US5335292A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Document processing system and method
Assignee: Bantec Inc
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Filing: 1991-02-06
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Granted: 1994-08-02
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Expires: 2011-02-06
Abstract
Abstract A document processing system for processing documents having data printed thereon including markings visible to the eye, but which are not to be read by the system and characters which are to be read by the system includes structure for scanning a document for capturing the color image of the document being processed and for generating a plurality of colored picture elements. Circuity is provided for identifying colors included within the core area and edge of the markings. The colors of the picture elements of the core area and edge of the markings are converted to the color of the background of the document thereby generating a filtered image of the document. An optical character recognition unit is provided for receiving the filtered image of the document representing character information only and for identifying the characters appearing on the document from the filtered image, such that the markings and the background surrounding a character are not distinguishable by the optical character recognition unit.
Inventors
- 👤 Kenneth T. Lovelady
- 👤 Medford D. Sanner
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 00:37
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/38; G; G06; G06V; G06V10/00; G06V10/10; G06V10/12; G06V10/14; G06V10/143; H04N1/46; H04N1/56; H04N1/60; H04N1/62
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 24
Claim 1
Independent Claim
211 words
A document processing system for processing documents having data printed thereon including markings having an interior core area bounded by an edge, the markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but are not to be read by the system and the data includes characters which are to be read by the system comprising: means for scanning a document and for generating a plurality of colored picture elements; means for identifying colors included within the core area and edge of the markings; means for converting the colors of the picture elements of the core area and edge of the markings to a color of the background of the document thereby generating a filtered image of the document; means for subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue of the markings, such that the background surrounding a character is detected by said optical character recognition means as the colors of the markings; and optical character recognition means for receiving said filtered image of the document representing character information only and for identifying the characters appearing on the document from said filtered image, such that the markings and the background surrounding a character are not distinguishable by said optical character recognition means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
211 words
A document processing system for processing documents having data printed thereon including markings having an interior core area bounded by an edge, the markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but are not to be read by the system and the data includes characters which are to be read by the system comprising: means for scanning a document and for generating a plurality of colored picture elements; means for identifying colors included within the core area and edge of the markings; means for converting the colors of the picture elements of the core area and edge of the markings to a color of the background of the document thereby generating a filtered image of the document; means for subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue of the markings, such that the background surrounding a character is detected by said optical character recognition means as the colors of the markings; and optical character recognition means for receiving said filtered image of the document representing character information only and for identifying the characters appearing on the document from said filtered image, such that the markings and the background surrounding a character are not distinguishable by said optical character recognition means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
112 words
The document processing system of claim 1 wherein said color converting means includes: means for converting said plurality of colored picture elements into a corresponding plurality of gray scale picture elements; means for correlating said plurality of gray scale picture elements to generate a black or white picture element representation for each of said plurality of said gray scale picture elements; and means for converting said black or white picture element representations based upon the colors of said markings, such that black picture elements in the core area and edge of a marking are converted to white picture elements and white picture elements of the characters are converted to black picture elements.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
27 words
The document processing system of claim 1 wherein said color identifying means includes: means for identifying the colors of the markings from said generated colored picture elements.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
24 words
The document processing system of claim 1 wherein said color identifying means includes: means for selectively identifying a color of markings to be filtered.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
32 words
The document processing system of claim 1 wherein said color identifying means includes: means for identifying a plurality of colors on the document representing a plurality of different markings to be filtered.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
18 words
The document processing system of claim 1 and further including: means for detecting the edge of a marking.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
208 words
A document processing system for processing documents having data printed thereon including colored markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but which are not to be read by the system, and characters having a color which are to be read by the system comprising: means for scanning a document and for generating a plurality of colored picture elements; means for identifying the color of the characters appearing on the document; means for converting all colors of markings appearing on the document to a color of the background of the document except for said identified color of characters appearing on the document, thereby generating a filtered image of the document; optical character recognition means for receiving said filtered image of the document representing character information only and for identifying characters appearing on the document from said filtered image, such that the markings and the background surrounding a character are not distinguishable by said optical character recognition means; and said means for converting including means for subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue to the markings, such that the background surrounding a character is detected by said optical character recognition means as the colors of the markings.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
208 words
A document processing system for processing documents having data printed thereon including colored markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but which are not to be read by the system, and characters having a color which are to be read by the system comprising: means for scanning a document and for generating a plurality of colored picture elements; means for identifying the color of the characters appearing on the document; means for converting all colors of markings appearing on the document to a color of the background of the document except for said identified color of characters appearing on the document, thereby generating a filtered image of the document; optical character recognition means for receiving said filtered image of the document representing character information only and for identifying characters appearing on the document from said filtered image, such that the markings and the background surrounding a character are not distinguishable by said optical character recognition means; and said means for converting including means for subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue to the markings, such that the background surrounding a character is detected by said optical character recognition means as the colors of the markings.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
