JP2992607B2 - Optical character reader - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical character reading device used for reading character data written on a form.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional optical character reader. In the drawing, 1 is a hopper on which forms P are stacked, 2 is a paper feed roller for sending out the forms P stacked on the hopper 1 one by one, 3 is a conveyor belt for conveying the forms P, and 4 is a conveyor belt. The driving motor 5 that drives the reading unit 5 reads the character data of the form P conveyed to the reading position A. The reading unit 5 includes a light source 6, a lens 7, and a CCD sensor 8. In the figure, 9 is an amplifier, 10 is a binarization circuit, 11 is an image memory,
The signal obtained from the reading unit 5 is amplified by an amplifier 9 and then binarized by a binarization circuit 10 to be converted into a binary signal.
1 is stored. The data stored in the image memory 11 is sequentially taken into the recognizing unit 12, where it is recognized by a search process with a data dictionary.

On the other hand, a pair of stop position sensors 13a and 13b and a switching blade 4 are provided on the rear end side of the conveyor belt 3. The stop position sensors 13 a and 13 b recognize the character data of the form P read by the reading unit 5
Until the form P is recognized, the form P is stopped at a predetermined stop position B.
Is a sensor that detects that the form P conveyed by the printer has reached the stop position B. The switching blade 14 is for discharging the form P to the separate stackers 15a and 15b in accordance with the recognition result of the recognition unit 12, and switches the discharge path of the form P by rotating the blade itself. .

A recognition result by the recognition unit 12 and sensor signals from the stop position sensors 13a and 13b are input to a control unit 17, and the control unit 17 controls the paper feed roller 2 and the transport belt 3 based on the input information. Is configured to control the operation of the switching blade 14.

Next, the operation of the conventional optical character reading apparatus will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S <b> 1, the paper feed roller 2 is driven by a command from the control unit 17, whereby the first sheet P is sent out from the hopper 1 onto the conveyor belt 3. Here, the form P is transported to the reading position A by driving the transport belt 3,
Then, the character data of the form P is read by the reading unit 5. Next, in step S <b> 2, the recognition unit 12 starts a process of recognizing the character data of the form P read by the reading unit 5.

Subsequently, in step S3, based on the detection signals output from the stop position sensors 13a and 13b,
It is determined whether the form P has reached the stop position B. If it is confirmed that the form P has reached the stop position B, the process proceeds to step S6, where the form P has reached the stop position B. If not, the process proceeds to step S4. In step S4, it is determined whether or not the recognition processing of the character data of the form P has been completed by the recognition unit 12, and if it has been completed, the process proceeds to step S5.
Return to 3.

In step S5, the control unit 17 operates the switching blade 14 in accordance with the result of recognition by the recognition unit 12, whereby the following discharging process is performed. That is, if there is no unread character (a character that does not correspond to any character in the data dictionary) in the recognition result of the recognition unit 12, the form P is transferred to the lower stacker 15 a via the switching blade 14. If the unread character is ejected, the form P is ejected to the upper stacker 15b via the switching blade 14.

On the other hand, in step S6, the control unit 17 stops driving the conveyor belt 3, thereby stopping the form P at the stop position B. Then, in step S7, it is repeatedly determined whether or not the recognition processing in the recognition unit 12 has been completed again. When it is confirmed that the recognition processing has been completed, the process proceeds to step S5, where the same discharge processing as described above is performed. Will be Further, in step S8, it is determined whether or not there is an instruction to end the process. If there is an instruction, the process is terminated. If there is no instruction, the process returns to step S1 to return to the second form. P is transmitted, and the above series of operations is repeated.

