JPS5932829B2 - How to read characters - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is applied to an optical character reader that reads forms in which characters of different types or fonts coexist on the same line.

Optical character readers that read characters of different types or fonts, specifically optical character readers that read katakana and numbers, may be unreadable or misread as follows if the type or font of the characters to be read is not known in advance. occurs.

In other words, ``ノ'' (katakana no) and ``1'' (number 1)
Or "ku" (katakana no ku) and "7" (number 7)
Characters that are difficult to distinguish, such as characters, are often unreadable or misread. Conventionally, in order to avoid this, the number of fonts within a unit to be read (hereinafter referred to as a block) has been limited to one type. In this case, the address "3-4, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo" must be entered as shown in Figure 1. Here, 1, 2, 3, and 4 are blocks that are read as kana characters, and 5, 6, 7, and 8 are blocks that are read as numeric characters. In such a method, a new block is required each time a number appears in the address, so it is necessary to prepare many blocks on the form, which is uneconomical. It is also not aesthetically pleasing. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for reading character strings containing characters of different types or fonts. A feature of the present invention is that when recording characters on sheets of paper such as forms, areas where characters of the same type or font are recorded are designated with specific symbols, and the specific symbols are detected when reading. The purpose of this is to determine the discrimination mode for characters read from the area specified by the specific symbol.

Examples of the present invention will be specifically described below.

FIG. 2 shows an example of data read by the optical character reader according to the embodiment of the present invention. The line above the character to be read indicates that the character to be read is an English character.

Further, the line below the character to be read indicates that the character to be read is a number. FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the optical character reader.

The scanner 10 is a device that optically scans the character pattern to be read on the form and converts it into an electrical signal.The signal 11 is the output line of the character 'もtan which has been changed into an electric signal. The information is sent to a number discriminator 13 and a katakana discriminator 14.

The alphabetic character discrimination section 12 discriminates the character notan sent by the signal 11 and sends the answer to the signal 16. In response, output on signal 16 are alphabetic characters and unreadable codes. The numeric discriminator 13 discriminates the character pattern sent from the signal 11 and sends the answer to the signal 17. What is output to the signal 17 as the answer are numbers and an unreadable code. The katakana discriminator 14 discriminates the character pattern sent from the signal 11 and sends it to the signal 18. What is output as a response to the signal 18 is katakana and an unreadable code. Further, the scanner 10 sends electrical signals of the upper and lower symbol parts 30 and 31 of the scribe character to the symbol discrimination part 15 via the signal 22.

The symbol discrimination unit 15 selects an "alphabetic character" code when there is a line in the symbol section 30, and a "number" code when there is a line in the symbol section 31.
When there is no line in the code and symbol sections 30 and 31, the [Katakana] code is sent to the selector 20 via the signal 19. The selector 20 outputs the signal 16 to the signal 21 when the signal 19 is an "alphabet" code, outputs the signal 17 to the signal 21 when the signal 19 is a "numeric" code, and outputs the signal 18 when the signal 19 is a "katakana" code. is output as signal 21. Next, the operation of this device will be explained.

Scanner 10 outputs the pattern of the first letter A on signal 11 . At this time, the signals of the symbol parts 30 and 31 are also output as the signal 22. The alphabetic character discriminator 12 judges the pattern sent from the signal 11 and sends the code "A". Further, since the symbol section 30 has a line, the symbol identification section 15 outputs an "alphabetic character" code to the signal 19. Since the signal 19 is an "alphabet" code, the selector 20 outputs the "A" code of the signal 16 as the signal 21 and ignores the signals 17 and 18. Similarly, the "B" code and the "C" code are output for the second and third characters. In the fourth character, since there is a line in the symbol part 31, the symbol discrimination part 15
outputs a "numeric" code on signal 19. Therefore, the selector 20 transfers the "1" code output to the signal 17 to the signal 2.
1 and ignore signals 16 and 18. Similarly, the fifth
, 6, and 7, the output 16 of the numeric discriminator 13 is output as a signal 21. In the eighth character, since there is no line in the symbol parts 30 and 31, the signal 19 becomes the "katakana" code, and the output 18 of the katakana discriminator 14 is output as the signal 211. In this way, the reading result shown in FIG. In this way, even if characters of different types coexist in the same block, they can be read without increasing unreadability or misreading.

Furthermore, it is clear that the same method as described above can be applied even when characters of different fonts are mixed.

In the above, it has been assumed that the scanner 10 is manually operated by the characters on the left, but this is not an essential assumption for the present invention. It is also clear that this method can also be applied to cases where the number of other character types, such as hiragana, increases, by adding symbols. FIG. 4 shows an example in which the same data as in FIG. 1 is recorded using the recording method of the present invention. As is clear from FIG. 4, the number of blocks to be written is reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an example of a conventional form, FIG. 2 is an example of a form according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is another example of a form according to the present invention. An example of a reporter is shown. 10: Scanner, 12: Alphabet discrimination section, 13: Numeric discrimination section,
14: Katakana discrimination section, 15: Symbol discrimination section, 20: Selector.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A method for reading character strings recorded on sheets of paper such as forms that contain a mixture of characters of different types or fonts, and when characters are recorded on sheets of paper, areas where characters of the same type or font are recorded is specified by a specific symbol,
1. A character reading method, characterized in that, by detecting the specific symbol during reading, a discrimination mode of a character to be read from an area designated by the specific symbol is determined.