Patent ID: 9047533
Filing Date: 2015-06-02
Classification: G06F,G06K

Abstract:
1. A method for parsing a table, said method comprising: receiving an input containing the table; finding a set of candidate separators within the table, said set of candidate separators including at least one real separator which is indeed a true separator for the table when properly parsed and at least one spurious separator which is not a true separator for the table when properly parsed; and determining which candidate separators in the set thereof are real separators and which are spurious separators by optimizing an objective function over the set of found candidate separators, wherein said function measures numerically whether a parse produced by the set of real separators is accurate, said function including one or more terms that account for multiple aspects of the table including at least two of: quality of candidate separators; coherence of cells within the parse; quality of cells within the parse; coherence of entire rows within the parse; quality of entire rows within the parse; coherence of entire columns within the parse; quality of entire columns within the parse; layout consistency along an axis of the table; and repeatability along the axis of the table.