Apparatus and method for recognizing characters

• US 8,340,426 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2008
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Eom, Ki-wan, Lee, Jae-won, Kim, Juno-eun
• Primary Examiner(s): Akhavannik, Hadi
• Application Number:
  US12/076,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20090136135A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,747 Days
• Field of Search: 382181-182, 345/660
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/62 Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1456 based on user interactions

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and method for recognizing characters. The apparatus includes a display unit to display an image in which a region of interest or an error region is indicated, and a character recognition result, a region-of-interest setting unit to set the region of interest in the image displayed on the display unit, a recognition unit to perform character recognition on the region of interest or the error region and provide the character recognition result to the display unit, and an error correction unit to set the error region in the image displayed on the display region, perform image copying on the set error region according to a user input, and provide a handwriting input using the image copying to the recognition unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus for recognizing characters, the apparatus comprising:

a display unit to display an image in which a region of interest or an error region is indicated, and a character recognition result;

a region-of-interest setting unit to set the region of interest in the image displayed on the display unit;

a recognition unit to perform character recognition on the region of interest or the error region and to provide the character recognition result to the display unit; and

an error correction unit to set the error region in the image displayed on the display region, perform image copying on the set error region according to a user input, and provide a handwriting input using the image copying to the recognition unit,

wherein the recognition unit provides information corresponding to the character recognition result to the display unit by searching and obtaining information corresponding to a recognized character in a dictionary included in a mobile device, and

wherein the recognition unit performs a search using the character recognition result as a query word in the search after character recognition is performed on the error region, and provides the search result to the display unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when the error correction unit sets the error region, the error correction unit enlarges the set error region, provides the enlarged error region to the display unit, and performs image copying on the enlarged error region.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the error correction unit performs character input on the error region using keypad input or direct handwriting input as well as handwriting input using the image copying according to a user selection.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display unit, the region-of-interest setting unit, the recognition unit, and the error correction unit are integrated into a mobile device.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a storing unit to automatically store information corresponding to the recognized character provided by the recognition unit.

5. An apparatus for recognizing characters, the apparatus comprising:

a display unit to display an image in which a region of interest is set, and a character recognition result;

a recognition unit to perform character recognition on the region of interest or the error region and to provide the character recognition result to the display unit;

a region-of-interest setting unit to set the region of interest in the image displayed on the display unit; and

an error correction unit to perform image copying on the set region of interest according to a user input and provide a handwriting input using the image copying to the recognition unit,

wherein the recognition unit provides information corresponding to the character recognition result to the display unit by searching and obtaining information corresponding to a recognized character in a dictionary included in a mobile device, and

wherein the recognition unit performs a search using the character recognition result as a query word in the search after character recognition is performed on the error region, and provides the search result to the display unit.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein when the region-of-interest setting unit sets the region of interest, the image copying unit enlarges the set region of interest, provides the enlarged region of interest to the display unit, and performs image copying on the enlarged region of interest.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the display unit, the region-of-interest setting unit, the recognition unit, and the image copying unit are integrated into a mobile device.

8. A method of recognizing characters, the method comprising:

displaying an image including a character;

setting a region of interest in the displayed image;

performing character recognition on the set region of interest and displaying a character recognition result;

setting an error region according to the character recognition result;

performing image copying according to a user input to correct an error of a character included in the set error region; and

performing character recognition on a handwriting input using the image copying and displaying a character recognition result,

wherein the displaying of the character recognition result comprises providing information obtained by searching for a recognized character in a dictionary included in a mobile device as the character recognition result, and

performing a search using the character recognition result as a query word in the search after character recognition is performed on the handwriting input, and providing the search result to a display unit.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the setting of the error region comprises, when the error region is set, enlarging the set error region and displaying the enlarged error region, and the performing of the image copying comprises performing image copying on a character included in the enlarged error region.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

performing keypad input to correct an error of a character included in the set error region;

performing direct handwriting input to correct the error of the character included in the set region; and

selecting one of handwriting input using the image copying, the keypad input, and the direct handwriting input as an error correction method according to a user selection.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the character recognition is performed using an optical character reader (OCR) program.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the region of interest or the error region is set using an electronic pen.

18. The method of claim 8, further comprising automatically storing the obtained information corresponding to the recognized character.

13. A method of recognizing characters, the method comprising:

displaying an image including a character;

setting a region of interest in the displayed image;

performing image copying on the set region of interest according to a user input; and

performing character recognition on a handwriting input using the image copying and displaying a character recognition result,

wherein the displaying of the character recognition result comprises providing information obtained by searching for a recognized character in a dictionary included in a mobile device as the character recognition result, and

performing a search using the character recognition result as a query word in the search after character recognition is performed on the handwriting input, and providing the search result to a display unit.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the setting of the region of interest comprises, when the region of interest is set, enlarging the set region of interest and displaying the enlarged region of interest, and the performing of the image copying comprises performing image copying on a character included in the enlarged region of interest.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the character recognition is performed using an optical character reader (OCR) program.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the region of interest is set using an electronic pen.