Data extraction can be a daily life task for most organizational employees as well as normal individuals. It involves extracting textual information from images or documents. The images can be bank statements, receipts, invoices, etc.
In the old days, this process was performed manually by humans, not only requiring a significant amount of time but also having chances of mistakes due to human nature.
Thankfully, the advancement in OCR technology has completely transformed the way of data extraction through multiple ways.
In this article, we are going to discuss those ways in detail. But before directly heading towards them, let’s get an overview of OCR technology.
Overview of OCR Technology
The full name of OCR is Optical Character Recognition. It was first developed in the late 1800s and since then it has gone through continuous innovations.
OCR is a recognition-based pattern-matching technology that allows users to quickly and efficiently extract editable text from images in no time.
How it Works to Extract Data from Images
When it comes to working, the Optical Character Recognition technology first turns the given image or scanned document into a grey-scale style. So that, it can better understand the characters and letters.
After this, the technology starts matching the text of the input picture with its database, and at the end extracts the ones with successful matches. However, keep this in mind that, OCR is always used with an online tool to perform extraction.
The tools are known as “OCR tools” or “Image-to-text Converters.” These automatically extract text from a given image with just one click without compromising on accuracy. To demonstrate better, we used an online OCR-based tool to convert image to text.
The image we uploaded on the tool:
The results we got:
Different Ways Through Which OCR is Transforming the Data Extraction Process
Below are some of the major ways through which Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is transforming the data extraction process.
- Automatic Extraction:
This is obvious, Optical Character Recognition technology has completely automated labor-intensive data extraction by automatically extracting all the textual data from images with a single click.
On the other hand, before the introduction of this technology, individuals or professional employees have to spend a significant amount of time and effort. Like, they first have to closely review the required image or document, and then start writing or noting it down manually. But, that’s not the case now, all thanks to OCR.
- Maximized Accuracy:
When you are performing data extraction by yourself there is a strong that you will make errors. The errors can be like skipping some words, phrases, or even sentences. If not, then you may make spelling or grammar mistakes. These sorts of mistakes can greatly damage the person’s reputation as well as risk their professional career.
Thankfully, OCR has solved the issue of accuracy. It makes use of advanced algorithms that efficiently analyze the text of input pictures or documents, and then extract it in an editable with 100% accuracy.
- Better Accessibility:
We all know that, when essential documents are stored in hard form, only one or two people can access them at once. Whereas, the others have to wait for their turn. This can be a real hassle for organizations as their workflow will be affected.
Guess…what? Optical Character Recognition can also be helpful in this regard. Companies can extract all the data from essential documents and save it digitally like in Google Docs. This will allow employees to quickly access the required information anytime from anywhere without facing any restrictions.
- Robust Data Security:
Data security is the top priority of every normal individual as well as organization. By saving all the essential data digitally through OCR, individuals, and organizations can make sure that their crucial data is completely safe from hackers or unauthorized.
On the contrary, when data is stored in hard form, there are chances that someone may get access to it, resulting in a data breach.
- Reduced Cost & Ease of Storage
Finally, the Optical Character Recognition can greatly save the overall cost and will help in ease of data storage. Let us explain how.
The OCR technology will completely eliminate the need for organizations to hire professionals to perform the data extraction process. Besides this, it also eliminates the need to purchase scanners, printers, etc. All this will definitely contribute to reducing the overall cost for an organization.
When it comes to storage, storing hard-form documents will require time, effort, as well as proper care. Fortunately, OCR has streamlined the storage process by completely digitizing the data.
Final Words
Optical Character Recognition technology has completely transformed the way of data extraction process by making it completely automatic. Besides automation, there are multiple other ways as well that have contributed to the transformation of the old data extraction process. In this article, we have explained those ways in detail, hope you will find this article valuable.
