JP3100431B2 - 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 reader (hereinafter referred to as an OCR device) for optically reading characters and marks written on a form.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a form, for example, an era in a column of date of birth, as shown in FIG. 3, is a so-called dropout color (image recognition) which is not recognized by an OCR device.
(Invisible color) is marked with a dot. Therefore, the person who fills out the form has only to trace the dot mark of the selected era and fill in the mark. The mark marked on the era by the person who fills out the form is read by the OCR device. The OCR device uses the numerical data corresponding to the era of the read mark as a read result.

[0003] By the way, as shown in FIG. 4 (A), when a person who fills out a form mistakenly puts a mark on a different era, corrects it with a cross, and writes a mark again on the correct era. , O
In the CR device, since the mark marked with a cross is also recognized as a legitimate mark, the number of recognized marks is two, and the era cannot be specified. Conventionally, in the case where the dot cannot be read in the dot entry, as shown in FIG.
An unreadable mark (for example, '?') Is displayed on the display screen of the display to enter the correction processing mode. In this correction processing mode, the operator looks at the form and looks at the era of the mark with no X mark. The corresponding number was corrected and entered.

[0004]

However, in the conventional OCR device, if the dot cannot be read in the dot entry, the operator always looks at the form at the time of the correction processing, and the era which the form creator finally selects is selected. Has to be confirmed, and the correction work becomes complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an OCR device capable of promptly and accurately inputting a correction without looking at a form, when there is an inability to read a dot mark.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an OCR apparatus according to the present invention is capable of reading guidance printed on a form in a dropout color without reading the guidance.
A character determination unit that optically reads image data of characters and marks written in the form and recognizes characters and marks, and a storage unit that stores format data of guidance on the form for each type of form. When a character / mark written on the form is not correctly recognized by the character determination unit, an input unit for inputting data for correction and the form optically read by the character determination unit A display unit that displays a video pattern of the image data of the written character / mark and a recognition result of the character / mark recognized by the character determination unit; and the character determination unit, the storage unit, the input unit, and the display. A control unit for controlling the transfer of data between the units,
The control unit reads the format data corresponding to the type of the form to be read from the storage unit and supplies the format data to the display unit, and the character / character written in the form optically read by the character determination unit. The image data of the mark and the recognition result of the character / mark recognized by the character determination unit are supplied to the display unit, and the display unit provides guidance of the form based on the format data supplied from the control unit. In addition to displaying, the video pattern of the image data of the character / mark written in the form supplied from the control unit is displayed so as to be superimposed on the guidance of the form. Is displayed.

[0007]

In OCR device according DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention, reading the target format data corresponding to the type of the form from the storage unit to supply to the display unit together displays the image data of the character or mark is determined by the character determination unit section , A video pattern of the entry mark is displayed on the display screen of the display unit so as to overlap the guidance of the form. As a result, when reading is not possible, data correction can be performed quickly and accurately only by looking at the display screen without checking the dot-filled form.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of an OCR device according to the present invention. In the figure, an optical character discrimination unit 1 discriminates a character / mark by reading a character / mark written on a form (not shown) and performing recognition processing of the read character / mark. The determined character / mark image data is supplied to a controller (control unit) 2 composed of, for example, a microcomputer.

The controller 2 is for controlling data transfer, and reads from the memory 3 format data corresponding to the form to be read. The format data is stored in the memory 3 in advance for each type of form. The controller 2 supplies the display 4 with the format data read from the memory 3 corresponding to the form to be read, and also supplies the display 4 with the character or mark image data determined by the character determination unit 1.

A display 4 such as a CRT displays a video pattern based on supplied format data and image data. The input unit 5 includes a keyboard or the like, and is used for inputting correction data when correcting display information displayed on the display 4. The input of the correction data from the input unit 5 is performed by an operator.

