Apparatus for entering sorting information

Abstract: An apparatus for entering sorting information, comprises a plurality of sorting devices, a plurality of terminal device for entering sorting data and a sorting-data distributing device. Each of the plurality of sorting devices photo-electrically recognizes sorting information of an image marked on a document and sorts the document using the recognized sorting information as sorting data and supplies unrecognizable sorting data to the distributing device therefrom. Each of the plurality of terminal device displays received unrecognized sorting data so that an operator may recognize the sorting information corresponding to the displayed unrecognized sorting data and enters the sorting information recognized by the operator, as a recognized sorting data, into the terminal device of concern. The recognized sorting data is supplied to the distributing device. The distributing device is connected between the plurality of sorting device and the plurality of terminal device to receive and transfer the unrecognized sorting data to one of the plurality of the terminal device and also to receive the recognized sorting data supplied from the terminal device of concern and transfer the recognized sorting data to the sorting device which has supplied the unrecognized sorting data corresponding to the recognized sorting data. The distributing device includes a control unit, a plurality of input sections individually connected to the plurality of sorting devices, and a plurality of output sections individually connected to the plurality of terminal devices.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention: The present invention relates to an apparatus for entering sorting information, and more particularly to an apparatus for distributing unrecognizable sorting data to a plurality of devices for entering sorting information. 2. Description of the Related Art: Sorting information concerned in the present invention is the information or image data for machine sorting or classification of mails, securities and so forth. Sorting data is sometimes not written, erroneously written, or unclearly written particularly in mails. It is a common practice that such a faulty sorting data is manually rewritten using a device for entering sorting information. A conventional apparatus for entering sorting image or sorting information will be briefly explained below. Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating such a conventional apparatus for entering sorting information for mail. The apparatus shown in Fig. 1 includes mail sorting device 11, a distributing device for mail sorting data 12 and a plurality of terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N (N = 1, 2, 3, ...) for entering mail sorting data. The mail sorting device 11 optoelectronically reads sorting data such as zip codes or address codes of supplied mails and sorts the sorting data. Unrecognizable sorting data which cannot be recognized by the mail sorting device 11 are recognized by an operator, who enters his recognized sorting data into the terminal devices 13 1 ... 13 N . The distributing device 12 is provided with general control unit 15 and output sections 17 1 to 17 N connected to terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N , respectively. General control unit 15 controls output section 17 1 to 17 N . Each of output sections 17 1 to 17 N sends sorting data (image data) supplied from mail sorting device 11 to a corresponding one of terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N . Terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N receive unrecognized sorting data, rewrite the unrecognized sorting data to the operator's recognized sorting data and send the rewritten sorting data to general control unit 15, which sends in turn the sorting data to mail sorting device 11. The conventional apparatus for entering sorting information may include a plurality of mail sorting devices, for example 11 and 11'. In this case, distributing devices 12 and 12' are connected to the plurality of mail sorting devices 11 and 11', respectively, and a plurality of (N) terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N and another plurality of (N') terminal devices 13' 1 to 13' N ' are connected to the plurality of distributing devices 12 and 12'. It is to be noted that, to mail sorting devices 11, 11', individual sets of distributing devices 12 and terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N and of distributing devices 12' and terminal devices 13' 1 to 13' N ' are connected. As a concrete example of the prior art, an invention of a sorting-information entering apparatus for mail is described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 71877/86 (inventors Tamata et al.). The coding device which characterizes the invention of Tamata et al. includes a supply section (corresponding to mail sorting device 11 of Fig. 1) and a coding desk (corresponding to mail sorting-data distributing device 12 and mail terminal device for entering sorting data 13 1 to 13 N shown in Fig. 1). The apparatus of Tamata et al. optically converts density data in a sorting image of a letter or the like, recognizes sorting data, and sorts the mail. In case that the sorting data is unrecognizable, i.e., the sorting image is faulty, the sorting data is supplied to the supply section. The coding desk supplied with unrecognizable image data from the supply section displays the faulty image data on an image display unit or the like so that an operator may recognize the sorting information. The operator enters his recognized image data, i.e., correct sorting information, into the coding desk. In the apparatus for entering sorting information described above, a plurality of coding desks is connected to a single supply section. When an optically unreadable zip code is supplied to the supply section, sorting information is manually entered using the plurality of the coding desks provided in the apparatus for entering sorting information. The first problem encountered in the prior art apparatus shown in Fig. 1 is that, when a mail sorting device 11 is added, the number of associated devices and the installation area of the entire apparatus are