OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. The technology electronically translates different types of documents, such as PDF files, digital camera images, and scanned paper documents, into data. You can then edit or search the electronic file, which would not be possible from the source documents. OCR tech has a wide variety of uses. Let’s take a closer look.
How does OCR technology work exactly?
The technology of OCR is based on the analysis of sequential lines and curves. OCR basically makes informed guesses to associate or match strings of characters from words. So, imagine you have a paper document like a contract or a brochure. You could use a scanner to scan the document and turn it into an electronic file, but you would not be able to edit or search the file.
All the scanner has done is to turn the document into an electronic image, which is nothing more than a series of dots. To actually extract and repurpose data from scanned documents, image-only PDFs, or images caught with a digital camera, you need OCR software. The technology will single out letters on the image and transform them into editable and searchable sentences. You end up with an editable document that looks just like the original.
OCR’s Use in Online Live Casinos
OCR has many more uses besides making documents editable. One of the most interesting uses of the technology is in online live dealer casinos. At a live casino, you can play a variety of casino games with a real croupier in real-time, thus enhancing the experience whereby you can feel as though you are almost playing games at a brick-and-mortar casino. One way in which online live casinos transmit their real-time data to the virtual tables and the players is via OCR technology. Special cameras capture and analyze the raw data of the game being played.
For example, an OCR camera can identify suits and symbols of playing cards and use a rapid response database to display the results on the screen. Not long ago, online casino games were managed by Radio Frequency Identification, where each card in a deck was equipped with a minuscule microchip. Now, with OCR technology, dealers can use conventional playing cards, making the experience much more similar to that of a land-based casino.
OCR’s Use in Automatic Number Plate Recognition
OCR is perhaps most widely used for Automatic Number Plate Recognition. OCR cameras scan the group of pixels on each vehicle that passes and determines whether each character is a letter or number. Those snapshots of registration plates are converted into code and stored in a database, enabling law enforcement and other agencies to identify vehicles that have broken the law or are required for other purposes.
OCR’s Use for Studies, Business, and Personal Projects
With OCR technology, you can scan paper documents and share them with colleagues for editing. If you are a student or a businessperson, you can speed up your task-time using OCR tech to extract quotes from books and papers. The same is true of personal projects. You can even capture text outdoors from items like posters, banners, and timetables.
You can basically capture any text from anywhere and transform it into data to edit and share, so your options really are endless. The whole process of converting data with OCR tech takes less than a minute, which means it can speed up business and study practices and personal projects. In a matter of no time, you can obtain an editable electronic document that looks exactly the same as the original.