Scan-Optics

Last updated
Scan-Optics LLC
TypePrivate
Industry Information storage
Computer software
Enterprise information management
Founded1968
Headquarters
Manchester, Connecticut
,
USA
Key people
Jeff Mitchell: CEO
Tom Revall: CFO
Adam Stahl: VP Sales and Marketing
John Kingdon: MD (UK) Scan-Optics Limited
ProductsIntelligent data capture for document-based business process automation, enterprise search, Document Imaging, Production Scanners, High Speed Image Capture, Software and Technology Solutions[ buzzword ], Process Workflow, Integrated Solutions[ buzzword ], Data Recognition
Number of employees
51-200 employees
Website www.Scanoptics.com

Scan-Optics LLC, founded in 1968, is an enterprise content management services company and optical character recognition (OCR) and image scanner manufacturer headquartered in Manchester, Connecticut.

Contents

Scan-Optics' records management, [1] information, data remanence, data backup and data recovery services are supplied to government and business customers throughout North America [2] [3] and Europe, [4] while its industrial high-speed digital imaging and OCR SO-series scanners are being used worldwide.

History and technology

Scan-Optics was founded in 1968 by four Connecticut men with financial backing from The Travelers Companies. Its goal of developing the brand-new and barely functioning optical character recognition (OCR) technology. Scan-Optics was one of the technology groups enabling the transition from paper to digital.

Scan-Optics developed the image dissector tube and made it commercially available, pioneered an alphanumeric handwriting recognition system, and introduced key data entry integrated with optical character recognition via a direct computer-to-computer link to accomplish image reject repair. In a 1997 study Doculabs classified Scan-Optics' intelligent character recognition (ICR) as "a significant improvement over standard ICR technology" - in tests using 3,400 forms completed from a national sample of the general population, only Scan-Optics' ICR technology yielded a field read rate accuracy of approximately 90%. [5] In recent years, Scan-Optics' developments [6] included acoustic double page detection, context edit, [7] the integration of magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) and barcode reading into the recognition system [8] and the introduction of grayscale capability in OCR. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical character recognition</span> Computer recognition of visual text

Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a scene photo or from subtitle text superimposed on an image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Image scanner</span> Device that optically scans images, printed text

An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Commonly used in offices are variations of the desktop flatbed scanner where the document is placed on a glass window for scanning. Hand-held scanners, where the device is moved by hand, have evolved from text scanning "wands" to 3D scanners used for industrial design, reverse engineering, test and measurement, orthotics, gaming and other applications. Mechanically driven scanners that move the document are typically used for large-format documents, where a flatbed design would be impractical.

Optical mark recognition (OMR) collects data from people by identifying markings on a paper. OMR enables the hourly processing of hundreds or even thousands of documents. For instance, students may remember completing quizzes or surveys that required them to use a pencil to fill in bubbles on paper. A teacher or teacher's aide would fill out the form, then feed the cards into a system that grades or collects data from them.

Document processing is a field of research and a set of production processes aimed at making an analog document digital. Document processing does not simply aim to photograph or scan a document to obtain a digital image, but also to make it digitally intelligible. This includes extracting the structure of the document or the layout and then the content, which can take the form of text or images. The process can involve traditional computer vision algorithms, convolutional neural networks or manual labor. The problems addressed are related to semantic segmentation, object detection, optical character recognition (OCR), handwritten text recognition (HTR) and, more broadly, transcription, whether automatic or not. The term can also include the phase of digitizing the document using a scanner and the phase of interpreting the document, for example using natural language processing (NLP) or image classification technologies. It is applied in many industrial and scientific fields for the optimization of administrative processes, mail processing and the digitization of analog archives and historical documents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Data entry clerk</span>

A data entry clerk, also known as data preparation and control operator, data registration and control operator, and data preparation and registration operator, is a member of staff employed to enter or update data into a computer system. Data is often entered into a computer from paper documents using a keyboard. The keyboards used can often have special keys and multiple colors to help in the task and speed up the work. Proper ergonomics at the workstation is a common topic considered.

Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) refers to the methods of automatically identifying objects, collecting data about them, and entering them directly into computer systems, without human involvement. Technologies typically considered as part of AIDC include QR codes, bar codes, radio frequency identification (RFID), biometrics, magnetic stripes, optical character recognition (OCR), smart cards, and voice recognition. AIDC is also commonly referred to as "Automatic Identification", "Auto-ID" and "Automatic Data Capture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VueScan</span>

VueScan is a computer program for image scanning, especially of photographs, including negatives. It supports optical character recognition (OCR) of text documents. The software can be downloaded and used free of charge, but adds a watermark on scans until a license is purchased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3D scanning</span> Scanning of an object or environment to collect data on its shape

3D scanning is the process of analyzing a real-world object or environment to collect three dimensional data of its shape and possibly its appearance. The collected data can then be used to construct digital 3D models.