significantly increased. This problem originates from the fact that a set of distributing devices 12 and a plurality of terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N are required for every mail sorting devicell. Accordingly, if mail-sorting devices 11 are added, then distributing devices12 as well as terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N must be additionally provided in proportion to the number of mail-sorting devices 11. A second problem encountered is that, where a plurality of mail-sorting devices 11, 11' are operating, unevenness in load is likely to take place among the pluralities of terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N and 13' 1 to 13' N' . For example, if the load on a certain one of mail-sorting devices 11 happens to increase, the loads on terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N connected to the mail-sorting device 11 increase. If the load on another of the mail-sorting devices 11' happens to decrease on the contrary, the loads on terminal devices 13' 1 to 13' N' connected thereto decrease. Similar argument holds true in the case of the Tamata et al. apparatus. The reason for this occurrence of uneven loads is in that, since each set of terminal devices 13 1 to 13 N is connected exclusively to one mail sorting device, the load on each set of the terminal devices depends upon the load on the mail sorting device. To resolve the above-described problems, an apparatus for entering sorting information may be provided which is operable to distribute even loads on terminal devices when unrecognizable sorting data supplied from a plurality of mail-sorting devices are distributed to a plurality of terminal devices. Such an apparatus for entering sorting-information comprises: a plurality of sorting devices each for photo-electrically recognizing sorting information of an image marked on a document and sorting the document using the recognized sorting information as sorting data and supplying unrecognizable sorting information as unrecognized sorting data therefrom; a plurality of terminal devices for entering sorting data each for displaying received unrecognized sorting data so that an operator may recognize the sorting information corresponding to the displayed unrecognized sorting data and for entering the sorting information recognized by the operator, as recognized sorting data, into the terminal device for entering sorting data of concern and transmitting the recognized sorting data therefrom; and a sorting-data distributing device, connected between the plurality of sorting devices and the plurality of terminal devices for entering sorting data, to receive and transfer the unrecognized sorting data to one of the plurality of the terminal device for entering sorting data, and also to receive the recognized sorting data transmitted from said terminal device for entering sorting data of concern and transfer these data to the sorting device which has supplied the unrecognized sorting data corresponding to the recognized sorting data. The sorting-data distributing device includes a control unit, a plurality of input sections individually connected to the plurality of sorting devices, and a plurality of output sections individually connected to the plurality of terminal devices for entering sorting data. The control unit controls the input sections to receive the unrecognized sorting data, selects an output section to receive the unrecognized sorting data from the input section, and controls the selected output section to transfer the unrecognized sorting data to the connected terminal device for entering sorting data. Such an apparatus is e.g., disclosed in EP-A1-0 148 783. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to provide a way for selecting an output section, the control unit selects, according to the invention, as an output section to receive the unrecognized sorting data, the output section connected to the terminal device having the lowest load, and controls the selected output section to send the unrecognized sorting data to the terminal device connected thereto. When a plurality of said unrecognized sorting data are supplied at the same time from a plurality of said sorting devices, unrecognized sorting data (referred to as second data) other than an unrecognized sorting data arbitrarily selected by said control unit (referred to as a first data) are temporary stored in the input sections individually connected to the sorting devices which have supplied the second data. The first data is first sent to a lowest-loaded terminal device under the control of the control unit, and thereafter other unrecognized sorting data, the second data, are sent one by one to the terminal devices in an increasing order of the load levels. When the recognized sorting data is sent from the terminal device to the sorting device, the data is preferably transmitted via the control unit. In order to ensure parallel operations between supplying of unrecognized sorting data from sorting devices to terminal devices and sending of recognized sorting data from terminal devices to sorting devices, the going signal paths of the unrecognized sorting data from the sorting devices to the terminal devices are constructed separately from the returning signal paths of the recognized sorting data from the terminal devices to the sorting devices. Since all the sorting device are connected to the single sorting-data distributing device in this manner, the sorting information unrecognized by the plurality of sorting devices can be sent to the single sorting-data distributing device. Furthermore, since the single sorting-data distributing device is connected to all of the terminal devices, unrecognized sorting data in the sorting-data distributing device can be transferred to a desired one of the terminal devices. In other words, since the sorting-data distributing device is connected between all of the sorting devices and all of the terminal devices, unrecognized sorting data can be sent from any sorting device to a desired one of the terminal devices. Further, since the sorting-data distributing device includes the general control unit capable of controlling signal paths of the recognizable sorting data from all of the terminal devices to any desired sorting device, recognizable sorting data supplied from any of the terminal devices can be sent to any of the sorting devices via the general control unit of the sorting-data distributing device. The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description based on the accompanying drawing which illustrate an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for entering sorting information of prior art; and Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of an apparatus for entering sorting-information according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of an apparatus for entering sorting-information according to the present invention. The figure shows an arrangement including M sorting devices 21 1, 21 2, ... 