WO1995014282A1

WO1995014282A1 - Systems and method for processing vouchers and/or reading text

Info

Publication number: WO1995014282A1
Application number: PCT/GB1994/002534
Authority: WO
Inventors: Roger Eden
Original assignee: Roger Eden
Priority date: 1993-11-18
Filing date: 1994-11-17
Publication date: 1995-05-26
Also published as: GB2284089B; AU1032495A; GB2284089A; GB9323949D0; EP0745244A1

Abstract

A means or system (10) for handling information, for use in a scheme in which vouchers each having a determinable value issued by issuers to users who give them up to providers for value, each voucher having associated with it information identifying the relevant issuer and provider, or a like scheme, comprises means (14, 22) adapted for determining for each voucher its value, which for at least some of the vouchers requires information external to the voucher, associating with said value for each voucher the identities of the parties being the relevant issuer and provider, and producing at least one total of the values of the vouchers relevant to each said party. Subdivided totals of various kinds can be provided, possibly associating with the value for each voucher a time, defining non-overlapping time intervals during which said times occur, and producing said totals separately in respect of each time interval. The vouchers may be airline ticket vouchers. Means (38) are adapted for obtaining from electronic images of the vouchers information for use in determining the said values. Output unit (24) produces a total of the values of the vouchers relevant to a said issuer, a list of identities of such vouchers and a record of the corresponding electronic images. Reader (38) is adapted for handwriting recognition and uses various consistency checks. In particular it uses a hierarchical method of recognition including a prerecognition step with the aid of a method of feature detection which employs Simon neighbours, a first recognition step with the aid of robust features, a second recognition step with the aid of a limited lexicon and a third recognition step with the aid of a library of relational information. For the recognition and evaluation there are used substantially the tables and rules of the IATA Ticketing Handbook, Airline Coding Directory and Prorate Factor Manual. A probability of correct recognition is assigned to information from a voucher, which is rejected if the probability is less than a predetermined value and human intervention is requested in respect of a rejected voucher. Appropriate debit and/or credit instructions may be issued by means (24) in accordance with the totals. Input terminals (12) may be located at airport boarding gates and connected to (or their information transmitted to) a local area network and a global network.

Description

Systems and method for processi ng vouchers and/or readi ng text.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates to data handling and has particular, but not exclusive, reference to the ticketing systems of scheduled airlines.

At present, tickets for air journeys are issued by airlines, directly or through an agent, e.g. a travel agent, usually in the form of a booklet of vouchers, the top voucher being handwritten or individually printed and the others being carbon copies of the top one, though with different pre-printing, e.g. to blank out the information defining different sections of the journey so that each voucher relates only to one section of the journey and exposes only the information relating to that section. The passenger takes the ticket with him and gives up the relevant voucher when boarding the aircraft, usually at the boarding gate.

The basic intention is that each airline issues tickets for journeys on its own aircraft, but this has been developed and extended to allow, in many cases, that the journey, or a section of the journey, can actually be made on an aircraft of another airline. This is usually done for the convenience of the passenger who wishes to

travel at a time and/or to a destination not available with the issuing airline. Thus, the ticket issuer for perhaps 30% of the vouchers is not the same as the carrier, i.e. the

service provider. The vouchers to be collected on boarding the carrier's aircraft will be of two

kinds: those issued by the carrier and those issued by a different issuer from the carrier. The vouchers are sent to a processing centre for the carrier. Here, the vouchers issued by issuers other than the carrier are processed, each one being evaluated according to agreed tables to provide a value corresponding to the journey section to which it relates, and the vouchers for each issuer airline are copied onto microfiche (retained by the carrier) and then returned to the issuer together with an invoice for payment of the total value of the vouchers issued by that issuer for journey sections provided by that carrier. The receiving issuer checks the accuracy against the

vouchers, often on a sampling basis of maybe 1 in 100, on the statistical assumption that the degree of accuracy of evaluation will be sufficiently high to ensure acceptable

remuneration with the following sampling procedure used to make correcting adjustments, bearing in mind that the total number of vouchers will usually be many

thousands. The samples are chosen by an independent body, IATA (the International

Air Transport Association). If there are any discrepancies then the carrier airline

checks the sample and, if it concurs with the issuer, an agreed weighting factor is applied to the total invoice and this is then paid. If they are in dispute, a proportion of the payment may not be made until many months later, e.g. a year, after the relevant journeys have been made. The fairness of the system resides in that, on average and usually, a carrier airline will be holding funds roughly equal to what it owes, that is to say, the total funds which a carrier airline has collected as issuer for journeys actually made using other airlines as carriers will be roughly equal to the total of such funds owed to it and being held by other airlines as issuers for journeys made using itself as carrier. However, in individual cases, the discrepancy can be quite large and there can be a large unbalanced sum owed to an airline over a long

period.

