Ballot paper counting and sorting method

TL;DR: In this paper, the problem of easily and surely recognizing various patterns predicted to be recorded on ballot papers for quickly and flexibly counting and sorting ballot paper for each candidate or each political party was solved.

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and surely recognize various patterns predicted to be recorded on ballot paper for quickly and flexibly counting and sorting ballot paper for each candidate or each political party SOLUTION: By means of a feeding part 6, sheets of ballot paper carrying an inscribed character string and the like written in a predetermined area are fed one by one, and the written image data are read by means of a reading part 12 From the image data inputted via an image inputting part 23, a partial area, in which the inscribed character string and the like is written, is cut out by means of a cutting part 24, the cut image is divided into respective characters by means of a character recognizing part 25, and the divided characters are recognized as characters by means of an individual character recognizing dictionary 28 Subsequently, by means of a knowledge processing part 26, a candidate name and the like is determined according to a character string consisting of the characters recognized as characters and an inscribed character string and the like inside a word dictionary 29, and this determination result is informed to a sorting part 14 and sorted in a matching stacker so as to be counted up