JP3326034B2 - Facsimile character recognition processing system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a retransmission request or recognition for a sender when receiving an image of a form by facsimile and recognizing characters described therein to obtain certain transaction data. The present invention relates to a facsimile character recognition processing system that enables accurate data input or the like in response to a result confirmation request or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, when a company uses a bank transfer to pay an employee's salary, the bank is notified in advance of the employee name, the bank name of the transfer destination, an account number, and the like. There is a need. Further, when there is a newly hired employee or a retired employee, it is necessary to add, cancel, or correct the transfer destination each time. A facsimile character recognition processing system is used for such tasks. In this system, when a company creates a request form in which a transfer destination and other information are entered, the request form is transmitted to a center that manages bank operations using a facsimile. The center converts the content into data by a character recognition process. In this case, a confirmation of the character recognition result is sent to the company using facsimile, and if the content is incorrect, the company issues a corrected request again, and if correct, sends a telephone PB signal (push button signal) or the like. To the center. Thus, the recognition result is registered in the host computer of the center. On the center side, these processes are almost automatically executed except for operations such as partial correction and verification of the recognition result.

[0003]

However, the conventional facsimile character recognition system as described above has the following problems to be solved.

[0004] The characters described in such a request form include:
Some characters are easy to recognize by the character recognition device and some characters are difficult to recognize. Therefore, if characters that are difficult to recognize are described in the request form, the number of retransmission requests increases. When a specific person in charge of the client company writes such characters, the load of rewriting increases, and the burden of telephone charges associated with facsimile retransmission increases, which may cause a decrease in customer service.

[0005] Further, a form in which only numbers need to be filled in has a high character recognition rate, but a form in which many kanjis are entered tends to increase the number of characters that cannot be recognized. Accordingly, there has been a problem that a request for resending a form or the like having a large number of kanji entry portions increases, and a heavy burden is imposed on a person in charge of a company as a requester.

[0006]

The present invention employs the following structure to solve the above problems. The present invention provides a character recognition device that performs a character recognition process on image data of a form received from a transmission source facsimile, and a character that cannot be recognized by the character recognition device in the image data. If it is, the retransmission request processing unit for facsimile transmitting the retransmission request, statement that the recognition process and an image indicated by the image data
Osamu <br/> Tadashiyo facsimile character sure that Ru and a work station for performing the correction operation of the recognition processing result by displaying the character
In the recognition processing system, the retransmission request processing device counts the number of characters that cannot be recognized by the character recognition device, and when the number of characters is equal to or more than a predetermined reference number of characters, transfers the recognition result including the unrecognizable character to the correction workstation.
If the number of characters is less than the
A retransmission request is transmitted to the client.

[0007] In another system, a character recognizing device that executes a recognition process for a character on a form received by a facsimile, and a facsimile when a character that cannot be recognized by the character recognizing device is included in the form. A retransmission request processing device that transmits a retransmission request, and a correction workstation that displays an image of the form after the recognition processing and the recognition processing result and receives a correction operation of the recognition processing result,
The retransmission request processing device counts the number of retransmission cycles consisting of facsimile reception, recognition processing, and retransmission request, and when the number of retransmission cycles exceeds a predetermined reference number, a recognizing result including an unrecognizable character. Transfer to correction workstation.

For example, the predetermined number of reference characters is arbitrarily set according to the type of the form or the type of the transmission source. Alternatively, the predetermined reference number is set arbitrarily according to the type of the form or the type of the transmission source.

[0009]

[0010]

