Object recognition and describing structure of graphical objects

1. A method for searching for elements of a form of a non-fixed format, the method comprising:

obtaining a structural description of the form of a non-fixed format, wherein the structural description includes a description of spatial and parametric characteristics of elements of the form;

searching for objects in a form image corresponding to those of the form;

identifying text objects to be recognized from the found objects in the form image;

performing a character recognition (CR) function via a computer processor on each of said text objects;

obtaining a search constraint of an element from the structural description;

finding the element associated with the search constraint in the form image based on found objects;

identifying variants corresponding to the element associated with the search constraint;

examining each of the variants corresponding to the element; and

selecting a variant for the element.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein searching for elements of the form image is based on items including:

spatial characteristics of a search area for the element;

a parametric characteristic of the element;

a spatial characteristic of the element represented as an exact value or as an interval of values; and

a result of preliminary text recognition.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said examining each of the variants corresponding to the element comprises:

estimating a quality of identification related to an identity of the element;

identifying hypotheses corresponding to the element;

analyzing results of testing the hypotheses about a presence, completeness of composition of an element that is a compound element, or types of parts of an element that is a compound element including analyzing types of parts corresponding to a hypothesis about a type of the compound element; and

estimating a total reliability of each variant of the plurality of variants.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

after selecting the variant for the element, optimizing the selected variant based on a revision of compound element combinations when the element is a compound element.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 , wherein said optimizing the selected variant comprises:

identifying a number of variants that satisfy a quality rating and discarding variants that do not satisfy a quality rating; and

searching for a preferred variant of the compound element based on a preferred total quality rating based on ratings of accountable composite parts, regardless of their number.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining an orientation of the form image.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein all or a portion of elements of the structural description are used to determine a desired image orientation for the form image, and wherein the search constraint is based on a result of said performed CR function.

8. The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein an auxiliary brief description is specified to determine the orientation of the form image.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the type of a document corresponding to the form is selected from several preliminarily specified document types based on a structural description of the form in reference to a type of element found in the form.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , wherein a supplementary brief structural description is assigned for determining a document type for the form and for selecting a comprehensive document description from the several preliminarily specified types.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the spatial characteristics of an element comprise at least a set of absolute coordinates or relative coordinates.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein exact, interval characteristics or exact and interval characteristics of a search element are identified.

13. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein searching for a next element is performed when no variant for the current element is selected or the total quality rating is lower than a predefined value.

14. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein when no object is found in a specified region of the image, searching for an object corresponding to a next element of the structural description.

15. One or more non-transitory computer readable media encoded with instructions for causing one or more processors to perform a method for searching for an element of a form of non-fixed layout using a structural description, the instructions causing acts comprising:

obtaining a structural description of the form of a non-fixed format, wherein the structural description includes a description of spatial characteristics of elements of the form;

searching for objects in a form image corresponding to those of the form of a non-fixed format;

identifying text objects to be recognized;

performing a character recognition (CR) function via said one or more processors on each of said text objects;

obtaining a search constraint of an element from the structural description;

finding the element in the form image based on found objects;

identifying variants corresponding to the element;

examining each of the variants corresponding to the element; and

selecting a variant for the element.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein the search constraint is based on a result of said CR function.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein the type of a document corresponding to the form is selected from several preliminarily specified document types based on a structural description of the form in reference to a type of element likely to be found in the form.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 17 , wherein a supplementary brief structural description is assigned, prior to obtaining a structural description of the form of a non-fixed format, for determining a document type for the form.

19. A device for searching for elements of a form of a non-fixed format, the device comprising:

a processor;

a memory in electronic communication with the processor, wherein the memory is configured with instructions to cause the processor to perform actions comprising:

obtaining a structural description of the form of a non-fixed format, wherein the structural description includes a description of spatial and parametric characteristics of elements of the form;

searching for objects in a form image corresponding to those of the form of a non-fixed format;

identifying text objects to be recognized;

performing a character recognition (CR) function via a computer processor on each of said text objects;

obtaining a search constraint of an element from the structural description;

finding the element in the form image based on one or more found objects;

identifying variants corresponding to the element;

examining each of the variants corresponding to the element, wherein examining includes estimating a value related to quality of identification of the element; and selecting a variant for the element based on said examining each of the variants.

20. The device of claim 19 , wherein examining of each of the variants further includes:

reducing a number of identified variants by providing a quality rating to each of the identified variants;

where a variant is a compound variant, combining quality ratings of components of said compound variant to obtain a total quality rating for said compound variant; and

reducing the number of identified variants by taking a preferred number of variants based on respective quality ratings.