Nec Corporation

Nippon Electric Co., Ltd.

Sony Corporation

Sony Mobile Communications Inc.

Snaptrack Incorporated

Tetsuo Umeda

Hiroyuki Matsumoto

Takahiro Sato

Akihiro Bungo

Yasuo Nishijima

Kazunari Egami

Shigenobu Kasuya

Naoto Tsukakoshi

Yoshihiro Matsuda

Tetsuo Miura

Kazumi Nakano

Go Sakamoto

Tatsuhiro Kodama

Yoshitaka Onuma

Fumihiko Sugiura

Kazuki Nagashima

There is provided a system for more efficiently transporting transport objects using a moving object. An information processing apparatus () that generates a movement instruction for a moving object that carries a transport object includes a first acquisition unit () configured to acquire information about the transport object for each space, a second acquisition unit () configured to acquire information representing a tendency of whether the moving object moves in accordance with the movement instruction, and a generation unit () configured to generate the movement instruction for the moving object on the basis of the information about the transport object and the information representing the tendency.

Information processing apparatus and information processing method

A video image of a region including characters recorded on a document is converted into electric signals. From the electric signals unit signals corresponding to subregions obtained by dividing the region is picked up. Horizontal, vertical and slanted stroke components included in each of the subregions are detected from the unit signals. The detected numbers of the horizontal, vertical and slanted stroke components are counted. The ratio of the counted numbers of the slanted stroke component to the total of the horizontal, vertical and slanted stroke components is calculated. The characters on the document is judged as handwritten ones and machine-printed ones if the ratio is above and not above a predetermined threshold, respectively. The threshold is preferably set at 0.2.

Discriminator between handwritten and machine-printed characters

An optimal image-quality selection apparatus calculates a ratio of the number of graphic blocks having a predetermined size to the number of all graphic blocks of an image having two or more depth levels of color and selects an image having a largest one of the ratios as an image of optimal quality.

Optimal image-quality selection apparatus

An optical character reader distinguishes between black and white image signals by comparing a center reader with readings from surrounding areas. Variations on the surface of a paper bearing the image can add or subtract values so that the comparison may be in error. The invention overcomes the problem by using logic circuits to add, subtract and compare signals out of a mask in order to improve the accuracy of the comparison between the center reading and the readings from the surrounding areas.

Binary signal producing apparatus for optical character recognition

A word recognization system compares an input word with words stored in a dictionary memory. The comparison is made on a basis of the number of letters in the input word in combination with the first few letters in the word. The first level of selection is made on a basis of the number of letters in the input word. The memory locations of words are chain linked on a basis of the letters at the head of the word so that a reading of one memory location automatically leads to the reading of another memory location responsive to a comparison of the first few letters.

Word recognition processing time reduction system using word length and

The disclosure describes a character recognition apparatus comprising a scanner for optically scanning a prescribed area and outputting a scanned signal, a binary processing circuit for receiving the scanned signal and producing a plurality of binary signals, a counting mechanism for counting black meshes in the scanned area, a counting mechanism for counting insulated meshes, a mechanism for calculating the ratio of the number of black meshes and the number of insulated meshes, and a mechanism for selecting one optimum binary signal from the plurality of binary signals on the basis of a comparison of the ratios.

Optical character recognition apparatus

A detector for use in a mail sorter is positioned along a path over which articles (letters, postcards, etc.) travel while in an upright position. A problem with such paths is that sometimes articles are overlapped, and sometimes small articles are hidden behind large articles. The invention detects such overlaps by (1) detecting height changes of any single article which trips a detector only once, and (2) forcibly displacing one article relative to the other of two overlapped articles. The change of length resulting from the forced displacement is detected.

Overlapped-transfer detecting apparatus for mail article

A character recognition circuit slices the character signal received from an optical scanner and counts a number of black bits at multiple levels. The number of black bits are normalized in accordance with the character row length. A pair of level judging circuits responds to the normalized black bits at the respective multiple levels to derive slicing levels for both the character and the background. Responsive thereto a binary signal is produced in accordance with the slice level. Thus, the differences in the background signals do not have an effect upon the recognization of the character signals.

Binary character signal producing apparatus

A character segmenting apparatus has an optical scanner for scanning the surface of an article of mail. The scan is in a direction which is substantially perpendicular to the direction of the relative movement between the optical scanner and the mail article. The scan generates a pattern signal which is then recurrsively compressed and updated in the width of a black picture element contained in the pattern signal. A character segmenting signal is produced when no black picture element exists in a portion of the pattern signal, delivered from the optical scanner, which corresponds to the black picture element contained in the compressed pattern signal. Size and position information of a whole segmented character is developed in response to the character segmenting signal.

Character segmenting apparatus for optical character recognition

A postal code distinguishing apparatus extracts characters from an address code appearing on a mail article, forms words from the extracted characters, stores in a memory a set of key words (i.e., 'ATTN', 'TEL', 'P.O. BOS', etc.) which indicate that a numeric code on the same line is not a postal code, compares the key words with the extracted words, and sorts the mail articles accordingly. In this manner, the various lines of the address code are 'eliminated' such that the numeric code on the remaining line is automatically read out as the postal code.

Postal code distinguishing apparatus

A binary pattern signal producing apparatus for optical character recognition comprises a pre-scanning section for determining an area containing the information to be scanned, a scanning apparatus for producing a signal in accordance with the luminance of the scanning area, an automatic gain control circuit for controlling the level of the information signal in accordance with the level of a portion of the same information signal representing less than the entire scanned area, and a comparison circuit responsive to the output of the automatic gain control circuit for generating the binary pattern signal. In addition to or in place of a gate circuit which is used to provide only a portion of the information signal to the gain control terminal of the automatic gain control device, the apparatus may include noise eliminating circuitry for removing pulsive noise from the gain control signal.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tetsuo Umeda