At present, the bulk of this process is carried out manually. - J - THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided means or a system as

claimed in claim 1. This selects the essential features for automation of the above process and functionally relates them together, thereby providing means or a system

which can vastly reduce the cost, inconvenience and delay of current methods of

processing the vouchers. The term "system" is intended to comprehend embodiments in which various units are arranged to dovetail together but are not actually interconnected, e.g. by preparing information, in one means of the system, to a certain form for use by another means of the system, though the information may, at that stage, be transferred from the one means to the other by, for example, a courier.

Preferably, the means or system has the features of claim 2. This enables it to handle also those vouchers for which the issuer and provider are the same party. An automated system is particularly amenable to such handling and this adds a high degree of convenience to the whole operation. Whereas the total invoicing information in the case that there are a plurality of issuers and a plurality of providers, with various issuer-carrier interrelationships, and

a single difference total (being the difference between debits and credits) for each party might be sufficient to provide a workable system, for the sake of verification (checking) and psychologically, it is advantageous to provide the features of claim 3. For similar reasons, it is a further advantage to provide the features of claim 4.

The means or system can be open-ended, i.e. simply treating each batch of vouchers as it enters the system, but, again for verification and airline satisfaction, it is advantageous to provide the features of claim 5. Thus, for example, each scheduled flight can be denoted by the time it is due to take off or by the time it actually takes off and this time can be associated with each voucher from that flight. Then, the time intervals can be defined as successive days, i.e. 24-hour intervals, with midnight being assigned uniquely and globally to either the preceding interval or the succeeding interval but not indiscriminately to both. The time can be local, since it is only an index to break the stream of batches of vouchers into manageable proportions.

Whilst it is conceivable that the invention may have application in other fields, its prime application is to dealing with air travel, a field that can be much improved by use of the invention, particularly with the features of claim 6.

Whilst it is possible to obtain information from the vouchers directly, it is

particularly advantageous to have the features of claim 7. Obtaining information from

electronic images of the vouchers allows a complete order of magnitude of improvement in the data processing, since the electronic images will already be formed for other purposes (see below) and it will not be necessary to employ a process of obtaining information by scanning directly the documents concerned (the vouchers), a process which is notoriously slow because it usually involves processing the information in real time during the scanning.

Preferably, there are provided the features of claim 8. The provision to an issuer of the corresponding electronic images of the vouchers concerned, rather than the actual physical vouchers themselves, allows yet another order of magnitude advantage as will readily be apparent. For example, the electronic images can be recorded on compact disc (alongside the details of the information abstracted from the electronic images and/or processed and/or partly processed), and this is much less bulky than physical vouchers for physical transmission by courier. Alternatively, the features of claims 7 and 8 lend themselves to transmission of the required information and images electronically, by wide band carrier, which reduces the transmission time to a matter of seconds (the exact time depending upon the transmission and reception terminal equipment and whether physical links or satellite links are used).

By use of the features of claim 9, there can be provided a means or system which

is completely automatic for the bulk of the vouchers (which enables huge cost savings). The present inventor has made extensive investigation and selected for this purpose a hierarchical arrangement for improving recognition to at least the degree that is currently obtained manually (as discussed above in relation to sampling). This hierarchical system of recognition comprises levels which may be thought of approximately as the equivalents of prerecognition of lines, recognition of characters (and/or groups of characters and/or symbols), recognition of words, and recognition of grammar (i.e. testing consistency of the information tentatively recognised). The respective levels of the hierarchy are the features of claims 10, 11, 12 and 15. Clearly, any one of these can alone provide a substantial improvement but the more that are taken, the increase in improvement, by an order of magnitude for each extra one. Thus, taking all four levels of features provides an improvement that is four orders of magnitude better than taking none of them. For example, the use of a method of feature detection which employs Simon neighbours (claim 10) can be carried out using the teachings in the paper by Dr Jeffrey Johnson of the Centre for Configurational Studies, The Open University, Milton Keynes, England, entitled

