Atsuhiro Imaizumi

Form reading based on form-type identification and form-data recognition

Form reading technology based on form-typeidentification and form-data recognition is proposed. Thistechnology can solve difficulties in variety for readingdifferent items on fairly large number of different types offorms. The form-type identification consists of two parts:(i) extraction of targets such as important keywords in aform by matching between recogised characters and wordstrings in a keyword dictionary, and (ii) analysis ofpositional or semantic relationship between the targets byconstellation matching between these targets and wordlocation information in the keyword dictionary. The formdatarecognition consists of two parts: (i) extraction of aregion of interest (ROI) contained a character string of theitem by using a layout knowledge of the very form-type,and (ii) character string recognition of the item by usingthe linguistic constraint which can be obtained from acontent knowledge of the form-type. A experiment using642 sample forms with 107 different types in totalconfirmed that the form-type identification method cancorrectly identify 97% of 642 form samples at a rejectionrate 3%. Another experiment confirmed that the form-data recognition method can correctly read 95% of thenumber of items on the form samples.

Form-type identification for banking applications and its implementation issues

This paper presents a new type ATM called image-ATM and an image workflow system developed for banking applications. The system including the image-ATM captures the paper forms brought by the clients at the very front-end, identifies the type of forms, and recognizes the data on the form automatically. The image-ATM can accept over 400 different kinds of forms. The system is presently in operation at some of the Japanese major banks. They could reduce considerable human workforce for their branch offices by introducing the image workflow system and by centralizing the back-office work at a few operation centers. Technically, form recognition, especially form type identification, was one of the keys for this success. This paper discusses a method for form type identification and its technical issues.