System and method for extracting tabular data from electronic document

A system for extracting tabular data from an electronic document, the system having a data processing arrangement comprising:

• a tabular data detection module that is operable to:
• (i) receive the electronic document;
• (ii) determine a location of the tabular data within the electronic document;
• and
• (iii) extract an image of the tabular data from the electronic document;
• and
• a tabular data extraction module that receives the extracted image of the tabular data from the tabular data detection module, wherein the tabular data extraction module is operable to:
• (i) convert the received image of the tabular data into a greyscale image of the tabular data;
• (ii) extract a grid structure of the tabular data from the greyscale image;
• (iii) remove the grid structure of the tabular data from the greyscale image, by superimposing the extracted grid structure on to the greyscale image;
• (iv) determine a position for placement of horizontal and vertical lines in the greyscale image without the grid structure;
• (v) generate horizontal and vertical lines on the greyscale image without the grid structure, to obtain information of grid structure of the tabular data;
• (vi) perform optical character recognition of the text associated with the tabular data from the received image, to obtain information of text associated with the tabular data;
• and
• (vii) extract the tabular data by combining the information of the grid structure of the tabular data with the text associated with the tabular data, to generate the tabular data.