JPS5884367A - Optical reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize a high-speed process of a slip and high-accuracy recognition of characters, by unifying a scanner having the same function as an OCR and a console to use it as a terminal, and connecting plural terminals to a CPU via a high-speed circuit. CONSTITUTION:A slip is set to a scanner 21 of a terminal 2, and the start of process is informed to a control circuit 41 of an information processor 4. Then the picture signal is produced with the format control of the circuit 41 for the subject region of the slip. This picture signal is fed to an image file 42 via a high-speed circuit 3 and then cut out by a CRU43 by an amount equivalent to a character to be recognized. Thus a character code is obtained. When the recognition is through with all character patterns within a region to be read, both the coded character train and the rejection pattern are sent back to the terminal 2 to which the slip is fed. The terminal 2 displays the characters resulted from reading and the rejection pattern on a display and inputs the characters corresponding to the rejection pattern through a keyboard of a keyboard display 22.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an optical reader for use in distributed processing of forms, which economically realizes high-speed processing of forms and highly accurate text processing.

Conventionally, these 11 locations are represented by terminal 0CRK.

In order to produce high-speed, highly accurate forms, it was equipped with a high-speed scanner, a paper feed mechanism, and a large-scale electronic circuit, and consisted of these and an operating console.

It had the disadvantages of being large and expensive. In addition, the reading results and the progress of document processing will be confirmed. When it is necessary to make corrections, even though the equipment has high II and mechanical capabilities, a large amount of time is wasted on keyboard operations by one person, which reduces the continuous processing speed of forms, and it is difficult to fully utilize the equipment's capabilities. The drawback was that it could not be used for

On the other hand, there is a form processing system using factor i as an economical form processing method.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a facsimile input character recognition system, where 11 is a factor 1 terminal, 12 is a switching network, 13 is a communication control unit (CC), 14 is a character recognition unit (CRU),
1! i is an image file.

Images of forms inputted from a plurality of facsimile terminals 11 are sent to the image file ISK via the exchange network 12, and the CRUI 4 cuts out character stamps from the image of one form, recognizes them, encodes them, and outputs them. This system only needs to input the form at the location where the facsimile terminal 11 is located, and has the advantage of being able to perform distributed processing of the form. A separate device for checking the results is required, and the CRUI J side, that is, the center, must prepare the device and have a dedicated operator.
It was necessary to use other means such as notifying the terminal by voice or other means and using the keyboard or push-button phone to make corrections. Furthermore, the speed of the form sensing layer is limited by the line speed of 7 axes, because it is difficult to scan only a specific part of the form.

The image signal of the entire document is constantly sent to the image file 15, and even with the high-speed CRUI 4, there was a drawback that the document processing speed could not be improved. In addition, the quality of the image signal input to the image file 1s is 77kushi1 v1.
There was a drawback that the performance of 1m end 11 and 1lII#) was suppressed by noise, which hindered improvement in the accuracy of single character recognition.

In order to solve these drawbacks, this invention provides a terminal OCR
It integrates a scanner and a control panel with the same functions as the [end*], and connects multiple terminals and the CRU with a high-speed line. The details of this invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which 2 is a terminal;
21 is the scanner, 2! is keyboard display, 2s
1 is a high-speed A-line, 4 is an information processing device, 41 is a control circuit, 42 is an image file, 43 is a CRU, and 44 is an output terminal.

K, who operates this, sets the form on the scanner 21 of any terminal 1, controls the information processing device 40 11! t41
Next, in the control circuit 41, the N in the scanner 21 is notified of the start of processing.
The area to be scanned, that is, the area to be read, of the form set in K is scanned and photoelectrically converted to create a - signal.

There are several structures for the scanner 21, including the 1111 structure, which performs main scanning using a long image sensor and sub-scanning using a paper feed, but all of them are well-known methods used in terminal OCR. , the explanation is omitted here. After the image signal of the area to be read scanned by the scanner 21 is sent to the image file 42 via the high-speed line,
The RU 43k cuts out characters one by one from the i*expanded data in the image file 42, recognizes them, and obtains character codes. The high-speed line 113 has a transmission speed of several Mbits/second, and is connected to a coaxial cable, f, 7-iper, or high-speed path line. When the recognition #l & Maro for all the character stamps in the area to be printed is completed, the control circuit 41
The encoded character string is sent back to the terminal 2 through which the form was input.

