METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMPLEX COLUMN SEGMENTATION BY MAJOR WHITE REGION PATTERN MATCHING

A system for logically segmenting document elements from a document includes an input port for inputting a signal representing the document image, a computer having a document structural model, a document white region extraction system that extracts major white regions separating document elements in the input document image, and a string translation device that generates matching one-dimensional data string that corresponds to the extracted major white regions in a document image, a comparison device that selects the optimum path through a finite state machine representing acceptable column layouts for the source document, and a columnar layout identification device that identifies the column layout defined by the optimum path. Then, the identified column of document elements may be processed to logically tag or extract document elements. The method for logically segmenting document element columns includes providing at least one structural model of a corresponding source document, each structural model including at least one finite state machine defining relationships between document elements of the source document. Identifying major white regions in the input document image segmenting and defining the document elements of the document image, and assembling a one-dimensional data string corresponding to the major white regions, generating at least one optimum path that matches the data string, and identifying the column layout of the input document image based on the optimum path.