Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bambam!hjp
From: hjp@bambam.UUCP (Howard J. Postley)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Optical Character Recognition software?
Summary: OCR on Suns
Keywords: OCR Sun rasterfile
Message-ID: <4@bambam.UUCP>
Date: 14 Jun 88 02:58:07 GMT
References: <367@msn006.misemi>
Organization: On Word, Inc.; Santa Monica, CA
Lines: 45



We at On Word have been doing OCR in-house and building systems for
various people for about five years.  I think we have as near to
at least one of everything as anyone (hardware and software).  The
only software system that we have found (which happens to run on
Suns) is the Kurzweil OCR Toolbox, which is the software that they
use in their PC-Board product (Discover 7320).  This is good for
about 30-60 CPS recognition and is reasonably flexible; however it
has drawbacks.  The biggest drawback for us it the methods for
error correction (no OCR is even close to perfect), or lack thereof.
The biggest problem for most everyone else is the price: About $50K.
The price is designed for an OEM to buy it, integrate it with something
else, then sell the whole package - license for resale is an additional
$1K/copy.

I know that someone is going to remind us that there are PC and Mac software
products that do OCR of a bit-map, for $500-$1000.  These are only useful
if the source is *always* Courier 10.  I don't care what the ads say.

The solution that we usually go with is connecting a Palantir CDP or
Recognition Server (Rec. Server is CDP without scanner) to the ethernet
that the Sun is on and use it for OCR.  This runs about $12K on the low
end and $30K on the high end but these things work really and take maximum
of the Sun's graphics for error correction.  There are two models:  3000
and 9000.  3000 is 50-100 CPS, 9000 is 200-300 CPS.

Both Palantir and Kurzweil are omni-font (will read just about everyrhing
you throw at it) but the Palantir is somewhat more so.  There are currently
no other machines that compete with these two.  The Palantir will work
with PC as well as other things.  It has RS-232, SCSI, and optionl Ethernet
(TCP/IP) interfaces.  Software is currently available only for PC (and clones)
and Sun 2 & 3's.  Kurzweil is PC only (hardware is PC board).

We have piles of info on this stuff so if anyone wants anything specific,
just ask - it's hard to cover it all, there are a lot of really subtle
differences.

For those of you who are interested, the Palantir 9000 has about 15 MIPS
of compute power to get to 300 CPS, the Kurzweil has about 3 MIPS to do
60 CPS.  Keep this in mind when you think about a software only solution,
these machines are optimized for OCR.


// Howard