Optical character recognition system and method
First Claim
1. Optical character recognition system comprising:
- means for optically scanning a character recorded on a document, the character and document having different opacities, and producing a plurality of gray-scale values corresponding to said opacities, said gray-scale values representing light and dark pixels;
memory means disposed for storing the gray-scale values, said memory means including a stored program, and predetermined data including a plurality of predetermined binary patterns, one of said predetermined binary patterns representing the character, each predetermined binary pattern including first, second, and third bit configuration, said first bit configuration representing an actual bit pattern of the character, said second bit configuration representing predetermined significance of respective bits of the actual bit pattern, and said third bit configuration representing weighted values of respective bits of the actual bit pattern; and
processing means coupled to the scanning means and to the memory means, and operating under control of the stored program, for locating the character on the document by selecting from said gray-scale values a matrix of values representative of the character, for converting the matrix values to binary data, and for selecting from the plurality of predetermined binary patterns a pattern that matches the converted binary data, said matching pattern serving to identify the character.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method are disclosed for optical scanning and recognition of alphanumeric characters of different sizes and fonts such as E13B, OCRA, OCRB, and Farington 7B type fonts recorded on documents such as bank drafts and checks. The system comprises an optical scanner, a microprocessor, a read-only-memory (ROM), a random-access-memory (RAM, with a stored program) for storing data and a plurality of predetermined character-identification patterns (templates). Each template includes three configurations: an actual pixel patterns (bit configuration) or a character, a configuration representing significant portions of the character which remain the same and do not change despite changes in size of the character, and a configuration representing portions of the character which are given added weight in distinguishing between similar characters. The scanner optically scans each document and produces a plurality of gray-scale pixel values which are stored in the RAM under control of the microprocessor. The microprocessor processes the stored pixel values, and effectively locates and segments each character on the document. The microprocessor then converts the segmented-character pixel value to binary data, and selects, from the plurality of templates, the template that matches the binary data, the matching template serving to identify (recognize) the segmented character.
190 Citations
37 Claims
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1. Optical character recognition system comprising:
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means for optically scanning a character recorded on a document, the character and document having different opacities, and producing a plurality of gray-scale values corresponding to said opacities, said gray-scale values representing light and dark pixels; memory means disposed for storing the gray-scale values, said memory means including a stored program, and predetermined data including a plurality of predetermined binary patterns, one of said predetermined binary patterns representing the character, each predetermined binary pattern including first, second, and third bit configuration, said first bit configuration representing an actual bit pattern of the character, said second bit configuration representing predetermined significance of respective bits of the actual bit pattern, and said third bit configuration representing weighted values of respective bits of the actual bit pattern; and processing means coupled to the scanning means and to the memory means, and operating under control of the stored program, for locating the character on the document by selecting from said gray-scale values a matrix of values representative of the character, for converting the matrix values to binary data, and for selecting from the plurality of predetermined binary patterns a pattern that matches the converted binary data, said matching pattern serving to identify the character. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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21. Method of optically identifying a character on a document, the character and document having different opacites, the method comprising the steps of:
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optically scanning the document and producing a plurality of gray-scale values corresponding to said opacities, said gray-scale values representing light and dark pixels; locating the character by selecting, from said gray-scale values, a matrix of values representative of the character; converting the matrix values to binary data; representing the character as one of a plurality of predetermined binary pattern including first, second, and third bit configurations, said first bit configuration representing an actual bit pattern of the character, said second bit configuration representing predetermined significance of respective bits of the actual bit pattern, and said third bit configuration representing weighted values of respective bits of the actual bit pattern; and selecting from the plurality of predetermined binary patterns a pattern that matches. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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37. Method of identifying a character imaged on a document, the character and document having different opacities, the document being optically scanable, with images thereon representable as a plurality of stored gray-scale pixel values corresponding to said opacities, the method comprising the steps of:
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locating the character by selecting from said gray-scale pixel values a matrix of values representing the character; converting the matrix value to binary data; representing the character as one of a plurality of predetermined binary patterns, each predetermine binary pattern including first, second, and third bit configuration, said first bit configuration representing an actual bit pattern of the character, said second bit configuration representing predetermined significance of respective bits of the actual bit pattern, and said third bit configuration representing weighted values of respective bits of the actual bit pattern; and identifying the character by selecting, from the plurality of predetermined binary patterns, a pattern that matches the converted binary data.
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Specification