Extracting characters and character lines in multi-agent scheme

In this paper, we present COCE (COordinative Character Extractor), a new method for extracting printed Japanese characters from an unformatted document image. This research aims to exploit knowledge independent of the layouts. COCE is based on a multiagent scheme where each agent is assigned to a single character line and tries to extract characters by making use of the knowledge about features of a character line as well as shapes and arrangement of characters. Moreover, the agents communicate with each other to keep consistency between their tasks. We have favourable results for the effectiveness of this method.