"Gradient Polygons: Fundamental Primitives in Hierarchical Computer Vision" included in the "Symposium in Honour of Jean-Claude Simon" organised by AFCET, Paris 3-4 October 1990 under the general title "New Concepts in Computer Science". The use of robust features (claim 11) can be carried out using the teachings in the paper by Professor Jean-Claude Simon, Professor Emeritus (and past Professor dTnformatique) at the Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris, France, author of

Patterns and Operators (1989) and editor of From Pixels to Features (1991), both

published by North Holland, associate editor of the Pattern Recognition Journal and

the Pattern Recognition Newsletter and past president of the International Association for Pattern Recognition, entitled "Off-Line Cursive Word Recognition" which appeared in the Proceedings of the IEEE, volume 80, number 7, July 1992. The latter paper states, at the end of its headnote, "But the problem of recognition of a word on a busy

or noisy background is still an open one". The combination of a method of feature

detection which employs Simon neighbours with the use of robust features overcomes

this problem. The further addition of using a limited lexicon (claim 12), preferably having the features of claim 13 (which adapts the invention particularly for air travel), produces a great improvement in the reliability of the recognition. The LATA Airline Coding Directory includes all the permissible standard character groups relating to airlines and airline ticket vouchers. The LATA Ticketing Handbook provides the rules for use of these character groups in producing airline ticket forms and in filling these

in, e.g. by travel agents. The reliability of recognition can be further improved if the consistency checking includes the features of claim 16 or more preferably those of claim 17, and/or those of claim 18. Although this use of consistency checks superficially may be thought to resemble redundancy, it is in fact used to identify more probable interpretations with a view to improving recognition. Use of these features thus builds into the means or system a much improved degree of automation.

The features of claim 19 can be used to bring the reliability of the recognition up to the degree of accuracy discussed above in relation to sampling. The library of relational information can include information relating flight numbers (consisting of a standard abbreviation in letters followed by a distinctive flight number), the associated airlines, the associated journey origin airport and the possible destination airports for each particular flight, again according to standard abbreviations, the value

or range of values that can appear on the ticket voucher for each flight, together with the relevant currency and the scheduled flight departure time. Each airport standard

name may also be related to the name of the local town (e.g. "Heathrow, London").

The library may also contain information as to the possible standard layouts of a voucher, identifying the geometrical areas of each one (the fields) and the permissible type of information that can appear in each field. Again, each airline will use (be related to) only one or a very limited number of forms of blank voucher, and these relationships can further be included in the library. Yet again, the character font on printed tickets comes from a specific set; ticket printers are approved devices, and there are only a small number of types of printers and thus of fonts. Thus, in summary, the use of such a library of relational information to aid a consistency check on the voucher information can give a degree of reliability of recognition which is sufficiently near to certainty for practical use. Experiments have shown this to be of the same order of reliability as current manual techniques, so that the information as thus processed is within the required degree of accuracy for use in the sampling techniques mentioned above. Incidentally, the method of feature detection which employs Simon neighbours has proved so efficient that, with its aid, the airport names blanked out on a particular voucher can be detected and identified and this information

used for further checking or corro bo ration of the remainder of the information from the voucher. In particular, as explained in the paper of Professor Jean-Claude Simon mentioned above, there can be provided the features of claim 21 which make it possible to choose the candidate words and, also importantly, allow the use of the features of claim 22 and eventually the features of claim 23, with the advantages of being able

to choose the degree of reliability of recognition, to reject those vouchers which do not reach this degree and to deal with such vouchers in a sensible manner by calling for human intervention unambiguously at a level which can be set quite conservatively for the system or means to refuse to decide rather than make unacceptable errors. One

useful feature of the consistency check with the library of relational information is that

it can, for example, be used to decide that a less probable reading (than another) is the

one to be chosen if the voucher is to come within the IATA rules, which it must do since it has to bear certain information within these rules to be valid at all.

Turning now to the evaluation of the vouchers, there are preferably provided the features of claim 24. The IATA Prorate Factor Manual is particularly well suited to incorporation in such an automatic means or system. The information is external to a voucher in the sense of not being borne by the voucher. The Manual indicates the

proportion of the charge marked on a ticket which has to be allotted to each particular section of the relevant journey and in particular also contains rules defining and for

dealing with special cases, e.g. if the prorated amount is less than 50% of the carrier airline's normal fare for that journey section.