21 M and N terminal devices for entering sorting data 23 1, 23 2 ,... 23 N . Referring to Fig. 2, the apparatus for entering sorting-information includes sorting device 21 1 to 21 M , sorting-data distributing device 22, and terminal devices for entering sorting-data 23 1 to 23 N . Sorting-data distributing device 22 includes general control unit 25, input sections 26 1 to 26 M corresponding to sorting device 21 1 to 21 M , respectively, and output sections 27 1 to 27 N corresponding to terminal devices for entering sorting-data 23 1 to 23 N , respectively. Sorting devices 21 1 to 21 M perform photoelectric conversion of characters, figures, photographs and so forth marked on documents such as mails or securities supplied thereto. Sorting devices 21 1 to 21 M then electronically recognize image information from the result of the photoelectric conversion and sort the documents using the recognized image information as sorting information. When image information is unrecognizable, the image data is sent to sorting-data distributing device 22. Sorting-data distributing device 22 receives, at input sections 26 1 to 26 M thereof, unrecognized image data (unrecognized sorting data) from sorting device 21 1 to 21 M and distributes the image data to output sections 27 1 to 27 N in order to supply the image data to terminal devices for entering sorting-data 23 1 to 23 N . In this event, one of output sections 27 1 to 27 N is selected under control of general control unit 25. The control is executed so that the one of output sections 27 1 to 27 N connected to the terminal device 23 L with the lowest load is selected. In this way, the unrecognized image data is destined for the terminal device 23 L with the lowest load. When a plurality of sorting devices among the sorting devices 21 1 to 21 M simultaneously provide unrecognized image data as outputs, the order in which the input sections supply the image data to the output sections is selected under the control of general control unit 25. Each of terminal devices for entering sorting-data 23 1. . .. 23 N has an image display unit or the like (not shown) and displays an image data supplied from sorting-data distributing device 22. Recognition (an operation to identify sorting information from a faulty sorting image) is manually performed, and the recognized sorting data is entered into the terminal device. The sorting information, i.e., the recognized sorting data, manually entered into one of terminal devices 23 1 to 23 N is fed back via general control unit 25 to the sorting device 21 k which has originally supplied the unrecognizable sorting data (a faulty image data) to sorting-data distributing device 22. The document marked with the unrecognizable sorting data is sorted based on the fed-back recognized sorting data in the sorting device 21 k . Operation of the sorting-information entering apparatus shown in Fig. 2 will be described below. Referring to Fig. 2, documents are supplied to sorting devices 21 1 ... 21 M , by which sorting image information is electronically recognized and sorted. Then, only image information which is unrecognizable by the sorting device 21 1 ... 21 M is supplied to sorting-data distributing device 22. For simplicity, we assume that unrecognizable sorting data is supplied from sorting device 21 1 to sorting-data distributing device 22. In this case, general control unit 25 selects the one of terminal devices 23 1 ... 23 N which has the lowest load, for example, terminal device 23 1 , and controls output section 27 1 connected to terminal device 23 1 to open. Next, general control unit 25 controls input section 26 1 connected to sorting device 21 1 to open. Consequently, the image data which is unrecognizable at sorting device 21 1 can be sent via input section 26 1 and output section 27 1 to terminal device 23 1 with the lowest load. Terminal device 23 1 displays the image data, unrecognized by sorting device 21 1, on an image display unit or the like so that an operator may recognize the sorting information. The operator enters the recognized sorting data into the terminal device 23 1 which in turn sends the entered sorting data to sorting-data distributing device 22 (to general control unit 25). Sorting-data distributing device 22 feeds back the recognized sorting data supplied from terminal device 23 1 to sorting device 21 1 via general control unit 25. The fed-back sorting data corresponds to the unrecognized sorting image data originally supplied from sorting device 21 1 to sorting-data distributing device 22. Sorting device 21 1 sorts the document, which is marked with the unrecognizable sorting image data, in accordance with the recognized sorting data of concern. Next, further explanation on operation of the sorting-information entering apparatus will be given with reference to Fig. 2 for the case that unrecognizable sorting image data are supplied simultaneously from a plurality of sorting devices to sorting-data distributing device 22. For simplicity, it is assumed that sorting devices 21 1 and 21 2 supply first and second unrecognized sorting data, respectively, to sorting-data distributing device 22. In this case, sorting-data distributing device 22 first selects the terminal device with the lowest load, say 23 2 , from terminal devices 23 1 to 23 N on operation, regardless of which data is treated first. Sorting-data distributing device 22 next opens output section 27 2 connected to the lowest-loaded terminal device 23 2 