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The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

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Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

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    #1

    Scanner Pen

    I have a large stack of papers 8-12 inches think, with a significant of data on each paper that needs to be entered into an A5 database. It would take one person several weeks to get this done. I searched the board and found some info on scanning data to a word processor and then converting it. Not sure if my situation is different. Here's what's needed.

    Each document contains dates, numbers and text; in A5 each will have it's own field and it's not laid out such as the names/addresses that were discussed on the board. I imagine I could scan the data on each document in a specific order such as text, date, number, etc.

    Any thoughts? Has anyone done this?

    How about OCR software?

    Thanks,
    kenn
    TYVM :) kenn

    Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Scanner Pen

    Hi Kenn:
    I haven't worked with a pen scanner but I can see that it would be useful if you want to extract certain information from a more complex form; and if quite a lot of text in certain fields. What I would in this case is scan a unique string at the end of each field and another unique string at the end of each record and use word processor's global search and replace to convert these unique strings to delimiters. Should then be very easy to import delimited text format.

    I've used an HP Capshare to scan forms and have had good success with its OCR software. Can't check it out at the moment since it's at home on my laptop, but I think it is Textbridge. It recognizes areas on the scanned image, and I believe there is some control over the order in which areas are processed. I've had best luck with OCR when converted to plain ASCII text - rather than any word processor format (because it doesn't have to try to match fonts and formatting ???).

    The last time I did this, as a favour for someone, I scanned with the Capshare, 50 or 60 pages of forms in a 3-ring binder, on my lap, zapped the images to my laptop's IR port, and ran the OCR, all during commercial breaks in my favourite TV show. My "client" was blown away when I e-mailed back the data the next morning. She says she found only a very, very small number of OCR miscues.

    If you want to capture all of the information on the page, on a stack of paper 8-12 inches thick, I would think it would be best to use a flatbed scanner with a doc. feeder and "forms" type of OCR as I described above.

    Hope this helps.

    Bob

    An aside: The Capshare is a really cool device - probably ahead of it's time, since, unfortunately it is now shown as discontinued. However, any eBay sales I've seen recently are well above original MSRP - maybe HP will re-release.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: Scanner Pen

      Bob;
      It is interesting what you have done with the Capshare. Are you sure it is discontinued? The reason I ask is that I note your address is ".ca", and I happened to be looking at the Capshare on the HP Canadian web site just this morning because I am considering getting one for a test project I want to do, and I certainly didn't notice that it was "discontinued". I would be very interested in talking to you about how it works. Are you in Toronto?

      Ken;
      We do a small amount of OCR scanning on an HP flatbed that came bundled with Omnipage. I find Omnipage works very well.

      Duncan

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Scanner Pen

        Hi Duncan:
        I could be wrong about Capshare being discontinued - don't recall exactly where I read it. But I had been checking prices regularly - because I knew of others who were waiting for "the right price" - and recently, I couldn't find any place carrying them. So I guess I found it easy to believe what I read. Let me know if you do find a source - the links to online stores I tried didn't seem to be listing it any more.

        I've heard recent versions of OmniPage are very accurate.

        I'll respond offline to your other comments and questions.

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Scanner Pen

          FWIW, my documents consist of 2 types,

          1. copies of canceled checks, 2-4 to a page. I need to get the date, amount, account #, account name and the signature.
          2. forms containing names and numbers displayed in a spreadsheet format, 32 columns and up to 15 rows.

          kenn
          TYVM :) kenn

          Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Scanner Pen

            Hi KenN
            Again, pardon my ignorance of pen scanners, but if I'm remembering correctly, I don't recall with certainty that any I've read about recently would actually save an image (as would be needed with your signatures on the checks (cheques for us Canucks). Otherwise, the pen scanner would be the ticket for picking off the types of data you need from these "forms".

            As for the spreadsheets, I think it would be really tedious picking off 32 columns with a pen scanner. However, I believe most good OCR software (like Pro versions of OmniPage or Textbridge) can analyze and save a scanned spreadsheet as just that - so much easier to import that data to a database table.

            Hope my understanding of your problem, and all my recollections are correct- and that this has been some help to you.

            Good luck.

            Bob

            Comment

              #7
              RE: Scanner Pen


              Hi Ken,

              Did you ever try this one ?

              http://www.cpen.com/cpen/frame.asp

              Cheers
              Jens

              Comment

                #8
                RE: Scanner Pen

                Ken,

                From what I remember, copies usually don't scan very well. If you are using any kind of OCR type of program, OCR expects fairly tight tollerances with where fields should be. Copies usually are not always exactly where they should be, and can be blurry. We are a county government agency, and we also need to know about cashed checks. We entered into a deal with a couple of banks where we dial into the bank, and they download the cashed check information from "yesterday's" transactions. They have specific programs that they needed us to use, and we are assigned a security ID. We don't get signatures, but we certainly know the amount, account, and date cashed.


                Hope this Helps,

                Tom Henkel

                Comment

                  #9
                  RE: Scanner Pen

                  Tom raises a good point about scanning copies - quality of copies can be a big problem if they're not good and consistent. In addition to fading and blurring, you can have streaks and other artifacts of dirty glass or rollers. Another big problem is skewing. While most modern OCR software has settings for both manual and automatic despeckling and de-skewing, the latter doesn't work unless the skew is consistent. - All this is further support for using the pen scanner.

                  On the other hand, a copy can be better than the original, if for example there is a background pattern on the checks that can be faded out on the copy. Ditto if the checks are a relatively dark color.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Scanner Pen

                    Originally posted by jensharloff View Post
                    Hi Ken,

                    Did you ever try this one ?

                    http://www.cpen.com/cpen/frame.asp

                    Cheers
                    Jens
                    I worked with this pen. Good results. Digitized specified data on each page of a 500 pages book.
                    Marcel

                    I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
                    ---- Confusius ----

                    Comment

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