UN Workshop on Data Capture, Dar es Salaam Session 7 Data Capture Richard Lang International Manager

OCR Optical Character Recognition Agenda OCR Optical Character Recognition ICR Intelligent Character Recognition DFR Dynamic Form Recognition 12/9/2018

OCR = optical character recognition Technology was first invented in 1929 Gustav Tauschek obtained a patent on OCR in Germany Mechanical device that used templates First commercial system was installed at Readers Digest in 1955 Years later donated to the Smithsonian Institution Today Recognition of machine written text is now considered largely a solved problem Accuracy rates exceed 99% 12/9/2018

OCR Beta Systems well experienced with this recognition engines in Banks in Germany OCR A ⑁ Chair ⑀ Hook ⑂ Fork Austria OCR B + Plus 12/9/2018

ICR Intelligent Character Recognition The technique is far ahead of OCR because of ongoing development of ICR Handwriting recognition system Allows different styles of handwriting to be learned by a computer during / before processing to improve accuracy and recognition rates 12/9/2018

ICR Process: Capturing the image with Scanners Processing by (ICR) and/or (OCR) Segmentation is a very important step Decision if the homogenous criteria belong to the foreground or to the background Human editors can do that depending on the context Compare also computer tomography: according to different results from radio waves reflected from different angels the computer can reconstruct the picture With the first step only a suitable starting point (sets of pixels) is possible The increasing process links all closer pixels (computation of valleys and peaks with high degree of confidence) 12/9/2018

ICR Process: Pre-processing Deskew Shift, rotate Stretch 12/9/2018

ICR Process: Less / More Contrast Enhance Less / More Contrast Clean up (de-noise, halftone removal) to enable the recognition engine to give best results 12/9/2018

ICR Process: Feature extraction Data reduction 12/9/2018

Classification A one was written 90 % = 1 8 % = 7 2 % = 4 ICR Process: 90 % = 1 8 % = 7 2 % = 4 12/9/2018

ICR Algorithm: Neural Network Using kNN k-Nearest Neighbour SVM Support Vector Machine Minimize simultaneously the empirical classification error and maximize the geometric margin; hence they are also known as maximum margin classifiers 12/9/2018

ICR Process: After different classification alternatives the appropriate confidence will be provided Recognition Limitation only for most probable characters e.g. if only characters 3,6,0 are possible the engine can also be limited to this set and the results are much better Voting Machine Usability: security, efficiency and Accuracy 12/9/2018

Dynamic Field Recognition No fixed position is required If form is only ½ available still ½ readable No special Forms are required No timing tracks are necessary on the forms for OMR but results are also available the same time no cleaning of LEDs in the scanner necessary Robust against vertical / horizontal stretching or shrinking (e.g. different printers) 12/9/2018

Dynamic Field Recognition Recognizes: features (word as pixel cloud) boxes, lines and symbols 12/9/2018

Hardware- / Software - Requirement Scanner PC Network Disc Storage only necessary if images are needed for audit purposes Software Scan Software One Recognition and Voting Software for OMR, OCR, ICR, Barcode 12/9/2018

Cost Comparatives in general OMR Cost Comparatives in general   OMR from image Dedicated OMR Scanner Forms Design Same Forms Production - Up to 50% More Enumerator Training Up to double the cost Scanners PC Low cost PC PC Operators Servers Cost of more/new flexibility low high 12/9/2018

ICR Advantages Better than: Manual keying 90 % (plus) correct keys Manual = higher substitution rate than automated recognition Time consuming Deliberate manipulation possible OMR, because OMR is space consuming OCR, because OCR is machine written and therefore of limited use 12/9/2018

ICR Advantages Clear accuracy for OMR because of dirt removal by software depending on the mark size and figure Can detect line and can ignore dirt Clear result 12/9/2018

ICR Advantages Barcode, OCR, OMR, and ICR Recognition with one Software 12/9/2018

ICR Advantages Pro: Only rejected characters/fields need correction Rest of the form untouched With new technologies open for future faster, better quality With standardized correction mode Handwriting of the corresponding country will be recognized The previously mentioned advantages do not have to be repeated here again 12/9/2018

Thank you for your attention 12/9/2018