Method, System and Apparatus for Processing Candidate Strings Detected in an Image

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program instructions executable by at least one computer processor that when executed by the at least one computer processor perform a method of identifying a match for a model string in an image, the method comprising:

• performing optical character recognition on the image to identify a candidate string, the candidate string including a plurality of candidate characters;
• determining a minimum edit cost between the candidate string and the model string, the model string including a plurality of model characters, the minimum edit cost representative of a cost of edit operations performed on the candidate string to satisfy characteristics of the model string, wherein the determining the minimum edit cost includes:
• responsive to determining that there is a missing or invalid candidate character at a character position in the candidate string with respect to a character position in the model string, determining the minimum edit cost using a special cost of an edit operation for identifying the missing or invalid candidate character in the candidate string;
• determining, based on the minimum edit cost, whether the candidate string is a match for the model string;
• and
• responsive to determining that the candidate string is a match for the model string, returning an output string corresponding to the minimum edit cost, wherein the returning the output string includes:
• returning, as the output string, a partial string corresponding to the candidate string that includes a label representing the missing or invalid character at the character position in the candidate string.

A method of identifying a match for a model string in an image, the method comprising:

• performing optical character recognition on the image to identify a candidate string, the candidate string including a plurality of candidate characters;
• determining a minimum edit cost between the candidate string and the model string, the model string including a plurality of model characters, the minimum edit cost representative of a cost of edit operations performed on the candidate string to satisfy characteristics of the model string, wherein the determining the minimum edit cost includes:
• responsive to determining that a character position in the model string is identified as optional, determining the minimum edit cost using a special insertion cost of an insert operation for inserting, at a character position in the candidate string, a skip character marker indicating that an optional character position of the model string was skipped;
• determining, based on the minimum edit cost, whether the candidate string is a match for the model string;
• and
• responsive to determining that the candidate string is a match for the model string, returning an output string corresponding to the minimum edit cost, wherein the returning the output string includes:
• returning, as the output string, a basic string corresponding to the candidate string.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program instructions executable by at least one computer processor that when executed by the at least one computer processor perform a method of identifying a match for a model string in an image, the method comprising:

• performing optical character recognition on the image to identify a candidate string, the candidate string including a plurality of candidate characters;
• determining a minimum edit cost between the candidate string and the model string, the model string including a plurality of model characters, the minimum edit cost representative of a cost of edit operations performed on the candidate string to satisfy characteristics of the model string, wherein the determining the minimum edit cost includes:
• responsive to determining that a character position in the model string is identified as optional, determining the minimum edit cost using a special insertion cost of an insert operation for inserting, at a character position in the candidate string, a skip character marker indicating that an optional character position of the model string was skipped;
• determining, based on the minimum edit cost, whether the candidate string is a match for the model string;
• and
• responsive to determining that the candidate string is a match for the model string, returning an output string corresponding to the minimum edit cost, wherein the returning the output string includes:
• returning, as the output string, a basic string corresponding to the candidate string.