Complex system having the functions of optical character reader and facsimile

• US 4,566,127 A
• Filed: 08/30/1982
• Issued: 01/21/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/1981
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Tokyo Shibaura Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Tokyo Shibaura Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Hirai, Shoichi, Sekiya, Kunihiko, Fukuda, Masatoshi, Sakai, Kunio, Miyao, Shigeru
• Primary Examiner(s): Boudreau, Leo H.
• Application Number:
  US06/413,161
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 382/56, 382/57, 382/61, 358/263, 340/734
• US Class Current: 382/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1444 Selective acquisition, locating or processing of specific regions, e.g. highlighted text, fiducial marks or predetermined fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00 Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/411 for the transmission or storage or reproduction of two-tone pictures, e.g. black and white pictures

Abstract

A complex system in which the functions of OCR (optical character reader) and facsimile are combined by a CPU (central processor unit). The complex system operates in an OCR-facsimile mode to effect a complex processing of character information and image information as well as a usual OCR mode to effect coding of character information and a usual facsimile mode to effect a communication of character/image information.

Claims

1. A system having an optical character reader function, a facsimile function, and an image editing function, comprising:

scanning means for optically scanning documents to produce electrical signals indicative of character-image information on the documents, said documents including a document of a first predetermined format having a character area in which character groups each having a predetermined attribute are disposed in predetermined first locations of the document, and an image area in which images each having a predetermined attribute are disposed in predetermined second locations of the document, the document of said first format having a detecting character group in a predetermined location of the character area which is adapted to detect whether or not the document is of the first format;

communication control means for effecting communication of the character-image information on the documents including the document of the first format with external devices through facsimile communication lines;

character recognition means connected to receive the character information from said scanning means and said communication control means for recognizing characters on the character area of the document of the first format to produce character code information;

character-image file means for storing character information, obtained from said scanning means and said communication control means, of the characters in the character area and the image information in the image area of the document of the first format, in predetermined locations thereof, said character-image file means comprising a buffer region adapted for temporarily storing the character-image information from said scanning means and said communication control means, an image region adapted for storing the image information on the image area of the document of the first format, and a character code region adapted for storing the character code information on the character area of the document of the first format from said character recognition means;

processing mode designating means for designating processing modes to be performed, said processing modes including an editing mode in which the character-image information of the first format stored in said character image file means is rearranged according to a second format different from the first format, and a printing mode in which the edited character-image information is printed out;

processor means responsive to the designation of a processing mode by said processing mode designating means for implementing the designated processing mode, said processor means including, when the editing mode is designated, means for receiving the character-image information from said character-image file means, means for causing said recognizing means to recognize said detecting character group of the character area to detect whether or not the document is of the first format, and, when the document is of the first format, to recognize the character groups on the remaining portion of the character area of the document;

means for transferring the image information to said image region of said character-image file means and the character code information to said character code region of said character-image file means after said recognizing means has recognized the character information in the character area of the document when the document is of the first format;

means for receiving the character code information corresponding to recognized characters and the image information on the document of the first format stored in said character-image file means, and for arranging the character code information and the image information of the document of the first format according to the second format; and

printing means responsive to the designation of the printing mode by said processing mode designating means and an instruction thereto from said processor means for printing the edited character image information from said processor means on a sheet of the second format.