Method for line and word segmentation for handwritten text images
First Claim
1. A method implemented on a computer for segmenting an input image into line segments and word segments, the input image being a binary image containing text, the method comprising:
- (a) horizontally down sampling the input image using a first down-sampling ratio;
(b) detecting connected regions in the down-sampled image obtained in step (a);
(c) identifying horizontally neighboring connected regions that belong to same lines to form line lists containing such horizontally neighboring connected regions;
(d) segmenting the input image into a plurality of line segments of the input image, each line segment of the input image being a region of the input image that corresponds to a bounding box in the down-sampled image containing all connected regions in a corresponding line list obtained in step (c); and
for each of the line segments of the input image obtained in step (d),(e) horizontally down sampling the line segment of the input image using a second down-sampling ratio;
(f) detecting connected regions in the down-sampled line segment obtained in step (e); and
(g) segmenting the line segment of the input image into word segments at one or more word segmentation positions using the connected regions obtained in step (f), wherein the word segmentation positions are a subset of positions corresponding to locations in gaps between the connected regions in the down-sampled line segment of step (e) that have been detected in step (f),wherein the second down-sampling ratio is smaller than the first down-sampling ratio.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for segmenting an image containing handwritten text into line segments and word segments. The image is horizontally down sampled at a first ratio. Connected regions in the down-sampled image are detected; horizontal neighboring ones are merged to form lines, to segment the original image into line images. Each line image is horizontally down sampled at a second ratio which is smaller than the first ratio. Connected regions in the down-sampled line image are detected to obtain potential word segmentation positions. A path is a way of dividing the line at some or all of the potential word segmentation positions into multiple path segments; for each of all possible paths, word recognition is applied to each path segment to calculate a word recognition score, and an average word recognition score for the path is calculated; the path with the highest score gives the final word segmentation.
-
Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A method implemented on a computer for segmenting an input image into line segments and word segments, the input image being a binary image containing text, the method comprising:
-
(a) horizontally down sampling the input image using a first down-sampling ratio; (b) detecting connected regions in the down-sampled image obtained in step (a); (c) identifying horizontally neighboring connected regions that belong to same lines to form line lists containing such horizontally neighboring connected regions; (d) segmenting the input image into a plurality of line segments of the input image, each line segment of the input image being a region of the input image that corresponds to a bounding box in the down-sampled image containing all connected regions in a corresponding line list obtained in step (c); and for each of the line segments of the input image obtained in step (d), (e) horizontally down sampling the line segment of the input image using a second down-sampling ratio; (f) detecting connected regions in the down-sampled line segment obtained in step (e); and (g) segmenting the line segment of the input image into word segments at one or more word segmentation positions using the connected regions obtained in step (f), wherein the word segmentation positions are a subset of positions corresponding to locations in gaps between the connected regions in the down-sampled line segment of step (e) that have been detected in step (f), wherein the second down-sampling ratio is smaller than the first down-sampling ratio. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A computer program product comprising a computer usable non-transitory medium having a computer readable program code embedded therein for controlling a data processing apparatus, the computer readable program code configured to cause the data processing apparatus to execute a process for segmenting an input image into line segments and word segments, the input image being a binary image containing text, the process comprising:
-
(a) horizontally down sampling the input image using a first down-sampling ratio; (b) detecting connected regions in the down-sampled image obtained in step (a); (c) identifying horizontally neighboring connected regions that belong to same lines to form line lists containing such horizontally neighboring connected regions; (d) segmenting the input image into a plurality of line segments of the input image, each line segment of the input image being a region of the input image that corresponds to a bounding box in the down-sampled image containing all connected regions in a corresponding line list obtained in step (c); and for each of the line segments of the input image obtained in step (d), (e) horizontally down sampling the line segment of the input image using a second down-sampling ratio; (f) detecting connected regions in the down-sampled line segment obtained in step (e); and (g) segmenting the line segment of the input image into word segments at one or more word segmentation positions using the connected regions obtained in step (f), wherein the word segmentation positions are a subset of positions corresponding to locations in gaps between the connected regions in the down-sampled line segment of step (e) that have been detected in step (f), wherein the second down-sampling ratio is smaller than the first down-sampling ratio. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
Specification