[0009]

By the way, in this type of optical character reading apparatus, for example, the paper size is A8 to A3.
And a general-purpose function capable of processing a plurality of forms P in a series of operations. However, in the above-described conventional optical character reading apparatus, the size of a form P to be handled is small, and a plurality of forms P
However, if the character data of the preceding form P is not recognized by the recognition unit 12, the next form P cannot be sent from the hopper 1 onto the transport belt 3. There is a drawback that the processing capacity per unit time, that is, the throughput does not increase.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and a form transport method for an optical character reading apparatus capable of improving the throughput when a plurality of forms can be loaded on a transport belt. The purpose is to provide.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to achieve the above-mentioned object, and includes a paper feed roller for sending out sheets stacked on a hopper one by one, and a paper feed roller for sending out the paper sheets. A transport belt that transports the form, a reading unit that reads character data of the form transported to a predetermined reading position by the transport belt, and a recognition unit that recognizes the character data of the form read by the reading unit. ,
The form is stopped at a predetermined stop position until the character data of the form read by the reading unit is recognized by the recognition unit, and the form is discharged to a separate stacker according to the recognition result of the recognition unit. Input means for inputting the maximum form length of the form loaded on the hopper, and transporting based on the maximum form length input by the input means and a preset transport path length. Calculating means for calculating the number of forms that can be loaded onto the belt, and sending out the form from the hopper onto the conveyor belt in accordance with the number of forms calculated by the calculating means, and the characters of the form sent out onto the conveyor belt Control means for controlling the driving of the paper feed roller so as to send out a form from the hopper onto the conveyor belt each time data is recognized by the recognition unit.

[0012]

According to the optical character reading apparatus of the present invention, the form is sent out from the hopper onto the conveyor belt by driving the paper feed roller by the number of sheets that can be taken in on the conveyor belt, and is sent out onto the conveyor belt. Each time the character data of the completed form is recognized by the recognition unit, the form is sent out from the hopper onto the conveyor belt by driving the paper feed roller, so that the reading process in the reading unit is performed in advance and the recognition unit Is performed continuously, thereby improving the throughput when a plurality of forms can be taken in on the conveyor belt.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an optical character reading apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, a form P before processing is stacked on a hopper 1,
These forms P are sent out one by one by the paper feed roller 2. The transport belt 3 is driven in one direction by the driving force of a drive motor 4, and the transport belt 3 transports the form P sent from the hopper 1 in the X direction in the figure.

The reading section 5 reads the character data of the form P conveyed to a predetermined reading position A by the conveyance belt 3. The reading section 5 includes a light source 6, a lens 7,
A CD sensor 8 is provided, and reflected light of light emitted from the light source 6 is taken into the CCD sensor 8 via the lens 7. Further, the signal photoelectrically converted by the CCD sensor 8 is amplified by an amplifier 9, binarized by a binarization circuit 10, and stored in an image memory 11. The data stored in the image memory 11 is sequentially taken into the recognizing unit 12, where it is recognized by a search process with a data dictionary.

On the other hand, a pair of stop position sensors 13a and 13b and a switching blade 14 are provided on the rear end side of the conveyor belt 3. The stop position sensors 13 a and 13 b recognize the character data of the form P read by the reading unit 5
Until the form P is recognized, the form P is stopped at a predetermined stop position B.
Is a sensor that detects that the form P conveyed by the printer has reached the stop position B. The switching blade 14 is for discharging the form P to separate stackers 15a and 15b in accordance with the recognition result of the recognition unit 12, and switches the discharge path of the form P by rotating the blade itself. .

In addition, a pair of capture sensors 16a and 16b are provided between the paper feed roller 2 and the reading unit 5, and the plurality of capture sensors 16a and 16b When a plurality of forms P are sent out, a certain interval is secured between the forms P.

On the other hand, a control section 17 as a control means operates in accordance with a control program written in a program memory (not shown). The control section 17 includes stop position sensors 13a and 13b and capture sensors. 16
a and 16b, a recognition result by the recognition unit 12 and the like are input. Based on the input information, the control unit 17 controls the paper feed roller 2, the transport belt 3, and the switching blade 14 And so on. In addition, the input unit 18 as an input unit includes
This is for inputting the maximum form length of the forms P loaded on the hopper 1, and the input of the maximum form length is performed by, for example, an operator's panel operation or key operation. Further, the calculation unit 19 as a calculation unit performs a predetermined calculation process based on the maximum form length input by the input unit 18 and a preset conveyance path length, and thereby can be loaded on the conveyance belt 3. This is for calculating the number of required forms. In this embodiment, the arithmetic unit 19 is incorporated in the control unit 17. However, the arithmetic unit 19 is provided with an individual microcomputer function so that the control unit 17 and the arithmetic unit 19 are configured independently. You may make it.

