Image analysis – Pattern recognition – Classification
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-20
2004-12-21
Miriam, Daniel (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Pattern recognition
Classification
C382S229000, C715S252000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06834121
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for rough classification of words, a method of such of words, and a record medium recording a control program thereof, particularly to a unit for detecting document areas by using a non-contact type image input device such as a camera, in an apparatus for acquiring document images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, there is an apparatus of this type published on pp. 31 to 32 in “Didier Guillevic and C. Y. Suen, ‘Recognition of Legal Amounts on Bank Cheques,’ Pattern Analysis & Application, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 28-41, 1998.”
FIG. 19
shows an example of configuration of the above apparatus for rough classification of words. The exemplary apparatus has a number of devices, which are refered to as divisions throughout the specification and the drawings. This apparatus comprises terminal
101
for inputting a word image, word feature extraction division
7
for extracting features from a word image, vocabulary selection division
8
for comparing word features generated in word feature extraction division
7
with those of all the vocabulary stored in vocabulary storage division
6
to select only the vocabulary of similar word features, and terminal
102
for outputting such vocabulary.
FIG. 2
shows an example of a word image to be inputted in the apparatus for rough classification of words. Word feature extraction division
7
detects from a word image a feature of a loop, and in the case of lowercase characters, the portions jutting downward of “y” and “g” (hereafter referred to as descenders) and the portions jutting upward of “h” and “b” (hereafter referred to as ascenders), extracting alignment of an ascender, a descender and a loop as a feature.
Vocabulary storage division
6
is storing 100,000 kinds of words, for instance, in a table format as shown in FIG.
3
. In the example shown in
FIG. 3
, the words related to place names of a certain country are stored. Each word has its word feature extracted from a word image as well as its text described.
Vocabulary selection division
8
compares a word feature extracted in word feature extraction division
7
with those of all the vocabulary stored in vocabulary storage division
6
to output the word from terminal
102
, if determined to be similar.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Object of the Invention
However, as for the above-mentioned conventional apparatus for rough classification of words, while the word features utilized in the word feature extraction division are ascenders, descenders, loops and so on extracted from a word image which can be determined from alphabets making up a word, they are not always extracted in a stable manner depending on a quality of the image.
For instance, a loop cannot be detected in the case of a word not described to correctly close the top of ‘O’. In addition, there are cases where a loop that cannot exist is detected because neighboring characters have contacted. Thus, word features may not be completely detected or a feature that cannot exist may be extracted so that correct words cannot be detected as similar words in the vocabulary selection division. If slight deviation of a word feature is allowed in order to prevent omission of detection, many dissimilar words will also be selected resulting in a very large number of words outputted from the apparatus for rough classification of words.
Moreover, to solve the above problem, there is a method of extracting a word feature from a predescribed word image and storing it in the vocabulary storage division. To roughly classify 100,000 words by this method, however, it is necessary to extract features from word images acquired by having 100,000 words described by a very large number of people, and thus it becomes inexecutable.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for rough classification of words solving the above problem and capable of generating a feature of a word stored in the vocabulary storage division from a character code of each word to efficiently select a word, a method of such rough classification of words and a record medium recording a control program thereof.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An apparatus for rough classification of words according to the present invention is one for inputting a word image and selecting vocabulary similar to it among the vocabulary stored in a vocabulary storage device in advance, having:
a candidate character selecting device for, of the word image, selecting candidate characters that are image areas conforming to predetermined conditions;
a character recognizing device for converting into character codes the image areas selected by the candidate character selecting device;
a word describing device for generating word description representing the word image by using the character codes converted by the character recognizing device; and
a vocabulary selecting device for checking the word description generated by the word describing device against the vocabulary recorded in the vocabulary storage device so as to select and output vocabulary that can be consistently checked.
Another apparatus for rough classification of words according to the present invention is one for inputting a word image and selecting vocabulary similar to it among the vocabulary stored in a vocabulary storage device in advance, having:
a candidate character selecting device for, of the word image, selecting candidate characters that are image areas conforming to predetermined conditions;
a character recognizing device for converting into character codes the image areas selected by the candidate character selecting device;
a number-of-characters estimating device for estimating the number of characters of the word image in its entirety and estimating the number of characters in the areas generated from the word image;
a word describing device for generating word description representing the word image by using the character codes converted by the character recognizing device and the number of characters in the areas estimated by the number-of-characters estimating device; and
a vocabulary selecting device for selecting vocabulary recorded in the vocabulary storage device by using the estimated number of characters of the word in its entirety and checking the word description against the vocabulary recorded in the vocabulary storage device so as to select and output vocabulary that can be consistently checked.
Another apparatus for rough classification of words according to the present invention is one for inputting a word image and selecting vocabulary similar to it among the vocabulary stored in a vocabulary storage device in advance, having:
a candidate character selecting device for, of the word image, selecting candidate characters that are image areas conforming to predetermined conditions;
a character recognizing device for converting into character codes the image areas selected by the candidate character selecting device;
a number-of-characters estimating device for estimating the number of characters of the word image in its entirety and estimating the number of characters in the areas generated from the entire word image;
a feature describing device for extracting image features of the word image in its entirety and extracting the image features in the areas generated from the entire word image;
a word describing device for generating word description representing the word image by using the character codes, the number of characters in the areas and the graphic features in the areas; and
a vocabulary selecting device for using the estimated number of characters and graphic features of the word in its entirety to select the vocabulary recorded in the vocabulary storage device and checking the word description against the vocabulary recorded in the vocabulary storage device so as to select and output vocabulary that can be consistently checked.
A further apparatus for rough classification of words according to the present invention is one for inputting a word image and select
Guillevic Didier
Yamada Keiji
Miriam Daniel
NEC Corporation
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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