Information Communication Technology ICT – 2 Input and output devices | e-Consult

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that converts images of text (e.g., from scanned documents or photographs) into machine-readable text. Advantages of using OCR include the ability to automate the extraction of data from paper documents, reducing manual data entry time and improving efficiency. It can also improve data accessibility by making scanned documents searchable and editable. OCR can handle large volumes of documents and is relatively inexpensive to implement. Disadvantages include potential inaccuracies, especially with poor-quality images or unusual fonts. OCR accuracy can be affected by factors such as skewing, blur, and noise in the image. Complex layouts, multiple columns, and handwritten text can also pose challenges. OCR software may require significant processing power and memory. Furthermore, the output often requires manual proofreading and correction to ensure data accuracy. The technology is not perfect and may misinterpret characters, leading to errors. The effectiveness of OCR depends heavily on the quality of the input image.