Hitachi, Ltd.

Yoh Ueda

Hiromichi Fujisawa

Shigeru Watanabe

Masashi Koga

Tatsuhiko Kagehiro

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.

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. In the invention 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 of the address area candidates extracted from the image is selected as a receiver address of the mail by analyzing each of the address area candidates 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 which is used to sort the mail.

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Kokubunji, Japan

Yoh Ueda