Intelligent character recognition (ICR) is used to extract handwritten text from image images using ICR, also referred to as intelligent OCR. It is a more sophisticated type of OCR technology that recognizes different handwriting styles and fonts to intelligently interpret data on forms and physical documents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microtek</span> Taiwan electronics company

Microtek International Inc. is a Taiwan-based multinational manufacturer of digital imaging products and other consumer electronics. It produces imaging equipment for medical, biological and industrial fields. It occupies 20 percent of the global imaging market and holds 450 patents worldwide.

TeleForm is a form of processing applications originally developed by Cardiff Software and now is owned by OpenText.

CuneiForm Cognitive OpenOCR is a freely distributed open-source OCR system developed by Russian software company Cognitive Technologies.

This comparison of optical character recognition software includes:

Image translation is the machine translation of images of printed text. This is done by applying optical character recognition (OCR) technology to an image to extract any text contained in the image, and then have this text translated into a language of their choice, and the applying digital image processing on the original image to get the translated image with a new language.

Forms processing is a process by which one can capture information entered into data fields and convert it into an electronic format. This can be done manually or automatically, but the general process is that hard copy data is filled out by humans and then "captured" from their respective fields and entered into a database or other electronic format.

Document Capture Software refers to applications that provide the ability and feature set to automate the process of scanning paper documents or importing electronic documents, often for the purposes of feeding advanced document classification and data collection processes. Most scanning hardware, both scanners and copiers, provides the basic ability to scan to any number of image file formats, including: PDF, TIFF, JPG, BMP, etc. This basic functionality is augmented by document capture software, which can add efficiency and standardization to the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OCRFeeder</span>

OCRFeeder is an optical character recognition suite for GNOME, which also supports virtually any command-line OCR engine, such as CuneiForm, GOCR, Ocrad and Tesseract. It converts paper documents to digital document files and can serve to make them accessible to visually impaired users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VIEW Engineering</span>

VIEW Engineering was one of the first manufacturers of commercial machine vision systems. These systems provided automated dimensional measurement, defect detection, alignment and quality control capabilities. They were used primarily in the Semiconductor device fabrication, Integrated circuit packaging, Printed circuit board, Computer data storage and Precision assembly / fabrication industries. VIEW's systems used video and laser technologies to perform their functions without touching the parts being examined.

Edward "Gordon" Perry Jr. was an American inventor and businessman who served as chief research engineer for Texas Instruments. He was also a co-founder of Recognition Equipment, Inc, (REI). He is best known for inventing the first commercially viable Retina Character Reader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OCR Systems</span> American computing company

OCR Systems, Inc., was an American computer hardware manufacturer and software publisher dedicated to optical character recognition technologies. The company's first product, the System 1000 in 1970, was used by numerous large corporations for bill processing and mail sorting. Following a series of pitfalls in the 1970s and early 1980s, founder Theodor Herzl Levine put the company in the hands of Gregory Boleslavsky and Vadim Brikman, the company's vice presidents and recent immigrants from the Soviet Ukraine, who were able to turn OCR System's fortunes around and expand its employee base. The company released the software-based OCR application ReadRight for DOS, later ported to Windows, in the late 1980s. Adobe Inc. bought the company in 1992.

References

  1. "Scan-Optics Business Process Outsourcing Service". ecmconnection.com. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  2. "DSS Corporation Selects Scan-Optics for High-End Scanning". whattheythink.com. 2006-04-25. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  3. Ken Congdon (2004-03-01). "Frito-Lay's Blue-Chip Scanning Solution". fieldtechnologiesonline.com. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  4. "Scan Optics Ltd". http://directory.aiim.org . Retrieved 2013-05-01.{{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  5. "Doculabs reports on Scan-Optics ICR accuracy". kmworld.com. 1997-11-03. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  6. "Patentgenius: Scan-Optics Inc. Patents". patentgenius.com. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  7. "Farlex article: "Patent for Context Edit"". The Free Library. 1999-01-13. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  8. "Justitia: Patents by Assignee Scan-Optics, Inc". Justia.com. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  9. "Patentmaps: 20 Patents by Scan Optics – Assignee". patentmaps.com. Retrieved 2013-05-01.

Further reading