under the control of general control unit 25. At this stage of operation, the second unrecognized sorting data supplied from sorting device 21 2 is temporary stored in input section 26 2 connected to sorting device 21 2, and transfer of the sorting data to an output section 27 1 , ... or 27 N is deferred. This deferment of the second image data ensures the first unrecognized sorting data to be first treated. Input section 26 1 connected to sorting device 21 1 is next opened under the control of general control unit 25, allowing unrecognized sorting data to be sent to the lowest-loaded terminal device 23 2 via input section 26 1 and output section 27 2 . Thereafter, sorting-data distributing device 22 closes both input section 26 1 connected to sorting device 21 1 and output section 27 2 connected to terminal device 23 2 under the control of general control unit 25. Next, terminal device with the next lowest load, for example, terminal device 23 3 , is selected and output section 27 3 connected to terminal device 23 3 is opened, both under the control of general control unit 25. Then, input section 26 2 connected to sorting device 21 2 is controlled to opened, allowing the second unrecognized sorting data which has been stored in input section 26 2 to be sent to next lowest-loaded terminal device 23 3 via output section 27 3 . Terminal devices 23 2 and 23 3 display the unrecognized sorting data on the image display units or the like so that an operator may recognize the sorting information. The operator enters his recognized sorting data into the terminal device from the keyboard. An operator's strike of the Enter key which indicates a finish of input of the sorting data causes the sorting data to be transmitted to sorting-data distributing device 22. Sorting-data distributing device 22 classifies the received sorting data depending on the terminal device which has supplied the sorting data. Sorting-data distributing device 22 sends the sorting data received from terminal devices23 2 and 23 3 to sorting device 21 1 and 21 2 , respectively, via general control unit 25, wherein sorting devices 21 1 and 21 2 are those sorting devices that have supplied the unrecognized sorting image data to terminal devices23 2 and 23 3 , respectively. Sorting device 21 1 and sorting device 21 2 sort the documents in accordance with the sorting data supplied from sorting-data distributing device 22 . In one aspect, the image-information entering system of the present invention is like a client-server system in that sorting devices 21 1 ... 21 M, as client, request sorting data distributing device 22 and terminal devices 23 1 ... 23 N , as server, to supply recognized sorting data. However, the constitution of the system according to the present invention basically differs from an ordinary client-server system as described below: Sorting-data distributing device 22 of the present invention is provided with the signal lines which transmit image signals from the sorting devices 21 1 ... 21 M (represented by solid lines in Fig.2) and the signal lines which transmit sorting-information signals to the sorting devices 21 1 ... 21 M (represented by alternate long and short dash lines), separately. Sorting-data distributing device 22 is also provided with the signal lines which transmit image signals to terminal devices 23 1 ... 23 N (indicated by solid lines) and signal lines which transmit sorting image signals from terminal devices 23 1 ... 23 N (indicated by alternate long and short dash lines), separately. In other words, sorting-data distributing device 22 has input-signal lines and output-signal lines separately to communicate with sorting devices 21 1 ... 21 M as well as terminal devices 23 1 ... 23 N . This allows sorting-data distributing device 22 to effect transmission and reception of signals at the same time. Further, the plurality of input sections 26 1 ... 26 M which receive image signals from sorting device 21 1 ... 21 M are independent of each other so that parallel operations can be effected. In addition, the plurality of output sections 27 1 ... 27 N which supply image signals to terminal devices 23 1 ... 23 N are also independent of each other. This enables parallel operations to be effected. Furthermore, input sections 26 1 ... 26 M and output sections 27 1 ... 27 N are independent of each other and can effect parallel operations under the control of general control unit 25. Unlike ordinary servers since all of the input sections and output sections of sorting-data distributing device 22 can effect parallel operations independently of each other as described above, the sorting-information entering apparatus can achieve high speed processing. The present invention is summarized as described below. The constitution of the apparatus for entering the sorting-information is characterized by a single sorting-data distributing device interposed between a plurality of the sorting devices and a plurality of the terminal devices for entering sorting data. By this constitution, each of the sorting devices and each of the terminal devices can be incorporated into the structure of the sorting apparatus for entering the sorting-information as a device independent of each other. As a result, even when the number of the sorting devices increases, an increase in the number of the terminal devices for entering sorting data can be held to a minimum. The constitution of the sorting-information entering apparatus further offers an advantage of easy addition or deletion of the sorting device and terminal devices, thereby allowing optimization of the system readily to be achieved. Since all image information data which cannot be recognized by the sorting devices are managed by a single sorting-data distributing device and since the unrecognized sorting data can be sent from the single sorting-data distributing device preferentially to one of the terminal devices with a low load, any one of the sorting devices can communicate adaptively with any terminal devices. Accordingly, even where the amounts of unrecognizable sorting data are uneven in the sorting devices, causing a load of a certain sorting device to be differing from other devices, it is possible to have loads of the terminal devices even.

