Why is ocr used

The digital format makes it possible for readers to see words on a screen and hear them read aloud at the same time. This provides more ways to engage with the information. It can also help kids develop independent reading skills.

One way to convert printed material to digital material is by using a scanner. The scanner creates a photo of the printed material. This photo, often called an image, can be displayed on a device that has a screen. But scanning is only the first step. This is where OCR comes in. It uses character recognition to convert the photo of the document into a text file. Binarization The refined image document is then converted into a bi-level document image, containing only black and white colors, where black or dark areas are identified as characters.

Recognizing the Characters In this step, the black areas are further processed to identify letters or digits. The recognition of characters is carried out by using one of the following two algorithms: Pattern recognition. The pattern recognition algorithm involves inserting text in different fonts and formats into the OCR software.

The modified software is then used for comparing and recognizing the characters in the scanned document. Feature detection. Through the feature detection algorithm, OCR software applies rules considering the features of a certain letter or number to identify characters in the scanned document. Examples of features include the number of angled lines, crossed lines, or curves used for comparing and identifying characters.

Verifying the Accuracy After the successful recognition of characters, the results are cross-referenced by utilizing the internal dictionaries of the OCR software to ensure accuracy. There are two typical methods for analyzing the accuracy of OCR software: Character-level accuracy , counting how many characters were detected correctly.

Word-level accuracy, counting how many words were recognized correctly. Optical Character Recognition Use Cases In , where everything is becoming digitalized and advanced, OCR technology is being used by various businesses to streamline business processes, improve accessibility, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Use case of an OCR application for Number Plate Recognition — Source OCR Applications in Banking The banking industry is deemed one of the largest consumers of OCR technology as it helps enhance security, improves data management, optimizes risk management, and enhances customer experience. OCR technology has also completely revolutionized the banking industry by: Providing easy verification : OCR allows a real-time verification of money deposit checks and a signature by scanning them using an OCR-based application.

An example of this can be seen in mobile banking apps, where checks can be deposited digitally and processed within days through OCR-based check depositing features. Enhancing security : The electronic deposition of checks through OCR technology results in fraud prevention and increasingly secure transactions, fostering a better user experience. OCR with real-time video, used for parking lot management. Advantages Of Optical Character Recognition Optical Character Recognition offers a wide range of benefits, many of which were reviewed in this article.

Improved accuracy : Software-based character recognition eliminates human errors, resulting in improved accuracy. Speed-up the processes : The technology converts unstructured data into searchable information, providing the required data available at faster rates and subsequently speeding up business processes. Cost-effective : OCR technology does not require a lot of resources which reduces the processing costs and subsequently reduces the overall costs of a business.

Enhanced customer satisfaction : The accessibility of searchable data by the customers ensures a good experience, assuring better customer satisfaction. Improved productivity : The easy accessibility of searchable data makes a stress-free environment for the employees, allowing them to focus on the main goals, boosting the productivity of a business. Related Articles.

Show more. All-in-one platform to build computer vision applications without code. Show me more. Feature Index. Visual Programming. Cloud Workspace. A big chunk of data that businesses handle is still in the paper form. OCR significantly reduces the time and money spent on manually entering the data into the computer from scratch.

You can simply use the OCR to scan the printed or electronic images containing text and obtain a digitalized form. You can digitalize all your paper documents with the help of OCR and free some space in your office. Storing your invoices, receipts, and other papers need additional space in your office and also require a lot of manual handling as well. Less paper translates into more order and space in your workspace.

Your email address will not be published. Notify me of new posts by email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. All a scanner can do is create an image or a snapshot of the document that is nothing more than a collection of black and white or color dots, known as a raster image.

In order to extract and repurpose data from scanned documents, camera images or image-only PDFs, you need an OCR software that would single out letters on the image, put them into words and then, words into sentences, thus enabling you to access and edit the content of the original document. In the heart of these systems lie three fundamental principles: Integrity, Purposefulness and Adaptability. The principle of purposefulness supposes that any interpretation of data must always serve some purpose.

And the principle of adaptability means that the program must be capable of self-learning. These principles endow the program with maximum flexibility and intelligence, bringing it as close as possible to human recognition.

Images captured by a digital camera differ from scanned documents or image-only PDFs. They often have defects such as distortion at the edges and dimmed light, making it difficult for most OCR applications to correctly recognize the text.