The terminal 2 displays the read result character pattern on the display, and the character corresponding to the pattern can be entered from the keyboard of the keyboard display 22.

With this structure, each terminal can be used in the same way as an OCR, and in addition to allowing the operator who entered the form to make corrections while looking at the reject button, he can also correct misread characters, edit input characters, etc. be able to. In addition, since the terminal 2 and the information processing device 4 are connected by l1illK, which transmits pictures at high speed, each terminal 2 can be placed in a distributed manner at a location away from the information processing device 4, and forms can be You can instantly enter the same form at the location where you created it and process it at high speed.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the control circuit 41, in which 411 is a data flow control circuit, 412 is a high-speed line interface circuit, 41s is a terminal identification circuit, 414 is an Iso@7 Ohmatsu F control circuit, and 415 is a coded character. A storage device 416 is a reject button storage circuit.

411 is an interface circuit with an external device.

In addition, Figure 4 is a form shown to explain the operation of Figure 3, where S is a form, 51.52...-55 are the 1st. Second. . . . indicates the n-th reading target area.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

The data flow control circuit 411 constantly monitors whether data is being input to the high-speed line interface circuit 412, and when data generated at the terminal 2 indicates the start of inputting the form 5, and when data is input to the terminal 2, and when data is input to the high-speed line interface circuit 412. 52. ...! I
Distinguish between cases indicating that it is a single signal from I, and cases where it is a coded character or control signal input from the keyboard,
In each case, the necessary escape control-41 commands are given to each circuit.

Each signal is classified by a control bit string created by the terminal control circuit 23 provided in the terminal 2. First, the terminal 2 is identified, and if the entry of the form S is started, the terminal 2 is read. Instructs the scanning position of the target area 51 and the start of scanning.

Area to be read! 1. S2. ..., during input of SI image signal, high-speed rotation lI! 3 directly sends a signal to the image file 42, and after completing the input of the entire area, it instructs to start identifying one character and restores it. The reading target area S1 is character information that specifies the format of the form S. After the input is completed, the character string recognized and encoded by the CRU 4S is input to the form format control circuit 414, and the character string from c to g is input to the nth. The format of the area to be read is read out, and an operation is performed to instruct the layered scanning position to the terminal to be scanned.

In addition, the cRU4s performs snap recognition of one character at a time from the image signal in the image file 42 according to the same format, and sends the results to the encoded character storage circuits 41S and 1J.
It is output to the GEEC F button storage circuit 41@, and the I
The data flow control circuit 411 is notified of the end of the I-identification. C
The structure of RU4m may be the same as that of OCR and is well known, so a description thereof will be omitted here.

The single character result is sent back to the terminal 2 in units of one character that occurs in the same area as the encoded character string in the reading target areas 51 to 55, and is displayed on the display.

If the data generated on the terminal 2 are encoded characters manually input from the keyboard, and the cursor position on the display that is also notified is Reject F.

The same character is written in the corresponding position kK of the encoded character storage circuit 415. In the case where a plurality of direction buttons exist within the wrinkle reading target areas 51 to 55.

The position of the next reject button and the same button stored in advance in the reject button storage circuit 416 is output to the terminal 2, and is also deleted from the same button or reject button storage circuit 416. Encoded character input after completion of reject correction.

The contents of the encoded character storage circuit 415 are also copied as data for correcting misreadings and editing text of character strings.

Signals manually generated from the keyboard are control signals for interrupting the M-ring, outputting the form processing results to an external device, etc., and the corresponding processing is performed, and the process returns to the beginning of the above series of operations.

The operation of the control circuit 41 described above is performed by signals input from the terminal 2 and interrupts k from the inside of the control circuit 41 and from the CRU 43, so that mutual idle time is effectively utilized. In addition, since writing to the image file 42, which takes relatively the longest time in a series of processes, is divided into the target reading area 51 to ss, it is difficult to write to the image file 42 when multiple terminals 2 are operating at the same time. Also, there is an advantage that efficient KJ611 progresses. In other words, the time spent positioning the reading target areas s1 to Ss on the form S in the terminal 2 can be reassigned to transmitting image signals in other terminals. The efficiency of form processing has improved. Furthermore, it has a reject button storage circuit 416 that stores and examines multiple rejection patterns, and interrupt processing is performed by the data flow control circuit 411 of the information processing M*4 for scanning documents, character recognition, and inputting operations using a keyboard. This is controlled by queue management, so the idle time until a person presses the keyboard after the reject button is displayed is used for scanning input and recognition from terminal 2, or for scanning and recognition of the scanning target area on that terminal. This is suitable for minimizing the decline in form processing speed.

