In an evolutionary world where consumers are obsessed with digital trends, businesses are looking for methods to digitize operations in order to reduce manual labor. COVID-19 also contributed to the trend of clients performing daily chores via online platforms. Customers like to do anything online, from purchasing to banking. The interest of consumers in online trends has grown significantly over the past few years. Companies must now have a digital presence for their products and services due to this new normal. Businesses are attempting to automate their data extraction process with OCR technology.
An Overview of OCR Technology
By extracting information from images and turning it into machine-readable text, the OCR process is technological advancement. Numerous documents, including printed ones and digital images, can be processed using optical character recognition software. Previously thought to be impossible to extract data from, handwritten documents can now be read by OCR software and converted to an automated format.
Traditional vs Digital Data Entry Processes
Businesses used to operate manually, or with the help of humans before technology became available. These processes required a lot of time and effort, and there was a chance they wouldn’t be accurate.
But at last, as new trends have developed, modern technology has made it possible for OCR technology to divide the workload. Today, data entry is not a laborious task. OCR scanning extracts any kind of information from a variety of documents and converts it into searchable or editable data.
The Process of Optical Character Recognition Services
Recognizing solutions combine AI and OCR technology in order to transform various scanned documents into editable or machine-readable formats. It uses machine learning and computer vision to read the text incorporated into the documents and provide customers with accurate results. Digital OCR technology examines and analyzes text in documents that are in the form of images in order to digitize them. This enables the software to compare pictures of real characters to ones that have been stored in the database of OCR engines.
- Pre-processing, this step involves putting the data in a state that is ready for extraction. The application of linear text alignment, light modifications, and sharpness enhancement
- After examining the information’s various styles, extracting the text
- Ultimately, post-processing recognizes the information in various styles
Types of OCR Systems
The OCR systems have seen heavy use, and the introduction of new technologies has opened up more successful paths. Around the world, various industries use it, and every company adopts its own version of the optical character recognition program. Three types that are popular today are the result of technological development. This blog contains all three methods.
Desktop Based OCR
Utilizing computer base OCR technology, this is an old-school method of transforming visual information into words. These software programs were among the first in the field of image-to-text conversion to offer OCR solutions. It carries out character recognition using desktop programs. OCR software receives images using wireless media transmission or direct scanning in case of physical images.
Mobile OCR
The most popular technology today is mobile OCR. The extensive use of OCR technology on smartphones completely changes the way of text conversion from images to editable files. The smartphone industry has significantly impacted the OCR market by successfully implementing this technology. The majority of consumers have had firsthand experience using OCR on smartphones. Mobile phone manufacturers like Samsung and Apple include document scanning technologies in their products. Using the smartphone camera, optical character recognition captures customer input. The software interprets and analyzes the data in real-time.
Cloud Based OCR
Another sort of OCR solution is based on cloud server infrastructure. To allow for direct extraction from the workspace, it is built on cloud servers. Due to the fact that it does not need any client-side software installation, it is also helpful for quick conversions. Through an internet connection, the entire process is run from the cloud. Mobile phones and desktop computers can both use this service for picture conversion through the cloud. The cloud OCR system accepts images from any source through an image uploading interface. Before sending the text back to the client, it analyzes and processes images directly from the cloud.
Final Thoughts
Optical character recognition is a method for extracting data from paper-based documents and converting it into a machine-readable format. Following the data extraction, a searchable form can be made. In the past, businesses had to use time- and money-consuming data extraction techniques. Because fewer people are involved in the process now thanks to automated OCR technology, work has become easier for businesses. Many industries, including banking, healthcare, and tourism, use this cutting-edge technology to provide their clients with the best options.
