Method and apparatus for automatic determination of text line, word and character cell spatial features
First Claim
1. An automatic text feature determining system for determining a text feature of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, the unsplayed text portion having at least two text lines separated by a first distance, comprising:
- input means for inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image;
connected component generating means for generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portions;
bounding box generating means for generating a plurality of bounding boxes, each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components; and
line spatial feature determining means for determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion, each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components, the line spatial feature determining means comprising;
vertical splaying means for vertically splaying the unsplayed text into a vertically splayed text portion, wherein the vertically splayed text portion has the at least two text lines separated by a second distance, the second distance being greater than the first distance, andvertical profile means for generating a vertical profile of the vertically splayed text portion.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automatic character cell determining apparatus automatically determines the character cells within the text image of a document. A connected component generating means generates connected components from the pixels comprising the text image. A bounding box generating means generates a bounding box surrounding each connected component. A character cell determining means for locating character cells comprising one or more connected components comprises a vertical splaying means and a horizontal splaying means for ensuring white spaces between lines and connected components, a vertical profile means for determining the vertical positions of a line, means for splitting ligatures of two or more connected components and means for generating character cells grouping together one or more connected components.
48 Citations
34 Claims
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1. An automatic text feature determining system for determining a text feature of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, the unsplayed text portion having at least two text lines separated by a first distance, comprising:
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input means for inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image; connected component generating means for generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portions; bounding box generating means for generating a plurality of bounding boxes, each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components; and line spatial feature determining means for determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion, each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components, the line spatial feature determining means comprising; vertical splaying means for vertically splaying the unsplayed text into a vertically splayed text portion, wherein the vertically splayed text portion has the at least two text lines separated by a second distance, the second distance being greater than the first distance, and vertical profile means for generating a vertical profile of the vertically splayed text portion. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An automatic text feature determining system for determining a text feature of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, comprising:
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input means for inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image; connected component generating means for generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portions; bounding box generating means for generating a plurality of bounding boxes, each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components; and line spatial feature determining means for determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion, each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components, the line spatial feature determining means comprising; horizontal splaying means for horizontally splaying each line of the unsplayed text portion by horizontally separating the corresponding bounding boxes of each line of the unsplayed text portion to form a horizontally splayed text portion, horizontal overlaps of the bounding boxes in the unsplayed text portion being eliminated in the horizontally splayed text portion; and character cell generating means for generating at least one character cell within each line of the unsplayed text portion based on the horizontally splayed text portion, each character cell comprising a group of at least one vertically aligned connected component of the horizontally splayed text portion. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. An automatic text feature determining system for determining a text feature of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, comprising:
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input means for inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image; connected component generating means for generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portions; bounding box generating means for generating a plurality of bounding boxes,each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components; and line spatial feature determining means for determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion., each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components, wherein the line spatial feature determining means further comprises; stroke width determining means for determining a modal stroke width for each at least one line of text; means for locating wide connected components having widths greater than a predetermined multiple of the modal stroke width for the corresponding line; means for generating a cost distribution for each wide connected component; means for locating minima within the cost distributions, each cost distribution corresponding to a predetermined portion of one of the wide connected components; and means for splitting each wide connected component for which at least one minimum is located into two independent connected components of the unsplayed text portion. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for automatically determining text features of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, the unsplayed text portion having at least two text lines separated by a first distance, comprising the steps of:
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inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image; generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portions; generating a plurality of bounding boxes, each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components; determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion, each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components; vertically splaying the unsplayed text portion into a vertically splayed text portion, wherein the vertically splayed text portion has the at least two text lines separated by a second distance, the second distance being greater than the first distance; and generating a vertical profile of the vertically splayed text portion. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for automatically determining text features of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, comprising the steps of:
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inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image; generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portions; generating a plurality of bounding boxes, each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components; determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion, each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components; horizontally splaying each line of the unsplayed text portion by horizontally separating the corresponding bounding boxes of each line of the unsplayed text portion to form a horizontally splayed text portion, horizontal overlaps of the bounding boxes in the unsplayed text portion being eliminated in the horizontally splayed text portion; and generating at least one character cell of each line of the unsplayed text portion based on the horizontally splayed text portion, each character cell comprising a group of at least one vertically aligned connected component of the horizontally splayed text portion. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for automatically determining text features of an unsplayed text portion of an image of a document, comprising the steps of:
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inputting a digital data signal representative of the unsplayed text portion, the digital data signal comprising a plurality of signal portions, each signal portion corresponding to one of a plurality of pixels of the image; generating a plurality of connected components from the plurality of signal portion; generating a plurality of bounding boxes, each bounding box surrounding a corresponding one of the plurality of connected components; determining spatial features of each line of text of the unsplayed text portion, each line of text comprising at least one of the plurality of connected components; determining a modal stroke width for each at least one line of text; locating wide connected components having widths greater than a predetermined multiple of the modal stroke width for the corresponding line; generating a cost distribution for each wide connected component; locating cost minima within the cost distributions, each cost distribution corresponding to a predetermined portion of one of the wide connected components; and splitting each wide connected component for which at least one cost minimum is located into two independent connected components. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification