PURPOSE: To read a character string, which contains different kind of characters whose forms are similar, with high precision by previously inputting information on whether two character strings are adjacent to each other or not through a form, and then counting the frequencies of those two character strings during reading operation.
CONSTITUTION: Information on whether two character strings are adjacent to each other or not is inputted previously through a form, and during reading operation, the frequencies of those two character strings are counted to select a possible character for an input character. For example, the form is scanned through a scanning part 20 under the command of a control part 10, and the picture signal of the input character obtained by photoelectric conversion is transferred to a recognition part 30 to perform recognition processing, thereby sending the code of the candidate character for the input character to the control part 10. Then when the input form has underfined front and back relation, the readout result is written in a front and back relation table storage part 60 through an interpretation part 50 for the form having underfined front and back relation. When the input document is a form to be read, the candidate character is sent to a decision part 70, whose decision result is sent out through an output line 72; and a character string frequency counting part 80 counts the frequencies of those two character strings.
TADA SHIYUNKICHI
YAMADA YASUHIRO
KOMORI KAZUAKI
