Optical Character Recognition Explained in Less than 600 Words
Is your risk management process slow due to keying in data? Do you need a way to edit a printed contract without wasting hours? If so, you need the digital solution of optical character recognition (OCR). Avoid spending hours typing documents from the beginning and risking mistakes.
Now, imagine scanning a document and digitizing all the text to make it machine-readable. Luckily, this technology exists!
Optical character recognition (OCR) technology converts unstructured data into machine-readable text. This solution allows professionals to search and consume information more easily.
You may think, “ok, but how is this different from a scanner?” The software reads and transforms the text on an image into a readable computer format with OCR technology. Using a regular scanner could only take a physical copy and turn it into a photo on your computer.
As you will discover in this article, because of its practical features, OCR has shown growing success, especially in the insurance industry.
What is Optical Character Recognition?
OCR is a technology used to read text characters like books, photos, or scanned documents. It converts text containing images into characters that are readable by computers.
In other words, it is the detection of printed or written text that analyzes dark and light patterns to determine letter shapes and translate them into character codes. The character codes then digitize information from a scanned document.
You can think of this software “reading” a scanned document and then converting it to a digital file.
How Does OCR Work?
The process is easy. To start, you need to upload a picture or a document for the system to read. Once you upload the photo, OCR technology will scan it as a file made up of pixels.
Once the photo goes through the OCR software, it can recognize the actual words and symbols in the image and thus read it.
How Does OCR Scan Files?
There are two ways that optical character recognition looks at files and converts them into readable formats:
- Feature Detection: The software recognizes the features that make characters. For example, it knows that any vertical line with three horizontal lines coming out on the right is an “E.”
- Pattern Recognition: Through programming, the software recognizes the exact character. In other words, it reads the font you are using.
In terms of flexibility, feature detection is more beneficial because OCR technology can read any font you run through it.
How Can You Take Advantage of OCR?
Many industries use optical character recognition technology because it allows organizations to save time and money by reducing the time to import data and cuts out human error.
You can learn more about the benefits of OCR specific to the insurance industry. Sign up for a free demo to learn how SmartCompliance optical character recognition software will help you upload your insurance certificates easily, digitalize them, and track expiration dates within our powerful digital solution.
