Unsupervised removal of text from form images

A system, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• memory storing instructions which, when executed on the processor, operate to remove text from form images, the operation comprising:
• generating a frequency domain representation of an image by applying a two dimensional frequency domain transformation to the image, wherein the image depicts at least a portion of a form and wherein the form includes layout elements and text elements;
• removing a portion of the frequency domain representation that represents the text elements by applying a first filter to the frequency domain representation, producing a first filtered frequency domain representation;
• generating a reconstructed image of at least the portion of the form by applying an inverse two dimensional frequency domain transformation to the first filtered frequency domain representation, wherein the reconstructed image does not depict the text elements;
• removing a portion of the frequency domain representation that represents the layout elements by applying a layout filter to the frequency domain representation, producing a second filtered frequency domain representation;
• generating a reconstructed text image by applying an inverse two dimensional frequency domain transformation to the second filtered frequency domain representation, wherein the reconstructed text image does not depict the layout elements;
• matching the reconstructed image to a form template;
• generating text from the reconstituted text image;
• and
• mapping a portion of the text to a corresponding field of the form template based on a position of the portion of the text in the reconstructed text image.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, performs an operation for removing text from form images, the operation comprising:

• generating a frequency domain representation of an image by applying a two dimensional frequency domain transformation to the image, wherein the image depicts at least a portion of a form and wherein the form includes layout elements and text elements;
• removing a portion of the frequency domain representation that represents the text elements by applying a first filter to the frequency domain representation, producing a first filtered frequency domain representation;
• generating a reconstructed image of at least the portion of the form by applying an inverse two dimensional frequency domain transformation to the first filtered frequency domain representation, wherein the reconstructed image does not depict the text elements;
• removing a portion of the frequency domain representation that represents the layout elements by applying a layout filter to the frequency domain representation, producing a second filtered frequency domain representation;
• generating a reconstructed text image by applying an inverse two dimensional frequency domain transformation to the second filtered frequency domain representation, wherein the reconstructed text image does not depict the layout elements;
• matching the reconstructed image to a form template;
• generating text from the reconstructed text image;
• and
• mapping a portion of the text to a corresponding field of the form template based on a position of the portion of the text in the reconstructed text image.