Web service application based optical character recognition system and method

• US 7,609,889 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2005
• Issued: 10/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Guo, Ruishan, Ni, Yong
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Samir A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BEKELE, MEKONEN T
• Application Number:
  US11/098,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20050226507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,666 Days
• Field of Search: 380/4, 380/182, 382/140, 382/169, 382/170, 382/182, 382/187, 382/195, 382/313, 382/321, 709/203, 709/217, 709/313, 715/200, 715/234, 715/249
• US Class Current: 382/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/95 structured as a network, e.g. client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/96 Management of image or video recognition tasks

Abstract

The present invention disclosed a web based OCR system including an OCR service apparatus that communicates with a web browser of a client apparatus and an optical character recognition method for controlling the OCR service apparatus that communicates with the web browser of the client apparatus, the OCR service apparatus comprising: a storage unit for storing an image; a sending unit for sending the image to the web browser of said client apparatus; a receiving unit for receiving a control instruction of a character recognition process from the web browser of said client apparatus, wherein the received control instruction is generated in the web browser of said client apparatus; and a character recognition processing unit for executing the character recognition process for the image based on the control instruction. With such optical character recognition method and system based on web service application on a network, the user can get control of the recognition process flow and the efficiencies are improved.

Claims

1. A web based OCR system including an OCR service apparatus that communicates with a web browser of a client apparatus, the OCR service apparatus comprising:

a storage storing an original image;

a converter unit for converting the original image into a converted image of a predetermined format for a transmission;

a sending unit for sending the converted image to the web browser of said client apparatus;

a receiving unit for receiving a control instruction of a character recognition process sent from the web browser of said client apparatus after an image processing has been executed for the converted image in the web browser of said client apparatus, wherein the received control instruction includes a parameter of the image processing which has been executed for the converted image in the web browser of said client apparatus; and

a character recognition processing unit for executing the image processing for the stored original image based on the parameter included in the control instruction and executing the character recognition process for the original image for which the image processing has been executed.

2. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the control instruction of the character recognition process is generated by a Java applet in the web browser of said client apparatus.

3. The web based OCR system according to claim 2, wherein the Java applet in the web browser of said client apparatus executes processes of:

receiving the converted image sent from said sending unit;

executing the image processing for the converted image; and

sending the control instruction which includes the parameter of the image processing which has been executed for the converted image by the Java applet.

4. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the OCR service apparatus further comprises image receiving unit for receiving the original image uploaded from the web browser of said client apparatus, the received original image being stored by said storage unit.

5. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined format of the image converted by said converter unit is GIF format.

6. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, said web based OCR system further including a web server, wherein said OCR service apparatus communicates with the web browser of said client apparatus via said web server.

7. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the control instruction includes information for selecting an area for the character recognition process.

8. The web based OCR system according to claim 7, wherein the area for the character recognition process is manually or automatic selected.

9. The web based OCR system according to claim 7, wherein the area for the character recognition process is displayed in the web browser of said client apparatus.

10. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the control instruction includes information for a skew correction of the image.

11. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the control instruction includes at least one of image rotation and image color reversion.

12. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the web browser of said client apparatus displays the result of the character recognition process executed by said character recognition processing unit.

13. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, said OCR service apparatus further comprising a result file generating unit for generating a result file based on suitable candidate characters with which old unsuitable characters of the character recognition result have been replaced by a Java applet of the web browser of said client apparatus.

14. The web based OCR system according to claim 1, wherein the converted image of the predetermined format is a black and white image.

15. An optical character recognition method for controlling an OCR service apparatus that communicates with a web browser of a client apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:

storing an original image;

converting the original image into a converted image of a predetermined format;

sending the converted image to the web browser of said client apparatus;

receiving a control instruction of a character recognition process sent from the web browser of said client apparatus after an image processing has been executed for the converted image in the web browser of said client apparatus, wherein the received control instruction includes a parameter of an image processing which has been executed for the converted image in the web browser of said client apparatus; and

executing the image processing for the stored original image based on the parameter included in the control instruction and executing the character recognition process for the original image for which the image processing has been executed.

16. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, wherein the control instruction of the character recognition process is generated by a Java applet in the web browser of said client apparatus.

17. The optical character recognition method according to claim 16, wherein the Java applet in the web browser of said client apparatus executes processes of:

receiving the converted image sent from said OCR service apparatus;

executing the image processing for the converted image; and

sending the control instruction which includes the parameter of the image processing which has been executed for the converted image by the Java applet.

18. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of receiving the original image uploaded from the web browser of said client apparatus, the received original image being stored in said storing step.

19. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, wherein the predetermined format of the image converted by said converter unit is GTE format.

20. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, wherein said OCR service apparatus communicates with the web browser of said client apparatus via a web server.

21. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, wherein the control instruction includes information for selecting an area for the character recognition process.

22. The optical character recognition method according to claim 21, wherein the area for the character recognition process is manually or automatically selected.

23. The optical character recognition method according to claim 21, wherein the area for the character recognition process is displayed on the web browser of said client apparatus.

24. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, wherein the control instruction includes information for a skew correction of the image.

25. The optical character recognition method according to claim 16, wherein the control instruction includes at least one of image rotation and image color reversion.

26. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, wherein the web browser of said client apparatus displays the result of the character recognition process.

27. The optical character recognition method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of generating a result file based on suitable candidate characters with which old unsuitable characters of the character recognition result have been replaced by a Java applet of the web browser of said client apparatus.

28. A computer-executable program, when executed by a computer, enables the computer to execute the steps according to claim 15.

29. A computer-readable storage medium storing program code of the computer-executable program according to claim 28.