Next, the operation of the optical character reading apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. First, according to the flowchart of FIG. 3, in step S1, the form P loaded on the hopper 1
Is stored in the control unit 17 via the input unit 18. Next, in step S2, the calculation unit 19 performs a predetermined calculation process based on the maximum form length input in step S1 and a preset conveyance path length. Here, the maximum form length is the length of the form P that is the longest in the transport direction X among a plurality of forms P stacked on the hopper 1, and the transport path length is shown in FIG. And the length L from the reading position A to the stop position B as shown in FIG. When the form P having the maximum form length is sent out at a predetermined interval, the arithmetic unit 19 determines how many forms P can be taken on the transport belt 3 between the reading position A and the stop position B. Is calculated as the number of forms that can be captured on the conveyor belt 3.

Subsequently, in step S3, it is determined whether or not two sheets P can be loaded on the transport belt 3 based on the calculation result of the calculation unit 19 in step S2. Here, if it is determined that two forms P can be taken, step S4
Conversely, if it is determined that two forms P cannot be taken, that is, only one form can be taken,
The process proceeds to step S1 in the flowchart shown in FIG.

[0020] In step S4, driven sheet feeding roller 2 by a command from the controller 17, whereby the first form P ₁ is sent onto the conveyor belt 3 from the hopper 1. At that time, the first
The form P ₁ is transported to a predetermined reading position A by the transport belt 3, where the character data of the form P is read by the reading unit 5. In step S5, the recognition process of the first character data of a form P ₁ read by the reading unit 5 is started by the recognition unit 12.

Next, in step S6, the preceding first
At regular intervals between the form P _1, a second form P ₂ is sent on the conveyor belt 3 from the hopper 1. At this time,
Control unit 17, such that a constant distance is ensured between the first form P ₁ tip and a second form P ₂ tip, intake sensor 16a, the driving of the detection signal and the conveyance belt 3 from 16b The drive timing of the paper feed roller 2 is controlled based on the amount.

Subsequently, in step S7, the first position is detected based on the detection signals output from the stop position sensors 13a and 13b.
Form P ₁ is made a determination is made as to whether reaches the stop position B, and first form P ₁ is confirmed that it has reached the stop position B, the process proceeds to step S10, the first form P ₁ is the stop position If it has not reached B, the process proceeds to step S8. In step S8, if the recognition processing of the character data of the first form P ₁ is made a determination whether the completion by the recognition unit 12, if it is finished the process proceeds to step S9, not finished step S7 Return to

In step S9, the control unit 17 operates the switching blade 14 in accordance with the result of recognition by the recognition unit 12, whereby the following discharging process is performed. That is, if there is no unread character (a character that does not correspond to any character in the data dictionary) in the recognition result of the recognition unit 12, the first form P ₁ is moved downward via the switching blade 14. It is discharged to the stacker 15a, if Fu読character exists, the first form P ₁ is discharged above the stacker 15b via the switching blade 14.

On the other hand, in step S10, the control unit 17 stops driving of the conveyor belt 3, whereby the first form P ₁
At the stop position B. In step S11, it is repeatedly determined whether or not the recognition processing in the recognition unit 12 has been completed again. When it is confirmed that the recognition processing has been completed, the process proceeds to step S9, in which the same discharge processing as described above is performed. Will be

Subsequently, in step S12, the second form P
₂ is replaced with the first form P ₁ , and the second form P ₂
The form P ₂ which has been recognized so as to recognize as the first form P ₁ as. Further, in step S13, it is determined whether or not there is an instruction to end the process. Here, if the form P is left on the hopper 1, a stop signal is input by an operator's operation, or the power of the apparatus is turned off, and there is a command to end the processing, a series of processing is ended. If there is no such command, the process returns to step S5 to repeat a series of operations.

