Character input device, character input method and character input program

A character input device for inputting a character by extracting and recognizing a character from an image of a document photographed by a photographing device, comprising:

• character extraction means for extracting an image of a character portion from an image photographed by said photographing device;
• character recognition means for recognizing a character from the image of said character portion and making a character recognition result with said reliability added into character recognition data;
• recognition data synthesizing means for detecting and connecting overlap portions in said character recognition data obtained from a plurality of images of the same document, as well as selecting character recognition data whose said reliability is high with respect to the overlap portions to synthesize the plurality of said character recognition data into one said character recognition data;
• and
• recognition data storage means for storing said character recognition data synthesized.

A character input method of inputting a character by extracting and recognizing a character from an image of a document photographed by a photographing device, comprising the steps of:

• adding reliability indicative of sureness of recognition to a recognition result of said character;
• comparing character recognition results of images obtained by repeatedly photographing the whole or a part of said document;
• and
• selecting a character recognition result whose said reliability is the highest.