Patent ID: 6563949
Filing Date: 2003-05-13
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
A character extraction apparatus for extracting a character string from an image, comprising:a connected element extraction unit extracting connected elements containing serial picture elements of a same color based on a color of the picture elements of an input image; a grouping unit dividing the connected elements into groups probably having same character strings or same character string groups based on relative positions of the connected elements and a thickness of the connected elements; a character recognition unit performing a character recognizing process on each group, and defining a character recognition level of a group based on a distance value of a first character candidate of each character; a combination evaluation unit defining, as a group evaluation value, a value obtained by weighting the character recognition level of the group by an area of a rectangular area occupied by the group, and defining, as a combination evaluation value, a sum of the group evaluation values of all combinations of groups; and a character string extraction unit extracting as a character string a combination of groups having a highest combination evaluation value.