OCR Technology in automatic document recognition

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a technology that allows you to convert written or printed text into digital form. OCR recognizes particular signs (letters, special characters, graphics, diagrams, etc.) and modifies them into a digital text file, which can be easily edited or copied. Programs that are based on OCR technology make a scan of a document, search for particular content and convert them to digital form. Particular signs are decompounded to pixels and compared with current records in a database, in order to find the closest match. In more advanced OCR programs, signs are divided with regard to their physical components (such as angles, curves) and matched to corresponding letters, digits, etc.

Fundamental advantage of OCR is time saving. Manual rewriting and completing documentation is very time consuming. The OCR program allows for doing tedious jobs in a few minutes. Second essential plus is the possibility of easy analysis of documents. The fact that we can recognise specific data or search for key phrases simplifies looking for information. A huge advantage is also having all of the important documents in one place. Thanks to easy archiving and accessing the files in any place and time, we can have all of the necessary documents within reach. It is worth mentioning about simple circulation of documents, which improves communication among departments or between a company and a customer.

Thanks to OCR we can easily transfer text, chart, data from pdf file to editable text document, without the necessity of manual copying. The accuracy of OCR is even reaching 99%. The system can be used to automise many processes in a company, depending on the brand.

OCR technology is commonly used in banking. It supports the process of data management eliminating the necessity of manual entering documents, such as receipts, invoices or credit agreements. Automatic collection and completion of customers data and their immediate processing significantly improves customer service with maintaining the highest security standards. The best example is using OCR technology in mobile applications, which scan data from invoices and transfer them to proper fields to make a bank transfer.

OCR also has wide application in the medical industry. This technology is especially useful in archiving and accessing a patient’s medical history. The whole documentation, tests results, prescriptions can be stored in one place and easily browsed by a patient or medical staff.

The number of processed and archived documents in the law industry is immense. Digitalisation of documentation eliminates the problem with its storage and most of all it considerably improves the process of finding information in legal acts, contracts, procedural letters, etc. In documents processed with optical text recognition we can easily find certain paragraphs, footnotes or words. The OCR system in law firms, notary’s or legal advisor's offices ensures better access to information, effective circulation of documents and better work organisation.

OCR is a function available in many accounting programs. OCR scanning allows recognition of particular invoice elements, such as personal data, invoice number, payment date or net/gross amounts. The OCR program apart from facilitating work of people working in accounting or bookkeeping offices is also useful for customers, who instead of collecting and personally delivering invoices every month will be able to just make and send their scan.

Technology of optical text recognition will for sure develop and have new applications in various fields, especially because of the fact that we want and we can do many things remotely. If you would like to talk about how you can use OCR technology in your application, contact us and schedule a meeting or call.