Handwritten ZIP code recognition

Author

Dzuba, Gregory ; Filatov, Alexander ; Volgunin, Alexander

Author_Institution

Parascript, Boulder, CO, USA

Volume

2

fYear

1997

fDate

18-20 Aug 1997

Firstpage

766

Abstract

The encoding of delivery point code (DPC) for a handwritten address is one of the most complex problems of the US mail delivery automation. This paper describes a real-time system intended to recognize the 5-digit ZIP code part of DPC. To increase the system performance the results of ZIP code recognition are cross-validated with those of city and state name recognition. The main principles of the handwritten word recognizer which provide the core of the system are explained. The system throughput is 40,000 address blocks per hour. Experimental results on live mail pieces are presented. The ZIP code recognition rate is 73% with 1% error rate

Keywords

document image processing; handwriting recognition; mailing systems; optical character recognition; performance evaluation; postal services; real-time systems; US mail delivery automation; city name recognition; delivery point code; error rate; handwritten ZIP code recognition; handwritten address; handwritten word recognizer; mail pieces; real-time system; state name recognition; system performance; system throughput; Automation; Cities and towns; Electronic mail; Encoding; Error analysis; Handwriting recognition; Postal services; Real time systems; Sorting; Throughput;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Document Analysis and Recognition, 1997., Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on

Conference_Location

Ulm

Print_ISBN

0-8186-7898-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICDAR.1997.620613

Filename

620613