Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Kraus, LLP
Address reader, sorting machine such as a mail thing and character string recognition method
An address reader method and apparatus for recognizing a receiver address on a surface of mail. An image of the surface of the mail is input and segmented into at least one character string candidate. At least one address area candidate is extracted from the image based upon the segmented character string candidate. One address area candidate extracted from the image is selected as a receiver address by analyzing each address area candidate based on predetermined position information indicating a usual position of a receiver address area, character direction information indicating a character direction of a character string appropriate for the predetermined position information, and key character string information indicating a character string most likely to exist in a receiver address. Characters in character strings of the selected address area candidate are recognized as a receiver address.
Hitachi, Ltd.
G Y
G06V Y10S
inventional additional
Tatsuhiko Shigeru Yoh Masashi Hiromichi
Kagehiro Watanabe Ueda Koga Fujisawa