1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sheet processing apparatus and method for recognizing OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) sheets having fixed formats and an information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been available an information processing apparatus capable of transmitting data to a specified circulation place by inputting a document circulation sheet provided with data, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 06-284144. In this document circulation sheet, there is an area for specifying a circulation destination and the sheet processing apparatus in the information processing apparatus recognizes information on circulation destinations handwritten in this area by an operator and determines a place to which data is to be sent.
Processing of an image recorded in the sheet by recognizing the same in such a manner enables the operator to perform an operation very easily only by handwriting a content to be processed in the sheet and inputting this to the sheet processing apparatus without needing to perform other complex operations with an operation panel on the sheet processing apparatus. The sheet can also be input via facsimile equipment and thus this may be applied to various fields.
However, it has been impossible to use sheets edited, for instance by synthesizing or reducing two sheets in one for saving paper or conversely expanding sheets so as to enable inputting of large characters. This was mainly due to the assumption that an area to be recognized in the sheet was in a fixed position when the sheet should be recognized.
In the case of unrecorded sheets with nothing handwritten therein, data would be made by copying this using a copying machine. However, repeated copying of this brought about reduction in the sheet quality and lowering of a recognition rate. When there were no unrecorded sheets any more, it was necessary for the operator to erase the handwritten portions by an eraser or correction liquid.
Therefore, for the conventional information processing apparatus, a problem lies in the fact that it is impossible to use sheets edited, for instance by synthesizing or reducing two sheets in one for saving paper or conversely expanding sheets so as to enable inputting of large characters.
Another problems lies in the fact that in the case of unrecorded sheets with nothing handwritten therein, though data is made by copying this using a copying machine, repeated copying reduces the quality of the sheets and lowers a recognition rate.
It is a primary object of the invention to provide a sheet processing apparatus, a sheet processing method and an information processing apparatus capable of processing sheets even having fixed formats and edited, for instance by means of synthesizing, expanding/reducing or rotating.
It is a secondary object of the invention to provide a sheet processing apparatus, a sheet processing method and an information processing apparatus capable of always providing clean unrecorded sheets with high image quality and preventing lowering of a recognition rate.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a sheet processing apparatus includes inputting means for inputting image data of an original having a fixed format; storing means for storing the image data of the original input by the inputting means; detecting means for detecting that the format of the original image is edited; converting means for converting an edited format of the original image stored by the storing means to the fixed format when the detecting means detects that the format of the original image is edited; and recognizing means for recognizing information contained in the original image with its format converted by the converting means.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an information processing apparatus includes inputting means for inputting image information; recognizing means for recognizing a condition on character information contained in the image information and recognizing the character information according to the condition; converting means for converting the image information inputted by the inputting means into image information satisfying the condition before the recognizing means recognizes the character information; discriminating means for discriminating format information of the image information converted by the converting means; and supplying means for supplying the image information converted by the converting means to the recognizing means with the format information.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, an information processing apparatus includes recognizing means for recognizing character information contained in image information having a predetermined format; first converting means for converting the image information into image information having a size recognizable by the recognizing means; second converting means for converting the image information, converted by the first converting means, into image information having the direction recognizable by the recognizing means; first discriminating means for discriminating a format of the image information according to the image information converted by the first converting means; second discriminating means for discriminating a format of the image information according to the image information converted by the second converting means when the format of the image information is not discriminated by the first discriminating means; and means for supplying the image information to the recognizing means when one of the first and second discriminating means discriminates that the format of the image information corresponds to the predetermined format.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, an information processing apparatus for processing image information based on a specified information processing condition, comprising: inputting means for inputting image information; recognizing means for recognizing character information from the image information inputted by the inputting means based on a predetermined recognizing condition; converting means for converting the image information inputted by the inputting means into an image information satisfying the predetermined recognizing condition of the recognizing means; supplying means for supplying the converted image information to the recognizing means; and processing means for processing the image information inputted by the inputting means based on the character information recognized from the image information supplied by the supplying means by the recognizing means.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a sheet processing apparatus including input means for inputting a sheet image of a sheet original; storing means for storing the sheet image input by the inputting means; sheet correcting and separating means for converting, when a sheet image is an edited image, the sheet image stored by the storing means to an original state before editing; recognizing means for recognizing a character of the sheet image converted to the original state before editing by the sheet correcting and separating means or that of a nonedited sheet image stored in the storing means; and processing means for performing processing according to a recognized result of the recognizing means.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.