When the unrecognized character is included in the form of the request form, the number of the characters is counted and compared with a preset reference character number. If counted statement <br/> number of characters is larger than the reference number, without the retransmission request to the transmission source performs the pre-correction processing in the modified workstation. Thus, the nature unrecognizable many characters of the character recognition device Se
This is corrected on the communication side, and the retransmission burden on the transmission source is reduced. When a retransmission request is made because an unrecognizable character is included, the number of retransmission requests is counted. When this number exceeds the reference number, the retransmission request is stopped and the correction is attempted on the correction workstation. This also reduces the burden on the sender. The reference number of characters and the reference count are set according to the type of the form, the type of the transmission source, and the like. The same applies to the reference count. In addition, various judgment criteria are set, and according to the judgment criteria, either a retransmission request is made or a correction work station is compared with a received image and correction processing is executed.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system operation sequence chart of the present invention. Before giving a specific description, transmission of a request form, transmission and reception of a confirmation form, and the like specifically performed in the facsimile character recognition processing system will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the entire form processing system. In the figure, a facsimile terminal 2 is provided at a transmission source 1 such as a company as a requester. This facsimile terminal 2 is a communication line 3 such as a telephone network.
Facsimile control unit (FCU) 5 of center 4 via
It is connected to the. The facsimile control device 5 is connected to facsimile terminals of a number of companies (not shown) via the communication line 3 and controls line connection and facsimile reception. The main control unit (MCU) 6 is composed of a computer or the like, transfers the image of the form received by the facsimile control unit 5 to the character recognition unit 7,
It has a function of receiving and processing the recognition result, and controls sending a request for retransmission of a request form to the transmission source 1 through the facsimile controller 5 as necessary. A correction workstation 9 and a verification workstation 10 are connected to the main controller 6 via a network 8 such as a LAN.
Is connected. The correction workstation 9 is a part for performing a process of correcting a simple recognition error by comparing the received image of the form with the result of character recognition by the operator. The verification workstation 10 is a part for performing business for ensuring the safety of transactions by the recognition of the recognition result by the office or the like.

An image of the request form 11 is transmitted from the transmission source 1 to the center 4 through the facsimile terminal 2. Then, the recognition result is temporarily stored in the disk device 12. Further, a confirmation letter 13 is transmitted by facsimile from the center 4 for content confirmation, and the person in charge of the transmission source 1 responds to the center 4 with a PB signal using the telephone 19 with the result of the confirmation. The final reception result of such a request form is separately reported to the transmission source 1 as a reception notice 14 by facsimile or the like. These are the main operations of the system.

The above system is specifically operated in the procedure shown in steps S1 to S10 in the figure. That is, first, in step S1, the request form 11 is transmitted to the facsimile terminal 2
Is transmitted to the center 4 by the facsimile control device 5 and the main control device 6 activates the character recognition device 7 (step S2). The recognition result is stored in the disk device 12 (step S3), and is simultaneously transferred to the correction workstation 9 (step S3).
4). When the operator makes a necessary correction, the correction result is transferred to the verification workstation 10 (step S).
5). When the contents are verified here, the confirmation document 13 is generated by the main control device 6 and transmitted to the transmission source 1 using a facsimile (steps S6 and S7). The sender confirms the contents of the confirmation 13 and calls the center 4 using the telephone 19. Then, a notification to the effect that the result has been confirmed by the PB signal and a notification such as re-correction are made as necessary. When the content is confirmed, main controller 6 registers the recognition result in host computer 20 (step S9), and thereafter generates and transmits reception notification 14 to transmission source 1 (step S1).
0).

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the request form 11 shown in FIG. In this request form, there are columns for entering data such as the name of the requester (the column labeled "Name"), the company code for identifying the sender who is the requester, the account number of the transfer destination, the amount of money, etc. Is provided. Note that marks 11A are written in three corners of this request form. At the center that received this image using facsimile,
Image data is cut out based on the position of the mark 11A, and recognition processing of characters entered in each column is executed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the confirmation note 13 shown in FIG. Here, the recognition result of the character extracted from the request form is specifically written, and the person in charge of the transmission is prompted to confirm the content. In the stage where the request form is received and the confirmation form is transmitted to the transmission source as described above, for example, if some characters cannot be recognized, the main control device 6 shown in FIG. Execute the request resend request process. As described above, if there is a portion requiring correction, the confirmation letter 13 serves as a correction notice. The rewriting of the characters that could not be recognized by the transmission source is performed, and the request form 11 is transmitted using the facsimile terminal 2.
Is resent.

When the above processing is performed, for example, when an unrecognizable character is included in a request received by facsimile, a correction notification that simply informs the transmission source that it cannot be recognized and prompts a correction is made. If you just send a letter,
Automatic processing can be performed by the main controller 6 and the facsimile controller 5. Therefore, for example, it is possible to automatically send a correction notice to the transmission source until all characters are completely recognized, and request transmission of a corrected request form. However, this reduces the burden on the operator on the center side, while increasing the burden on the request form issuing operator in the sending company. In particular, when a request form containing many kanji and the like is transmitted, recognition may not be easy due to the performance of the character recognition device on the center side. Therefore, it is also possible to use a correction work station 9 to check and correct all the data that cannot be recognized by the character recognition device without automatically requesting correction. However, this increases the burden on the operator on the center side and makes it difficult to process a large number of request forms quickly. From the above, it is preferable to optimize so-called burden reduction in consideration of an appropriate balance between the burden on the center-side operator and the burden on the transmission-source operator.

