Method and apparatus for implementing a weighted voting scheme for multiple optical character recognition systems
First Claim
1. An image processing system for recognizing characters in a scanned image, said system comprising:
- a plurality of parallel optical character recognition (OCR) processors, each OCR processor having individual character recognition capabilities for interpreting and reporting given characters in the scanned image;
confusion matrix storage means for storing a plurality of matrices each corresponding to one of the plurality of OCR processors, each of said matrices being defined by a plurality of detection values, each detection value being a function of the probability that a particular character in the image will cause the OCR processor associated with the matrix to report a particular candidate;
said parallel OCR processors each reporting a potential character candidate for each character read from the image, whereby the plurality of OCR processors generate a set of potential character candidates for each character that is read; and
error processing means for;
a. generating character weights for the potential character candidates reported by selected OCR processors in accordance with a plurality of detection values from at least one confusion matrix based upon the reported potential character candidates; and
b. choosing the potential character candidate having the highest weight as the character recognition output of the system.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for implementing a weighted voting scheme for reading and accurately recognizing characters in a scanned image. A plurality of optical character recognition processors scan the image and read the same image characters. Each OCR processor outputs a reported character corresponding to each character read. For a particular character read, the characters reported by each OCR processor are grouped into a set of character candidates. For each character candidate, a weight is generated in accordance with a confusion matrix which stores probabilities of a particular OCR to identify characters accurately. The weights are then compared to determine which character candidate to output.
119 Citations
24 Claims
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1. An image processing system for recognizing characters in a scanned image, said system comprising:
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a plurality of parallel optical character recognition (OCR) processors, each OCR processor having individual character recognition capabilities for interpreting and reporting given characters in the scanned image; confusion matrix storage means for storing a plurality of matrices each corresponding to one of the plurality of OCR processors, each of said matrices being defined by a plurality of detection values, each detection value being a function of the probability that a particular character in the image will cause the OCR processor associated with the matrix to report a particular candidate; said parallel OCR processors each reporting a potential character candidate for each character read from the image, whereby the plurality of OCR processors generate a set of potential character candidates for each character that is read; and error processing means for; a. generating character weights for the potential character candidates reported by selected OCR processors in accordance with a plurality of detection values from at least one confusion matrix based upon the reported potential character candidates; and b. choosing the potential character candidate having the highest weight as the character recognition output of the system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for recognizing characters in a scanned image, said method comprising:
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providing a plurality of optical character recognition (OCR) processors, each OCR processor having individual character recognition capabilities for interpreting and reporting given characters in the scanned image; generating a plurality of confusion matrices each corresponding to one of the plurality of OCR processors, each of said matrices being defined by a plurality of detection values, each detection value being a function of the probability that a particular character in the image will cause the OCR processor associated with the matrix to report a particular candidate; reporting a potential character candidate for each character read from the image for each OCR processor, whereby the plurality of OCR processors generate a set of potential character candidates for each character that is read; generating character weights for the potential character candidates reported by selected OCR processors in accordance with a plurality of detection values from at least one confusion matrix based upon the reported potential character candidates; and choosing the potential character candidate having the highest weight as the character recognition output of the system. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An image processing system for recognizing characters in a scanned image, said system comprising:
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a device for receiving data input thereto and outputting an electronic image in a predetermined format; processing means for receiving said electronic image, said processing means including; a plurality of optical character recognition (OCR) processors, each OCR processor having individual character recognition capabilities for interpreting and reporting given characters in the scanned image; confusion matrix storage means for storing a plurality of matrices each corresponding to one of the plurality of OCR processors, each of said matrices being defined by a plurality of detection values, each detection value being a function of the probability that a particular character in the image will cause the OCR associated with the matrix to report a particular candidate; said OCR processors each normally reporting a potential character candidate for each character read from the image, whereby the plurality of OCR processors generate a set of potential character candidates for each character that is read; and error processing means for; a. generating character weights for the potential character candidates reported by selected OCR processors in accordance with a plurality of detection values from at least one confusion matrix based upon the reported potential character candidates; and b. choosing the potential character candidate having the highest weight as the character recognition output of the system. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification