1. OCR Reading

2. Class Summary Description Class Level Prerequisites
Overview of how to use the OCR softsensor
Advanced Settings
Class Level
Intermediate
Prerequisites
Basic FrameWork Training

3. OCR SoftSensors Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Recognizing and reading characters by comparing to list of previously trained ones. Reading any code containing these characters
Optical Character Verification (OCV)
Matching a particular pattern of predetermined characters. Verifying a specific string of characters

4. OCR SoftSensors Sample application industries Pharmaceutical
Automotive
Electronics/Semiconductors
Packaging
General manufacturing

5. OCR SoftSensors Variety of special threshold options
Computed, linear and non-linear
Train your own characters
Ability to read dot matrix, segmented and stroke (e.g. Japanese) characters
Capability of handling rotation and reading curved text
Control of spacing and character size

6. OCR SoftSensors: For Best Results
Characters must be able to be extracted by thresholding
Characters must be repeatable from one image to the next
Avoid images with textured or printed backgrounds
OCR “friendly” fonts
OCR A, OCR B, Semi
Undecorated, non-serif fonts
Character height between 20 and 30 pixels

7. Advanced OCR Features. Thresholding changes: Dominant Color
AutoBimodal ~ Automatically calculates a single threshold value to use based on the entire histogram. Reduces the effects of noise and specular reflections.
Adaptive ~ Calculates a specific threshold value for different areas of the image depending on the contrast found in those areas. Makes the overall threshold more robust when lighting and contrast are not uniform. 7

8. Advanced OCR Features.
Dialog boxes changed to make set-up easier. 8

9. Advanced OCR Features.
New font list with images. 9

10. Advanced OCR Features.
New Character Info with images. 10

11. Advanced OCR Features.
Orphan Removal ~ Disregard pixels that are not part of the character but are of the same intensity value as the character. 11

12. Advanced OCR Features.
Fill Characters ~ will fill in the holes in a character which helps with the matching process. 12

13. Advanced OCR Features.
Minimum edge width ~ This parameter can be used to filter out noise by requiring a minimum number of character pixels in order to start forming a character box. 13

14. Advanced OCR Features.
Advanced Maximum Character Width ~ When this parameter is used, the system will start at the maximum character width location and search backwards 20% of the maximum character width looking for the vertical line which has the fewest character pixels. 14

15. Advanced OCR Features.
Aspect Ratio Dependence ~ When enabled the tolerated variance is user definable. When disabled, objects must be within ±200% of the object in the font list or no comparison is made. 15

16. Advanced OCR Features. Resolution selection.
Features matched per character:
LOW MEDIUM HIGH 16

17. Rotated, Skewed and Italicized Characters
Use the Parallelogram OCR Softsensor
Take care drawing the sensor, it is sensitive to angles. 17

18. Conclusion Characters must be repeatable from one image to the next
Avoid images with textured or printed backgrounds
OCR “friendly” fonts
OCR A, OCR B, Semi
Undecorated, non-serif fonts
Character height between 20 and 30 pixels
Use OCV whenever possible to eliminate misreads

19. Questions?