Apparatus and method for analyzing and determining correlation of information in a document

• US 8,224,090 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Takebe, Hiroaki, Fujimoto, Katsuhito
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh
• Assistant Examiner(s): MOTSINGER, SEAN T
• Application Number:
  US12/005,527
• Publication Number:
  US 20080187240A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,664 Days
• Field of Search: 382172-179, 382209-217, 382/185, 382/181, 382229-231, 715221-226
• US Class Current: 382/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/414 Extracting the geometrical structure, e.g. layout tree; Block segmentation, e.g. bounding boxes for graphics or text

Abstract

According to an aspect of an embodiment, an apparatus for analyzing and determining correlation of information contained in a given form containing blocks, at least one of the blocks containing data indicative of a header, the rest of the blocks containing data in association with header information, comprising: a memory for storing templates having nodes, character data associated with said nodes respectively, and relative position information between said nodes; and a processor for analyzing and determining correlation of the information according to a process comprising: obtaining data contained in said blocks in the given form, determining relative position of said blocks to produce relative position information, analyzing the data obtained from the blocks and the relative position information of the blocks in comparison with the character data and the relative position information of said nodes of said templates, and determining correlation of the data contained in said blocks.

Claims

1. An apparatus for analyzing of a given form, comprising:

a memory for storing a plurality of templates having a plurality of nodes, each of the plurality of templates being related with each other by a hierarchical structure, each of the plurality of nodes included in one of the plurality of higher templates of the hierarchical structure being associated to one of the plurality of lower templates of the hierarchical structure, each of the plurality of nodes included in one of the plurality of the higher templates being associated to one of a header part and a data part included in the given form, each of the plurality of nodes included in one of the plurality of the lower templates being associated to characteristic information, and each of the plurality of templates including positional relationship information indicating position of the each of the plurality of nodes included in the each of the plurality of templates; and

a processor for

obtaining characteristic information including in a plurality of blocks included in a form and position relationship of each of the plurality of blocks,

detecting lower templates corresponding to the obtained characteristic information by calculating matching between the characteristic information included in a plurality of blocks and the characteristic information associated to the each of the plurality of nodes,

determining higher templates including nodes corresponding to the detected lower templates,

detecting a higher template corresponding to the form by comparing position relationship of each of the plurality of blocks and each of positional relationship information included in the determined higher templates, and

outputting the characteristic information associated to the header part and the data part of the plurality of nodes included in the detected higher template.

2. A method of analyzing of a form, comprising:

obtaining characteristic information included in a plurality of blocks included in a form and a position relationship of each of the plurality of blocks;

reading out storing a plurality of templates having a plurality of nodes, each of the plurality of templates being related with each other by a hierarchical structure, each of the plurality of nodes included in one of the plurality of higher templates of the hierarchical structure being associated to one of the plurality of lower templates of the hierarchical structure, each of the plurality of nodes included in one of the plurality of the higher templates being associated to one of a header part and a data part included in the given form, each of the plurality of nodes included in one of the plurality of the lower templates being associated to characteristic information, each of the plurality of templates including a positional relationship information indicating position of the each of the plurality of nodes included in the each of the plurality of templates;

detecting lower templates corresponding to the obtained characteristic information by calculating matching between the characteristic information included in a plurality of blocks and the characteristic information associated to the each of the plurality of nodes;

determining higher templates including nodes corresponding to the detected lower templates;

detecting a higher template corresponding to the form by comparing position relationship of each of the plurality of blocks and each of positional relationship information included in the determined higher; and

outputting the characteristic information associated to the header part and the data part of the plurality of nodes included in the detected higher template.