Note that the functions of the terminal control circuit 23 provided in the terminal 1 are expanded to include not only mechanical control of the scanner 21 and control of the keyboard display 12, but also control of the information processing device 14.
It is also possible to collect the format F program of the form S input from the M path 41 and the encoded character string of the entire reading result. In this way, in addition to improving the functionality of the terminal 2, the load on the control circuit 41 is reduced, so a faster and more efficient form processing system can be constructed.

As explained above, the present invention performs form processing by connecting a terminal and an information processing device having a character recognition circuit via a high-speed line, and remote distributed processing of forms is performed at each terminal kOcR.
It can be realized in the same way as if you set up a counter, so it can be done in a small size, like a counter operation! It can be used for businesses that process forms at high speed using inexpensive terminals.

Furthermore, terminals allow the person who inputs the form to read the contents directly, and the handwritten characters written on the form can be processed on the spot, making text reading technology popular for a wide variety of purposes. be able to. Furthermore, the area to be read on the form can be arbitrarily set using the form format.

It has advantages such as being able to arbitrarily cut out drawings, seal impressions, etc. in a form as image information and output it to an external device or a distant terminal indicated by the characters of the ii identification result.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a boot diagram of the configuration of the letter G weaving system using a conventional 77 tassel, Figure 2 is a boot diagram of the basic configuration of the present invention, and Figure 3 is a diagram showing the inside of the terminal control circuit of Figure 2. The bootbook diagram of the embodiment, No. 41ila, is a diagram showing an example of the book that is entered into this device. In the figure, 2 is a terminal, 21 is a scanner, 22 is a keyboard display, 23 is a terminal control circuit, 3 is an operating circuit, 4 is an information processing unit, and 41 is a control circuit. 42 is an image 7 isle, 43 is a CRU%, 411 is a data flow control circuit, 412 is a high-speed line interface circuit, 411 is a terminal identification circuit, 414 is a form format control circuit, 415 is a coded character storage circuit, and 41@ is a reject button. A memory circuit, 411 is an interface circuit with an external S device, 5 is a scale, and 51 to 5% is an area to be read within the form. Figure 1 Figure 12 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An information processing device that has an image file that inputs and stores the image signal obtained by scanning a form, and a character recognition circuit that cuts out and recognizes character patterns from this image file, and uses multiple terminals equipped with scanners at high speed. An optical reading device that is connected by a signal line, inputs a form to each of the plurality of terminals, and processes the information written on the mosquito net form, reads from the form input to each of the plurality of terminals. Format control is performed to select the scan target area in which information is written, and when the forms are simultaneously input to each of the plurality of terminals, the scan target area on each form and the corresponding scan target area are written to the image file. What is claimed is: 1. An optical reading device characterized by comprising a control circuit which can be switched for each vending target value range by inputting one signal from each terminal by dividing the device. An information processing device that has an image file that scans 121 m votes and inputs and stores the 'fSiii signal, and a character recognition circuit that extracts and recognizes character patterns from this image file, is connected to multiple terminals equipped with scanners at high speed. An optical reading device that is connected by signal IIK, inputs a form into each of the plurality of terminals, and processes the information written on the form, reads from the form entered into each of the plurality of terminals. When a 7-way F control is performed to select a scan target area containing information, and documents are simultaneously input to each of the plurality of terminals, the image file is added to the scan target area on each document. a control circuit that switches image signal input from each terminal to the target area by dividing writing to the target area; and a character string resulting from recognition of a character pattern on a form input from each terminal by the information processing device. and a display provided on the terminal that displays the unrecognized character pattern, a correction input for the character pattern, and a WAll! in the character string! A keyboard provided in each of the terminals for performing correction input, a reject pattern storage circuit for storing a plurality of character patterns that have not been filled in the information processing device, and idle time of the high-speed signal line are used. and returns the recognition result character string and character button for each scanning target area to each of the terminals, and receives the keyboard input, thereby inputting the encoded character string intended by the Nakiwa terminal into the information processing device. An optical reading device characterized in that it is equipped with a data flow control circuit for storage and output, and a data flow control circuit.