33 words
The document processing system of claim 7 wherein said means for identifying the color of characters appearing on the document includes: means for identifying the color of characters from said colored picture elements.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
34 words
The document processing system of claim 7 wherein said means for identifying the color of characters appearing on the document includes: means for selectively identifying a character color to be maintained and not filtered.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
84 words
The document processing system of claim 7 wherein said color converting means includes: means for converting said plurality of colored picture elements into a corresponding plurality of gray scale picture elements; means for correlating said plurality of gray scale picture elements to generate a black or white picture element representation for each of said plurality of gray scale picture elements; and means for converting all of said picture elements to a white representation except for picture elements of the characters appearing on the document.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
167 words
A method for processing documents having data printed thereon including markings having an interior core area bounded by an edge, the markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but which are not to be read by the system and the data includes characters which are to be read by the system comprising the steps of: scanning a document and generating a plurality of colored picture elements; identifying colors included within the core area and edge of the markings; converting the colors of the picture elements of the core area and edge of the markings to a color of the background of the document thereby generating a filtered image of the document; subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue of the markings, such that the background surrounding a character is detected by said optical character recognition means as the colors of the markings; and identifying the characters appearing on the document from the filtered image.
Claim 14
Independent Claim
167 words
A method for processing documents having data printed thereon including markings having an interior core area bounded by an edge, the markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but which are not to be read by the system and the data includes characters which are to be read by the system comprising the steps of: scanning a document and generating a plurality of colored picture elements; identifying colors included within the core area and edge of the markings; converting the colors of the picture elements of the core area and edge of the markings to a color of the background of the document thereby generating a filtered image of the document; subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue of the markings, such that the background surrounding a character is detected by said optical character recognition means as the colors of the markings; and identifying the characters appearing on the document from the filtered image.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
104 words
The method of claim 11 wherein the color converting step includes: converting the plurality of colored picture elements into a corresponding plurality of gray scale picture elements; correlating the plurality of gray scale picture elements to generate a black or white picture element representation for each of the plurality of the gray scale picture elements; and converting the black or white picture element representations based upon the colors of said markings, such that black picture elements in the core area and edge of a marking are converted to white picture elements and white picture elements of the characters are converted to black picture elements.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 11 wherein the color identifying step includes: identifying the colors of the markings from the generated colored picture elements.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 11 wherein the color identifying step includes: selectively identifying a color of markings to be filtered.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of claim 11 wherein the color identifying step includes: identifying a plurality of colors on the document representing a plurality of different markings to be filtered.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 11 and further including the step of: detecting the edge of a marking.
Claim 20
Independent Claim
138 words
A method for processing documents having data printed thereon including colored markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but which are not to be read by the system, and characters having a color which are to be read by the system comprising the steps of: scanning a document and generating a plurality of colored picture elements; identifying the color of the characters appearing on the document; converting all colors of markings appearing on the document to a color of the background of the document except for the identified color of characters appearing on the document, thereby generating a filtered image of the document by subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue of the markings; and identifying characters appearing on the document from the filtered image.
Claim 21
Independent Claim
138 words
A method for processing documents having data printed thereon including colored markings having a hue and visible to the eye, but which are not to be read by the system, and characters having a color which are to be read by the system comprising the steps of: scanning a document and generating a plurality of colored picture elements; identifying the color of the characters appearing on the document; converting all colors of markings appearing on the document to a color of the background of the document except for the identified color of characters appearing on the document, thereby generating a filtered image of the document by subtracting a percentage of the hue that is complementary to the hue of the markings from the hue of the markings; and identifying characters appearing on the document from the filtered image.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 17 wherein the step of identifying the color of characters appearing on the document includes: identifying the color of characters from said generated colored picture elements.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 17 wherein the step of identifying the color of characters appearing on the document includes: selectively identifying a character color to be maintained and not filtered.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
76 words
The method of claim 17 wherein said color converting step includes: converting the plurality of colored picture elements into a corresponding plurality of gray scale picture elements; correlating the plurality of gray scale picture elements to generate a black or white picture element representation for each of the plurality of gray scale picture elements; and converting all of the picture elements to a white representation except for picture elements of the characters appearing on the document.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1997-08-01 | 1998-01-31 | 1998-08-02 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2001-08-01 | 2002-01-31 | 2002-08-02 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2005-08-01 | 2006-01-31 | 2006-08-02 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |