Manual-search restriction on documents not having an ASCII index
AssigneeParascript LLC
InventorPavel Zelinski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Images of handwritten cursive records are extracted, and an automated search on the images of the cursive records is performed based on an ASCII query for a record. A cursive equivalent of the ASCII query is matched to the images of the cursive records, and a similarity value is generated to indicate the extent of match between features of the cursive equivalent of the ASCII query and features of each cursive record. The records are sorted based upon their similarity value determined in the matching process. This provides a candidate list of cursive record images to be manually examined by a user for the purpose of making a final determination as to whether any of the cursive records on the candidate list satisfy the query.
Claims9
A method for finding a handwritten cursive record on a document using automated searching by a computing system and manual searching by an investigator comprising:
- scanning all documents containing the cursive records to provide electronic images of each document to the computing system;
- extracting a snippet image of each cursive record on the documents and identifying each snippet image with its document;
- automated searching of the snippet images by the computing system to select best matches between a query defined by the investigator and snippet images extracted by the extracting act, the best matches forming a candidate list;
- manual review of the candidate list by the investigator to find select snippet images from the candidate list that match the query close enough to warrant manual review of the source document for the select snippet images whereby the number of documents that must be manually reviewed to find the cursive record are reduced;
- the act of extracting comprises:
- identifying a source document for each snippet image;
- cutting the snippet image out of the document image containing the snippet image;
- and
- storing the snippet image and an identification of its source document in snippet description data;
- recognizing whether each snippet image matches entries in a draft dictionary and providing for each snippet image that does match an entry, a recognition answer and a similarity value for the recognition answer;
- and
- adding the lists of recognition answers with associated similarity value to the snippet description data for each snippet image.
Apparatus for restricting manual searching of documents containing handwritten cursive records by electronically searching snippet images of the cursive records with a computing system to provide a candidate list for manual searching by an investigator, the apparatus comprising:
- a scanner scanning the documents for handwritten cursive records and storing to the computing system electronic images of the handwritten cursive records as snippet images;
- a search module in the computing system matching a query to a snippet image and generating a candidate list of answer pairs, each answer pair containing an identifier for the snippet image matched to the query and a similarity value indicative of a degree of match between query and snippet image;
- the search module comprises:
- a preprocessing module in the computing system extracting snippet images from the electronic images of the handwritten cursive records;
- a matching module in the computing system matching the query to each snippet image and generating a similarity value indicative of the degree of match and providing the answer pair for each snippet image;
- a sort module in the computing system sorting the answer pairs into an ordered list by similarity value;
- and
- a select module in the computer selecting the answer pairs having a similarity value above a predetermined threshold and providing such answer pairs to the candidate list.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.