Character extracting apparatus, method, and program
First Claim
1. An apparatus for extracting each of a plurality of characters from a character string having the plurality of characters arranged in a first direction and included in an image, comprising:
- an integrating device integrating a plurality of pixel values along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction at each of a plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image;
a setting device setting a section having a predetermined width at each of a plurality of different positions along the first direction over the image;
a first extracting device extracting a first point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is the minimum value in each of the sections set by the setting device;
a second extracting device extracting a second point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is the minimum value in each group of the first points, extracted by the first extracting device, in sequence along the first direction;
an interpolating device calculating a base value at each of the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image from an interpolation based on the pixel values integrated by the integrating device at the second points extracted by the second extracting device;
a compensating device subtracting the base value from the pixel value integrated by the integrating device as a compensated value at each of the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image; and
a recognition device recognizing an area having the compensated value compensated by the compensating device in excess of a predetermined threshold value as a character area.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a technique of accurately extracting areas of characters included in a captured image. A character extracting device of the present invention extracts each character in an image with compensated pixel values. In more detail, the character extracting device integrates pixel values at each coordinate position in the image along a character extracting direction. Then, the character extracting device predicts the background area in the image based on the integrated pixel value. The compensated pixel values are compensated based on integrated pixel values at the predicted background area from integrated pixel values at each coordinate position.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. An apparatus for extracting each of a plurality of characters from a character string having the plurality of characters arranged in a first direction and included in an image, comprising:
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an integrating device integrating a plurality of pixel values along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction at each of a plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image;
a setting device setting a section having a predetermined width at each of a plurality of different positions along the first direction over the image;
a first extracting device extracting a first point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is the minimum value in each of the sections set by the setting device;
a second extracting device extracting a second point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is the minimum value in each group of the first points, extracted by the first extracting device, in sequence along the first direction;
an interpolating device calculating a base value at each of the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image from an interpolation based on the pixel values integrated by the integrating device at the second points extracted by the second extracting device;
a compensating device subtracting the base value from the pixel value integrated by the integrating device as a compensated value at each of the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image; and
a recognition device recognizing an area having the compensated value compensated by the compensating device in excess of a predetermined threshold value as a character area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An apparatus for extracting each of a plurality of characters from a character string having the plurality of characters arranged in a first direction and included in an image, comprising:
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an integrating device integrating a plurality of pixel values along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction at each of a plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image;
a first extracting device extracting a first point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is a local minimum value from the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image;
a setting device setting a section having a predetermined width corresponding to each first point extracted by the first extracting device;
a second extracting device extracting the first point as a second point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is a minimum value in each of the sections corresponding to the first point;
an interpolating device calculating a base value at each of the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image from an interpolation based on the pixel values integrated by the integrating device at the second points extracted by the second extracting device;
a compensating device compensating the pixel value integrated by the integrating device as a compensated value at each coordinate position along the first direction over the image based on the base value; and
a recognition device recognizing an area having the compensated value compensated by the compensating device in excess of a predetermined threshold value as a character area. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for extracting each of a plurality of characters from a character string having the plurality of characters arranged in a first direction and included in an image, comprising the steps of:
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integrating a plurality of pixel values along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction at each of a plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image;
setting a section having a predetermined width at each of a plurality of different positions along the first direction over the image;
extracting a first point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating step is a minimum value in each of the sections set by the setting step;
extracting a second point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating step is a minimum value in each group of the first points, extracted by the first extracting step, in sequence along the first direction;
calculating a base value at each of the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image from an interpolation based on the pixel values integrated by the integrating step at the second points extracted by the second extracting step;
subtracting the base value from the pixel value integrated by the integrating step as a compensated value at each coordinate position along the first direction over the image; and
recognizing an area having the compensated value compensated by the compensating step in excess of a predetermined threshold value as a character area.
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19. A computer readable medium including a program for extracting each of a plurality of characters from a character string having the plurality of characters arranged in a first direction and included in an image, the program including:
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an integrating device for integrating a plurality of pixel values along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction at each of a plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image;
a setting device setting a section having a predetermined width at each of a plurality of different positions along the first direction over the image;
a first extracting device extracting a first point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is a minimum value in each of the sections set by the setting device;
a second extracting device extracting a second point where a pixel value integrated by the integrating device is a minimum value in each group of the first points, extracted by the first extracting device, in sequence along the first direction;
an interpolating device calculating a base value at each of the plurality of coordinate positions along the first direction over the image from an interpolation based on the pixel values integrated by the integrating device at the second points extracted by the second extracting device;
a compensating device subtracting the base value from the pixel values integrated by the integrating device as a compensated value at each coordinate position along the first direction over the image; and
a recognizing device recognizing an area having the compensated value compensated by the compensating device in excess of a predetermined threshold value as a character area.
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Specification