Whilst the means or system may be provided (e.g. for sale) suitable only for the data processing functions, additional data handling functions will normally be

included. For example, there may be included the features of claim 25, and more particularly claim 26, e.g. a high definition video camera unit for capturing an image of the voucher for onward transmission and usually as an origin of the voucher information for the processing discussed above. Again, there may be provided the features of claim 27, so that an organisation which centralises the information and correlates it can also act further to produce the necessary monetary instructions and

possibly effect the relevant transactions.

The means or system may also include the features of claim 28. This has the

advantage that the collected vouchers can immediately be wrapped in suitable bundles and labelled with relevant identifying information for the batch relating to a particular

flight, e.g. the flight number, carrier airline and departure time and date. There may also be provision for immediately reading off its serial number or identity from each voucher. This can be done rapidly as it will be in print and in a known location on the voucher, possibly within a second or two. This can, for example, be used to check whether the voucher identity corresponds to a stolen ticket, while the passenger is still boarding. The remainder of the processing of the information, including the recognition and evaluating may be deferred. Alternatively, it may be carried out immediately and, at the same time as vouchers are bundled together, any rejected vouchers can be placed separately and perhaps viewed by the boarding gate control staff to resolve any difficulty while the passengers are still boarding. Further, information from the vouchers may be read to provide an instantaneous list of names of passengers boarding for a particular flight, in time for this list to be checked against a computer-held list at an airport check-in desk. Again, boarding passes which are usually issued at check-in desks can be cross-checked with the vouchers to ensure that there is consistency between the information contained by both (e.g. the boarding passes have been made out correctly and in conformity with the tickets). In the preferred embodiment, there are provided the features of claim 29, preferably the terminals being located at the boarding gales. If not, the vouchers may

be transported to central locations at each airport and then the handling and processing of the invention brought into play. If an embodiment of the invention is operated by a party independent of the airlines, then that party can operate a single embodiment to handle the vouchers from all the airlines using that airport. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a terminal as claimed in claim 30. Such terminals may, for example, be sold separately to airlines for use in connection with

an embodiment which carries out all the other functions centrally for each airport.

According to another aspect of the invention, there may be provided means having the features of claim 31, which can produce in combination a high degree of reliability in recognition. According to another aspect of the invention, there may be provided means as claimed in claim 32, which can produce in combination a high degree of reliability in recognition. According to further aspects of the invention, there may be provided methods corresponding to the above means and system and having the corresponding advantages, as indicated in claims 35 to 64.

According to other aspects of the invention, there may be provided a means and

method for programming a computer means or system, and the latter when so programmed, as claimed in claims 67 to 69.

DESCRIPTION RELATING TO THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings,

in which: -

Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a voucher information store of the Figure 1 embodiment;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a block of totalling registers of the Figure 1 embodiment;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the voucher information store and totalling registers alternative to those in the Figure 1 embodiment; and

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a further embodiment of the voucher information store and totalling registers alternative to those in the Figure 1

embodiment. Reference is now made to the drawings. In the various embodiments, references having the same first pair of digits denote members that have a similar function, though some of these may not have their function detailed herein explicitly where this notation makes their function obvious.

Referring now more particularly to Figure 1, a system 10 for handling information, for use in a scheme in which airline ticket vouchers each having a determinable value issued by issuers to users who give them up to providers for value, each voucher having associated with it information identifying the relevant issuer and provider, comprises a terminal 12 (which may be free-standing and/or even disconnected, or an integral part of the total system) located at an airport boarding gate, and a central unit comprising value determining means 14, an unsorted voucher information store 16, a sorting unit 18, a sorted voucher information store 20, totalling registers 22 and an output unit 24. The system handles three types of information

within terminal 12 and immediately after it, information 26 borne by each voucher, associated external information 28 and general information 30. A voucher input unit 32 receives vouchers, produces electronic images of them sent to a temporary image store 34 and bundles the physical vouchers together and

locates them in a voucher store 36. The image store 34 transmits the image to a reader 38. (In an alternative embodiment, the voucher input unit 32 may comprise a separate scanner to feed information directly to reader 38. Generally, features shown in dotted lines or chain lines represent possible alternative arrangements.)

