditional expression is detected, the character part closest to the input bar is searched. When the serial numbers are given to all character parts of all recognition candidates, the maximum number is n. In this case, the representative point of the kth character part is (xk, yk). The distance between the representative point (Xjic, Yjic) of the selected input bar and the representative point of the kth character part is calculated. Although Eugrid is used here, it is not limited to this. Find the distances for all the character parts and select the character part that gives the minimum distance. This is recognized as a character part designated by the operator. Since the processing after selecting the character parts is the same as that described above, the description thereof will be omitted.

In the embodiment and the modification described above,
Although the degree of matching is calculated by the equation (1), the degree of matching is not limited to this as long as the degree of matching is given to each character.
Even if the degree of matching does not fall within the range of 0 to 1, it may be mapped to 0 to 1 by linear conversion.
Further, the number of characters extracted by the character recognition unit based on the degree of matching is 2000 and the recognition candidates are 5 from the top, but these numbers are not limited to this value.

The number of character parts of each character stored in the character part database section may be arbitrary. In addition, when character parts are selected with the keyboard, the frames with different display colors are sequentially changed each time the "n" key is pressed, but the pressed key may be other than the "n" key. . Further, the position of the frame may be changed by using the arrow keys.

The method of obtaining the distance is not limited to the equation (3). Further, although four input bars are displayed in FIG. 7, the input bar may be displayed as long as each character part can be designated individually.

[0060]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, since the elements of the character having a high degree of matching are displayed and the element of the correct character is selected from among them, the elements of all the characters are selected. Character elements can be specified more easily than when selecting from the inside. As a result, it is possible to reduce the burden on the operator when designating a character element.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the characters, the elements of the characters and the positions of those elements in each character are stored in advance, and the displayed elements of the character having a high degree of matching are stored. It is specified by the position within the character. For example, if a character element is specified by specifying the position on the display screen with a pointing device, the operator's burden in selecting the element can be further reduced.

Further, according to the third aspect of the invention, all the characters including the element designated by the element designating means are extracted from the characters stored in the recognition target character storage means and recognized as these characters. Characters that overlap with the candidate characters are selected and displayed. As a result, it is not necessary to separately store the character element in association with the recognition candidate character, and the storage area can be reduced.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, the recognition candidate character is displayed so that it can be identified for each element based on the position information of each element of the character stored in advance. The element of can be specified more appropriately and easily.

Further, according to the invention of claim 5, the character of the recognition candidate is displayed and the element of the correct character is specified by the pointing device, so that the element of the character can be easily specified. It is possible to reduce the burden on the operator.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a configuration of a character recognition candidate selection device in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of stored contents of a character parts database unit.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of handwritten characters.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of display contents of a character parts selection display unit.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of stored contents of a character parts database unit including position information of character parts.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of display of recognition candidate characters based on position information of character parts.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a display screen when an input bar is displayed together with a recognized character.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Character Recognition Section 12 Candidate Order Storage Section 13 Recognition Candidate Selection Display Section 14 Character Parts Database Section 15 Character Parts Selection Display Section 16 Selection Section 17 Parts-Related Character Selection Section

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A recognition target character storage unit that stores a plurality of characters to be compared when recognizing a character input as an image and an element forming each character, and a recognition target character storage unit. A recognition candidate character extraction unit that extracts a plurality of recognition candidate characters that are candidates for a character that matches a character input as an image from the characters stored in the storage unit, and the recognition candidate character extraction unit extracts the recognition candidate character. A candidate character display means for displaying a predetermined number of characters having a high degree of matching with the character input as an image from among the recognition candidate characters and the elements constituting the character, and among the candidates displayed by the candidate character display means. Element designating means for designating an arbitrary element and element matching for selecting and displaying a character including the element designated by the element designating means from the recognition candidate characters Character recognition candidate selection apparatus characterized by comprising a shaped selection means. 2. A plurality of characters to be compared when recognizing a character input as an image, an element forming each character, and a position of each element in each character are stored in association with each other in advance. Recognition target character storage means, and a recognition candidate character extraction means for extracting a plurality of recognition candidate characters that are candidates for a character matching the character input as an image from the characters stored in the recognition target character storage means And a candidate character display means for displaying a predetermined number of characters having a high degree of matching with the characters input as an image among the recognition candidate characters extracted by the recognition candidate character extraction means and the elements forming the characters. , An element designating means for designating an arbitrary element displayed by this candidate character display means by designating a position in the character, and an element designating means Character recognition candidate selection device characterized by comprising the elements matched character selection means for displaying selected from among the recognized candidate characters characters containing the specified element I. 3. The element matching character selecting means extracts a character including an element designated by the element designating means from a character stored in the recognition target character storage means, and a designated element character extracting means. 3. The character according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: duplicated character selecting means for selecting and displaying a character overlapping with the character extracted by the designated element character extracting means and the recognition candidate character. Recognition candidate selection device. 4. The candidate character display means displays each character in a distinguishable manner for each element based on the position information of each element stored in the recognition target character storage means. The character recognition candidate selection device according to claim 2. 5. The element designating means comprises pointing means for designating a position on the display of the candidate character display means, and the element displayed closest to the position designated by the pointing means is designated. The character recognition candidate selection device according to claim 2, wherein the character recognition candidate selection device determines that the character recognition candidate is an element.