Patent ID: 7046847

Claim:
A document processing method for extracting a text block from a document in a document processing system, wherein characters are laid out using blank characters, tabs or any other spaces, comprising the steps of: generating an object including characters, marks, blank characters and other symbols from the document; generating a connection candidate between the objects; and evaluating validity of connection of the connection candidate using a language model; wherein the step of generating an object comprises: acquiring a symbol at every spatial coordinate, and associating it with the coordinate in the document; determining a type of the symbol in a line of the document and generating a token composed of one or consecutive letters, symbols or other characters or a space composed of one or consecutive blank characters; determining an adjacency relation of the space in the vertical direction and generating a stream composed of spaces that extend over a plurality of lines; and determining a positional relation between the token and the stream and generating an initial text block that includes the token and blank characters.