An external associated information store 40 is provided with information associated with the vouchers in a particular batch, e.g. from one flight, such as the

date and time, the flight number and the carrier, and feeds this information also to the

reader 38. A library store 42 contains substantially the rules of the IATA Ticketing

Handbook and the tables of the IATA Airline Coding Directory as well as a library of relational information of the kind mentioned above, which it supplies or makes available to reader 38.

Reader 38 has a feature detection unit 44 which receives the scanned information signals from image store 34 (or voucher input unit 32) and uses a method of feature

detection which employs Simon neighbours to produce a prerecognition stage of the

recognition process. This indicates the lines of writing separated from the background. This background comprises the layout of the voucher form and the network of fine lines usually employed to help prevent fraud. The writing is then passed to a first recognition unit 46 which carries out a level of recognition using robust features. The resulting information is then subjected to a higher level of recognition in a second recognition unit 48 with the aid of a lexicon stored in store

42, as described above. This information is finally passed to a third level recognition unit 50 which carries out a consistency check on the voucher information, both for self-consistency between three fields of information of the voucher, and then with a fourth field, and with the aid of the relational information stored in the relevant library in store 42. Unit 50 also carries out checks against the associated external information from store 40. It is to be noted that more complex procedures may be employed and, for example, tentatively read information may be recirculated through units 46, 48 and

50 to provide fine tuning of the information recognition process and an improved degree of reliability thereof. The reader 38 thus produces and supplies to store 64 a recognised form of the voucher information. This includes that information 52 from

the voucher that will contribute to determining its value, the identity 54 of the relevant issuer, preferably the voucher's own identity 56 and possibly other information 58. The information from each voucher is treated in turn and there is associated with it information directly from store 40 as to the identity 60 of the relevant provider and possibly other external information 62 associated with the voucher. Store 64 holds all of this information for a complete batch of vouchers (of which, for convenience, only the information locations for the first three and the last one are shown in Figure 1). The electronic image from store 34 is associated with its voucher identify 56 in an image store 66 for all the vouchers of the batch. The terminal 12 may have a terminal output unit 68 which comprises the voucher store 36, image store 66 and

means for outputting the information 56, 52, 54, 58, 60 and 62 (shown in Figure 1 by the corresponding arrows passing through unit 68). This may be connected online to the following units or the information may be passed in batches (or groups of batches) to them. The voucher value contributory information 52 together with general value- determining information from a store 70 are passed to a value determining means 14. Store 70 contains substantially the tables and rules of the IATA Prorate Factor Manual, for example including class, type of flight (e.g. day or night), season, aircraft and so on, i.e. all factors which may affect the value of a particular journey section

in proportion to the total value of the flight, which factors may vary from section to section. This store 70 is part of the general information stream 30 mentioned above.

The value determining means 14 may also include a section to record the identity 54 of the issuer and the identity 60 of the provider (as shown in dotted lines, intersected by the relevant arrows). All of this information from the value determining means 14,

preferably together with the voucher identity 56 and other information 58, 62 from

store 64, are passed to unsorted voucher information store 16 which stores at a

location 72 all information relative to each voucher, e.g. until the information from

the vouchers has been processed for a complete batch of vouchers by the value determining means 14. This information at locations 72 is then processed through sorting unit 18, according to the kind of totals that will be required, into sorted voucher information store 20 and then into totalling registers 22. The relevant electronic images from store 66 are associated in output unit 24 with the totals from registers 22 and the voucher identities from store 20. Since the totals are preferably required to be daily totals, the relevant information is stored in store 16 or stores 66, 20 and 22 until a day's vouchers have been processed. However, it may be preferable

if all terminal units 12 feed their information into a local area network, e.g. one at each airport, and the information is then fed to a global network and hence to a central computing unit comprising the units from store 70 and value determining means 14 onwards, so that the information from all vouchers for a day is saved up until the day's collection is complete and then this is further processed. Output unit 24 can then, if required, also output instructions to effect debits and credits in accordance with the totals. However, bearing in mind that there will be a checking operation to

carry out and there may be disputes to settle, the instructions for debits and credits

may be reduced in amount by a predetermined percentage, e.g. 5%, or may be passed to a human operator to control them and actually issue the instructions. As seen in Figure 2, the sorted voucher information store 20 comprises a series of memory locations 74 each containing the information relevant to one voucher and arranged in groups, each associated with the relevant issuer identity 76, these locations being sorted in identity order. The memory locations are preferably sub-ordered in