The present invention employs a configuration as shown in FIG. 1 for such a purpose. In FIG. 1, when a request form is transmitted from the transmission source facsimile terminal 2 to the facsimile control device 5 in step S1, the image is transferred to the main control device 6. Then, in step S2, the main control device 6 requests the character recognition device 7 for the recognition. In step S3, the character recognition device 7 performs character recognition. In step S4, the recognition result is returned to the main control device 6. Here, in step S5, the contents of the recognition result are analyzed, and it is determined whether or not there is a rejected character, that is, a character that could not be recognized. If all the characters have been recognized, a confirmation is generated in the manner described above, and the confirmation is transmitted to the transmission source (step S).
6). On the other hand, when it is determined that there is a rejected character, it is determined in step S7 whether a certain correction notification condition is satisfied. If the condition for performing the correction notification is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S8, where a correction notification specifying which portion needs to be corrected is generated and transmitted to the transmission source by facsimile. The format is the same as that of the confirmation note shown in FIG. 4, and a correction request message is added as necessary.

Conventionally, when a reject character exists, a correction notice in step S8 is transmitted almost unconditionally. However, in the present invention, the following correction notification condition is set, and if the correction notification condition is not satisfied, the recognition result is transferred to the correction workstation 9 (step S9).

FIGS. 5 and 6 show explanatory diagrams of examples of correction notification conditions. The correction notification condition is set according to the type of company and the type of form as shown in these figures, for example. Here, the continuous transfer form is, as shown in FIG.
In this format, the name of the financial institution and branch of the transfer destination are entered in kanji, and the others are entered using numbers and kana. Although not shown, the registration-type transfer form is a form composed of substantially only numbers or simple symbols in which the registration number, amount, and other information of the recipient are represented only by numbers. The transfer destination registration form is a content in which numbers and kana are mixed, and the registration type continuous practice is a mode for an operator to practice a method of filling in a request form. The comprehensive transfer form has a description content obtained by combining the above forms.

Here, for the company B, for example, a comparison notification condition between the serial transfer form and the registration transfer form will be compared. The continuous form transfer form has a format that contains many characters such as kanji and kana that are not easily recognized. Therefore, the system automatically issues a correction notice and limits the number of times a correction request is made to "2". Therefore, after the correction notification is generated twice, the recognition result is transferred to the correction workstation without further performing the correction notification. When the number of rejected characters is large, it is often a problem in the performance of the character recognition device, or the character of the operator of the transmission source is originally difficult to judge by the character recognition device. Therefore, in this case, the recognition result is transferred to the workstation.

On the other hand, in the case of a registration-type transfer form having many numbers and simple symbols, character recognition is relatively simple and reliable.
Moreover, since there are many cases where the correction cannot be made even if the operator views the received image at the correction workstation, the number of automatic correction notifications by the system is set to be larger. That is, here, the correction notice is automatically generated up to four times, and retransmission of the request is requested to the transmission source.
If the number of rejected characters is 10 or more, it is determined that there is some special obstacle, and the recognition result is transferred to the correction workstation as it is. Therefore, in the case of less than that, the correction can be made by the automatic correction notification.

Returning to FIG. 1 again, when the request form is retransmitted by the correction notice (step S10), the main control unit 6 again requests the character recognition unit 7 for recognition (step S11). The character recognition device 7 performs a process of recognizing characters on the request form (step S12), and returns the recognition result to the main control device 6 (step S13). Here, similarly to step S5, it is determined whether or not there is a character rejection (step S14). If there is no rejected character, the process proceeds to step S15, and the confirmation is transmitted in the same manner as in step S6. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S14 that there is a rejected character, the process proceeds to step S16.
The correction conditions are checked again. Subsequent step S1
Steps S7 and S18 are the same as steps S8 and S9. Then, when the process proceeds to step S19 via step S9 or S18, the correction is performed by the operator at the correction workstation 9, and then a confirmation letter is generated.
At 20 the confirmation is sent to the sender. in this way,
The processing of the center for the first request transmission and subsequent retransmission of the request is the same, but the number of times of transmission of the correction notification is counted.

