Thursday 21 November 2013

Mocavo attempts to create OCR for handwriting

The Mocavo genealogy search platform (www.mocavo.com) is attempting to create a system of optical character recognition that can interpret old forms of handwriting. Optical character recognition, or OCR, is a software programme that can allow a computer to read text included within a digitised image, something that allows us, for example, to search historic newspapers that have been digitised and placed online. It's an interesting challenge - some would say an impossible challenge! - but they seem to be making quite a bit of progress on it, with the team having already achieved the ability to differentiate between handwriting and printed text on the same page.

There's a progress report on its efforts via its latst nesletter at http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=952c099c101b4a6eb04bdc42a&id=8b01cc2a9e&e=65eb341d94 - definitely one to keep an eye on.

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

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