order of provider. The value information from each memory location 74 is then added to the relevant totalling register 22, of which there is one for each possible pair of issuer and provider and also one 222 (shown with thickened outline) for each provider which is also an issuer in respect of a voucher. As shown in Figure 3, the identities 76 of the issuers are arranged in order in successive rows and the identities 78 of providers are arranged in successive columns. During sub-totalling, each register 22 increments by the relevant determined value for each voucher appertaining to that register as that value is passed thereto. So, for example, the register actually marked by the reference 22 in Figure 3 is for issuer "001." and for provider ".003". When the values for all values of a batch have been entered into the relevant registers, totalling is carried out by row and by column. Totals 80 list (in order from left to right) the total of own

vouchers for journey sections for which the issuer is the same as the carrier, the total of others' vouchers for which the issuer and carrier are different and the sum of these two totals as a check. The providers' totals 81 are in similar order in successive rows going down in Figure 3. At the bottom right portion of Figure 3 are three registers which give grand totals for Own, Others and Both for the batch of vouchers relating to one day.

Figure 4 shows an alternative arrangement in which the information from the value determining means 14 is divided up so that there are two unsorted voucher

information stores 162, 164. For each voucher, the voucher value 82 is output from means 14 twice, one output value 82 going to store 162 and having associated with

it the identity 54 of the related issuer, the other output value 82 going to store 164 and having associated with it the identity of the related provider 60. The value

information is then totalled in registers 224 and 226 in the manner described with

reference to Figure 3 except that there is only one register 224 for each party as issuer

and only one register 226 for each party as provider. The relevant totals are produced at registers 804, 806. This does not provide as much information as the Figure 3 configuration but may be adequate in some circumstances.

Figure 5 shows a further simplification in which the stores 162 and 164 of Figure 4 are combined, each value 82 being associated with an issuer identity 54 and separately with a provider identity 60, the two cases being distinguished by associating

the value with a sign ("plus" for the issuer and "minus" for the provider or vice versa).

These values, together with their signs, are fed to the totalling registers 228, one for

each party, so that the registers 228 act to provide only difference totals of the net value of that batch for each party as issuer and/or provider. An overall check total 808 is provided. It will be seen that this arrangement provides even less information than the Figure 4 arrangement but this may be appropriate in some circumstances.

These embodiments illustrate that for each voucher its value 84 is determined and for at least some of the vouchers this requires information from the IATA Prorate Factor Manual in store 70 which is information external to the voucher. Also, there is associated with said value 84 for each voucher the identities 54 and 60 of the

parties being the relevant issuer and provider. Further, there are provided totals 80 of the values of the vouchers relevant to each said party, one total 801 for which the

relevant issuer and provider are the same and one total 803 for other vouchers. There are also produced one total 805 (being the sum of totals 801 and 803) for vouchers for which a parly is an issuer and another total 807 for vouchers for which the same party is a provider. For vouchers for which the issuer and provider relevant to a

voucher are not the same, there are provided one total 803 for vouchers for which the party is an issuer and another total 809 for vouchers for which the party is a provider.

As described, each voucher is associated with, for example, the scheduled flight time appertaining to it and there are defined non-overlapping time intervals, each being one day, during which said times occur. The batches are then limited to one grouped batch for each day so that said totals are produced separately in respect of each such time interval of a day.

The output from unit 24 is in the form of a total of the values of the vouchers

relevant to an issuer together with a list of identities of such vouchers and a record of the corresponding electronic images.

Store 42 contains information as to the layouts of permissible vouchers, these defining at least four different fields of an airline ticket voucher. Reader 38 then effects a consistency check between four such fields of the voucher information for each voucher as part of its recognition process. Reader 38 for the same purpose, effects a consistency check between the voucher information and information in stores 40 and 42, in both stores the information being external to the voucher. Such external information comprises in store 42 the rules of the IATA Ticketing Handbook and the tables of the IATA Airline Coding Directory.

While reader 38 is adapted as described above for handwriting recognition, it can also recognise information individual to a voucher that has been printed on it.