Claims: An apparatus for entering sorting information, provided with a plurality of sorting devices each for photo-electrically recognizing sorting information of an image marked on a document and sorting the document using the recognized sorting information as sorting data and supplying unrecognizable sorting information as unrecognized sorting data therefrom, and a plurality of terminal devices for entering sorting data, each for displaying received unrecognized sorting data so that an operator may recognize the sorting information corresponding to the displayed unrecognized sorting data and for entering the sorting information recognized by the operator, as a recognized sorting data, into the terminal device for entering sorting data of concern and transmitting the recognized sorting data therefrom, wherein a sorting-data distributing device (22) is connected between said plurality of sorting devices (21) and said plurality of terminal devices for entering sorting data (23) to receive and transfer said unrecognized sorting data to one of said plurality of the terminal devices for entering sorting data (23) and also to receive said recognized sorting data transmitted from said terminal device for entering sorting data of concern and transfer the recognized sorting data to the sorting device (21) which has supplied the unrecognized sorting data corresponding to the recognized sorting data, said sorting-data distributing device (22) including a control unit (25), a plurality of input sections (26) individually connected to said plurality of sorting devices (21), and a plurality of output sections (27) individually connected to said plurality of terminal devices for entering sorting data (23), said control unit (25) controlling said input sections (26) to receive said unrecognized sorting data, selecting an output section (27) to receive said unrecognized sorting data from said input section (26), and controlling the selected output section to transfer the unrecognized sorting data to the connected terminal device for entering sorting data; characterized by said control unit (25) selecting, as said output section (27) to receive said unrecognized sorting data, the output section (27) connected to the terminal device for entering sorting data having the lowest load, and controlling the selected output section to send the unrecognized sorting data to the terminal device for entering sorting data connected thereto. A sorting-information entering apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when a plurality of said unrecognized sorting data are supplied at the same time from a plurality of said sorting devices, unrecognized sorting data other than an unrecognized sorting data arbitrarily selected by said control unit are temporary stored in the input sections individually connected to the sorting devices which have supplied the unrecognized sorting data other than the arbitrary selected unrecognized sorting data, and the arbitrary selected unrecognized sorting data is first sent to the lowest-loaded terminal device for entering sorting data under the control of said control unit, and thereafter other unrecognized sorting data are sent one by one to said terminal devices for entering sorting data in order from the lowest load level. An apparatus for entering sorting information according to claim 1, wherein, when said recognized sorting data is sent from said terminal device for entering sorting data to said sorting device, the data is transmitted via said control unit. An apparatus for entering sorting information according to claim 1, wherein signal paths of said unrecognized sorting data from said sorting devices to said terminal devices for entering sorting data are constructed separately from signal paths of said recognized sorting data from said terminal devices for entering sorting data to said sorting devices.

Inventors: FUKUMOTO TOKIHIKO, ISHIKURA TADASHI, KONDOU TAKAHIKO, FUKUMOTO, TOKIHIKO, ISHIKURA, TADASHI, KONDOU, TAKAHIKO
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1997
Main classification: B07C3
IPC codes: G06K13, B07C3