Here, the procedure for transporting the form P according to the above series of operations will be described with reference to FIG. First, at the time of T _1, the first form P ₁ are conveyed to the position A reading by the conveyor belt 3, the recognition character data already in the first form P ₁ at this time is started. Then, at the time of T _2, the first form P ₁ and are second document P ₂ is sent at regular intervals l between the second document P _2, at this point of the second document P ₂ Character data reading unit 5
, Are sequentially stored in the image memory 11.
Then, if the recognition of the character data of the first form P ₁ at the time of T ₃ are completed, the recognition of the character data of the second form P ₂ is started following which. Then, at the time of T _4, the third form P ₃ is sent at regular intervals l between the second form P _2.

Furthermore, at the time of T _5, the second form P ₂ has reached the stop position B, and the recognition of the character data of the second form P ₂ at this time is not completed, the control unit 17
As a result, the driving of the transport belt 3 is stopped. Then, when the recognition the end of the second character data of the document P ₂ is confirmed, the continued recognition of the character data of the third form P ₃ is started. Then, at the time of T _6, the fourth form P ₄ it is sent at regular intervals l between the third form P _3, since the form P is sent in the same procedure.

As described above, in the optical character reading apparatus of the present embodiment, the feeding belt 2 is driven from the hopper 1 by the driving of the sheet feeding roller 2 by the number of sheets (two sheets in this example) that can be taken in on the conveying belt 3. 3 and the form P is sent out,
Each time the character data of the form P sent on the conveyor belt 3 is recognized by the recognizing unit 12, the form P is sent from the hopper 1 onto the conveyor belt 3 by the driving of the paper feed roller 2, so that the reading unit 5 Is performed in advance, and the recognition process in the recognition unit 12 is performed continuously.

In the above embodiment, the case where two sheets P can be taken in on the conveyor belt 3 has been described in detail. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
The case where more than one form P can be taken can also be dealt with by appropriately adding a step of determining the number of forms that can be taken between steps S2 and S4 in the flowchart shown in FIG.

[0030]

As described above, according to the optical character reading apparatus of the present invention, the form is sent out from the hopper onto the conveyor belt by driving the paper feed roller by the number of sheets that can be taken on the conveyor belt. Each time the character data of the form sent out on the conveyor belt is recognized by the recognition unit, the form is sent out from the hopper onto the conveyor belt by driving the paper feed roller. In the case where the data can be read, the reading processing by the reading unit can be performed in advance, and the recognition processing by the recognition unit can be performed continuously. That is, unlike the conventional device, the recognition unit does not have a waiting time from the end of the preceding form recognition processing to the start of the next form recognition processing, and immediately after the preceding form recognition is completed, the next form. , The throughput can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an optical character reading device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a form transport procedure in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the optical character reading device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional optical character reading device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a conventional optical character reading device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hopper 2 Feed roller 3 Conveyor belt 5 Reading part 12 Recognition part 17 Control part (control means) 18 Input part (input means) 19 Calculation part (calculation means) A Reading position B Stop position

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sheet feeding roller for sending out a form stacked on a hopper one sheet at a time, a conveying belt for conveying the form sent out by the sheet feeding roller, and conveying to a predetermined reading position by the conveying belt. A reading unit for reading the character data of the form, and a recognition unit for recognizing the character data of the form read by the reading unit, wherein the character data of the form read by the reading unit is An optical character reading device configured to stop the form at a predetermined stop position until the form is recognized at a predetermined stop position and to discharge the form to a separate stacker according to a recognition result of the recognition unit; Input means for inputting the maximum form length of the form loaded on the top, based on the maximum form length input by the input means and a preset conveyance path length Calculating means for calculating the number of forms that can be taken in on the conveying belt; and sending out the form onto the conveying belt from the hopper according to the number of forms calculated by the calculating means, and sending the form onto the conveying belt. Control means for controlling the driving of the paper feed roller so as to send out a form from the hopper onto the conveyor belt each time the character data of the formed form is recognized by the recognition unit. Character reader.