Next, the operation of the OCR device having such a configuration will be described. First, the type of a form to be read and characters / symbols written on the form are determined by the character determination unit 1, and the determination data is supplied to the controller 2. The controller 2 identifies the form type based on the identification code (for example, sheet ID) in the identification data output from the character identification unit 1, reads out the format data corresponding to the form from the memory 3, and displays the format data on the display 4. At the same time, the image data of the character or mark determined by the character determination unit 1 is supplied to the display 4.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, the same guidance as that of the form is displayed on the display 4, and the video pattern of the entry mark is displayed on the guidance so as to be duplicated. Is restored on the screen of the display 4. At this time, if the person who fills out the form mistakenly puts a mark on a different era, corrects it with a mark x, and writes the mark again on the correct era, it becomes impossible to read and the discrimination on the screen of the display 4 is made. Unreadable mark (for example, '?') Is displayed in the display area 6.
Is displayed and the correction processing mode is set.

In this correction processing mode, since the same image as the form written by the form creator is restored on the screen of the display 4, the operator inputs correction data from the input unit 5 while viewing this display screen. Will do. In this example, as is clear from FIG. 2, the person who fills out the form mistakenly fills in the mark with the era name "Taisho", corrects it with an X mark, and fills in the mark with the correct era name "Showa" again. Therefore, the operator only needs to correct and input the number "2" corresponding to the era "Showa" from the input unit 5.

As described above, by displaying the video pattern of the entry mark of the form redundantly on the guidance of the form based on the format data prepared for each type of form in advance, when the form cannot be read, The operator can correct the data only by looking at the display screen without confirming the dot-filled form, so that the correction data can be input quickly and accurately.

The video pattern display based on the image data is also performed at the time of normal reading, and when the form is read normally, the determination is made in the determination display area 6 of FIG. Since the number corresponding to the era is displayed, visual confirmation is also possible.

[0016]

As described above in detail, in the reading of a form including a dot mark of a dropout color display which is not recognized by the OCR apparatus, format data corresponding to the type of the form to be read is stored. While reading from the unit and supplying it to the display unit, the image data of the character or mark determined by the character determination unit is supplied to the display unit, while the display unit uses the mark which is not determined by the character determination unit based on the format data. In addition to displaying the guidance of the form including the form, the pattern of the entry mark based on the image data is overlapped with the guidance of the form, so that the same screen as the completed form is displayed on the display screen of the display unit. Since the image will be restored, when the dot is not readable,
The data can be corrected quickly and accurately just by looking at the display screen without checking the completed form.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an OCR device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a video pattern on a display screen.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a form using a dot filling method.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conventional example (B) of display information on a display screen for an unreadable description example (A).

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 optical character discrimination unit 2 controller 3 memory 4 display 5 input unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-62-92080 (JP, A) JP-A-55-157072 (JP, A) JP-A-61-54563 (JP, A) 110197 (JP, A) JP-A-62-264363 (JP, A) JP-A-2-186472 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06K 9/00-9 / 34

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A character discrimination unit for optically reading image data of characters and marks written on a form without reading guidance printed on the form in a dropout color, and recognizing the characters and marks. A storage unit for storing format data of guidance on the form for each type of form, and data for correcting when a character / mark written on the form is not correctly recognized by the character discriminating unit. And a video pattern of image data of characters and marks written in the form optically read by the character discrimination unit and a recognition result of the characters and marks recognized by the character discrimination unit. A display unit to be displayed, and control of data transfer between the character determination unit, the storage unit, the input unit, and the display unit. The control unit reads the format data corresponding to the type of the form to be read from the storage unit and supplies the format data to the display unit, and the optical data read by the character determination unit. The image data of the character / mark written in the form and the recognition result of the character / mark by the character discriminating unit are supplied to the display unit. In addition to displaying guidance of a form, a video pattern of image data of characters and marks written in the form supplied from the control unit is displayed so as to be superimposed on the guidance of the form. An optical character reading device, which displays a result of character / mark recognition by the apparatus.