Method and apparatus for processing document image captured by camera

• US 20060045374A1
• Filed: 08/30/2005
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Park, Sang Wook, Kim, Sung Hyun, Byun, Seong Chan, Kim, Yu Nam
• Application Number:
  US11/216,585
• Publication Number:
  US 20060045374A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/127 with the intervention of an operator
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/133 Evaluation of quality of the acquired characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1478 of characters or characters lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/416 Extracting the logical structure, e.g. chapters, sections or page numbers; Identifying elements of the document, e.g. authors

Abstract

A document image processing apparatus includes an image capturing unit for capturing an image of a document, a detecting unit for detecting focusing and twisting states of the capture image, a display unit for displaying the detected focusing and twisting states, a character recognition unit for recognizing characters written on the capture image, and a storing unit for storing the recognized characters by fields.

Claims

1. A document image processing apparatus, comprising:

an image capturing unit for capturing an image of a document;

a detecting unit for detecting focusing and twisting states of the capture image;

a display unit for displaying the detected focusing and twisting states;

a character recognition unit for recognizing characters written on the capture image; and

a storing unit for storing the recognized characters by fields.

2. A document image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the focusing and twisting states are displayed on a pre-view screen so as to let a user adjust the focusing and twist of the image.

3. The document image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storing unit is a personal information-managing database.

4. The document image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the focusing and twist states are displayed in a numerical value or in a graphic image displaying a level.

5. A mobile phone with a name card recognition function, comprising:

a detecting unit for detecting focusing and twisting states of a name card image captured by a camera;

a display unit for displaying the focusing and twisting states of the name card image;

a character recognition unit for recognizing characters written on the name card image; and

a storing unit for storing the recognized characters in a personal information-managing database by fields.

6. The mobile phone according to claim 5, wherein the focusing and twisting states of the name card is detected by extracting an interesting area from the name card image, calculating a twisting level from a bright component obtained from the interesting area, and calculating a focusing level by extracting a high frequency component from the bright component.

7. A document image processing method of a mobile phone, comprising:

capturing an image of a document using a camera;

detecting focusing and/or twisting states of the captured image;

displaying the detected focusing and twisting states; and

guiding a user to finally capture the document image based on the displayed focusing and/or twist states.

8. A name card image processing method of a mobile phone, comprising:

capturing a name card image;

detecting focusing and/or twisting states of the captured name card image;

displaying the detected focusing and twisting states;

guiding a user to finally capture the document image based on the displayed focusing and/or twist states;

recognizing characters written on the captured image; and

storing the recognized characters by fields.

9. The name card image processing method according to claim 8, wherein the detecting the focusing and/or twisting states comprises:

extracting interesting areas from the name card image;

calculating a twisting level from a bright component obtained from the interesting area; and

calculating a focusing level by extracting a high frequency component from the bright component.

10. The name card image processing method according to claim 9, wherein the extracting the interesting area comprises:

obtaining histogram information from the bright component according to a local area;

binary-coding the name card image from the histogram information;

separating the interesting areas in the vertical direction from a binary-coded image data projected in a longitudinal direction;

calculating total sum and mean values of widths of the interesting area; and

determining a size of the interesting areas according to the total sum and mean values.

11. The name card image processing method according to claim 10, wherein the histogram information is obtained by setting a local area as a pixel-unit block.

12. The name card image processing method according to claim 10, wherein the binary-coding the histogram information is performed by binary-coding interesting and uninteresting areas with “

1”

or “

0,”

the interesting and uninteresting areas being determined based on a difference between maximum and minimum values of a histogram.

13. The name card image processing method according to claim 10, wherein the binary-coded image is projected in a longitudinal direction is performed by setting widths of the longitudinal and vertical directions as a pixel-unit block.

14. The name card image processing method according to claim 10, wherein the interesting areas in the vertical direction is divided by a space found by scanning the values projected in the vertical direction.

15. The name card image processing method according to claim 10, wherein the total sum value is obtained by adding all of the widths of the divided areas and the mean value is obtained by dividing the total sum value by the number of the areas.

16. The name card image processing method according to claim 10, wherein the size of the interesting areas is determined by comparing a predetermined critical value, that is preset by a user to determine a large or small case of the interesting areas, with the total sum value of the widths in the vertical direction.

17. The name card image processing method according to claim 9, wherein the twist level is calculated from the mean value of the widths in the vertical direction of the name card image.

18. The name card image processing method according to claim 17, wherein the twist level is a mean value of widths in the vertical direction.

19. The name card image processing method according to claim 9, wherein the calculating the focusing level comprises:

obtaining a high frequency component from the name card image; and

calculating the focusing level value from the high frequency value according to a size of the interesting areas.

20. The name card image processing method according to claim 19, further comprising obtaining a bright component of the name card image before obtaining the high frequency component of the name card image.