Patent ID: 8170371

Claim:
A method of pre-processing of a machine-readable form with non-fixed fields layout, the method comprising: acquiring a bit-mapped image of the machine-readable form filled in with print in one or more non-fixed data input fields; identifying at least one form model, the at least one form model containing spatial and parametric properties of objects thereof; preliminarily assigning at least one object of the form as a reference point for spatial binding of at least one non-fixed data input field thereof; eliminating any skew, distortion and noise in the bit-mapped image; parsing the bit-mapped image into regions; and defining a spatial location of at least one non-fixed data input field relative to at least one reference point, wherein said defining the location of the at least one non-fixed data input field comprises: selecting a non-fixed data input field to search in the at least one form model; accepting from the at least one form model at least one reference point property for a spatial relative reference of the said data input field; searching and locating said at least one reference point on the form bit-mapped image; searching and locating the said data input field on the form bit-mapped image relative to at least one reference point taking into account all spatial and parametrical properties described in the form model; and identifying each data input field position in the case of multiple data input fields.