Place name character string collation method, place name character string collation device, place name character string recognition device, and mail classification system

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To permit a high-speed collating process by generating a place name dictionary covering all place name character strings even when place names has many different notations, with less man-power. SOLUTION: Different notations of a place name are represented by extending a BNF notation method known as one representing method for the generation rule of context free grammar to match to the notation of a place name. According to the generation rule, the pattern of a typical different notation, e.g. small 'ke' and large 'ke' in the square form of Japanese syllabary and 'ga' in the cursive form of Japanese syllabary are defined as one syntax category, so that a set of the different notations of the place name can be simply represented. Further, the different notations of the place name can be simply represented by using select symbols adopted by the BNF notation method. Namely, the different notations of the place name are represented according to the generation rule (102) and recognition (104) is performed by using a network obtained from the generation rule. Consequently, the dictionary into which the set of various different notations is entered can be easily generated without any omission.