It will be apparent or implicit that there can be features of method corresponding to all the above-described features of apparatus. Further, a computer means

(comprising a computer and possibly other means) or computer system can be programmed to carry out all of the above-mentioned functions (and likewise a computer apart from physically storing the actual vouchers or electronically imaging

the vouchers), and the invention extends to means for programming a computer means

or system to carry out any or all of the above-mentioned functions and a computer means or system so programmed.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts that features of the different embodiments disclosed herein may be omitted, selected, combined or exchanged and the invention can be considered to extend to any new and inventive combination thus formed, in its own right.

Claims

1. A means or system for handling information, for use in a scheme in which

vouchers each having a detcrminablc value issued by issuers to users who give them up to providers for value, each voucher having associated with it information

identifying the relevant issuer and provider, or a like scheme, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for determining for each voucher its value, which for at least some of the vouchers requires information external to the voucher, associating with said value for each voucher the identities of the parties being the relevant issuer and provider,

and producing at least one total of the values of the vouchers relevant to each said party.

2. A means or system as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for producing at least two totals of the values of the vouchers relevant to each said party, one total for vouchers for which the relevant issuer and provider are the same and one for other vouchers.

3. A means or system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for producing at least two totals of the values of the vouchers relevant to each party, one total for vouchers for which the party is an issuer and another total for vouchers for which the party is a provider.

4. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for producing, for vouchers for which the issuer and provider relevant to a voucher are not the same, at least two totals of the values of the vouchers relevant to each party, one total for vouchers for which the party is an issuer and another total for vouchers for which the party is a provider.

5. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that it comprises means for associating with said value for each voucher a time, defining non-overlapping time intervals during which said times occur, and producing said totals separately in respect of each time interval.

6. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that it is adapted for said vouchers to be airline ticket vouchers.

7. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in

that it comprises means adapted for obtaining from electronic images of the vouchers

information for use in determining the said values.

8. A means or system as claimed in claim 7, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for producing a total of the values of the vouchers relevant to a said issuer, a list of identities of such vouchers and a record of the corresponding electronic images.

9. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in

that it comprises means adapted for handwriting recognition.

10. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, characterised in

that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a method of feature detection which employs Simon neighbours.

11. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of robust features.

12. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a limited lexicon.

13. A means or system as claimed in claim 12, characterised in that it is adapted for the lexicon to comprise substantially the rules of the IATA Ticketing

Handbook and/or the tables of the IATA Airline Coding Directory.

14. A means or system as claimed in claim 12 or 13, characterised in that it comprises the lexicon.

15. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14, characterised

in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a consistency check on the voucher information.

16. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 15, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a consistency check between at least three fields of the voucher information.

17. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 16, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a consistency check between at least four fields of the voucher information.

18. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 17, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a consistency check between the voucher information and information external to the voucher.

19. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 18, characterised

in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a library of relational information.

20. A means or system as claimed in claim 19, characterised in that it comprises the library of relational information.

21. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for assigning, to information from a voucher, a probability of correct recognition thereof.

22. A means or system as claimed in claim 21, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for rejecting the voucher information if the probability is less than a predetermined value.

23. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 22, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for calling for human intervention in respect of a

voucher for which its information has been rejected.

24. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 23, characterised

in that it comprises, as the information external to a voucher, or part of such external information, for use in determining a voucher value as aforesaid, substantially the tables and rules of the IATA Prorate Factor Manual.

25. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 24, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for obtaining from each voucher information to be used in determining the value of that voucher.

26. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 25, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for electronically imaging the vouchers.

27. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 26, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for producing debit and/or credit instructions, as appropriate, relating to the totals.

28. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 27, characterised in that it comprises means for storing the vouchers and listing their stored order. .

29. A means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 28, characterised in that it comprises terminals located at one or more airports, each terminal being

adapted for imaging airline ticket vouchers electronically, storage of the vouchers and

listing their stored order.

30. Forming part of, or connected into, or suitable for use in, a means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 29, a means, characterised in that it is adapted for imaging airline ticket vouchers electronically, storage of the vouchers and listing their stored order.

31. Means for machine reading of text, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a limited lexicon and with the aid of a consistency check for mutual consistency between at least three fields of the text.

32. Means for machine reading of text, characterised in that it comprises means adapted for recognition with the aid of a method of feature detection which employs Simon neighbours and with the aid of robust features.

