Intelligent character recognition or ICR refers to the utilization of technology for converting handwritten content into digital text. ICR technology is an extended version of OCR technology in which typewritten content is read.
ICR services make use of complex modern technology to improve image-to-text services offering better accuracy and recognition. Today, ICR can recognize complex fonts and handwriting styles which is a feature OCR technology lacked.
As ICR services are constantly evolving with advancing AI and ML technology, they offer a lot and are being utilized in several industries, but four stand out.
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Applications and Benefits of ICR Algorithms and Services
ICR services and technology have a long history. The inventors of character recognition technology are considered to be Emmanuel Goldberg and Edmund Fournier d’Albe who invented a decoder device and a handheld scanner called optophone, respectively, in the early 20th century.
From handheld scanners to optical recognition technology, today we have smart ICR systems that are learning from their own services and are evolving by themselves.
While even back in the day, the technology was invented in consideration of its applications i.e., handheld scanners offering quick and controllable services, the ICR recognition processes of today also come with a range of applications.
- ICR services allow users to manage storage effectively by transferring all handwritten content into digital versions.
- Rather than sitting through heaps of paper, and manually entering content, with an ICR service users can speed up their working processes.
- Digitally stored handwritten text that is uploaded using intelligent character recognition allows for easy access to the content. This helps make knowledge more accessible.
ICR recognition for automating banking services
The banking industry deals with massive data much of which is provided in handwritten format. The data includes but isn’t limited to checks, deposit slips, and applications.
ICR services offer a way for banking institutions to not just speed up their processes but also to automate them and increase efficiency.
Quick and accurate extraction of information from checks, invoices, and other financial documents through an ICR service also allows for a reduction of manual labour, increased data accuracy, and more efficient internal workings. When it comes to checks and other invoices, ICR services in combination with other technologies also offer an easy way to detect fraud and other irregularities in documents.
Over the long term, this can improve profitability, customer service, trust, and bank rankings, and can result in an overall better business.
ICR – intelligent character recognition for the healthcare industry
Scanner ICR offers great potential for driving massive changes within the healthcare system. Backed by big data and machine learning systems and algorithms, ICR services have been contributing towards helping us understand and streamline the medical systems processes. These processes particularly relate to patient onboarding, clinical data mining and organization, and drug management.
The healthcare industry has three major types of businesses i.e., hospitals and other clinical and medical service providers, pharmaceutical businesses, and research institutions. All three of these deal with a lot of paperwork. For example, for hospitals and clinics, there is the involvement of prescriptions, and doctor’s notes and their processing. For pharmacies, handwritten prescription processing is a huge part of the business that can be automated through ICR for saving time. When it comes to medical research institutions, clinical research requires the collection of hefty data which in the absence of ICR services takes up a lot of time diverting researchers’ attention from the research studies.
The healthcare industry is already overburdened, and the COVID-19 pandemic only revealed how desperately the industry requires better integration of modern technological services. By utilizing ICR services, health-related businesses can offer efficient services, better patient care, and improved medical research.
Driving the retail economy through ICR technology
ICR services offer extensive applications within the retail industry. The technology allows retailers and their employees to automate their data extraction processes resulting in competent and smart services.
Specific applications of ICR services in the retail industry cover a big chunk of data extraction and buying and selling processes through improved data extraction from invoices, inventory trackers, and shipping documents. When it comes to inventory management, data entry is a major part of the process. Through ICR, this process can be simplified. Order and shipping processing paperwork can include purchase orders, bills, customer information, shipping details, and product information among other things. The application of ICR for order processing can allow for better processing and automated communication with customers or sellers.
Intelligent character recognition is a way to change the law industry as we know it
Legal practices and courts always have a lot of paperwork to study, process, or deal with in one or another way. This is one of the prime reasons why legal processes are considered to be extremely extensive. With ICR services, legal practitioners can save up time and energy in two prime ways.
Firstly, ICR allowing uploading of extensive paperwork to digital form can help practitioners study the content better. In the long term, as industry trends change, this holds the potential to expedite case processing.
Second is the fact that through ICR services, the time and effort required for filing and uploading contracts and court documents can be reduced. This can also help with data searching.
ICR services are gradually growing in use. While, through this technology, we can expect to see improved administrative processes for all industries, when it comes to banking, healthcare, retail, and legal services, intelligent character recognition allows for ways to drive massive changes.
