Optical character reading system
AssigneeSumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
InventorsIsao Isshiki, Koji Sato, Katsuyoshi Sunago, Akihiro Ohoka, Masayuki Akatsuka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical character reading system in which a sheet upon which characters or symbols are printed is illuminated and the characters scanned with a two-dimensional photoelectric sensor. Output signals from the sensors are processed to read the characters through right and left frame detecting circuits. The right and left frame detecting circuits detect white/black patterns of frames formed on the sensor when the left and right sides of the characters extend beyond the ends of the ranges of the sensor. A circuit combines the white/black patterns detected by the right and left frame detecting circuits to provide a recognition of the characters being scanned.
Claims8
An optical character reading system for reading characters having a character width in a scanning direction, said system comprising:
- a sensor comprising a two-dimensional array of photoelectric conversion elements covering an area having a scanning width in said scanning direction, said sensor generating output signals;
- a left frame detecting circuit comprising a left frame buffer memory for detecting and storing a left two-dimensional pattern of said output signals which occurs when the left side of a character is at the left end of the area covered by said sensor;
- a right frame detecting circuit comprising a right frame buffer memory for detecting and storing a right two-dimensional pattern of said output signals which occurs when the right side of said character is at the right end of said area covered by said sensor;
- and
- means for combining said left and right two-dimensional patterns to recognize said character.
An optical character reading system in which a sheet of characters on which characters are described is illuminated, the characters scanned with a sensor comprising photoelectric conversion elements arranged two-dimensionally and output signals from the sensor are processed to read and recognize the characters comprising:
- a binary coding circuit receiving inputs from said sensor;
- a temporary storage buffer memory receiving outputs from said binary coding circuit;
- a column black cell detecting circuit receiving inputs from said binary coding circuit;
- a left frame buffer memory receiving inputs from said temporary storage buffer memory and said column black cell detecting circuit;
- a right frame buffer memory receiving inputs from said temporary storage buffer memory and said column black cell detecting circuit;
- a column characteristic extracting circuit receiving data in serial-parallel fashion from one of said left and right frame memories:
- a latch having inputs coupled to receive outputs from said column characteristic extracting circuit and outputs of said latch being coupled to second inputs of said column characteristic extracting circuit;
- a frame characteristic extracting circuit having inputs coupled to receive said outputs from said first latch;
- a second latch having inputs coupled to receive outputs from said frame characteristic extracting circuit, said latch having outputs coupled to second inputs of said frame characteristic extracting circuit;
- a left frame code memory and a right frame code memory having inputs coupled to receive outputs from said second latch;
- a right and left frame composing section receiving inputs from said left and right frame code memories.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.