Image processing apparatus

An image processing apparatus comprising a control unit,

• the control unit including a CPU, and functioning, when the CPU executes a program, as
• a control section governing overall operation control of the image forming apparatus, and
• an OCR processing section performing OCR processing by identifying a specified area of image data as a detection area, detecting line images contained in the detection area, and analyzing the detected line images to identify a character represented by the line images,
• wherein when failing to identify a character represented by the line images in the OCR processing, the OCR processing section determines whether the line images represent a part of a character and, upon determination that the line images represent a part of a character, expands the detection area in a direction where the other part of the character to be identified is assumed to be present and performs the OCR processing again on the expanded detection area,
• the image processing apparatus further comprises a storage section that contains a radical database including loci and relative positions of line segments forming each of radicals making up kanji, including hen, tsukuri, kanmuri, ashi, kamae, tare, and nyou radicals,
• wherein the OCR processing section calculates a degree of similarity of each of the radicals contained in the radical database to the detected line images based on the loci and relative positions of the line segments and, in the presence of a radical the calculated degree of similarity of which is equal to or greater than a predetermined third value, the OCR processing section identifies the radical as a radical represented by the line images and determines that the line images represent a part of a character.

An image processing apparatus comprising a control unit,

• the control unit including a CPU, and functioning, when the CPU executes a program, as
• a control section governing overall operation control of the image forming apparatus, and
• an OCR processing section performing OCR processing by identifying a specified area of image data as a detection area, detecting line images contained in the detection area, and analyzing the detected line images to identify a character represented by the line images,
• wherein when failing to identify a character represented by the line images in the OCR processing, the OCR processing section determines whether the line images represent a part of a character and, upon determination that the line images represent a part of a character, expands the detection area in a direction where the other part of the character to be identified is assumed to be present and performs the OCR processing again on the expanded detection area, and
• when the OCR processing section has failed to identify the character represented by the line images even though having performed the OCR processing again on the expanded detection area, the OCR processing section further performs the OCR processing on the detection area before being expanded.

An image processing apparatus comprising a control unit,

• the control unit including a CPU, and functioning, when the CPU executes a program, as
• a control section governing overall operation control of the image forming apparatus, and
• an OCR processing section performing OCR processing by identifying a specified area of image data as a detection area, detecting line images contained in the detection area, and analyzing the detected line images to identify a character represented by the line images,
• wherein when failing to identify a character represented by the line images in the OCR processing, the OCR processing section determines whether the line images represent a part of a character and, upon determination that the line images represent a part of a character, expands the detection area in a direction where the other part of the character to be identified is assumed to be present and performs the OCR processing again on the expanded detection area, and
• when the OCR processing section has failed to identify the character represented by the line images even though having performed the OCR processing again on the expanded detection area, the OCR processing section narrows the expanded detection area by a predetermined length and performs the OCR processing on the narrowed detection area, and
• wherein when failing to identify the character represented by the line images in the OCR processing on the narrowed detection area, the OCR processing section further narrows the detection area by the predetermined length and performs the OCR processing on the further narrowed detection area.

An image processing apparatus comprising a control unit,

• the control unit including a CPU, and functioning, when the CPU executes a program, as
• a control section governing overall operation control of the image forming apparatus, and
• an OCR processing section performing OCR processing by identifying a specified area of image data as a detection area, detecting line images contained in the detection area, and analyzing the detected line images to identify a character represented by the line images,
• wherein when failing to identify a character represented by the line images in the OCR processing, the OCR processing section determines whether the line images represent a part of a character and, upon determination that the line images represent a part of a character, expands the detection area in a direction where the other part of the character to be identified is assumed to be present and performs the OCR processing again on the expanded detection area, and
• when expanding the detection area, the OCR processing section further performs the OCR processing again only on an expanded portion of the expanded detection area.