Patent ID: 7110568

Claim:
A method of processing a digital image (IP) of a postal object in order to read automatically a postal address (AP) on said object by applying an automatic address-recognition algorithm to said image, wherein the method comprises the steps of: subdividing ( 20 ) the image into image blocks of identical size; which size is chosen in order to have blocks containing at least a plurality of characters of a word from said postal address (IP); applying ( 30 ) processing based on a Hough transform to each image block in order to identify in the image block in question a privileged direction for the distribution image points in the block under consideration; grouping together ( 40 ) contiguous image blocks within the image having a common privileged direction in order to define ( 50 ) a rectangular zone of interest (ZI) containing the group of said contiguous blocks having a common privileged direction in such a manner that said rectangular zone of interest has a longitudinal edge parallel to said common privileged direction; and applying the automatic address-recognition algorithm to said zone of interest in the image in order to read a postal address automatically.