Method and system for character recognition

• US 20060078207A1
• Filed: 08/23/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Exbiblio BV
• Inventors: Kushler, Clifford A., Stafford-Fraser, James Q., King, Martin T., Grover, Dale L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,706,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/316 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/332 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/00 Pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0016 : Selecting or retrieving of images by means of their associated code-marks, e.g. coded microfilm or microfiche microfilm reading G03B21/11; computers therefor G06F16/00; teaching devices G09B5/02; accessing record carriers G11B27/002; static digital stores using optical elements G11C13/04; intermediate storage of facsimile picture signals H04N1/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 : Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 : Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 : Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 : specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4012 : Verifying personal identification numbers [PIN]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 : Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 : Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 : Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 : Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 : Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 : Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 : Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 : Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 : Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 : Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 : Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 : Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 : Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 : Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 : using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1444 : Selective acquisition, locating or processing of specific regions, e.g. highlighted text, fiducial marks or predetermined fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1448 : based on markings or identifiers characterising the document or the area
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/248 : involving plural approaches, e.g. verification by template match; Resolving confusion among similar patterns, e.g. "O" versus "Q" G06V30/242 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/262 : using context analysis, e.g. lexical, syntactic or semantic context
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/40 : Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/40 : for devices for accepting orders, advertisements, or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/00 : Cash registers alarm indicators G07G3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 : with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 : with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00326 : with a data reading, recognizing or recording apparatus, e.g. with a bar-code apparatus arrangements for the associated working of recording or reproducing apparatus with related apparatus G11B31/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0036 : Alphanumeric symbols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00363 : Bar codes or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00374 : on the same page as at least a part of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00381 : Input by recognition or interpretation of visible user gestures manual input means, e.g. digitisers, writing tablets H04N1/00392; gesture input to computers G06F3/017; recognition algorithms G06V40/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/107 : with manual scanning
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2166 : for mass storage, e.g. in document filing systems information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2187 : with image input from a plurality of different locations or from a non-central location, e.g. from one or more users
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 : attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/34 : for coin-freed systems ; Pay systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0081 : Image reader H04N2201/0091 - H04N2201/0094 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 : of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3249 : data relating to a linked page or object, e.g. hyperlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 : Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3263 : of a graphical motif or symbol, e.g. Christmas symbol, logo H04N2201/3211 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3266 : of text or character information, e.g. text accompanying an image H04N2201/3226 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3277 : The additional information being stored in the same storage device as the image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 : Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 : Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 : Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 : Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 : Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 : Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Character recognition is described. In one embodiment, it may use matched sequences rather than character shape to determine a computer-legible result.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for character recognition, comprising:

capturing a scan;

determining a matched sequence of unrecognized images; and

determining a computer-legible result.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed without using language statistics.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed without storing information about distances between unrecognized images.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising querying a database.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed without logic with character statistics.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed without logic with language statistics.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer-legible result is usually error-free.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer-legible result comprises mostly words.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein a computer-legible result for at least 95% of documents has an error rate smaller than current OCR techniques.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein a computer-legible result for at least 95% of documents has an error rate smaller than 10%.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein a computer-legible result for at least 95% of documents is more accurate than a probabilistic method.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the capturing is performed without storing an image of an entire document.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the captured scan comprises an image of less than a full document.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the captured scan is of less than 20 words.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer-legible result does not comprise any unknown characters.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer-legible result does not comprise any probabilistic information.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer-legible result consists of characters or character representations.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed without a substitution cipher.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the matched sequence does not consist of integers.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one unrecognized image does not consist of one character.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one unrecognized image comprises at least two characters.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising accessing storage comprising at least 10 sequences of at least 4 characters.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the matched sequence comprises 5 identifiers.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the matched sequence comprises offsets.

25. A system, comprising:

storage containing a matched sequence of unrecognized images; and

logic to associate a matched group identifier with a character sequence.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a power source.

27. The system of claim 25, further comprising an input comprising an optical sensor.

28. The system of claim 25 wherein at least one character sequence does not consist of one character.

29. The system of claim 25 wherein the storage further comprises possible results.

30. The system of claim 25 wherein the storage further comprises at least 10 sequences of at least 4 characters.

31. The system of claim 25 wherein the logic does not perform a substitution cipher.

32. The system of claim 25 wherein the storage does not comprise single character frequency information.

33. The system of claim 25 wherein the storage does not comprise two or three character sequence frequency information.

34. A system, comprising:

a means for inputing a document;

a means for determining a matched sequence of unrecognized images; and

a means for determining a computer-legible result.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the document is a printed document.