Optical Character Recognition Devices (OCR)
Optical character recognition (OCR) refers to a computer's ability to recognize printed letters, numerals, or symbols (optical characters) as discrete entities rather than as simply an image containing lines, curves, and shading. Useful for document management, form processing, and a host of other commercial applications, this powerful tool allows businesses to convert paper documents into electronic files that can then be manipulated and retrieved at will. Although the earliest OCR devices debuted in the late 1950s, it was in the 1980s when OCR technology first reached the mass market, spurred by the increasing power of personal computer systems.
The OCR process is simple in...
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