If the correction notification condition is set so that the number of retransmission cycles, such as the retransmission request and the retransmission of the request form by the transmission source, is not more than a certain value, the burden on the transmission source is sufficiently reduced. In the case where the number of rejected characters is very large, if this is immediately sent to a retransmission request, a heavy burden is imposed on the operator at the transmission source. Therefore, the operator of the correction workstation can find out the cause or the like and improve the service.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. The above-mentioned correction notification condition can be variously modified in addition to the above. For example, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the correction notification condition can be set separately for each company. Therefore, for a company such as the company A shown in FIG. 6 which should provide a special service different from other customers, the number of retransmissions and the limit on the number of rejected characters are set lower. This enables special services for specific companies. Further, depending on the type of the form, the number of rejected characters in a specific field can be focused on, the number of rejected characters and the number of correction notifications can be set as a correction notification condition, and the above processing can be performed. This is particularly suitable for a case where there is a lot of correction processing for characters described in the field, and a case where a request for the field must be sent to the sender for the field.

Further, for example, the above-described correction notification condition can be selected in consideration of the reception time of the center. That is, several types of correction notification conditions are determined, and for example, certain correction notification conditions are operated during normal daytime, and the conditions are further relaxed immediately before the end of business. Otherwise, when the correction notice is issued, the transmitting company ends the business soon, and a request such as a transfer may not be received on the day and the processing may be delayed. Therefore, such a criterion is changed as needed, selected, and transferred to a correction workstation that accepts a correction operation of the recognition processing result in advance as necessary. In other cases, a retransmission request is automatically issued. It is preferable to perform a process of performing such a process.

[0027]

According to the facsimile character recognition processing system of the present invention described above, the number of characters that cannot be recognized by the character recognition processing unit is counted, and when the number of characters is equal to or larger than the predetermined reference character number, the operation of correcting the recognition processing result is performed. To the correction workstation that accepts it , and the number of characters
When the number is smaller than the number, the retransmission request is made, so that the burden on the transmission source operator due to the retransmission request can be reduced while considering the burden on the operator on the center side. If the number of retransmission cycles consisting of the recognition process and the retransmission request is counted, and if the number of retransmission cycles exceeds a predetermined reference number, the retransmission cycle is transferred to the correction workstation. The burden on the operator can be reduced. The number of reference characters and the number of reference times are selected according to the type of form, the type of sender, and other conditions, and the optimum type of this type of processing is determined according to the type of characters described in the form, the degree of service to customers, etc. Becomes possible. In addition, by setting such criteria arbitrarily and making it freely changeable, there is an effect that a flexible service can be provided to a customer who has complicated circumstances.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system operation sequence chart of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the entire facsimile-based form processing system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a FAX transfer request form.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a confirmation note example.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram (part 1) of an example of a correction notification condition.

FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 2) illustrating an example of a correction notification condition.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Facsimile terminal 5 Facsimile control device 6 Printing control device 7 Character recognition device 9 Correction workstation

Continuation of front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/32 G06K 9/00

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A form received from the source fax
A character recognition unit for executing character recognition processing on image data, when the image data to the character recognition device contains characters that can not be recognized, and the retransmission request processing unit for transmitting a retransmission request to the facsimile, the facsimile character recognition Ru and a modified workstation for performing recognition processing result of the correction operation by displaying characters <br/> and recognized processing an image indicated by the image data
In the processing system, the retransmission request processing unit counts the number of characters the character recognition device can not be recognized, when this number is equal to or higher than a predetermined reference number, a work for the modified recognition results that contain the characters that can not be recognized Transfer to the station and the number of characters is less than the specified reference number of characters
And transmitting a retransmission request to said facsimile when said condition is satisfied . 2. A character recognizing device for performing a recognition process on a character on a form received by facsimile, and a request for resending the facsimile when the form includes a character that cannot be recognized by the character recognizing device. A resend request processing device for transmitting a retransmission request message, and a correction workstation for displaying an image of the form after the recognition process and the recognition process result and receiving a correction operation of the recognition process result, the resend request processing device comprising: When the number of retransmission cycles exceeds a predetermined reference number, a recognition result including an unrecognizable character is transferred to the correction workstation. And a facsimile character recognition processing system. 3. The facsimile character recognition processing system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined reference number of characters is arbitrarily set according to a form type or a transmission source type. 4. The facsimile character recognition processing system according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined reference number is arbitrarily set according to a form type or a transmission source type.