OCR Full Form

What is the full form of OCR?

OCR abbreviates for Optical Character Recognition. It is sometimes also called Text Recognition. OCR employs technology to recognise printed or handwritten text characters in digital images of actual documents, including scanned paper documents. The core operation of OCR comprises reading the text from a document and translating the characters into a code that can be applied to data processing.

What is OCR?

OCR systems are used to convert physical documents into text that computers can read. These systems combine hardware and software. Hardware, such as an optical scanner or specialised circuit board, is used to copy or read text, while the software handles sophisticated processing. OCR is most frequently used to create Portable Document Formats out of hard-copy legal or historical documents. Users can format, edit, and search the document once it is in this soft copy, precisely like a word processor.

Types of OCR

There are mainly four types of OCR. They are,

Simple OCR: When using a simple OCR, templates are kept for a wide range of typeface and text picture patterns. The OCR program compares text images of every character to its internal database using pattern-matching algorithms. Optical word recognition occurs when the computer program matches every word with the stored data.

Optical Mark Recognition OCR: It helps in the identification of watermarks, text symbols, and logos in documents.

Intelligent Character Recognition OCR: To read the text like a human, modern OCR systems employ intelligent character recognition (ICR) technology. By utilising machine learning software, they employ cutting-edge techniques that teach machines to behave like humans.

Intelligent Word Recognition OCR: This OCR also functions like Intelligent Character Recognition, but it identifies and converts whole word images into editable text format.

Advantages of OCR

Some significant advantages of OCR technology are:

1. Companies can use this technology to convert their data into easily browseable formats.

2. OCR technology can help convert handwritten documents into editable document formats.

3. The use of OCR technology reduces time and effort and increases efficiency and accuracy.

Uses of OCR

Some common uses of Optical Character Recognition are as follows:

1. OCR can be used in logistics companies for making invoices and tracking the delivery packages’ barcodes.

2. It can also be used in reducing manual tasks at healthcare centres by processing treatment records of patients and their test reports.

3. OCR is also important in preventing fraud in bank transactions and improving its security.