CHARACTER RECOGNITION RESULT CORRECTION METHOD FOR ADDRESS CHARACTER STRING

PURPOSE:To shorten correction processing time and to improve processing accuracy by selecting the place name of a candidate while utilizing a place name word table and an index table expressing the hierarchical relation of the place name word and the character composing of an address character string, further estimating the distance of candidate place name words. CONSTITUTION:A place name word table and the index table indicating the character composing of the place name word, and provided to express the hierarchical relation. From the recognition result of each character of the address character string, for example, a ten pairs of an address character string candidates are obtained. The above-mentioned index table is referred to, and a character coincident for each column is retrieved. The record number group of the place name word where the coincident character exists is determined to sort this record number group, and the record number with high appearance frequency is selected. Next, the place name word which can correctly connected to the place name word of high-order hierarchy is selected. The place name word with the highest similarity is decided against the elected place name by the estimation value calculated based on the distance value for each character.