Apparatus and method for recognizing characters

• US 20090136135A1
• Filed: 03/14/2008
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Jung-eun, Eom, Ki-wan, Lee, Jae-won
• Granted Patent: US 8,340,426 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/62 Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1456 based on user interactions

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and method for recognizing characters. The apparatus includes a display unit to display an image in which a region of interest or an error region is indicated, and a character recognition result, a region-of-interest setting unit to set the region of interest in the image displayed on the display unit, a recognition unit to perform character recognition on the region of interest or the error region and provide the character recognition result to the display unit, and an error correction unit to set the error region in the image displayed on the display region, perform image copying on the set error region according to a user input, and provide a handwriting input using the image copying to the recognition unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus for recognizing characters, the apparatus comprising:

a display unit to display an image in which a region of interest or an error region is indicated, and a character recognition result;

a region-of-interest setting unit to set the region of interest in the image displayed on the display unit;

a recognition unit to perform character recognition on the region of interest or the error region and provide the character recognition result to the display unit; and

an error correction unit to set the error region in the image displayed on the display region, perform image copying on the set error region according to a user input, and provide a handwriting input using the image copying to the recognition unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when the error correction unit sets the error region, the error correction unit enlarges the set error region, provides the enlarged error region to the display unit, and performs image copying on the enlarged error region.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the error correction unit performs character input on the error region using keypad input or direct handwriting input as well as handwriting input using the image copying according to a user selection.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display unit, the region-of-interest setting unit, the recognition unit, and the error correction unit are integrated into a mobile device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display unit, the region-of-interest setting unit, and the error correction unit are integrated into a mobile device, and the recognition unit is implemented in a web server.

6. An apparatus for recognizing characters, the apparatus comprising:

a display unit to display an image in which a region of interest is set, and a character recognition result;

a recognition unit to perform character recognition on the region of interest or the error region and provide the character recognition result to the display unit;

a region-of-interest setting unit to set the region of interest in the image displayed on the display unit; and

an error correction unit to perform image copying on the set region of interest according to a user input and provide a handwriting input using the image copying to the recognition unit.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein when the region-of-interest setting unit sets the region of interest, the image copying unit enlarges the set region of interest, provides the enlarged region of interest to the display unit, and performs image copying on the enlarged region of interest.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the display unit, the region-of-interest setting unit, the recognition unit, and the image copying unit are integrated into a mobile device.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the display unit, the region-of-interest setting unit, and the image copying unit are integrated into a mobile device, and the recognition unit is implemented in a web server.

10. A method of recognizing characters, the method comprising:

displaying an image including a character;

setting a region of interest in the displayed image;

performing character recognition on the set region of interest and displaying a character recognition result;

setting an error region according to the character recognition result;

performing image copying according to a user input in order to correct an error of a character included in the set error region; and

performing character recognition on a handwriting input using the image copying and displaying a character recognition result.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the setting of the error region comprises, when the error region is set, enlarging the set error region and displaying the enlarged error region, and the performing of the image copying comprises performing image copying on a character included in the enlarged error region.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

performing keypad input in order to correct an error of a character included in the set error region;

performing direct handwriting input in order to correct the error of the character included in the set region; and

selecting one of handwriting input using the image copying, the keypad input, and the direct handwriting input as an error correction method according to a user selection.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the character recognition is performed using an optical character reader (OCR) program.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the region of interest or the error region is set using an electronic pen.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the displaying of the character recognition result comprises providing information obtained by searching for a recognized character in a dictionary included in a mobile device or information obtained by searching for the recognized character in a dictionary that exists on a web server as the character recognition result.

16. A method of recognizing characters, the method comprising:

displaying an image including a character;

setting a region of interest in the displayed image;

performing image copying on the set region of interest according to a user input; and

performing character recognition on a handwriting input using the image copying and displaying a character recognition result.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the setting of the region of interest comprises, when the region of interest is set, enlarging the set region of interest and displaying the enlarged region of interest, and the performing of the image copying comprises performing image copying on a character included in the enlarged region of interest.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the character recognition is performed using an optical character reader (OCR) program.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the region of interest is set using an electronic pen.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the displaying of the character recognition result comprises providing information obtained by searching for a recognized character in a dictionary included in a mobile device or information obtained by searching for the recognized character in a dictionary that exists on a web server as the character recognition result.