ICR Technology – Instantly Extract Data From Handwritten Documents

As technology develops, the methods for implementing new technologies in today’s business environment also develop. Organizations are increasingly using digital technologies to automate their operations and simplify processes such as purchasing & accounts payable.  Digitalization and automation rely heavily on certain types of technology, including character recognition. When firms automate the processing of invoices, they need software that can read the words or numbers contained in the receipts. ICR software is one of the great choices.

Initially, picture capture technology was only used for capturing documents’ photos. Afterwards, new developments in character recognition and image indexing took that a step further by scanning the information in a document. Optical character recognition creates a searchable and editable document instead of just a still image.  OCR significantly facilitated the digitization of documents and the processing of digital papers. However, it wasn’t very effective at reading handwriting. In this situation, intelligent character recognition, or ICR technology can help.

What is ICR Technology?

Intelligent character recognition is a cutting-edge invention that extracts handwritten text from images. ICR is an improved form of OCR technology that uses different algorithms of artificial intelligence and machine learning. It recognizes several fonts and handwriting styles to intelligently interpret data in physical and electronic documents.

The paper-based documents are scanned, the data is extracted, and then digitally stored in a database program using ICR technology. The data is integrated into organizations’ processes and used for analytical insights. ICR solutions are used by organizations to organize random data and get rid of paperwork.

Difference Between OCR and ICR Technology

Some businesses prefer ICR recognition over OCR for a variety of reasons. The best strategy employs both, with the following key differences:

1. In contrast to the ICR reader, the OCR system relies on templates rather than AI or neural networks to extract data
2. For the purpose of data entry, OCR techniques apply a particular format, while ICR software learns to recognize multiple formats
3. OCR is ideal for companies with a limited range of document formats. The ICR scanner is adaptable and equipped to handle frequent changes to invoices.
4. OCR software needs staff to operate, while ICR technology is completely automated
5. OCR-based systems require manual intervention, whereas ICR only alerts users to anomalies and asks them to look into them as needed
6. OCR files only convert documents into PDFs once, making it difficult for users to search through them in company databases. ICR scanners preserve read information, making data retrieval simple.

The Working of an ICR Recognition System

The ICR engine is used to extract documents for businesses. Its work is described below:

1. The ICR scanner receives uploaded documents
2. APIs that have been trained to read the picture details and scan them. The system automatically interprets any handwritten fonts and text, utilizing a database that already exists
3. The ICR system requests the user to upload handwritten signatures to confirm their identity
4. Data is automatically extracted from documents and organized using key-value pairs
5. After the documents have been edited and checked for spelling errors, the ICR technology flags any anomalies and sends them to the client for review
6. If not, the fields’ data has been entered automatically into the accounts payable systems to keep a record

Advantages of ICR Technology

ICR technology is a self-learning innovation that uses AI and ML algorithms to extract information from handwritten documents. It adjusts, learns, and gets better at transcribing data into digital databases every time it comes across new handwriting styles and fonts.  ICR services provide the following advantages to organizations:

1. ICR technology is scalable and best for arranging electronic record archives. It can be used to manage documents as well
2. Businesses are integrating ICR with transcription services as well as using it with different kinds of documents
3.  ICR services provide strong data verification while eliminating the need for manual data entry. Employees can be more efficient and productive because of this facility
4. ICR solutions make data uploading to cloud storage safer, and businesses can safely protect data from unauthorized access.

Conclusion

As a result of ongoing technological advancements, intelligent character recognition technology is becoming more accurate and precise. ICR technology incorporates AI and neural network algorithms that are constantly adapting to various handwriting styles. When users provide ICR models with more data, the program can update and work more efficiently.ICR software constantly learns from reading handwritten fonts, improving its ability to anticipate brand-new writing styles and automatically updating its database. It is crucial to manually review fields before entering data because poorly written fields can occasionally be difficult for ICR models to understand.