Some of us must have experienced the need of verifying documents once in our lifetime. In the past, the process of document verification was completely manual and required so much time to process the documents. This method of verification has completely evolved with the introduction of technologies in our lives. The OCR solutions have changed the way of processing documents. In fact, it is assisting with many other activities of image-to-text conversion that are being used by multiple industries in the world including the travel industry, gaming sectors, educational institutes, and other corporations. With OCR the security agencies are also effectively processing criminal records and databases. This proves that OCR technology is playing a major role in the modern world of digitalization and technology.
What is OCR?
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition technology. It is not as new as it seems to be, in fact, it traces its roots back to telegraphy which was a concept introduced a century ago in the 1920s. The use of the telegraph is now replaced by digital methods of data transmission and storage. OCR technology is used to convert textual data into digital format. It uses new methods of the digital world such as artificial intelligence and machine learning in parallel to improve the process of conversion. The statistics show a great market share of the OCR technology in today’s world. It holds up to 14% of market revenue which is increasing each day. Talking about the statistics of OCR, the numbers show a great increase, and in future predictions, an estimate of OCR is generated, to touch the market size of $13 billion by 2025.
A Quick OCR Processing Walkthrough
The OCR process is composed of multiple steps which ensure the data extraction from the documents. The method of OCR verification is being improved at every iteration. The best example is the introduction of mobile OCR systems. Using the mobile phone camera as the scanning device these systems efficiently convert the data from images into text. People in their daily lives use this method to convert images, signboards, and posters into digital text formats which can be edited and modified.
Acquire Data
The first step of the OCR process involves the acquisition of images from any device. The object data to be converted is first scanned from any device such as a camera. The image is then uploaded to the OCR systems to process the data within.
Validate Data
The data uploaded is then validated by the OCR system. The validation process verifies the files uploaded and checks for any invalid data within the system. Before executing the conversion phase. Some newly developed software that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning also checks for forgery or manipulation within the uploaded files.
Convert Data
After the validation process, the OCR system performs the extraction process on the file uploaded. The text extraction process is carried out with multiple checks for the number of lines of text and the number of characters in the text lines to convert the data into machine-readable code format.
Output
In the last phase, the OCR system converts the machine-readable code into digital data that is readable by humans. It generally converts the binary code format into the alphabetical format. The extracted data is then provided as the output of the OCR system to the user which can be modified or updated.
OCR Solutions
The OCR scanning services are used by multiple industries as discussed briefly above. The purpose of OCR is not only in the simple image-to-text conversions but also in the critical aspects of verification and identification that are done with OCR.
Using OCR to Prevent Crimes
The identity verification process is carried out by every organization to make sure they interact with the right customers, clients, and businesses. OCR system is an integral part of the identity verification process as it is used in multiple tasks of verification of user documents and files. It uses AI to also validate the documents of the users to ensure the restriction of unauthorized users from the system. With OCR the KYC process can be implemented online with complete verification methods and processes. It helps in eradicating crimes by detecting attackers within the systems.
Wrapping It Up
The OCR software is a way of efficiently converting data from images into text formats. They are being used by multiple industries worldwide. It provides a secure way of identifying criminals and attackers in online systems. The online KYC check is conducted with the help of OCR with AI and ML technologies. By using these three methods in parallel, the organizations can effectively filter out the real users from unauthorized ones. So ,the document verification process has completely evolved with the help of OCR and banking and finance sectors are implementing it effectively.
