Patent ID: 7614553

Claim:
A method for reading a sheet having one or more regions of choices and a plurality of mark spaces thereon in which one or more selections may be marked for each of one or more choices, each mark space being a space defined for marking a selection therein, the method comprising: imaging the sheet having one or more choice regions and a plurality of mark spaces thereon wherein the image of the sheet includes all of the mark spaces for the choice regions thereon and is in a pixelated or bitmapped format including a plurality of pixels; defining for each sheet the one or more choice regions each containing a plurality of reading regions each including one mark space; processing the image of the sheet for decoding from the image of the sheet the defined one or more choice regions and for decoding from the image of the sheet the plurality of reading regions including the one mark space thereof; and for each decoded choice region: counting at least the number of dark pixels for each reading region; determining from the counts of the dark pixels for each reading region whether the mark space therein is unmarked or is marked as a selection; and counting each determined marked selection.