33. A means or system for handling information and substantially according to any embodiment hereinbefore described.

34. A means or system for handling information and substantially according to any embodiment hereinbefore described with reference to and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

35. In a scheme in which vouchers each having a determinable value issued by

issuers to users who give them up to providers for value, each voucher having associated with it information identifying the relevant issuer and provider, or a like scheme, a method of handling data, characterised in that it comprises determining for each voucher its value, which for at least some of the vouchers requires information not borne by the voucher,

associating with said value for each voucher the identities of the parties being the relevant issuer and provider, and producing at least one total of the values of the vouchers relevant to

each said party.

36. A method as claimed in claim 35, characterised in that it comprises producing at least two totals of the values of the vouchers relevant to each said party,

one total for vouchers for which the relevant issuer and provider are the same and one

for other vouchers.

37. A method as claimed in claim 35 or 36, characterised in that it comprises producing at least two totals of the values of the vouchers relevant to each party, one total for vouchers for which the party is an issuer and another total for vouchers for which the party is a provider.

38. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 37, characterised in that it comprises producing, for vouchers for which the issuer and provider relevant to a voucher are not the same, at least two totals of the values of the vouchers relevant to each party, one total for vouchers for which the party is an issuer and another total for

vouchers for which the party is a provider.

39. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 38, characterised in that it comprises associating with said value for each voucher a time, defining non- overlapping time intervals during which said times occur, and producing said totals

separately in respect of each time interval.

40. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 39, characterised in that it is adapted for said vouchers to be airline ticket vouchers.

41. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 40, characterised in that it comprises obtaining from electronic images of the vouchers information for use in determining the said values.

42. A method as claimed in claim 41, characterised in that it comprises

producing a total of the values of the vouchers relevant to a said issuer, a list of identities of such vouchers and a record of the corresponding electronic images.

43. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 42, characterised in that it comprises handwriting recognition.

44. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 43, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of a method of feature detection which employs Simon neighbours.

45. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 44, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of robust features.

46. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 45, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of a limited lexicon.

47. A method as claimed in claim 46, characterised in that the lexicon

comprises substantially the rules of the IATA Ticketing Handbook and/or the tables of the IATA Airline Coding Directory.

48. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 47, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of a consistency check on the voucher

information.

49. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 48, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of a consistency check between at least three

fields of the voucher information.

50. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 49, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of a consistency check between at least four fields of the voucher information.

51. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 50, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of a consistency check between the voucher

information and information external to the voucher.

52. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 51, characterised in that

it comprises recognition with the aid of a library of relational information.

53. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 52, characterised in that it comprises assigning, to information from a voucher, a probability of correct recognition thereof.

54. A method as claimed in claim 53, characterised in that it comprises rejecting the voucher information if the probability is less than a predetermined value.

55. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 54, characterised in that it comprises calling for human intervention in respect of a voucher for which its

information has been rejected.

56. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 55, characterised in that it comprises, as the information external to a voucher, or part of such external information, for use in determining a voucher value as aforesaid, substantially the tables and rules of the IATA Prorate Factor Manual.

57. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 56, characterised in that it comprises obtaining from each voucher information to be used in determining the

value of that voucher.

58. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 57, characterised in that it comprises electronically imaging the vouchers.

59. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 58, characterised in that it comprises producing debit and/or credit instructions, as appropriate, relating to the totals.

60. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 59, characterised in that it comprises storing the vouchers and listing their stored order.

61. A method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 60, characterised in that it comprises use of terminals located at one or more airports, each terminal being adapted for imaging airline ticket vouchers electronically, storage of the vouchers and listing their stored order.

62. Forming part of, or suitable for use in, a method as claimed in any one of claims 35 to 61, a method of handling data, characterised in that it comprises imaging airline ticket vouchers electronically, storage of the vouchers and listing their stored order.

63. Method for machine reading of text, characterised in that it comprises recognition with the aid of a limited lexicon and with the aid of a consistency check for mutual consistency between at least three fields of the text.

64. Method for machine reading of text, characterised in that it comprises

recognition with the aid of a method of feature detection which employs Simon neighbours and with the aid of robust features.

65. A method for handling information and substantially according to any embodiment hereinbefore described.

66. A method for handling information and substantially according to any

embodiment hereinbefore described with reference to and illustrated in the

accompanying drawings.

67. A means for programming a computer means or system, characterised in that it is adapted to programme the computer means or system to act as a means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 29.

68. A method of programming a computer means or system, characterised in

that it comprises programming the computer means or system to act as a means or

system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 29.

69. A computer means or system, characterised in that it is programmed to act as a means or system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 29.