Layout reconstruction using spatial and grammatical constraints

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory comprising computer-executable instructions;
• a processor configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the apparatus to perform a method for determining a layout of information in a document, the method comprising:
• receiving an image of a document;
• determining a first, a second, and a third feature in the document based on the image of the document;
• determining a layout of the document, wherein the layout specifies a first and a second location of content in the document, by:
• determining the first location of content based on at least the first feature;
• associating the first location of content with a first content type based on whether a grammatical constraint is satisfied by a second feature;
• and
• associating the second location of content with a second content type based on the association between the first location of content and the first content type and whether a spatial constraint is satisfied by where the third feature is positioned with respect to the first feature;
• determining a plurality of contents in the document based on the determined layout;
• populating a plurality of fields in a form with the plurality of contents based on the determined layout;
• and
• causing the form to be displayed with the plurality of fields populated with the plurality of contents.

A method for determining a layout of information in a document, comprising:

• determining a set of spatial constraints and a set of grammatical constraints by applying a machine-learning technique to a set of documents, the set of documents comprising a first and second plurality of documents, the set of grammatical constraints comprising a grammatical constraint that is associated with the first plurality of documents and the set of spatial constraints comprising a spatial constraint that is associated with the second plurality of documents;
• storing the set of spatial constraints and the set of grammatical constraints in a data repository;
• receiving an image of a document;
• determining a first, a second, and a third feature in the document based on the image of the document, wherein the second feature corresponds to a set of alphanumeric characters;
• determining a layout of the document, wherein the layout specifies a first and a second location of content in the document, by:
• determining the first location of content based on a comparison between the first feature and at least one feature associated with the set of documents;
• associating the first location of content with a first content type based on where the set of alphanumeric characters is positioned with respect to the first feature and whether the grammatical constraint is satisfied by the set of alphanumeric characters;
• and
• associating the second location of content with a second content type based on the association between the first location of content and the first content type and whether the spatial constraint is satisfied by where the third feature is positioned with respect to the first location of content;
• determining, in the document based on the determined layout, a first content of the first content type and a second content of the second content type;
• populating, based on the determined layout, a first and a second field in a form, the first field corresponding to the first location of content with the first content and the second field corresponding to the second location of content with the second content;
• and
• causing the form to be displayed with the first field populated with the first content and the second field populated with the second content.