Research on an on-line Japanese character input system for visually disabled persons

我们为视障人士，特别是后天失明人士，开发了一套笔式日文输入系统。该系统由文字输入板、语音合成器和文字识别系统组成。本系统的主要目的是应用于盲人电子邮件系统。(1)手写体汉字数据库的建设：(1)手写汉字数据库的建设从视力障碍者和盲人那里收集了3216类日文字符，共计约10万个字符。(2)在线字符识别算法的改进在本项目开始之前，我们已经开发了一个约1000类日文字符的识别算法(Kyoiku Kanji Category)。改进后的算法适用于3216个类别的日文字符，包括JIS一级汉字、平假名、片假名、符号、字母表。(3)根据词级知识选择字符的纠错算法。对三种纠错算法进行了比较应用和评价。人机界面设备的原型我们开发了一个人机界面设备的原型。该装置由右手书写字符的电子书写板和左手控制系统状态的手控器组成。(5)开发了基于CPU的视障人士文件管理、文件编辑、电子邮件收发等文件控制系统。

We have developed a pen-based Japanese character input system for the visually disabled persons, especially persons with acquired blinds. This system is composed of a character input tablet, a voice synthesizer and character recognition system. The main purpose of this system is to be applied to an electronic mail system for the blind persons. The results we got in this grant term are as follows:(1) Data base construction of the handwritten characters 3216 categories of Japanese characters, totally about 100 thousand characters were gathered from visually disabled persons and blindfold persons.(2) Enhancement of on-line character recognition algorithm Before we started this project, we had already developed an recognition algorithm for about 1000 category Japanese characters (Kyoiku Kanji Category). We enhanced this algorithm to apply 3216 category Japanese characters, including JIS No. 1 level Chinese characters, Hiragana, Katakana, Symbol, Alphabet.(3) Selection of the error correction algorithms of characters by word level knowledge. Three kinds of error correction algorithm were comparatively applied and evaluated. As the result, the Trigram method was found to be a best choice for our purpose.(4) Prototype of man-machine interface device We developed a prototype of man-machine interface device. This device is composed of an electric tablet for writing a character by the right hand, a hand controller for controlling the system condition by the left hand.(5) Document control system for visually disabled persons Document control system in CPU, like file management, document editing, and e-mail receiving/transmitting, was developed.