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Content Filed Under:
Industry:
Consumer Goods/Appliances
, Packaging
, and Pharmaceutical
Consumer Goods/Appliances
, Packaging
, and Pharmaceutical
Application:
Bar Code/OCR Reading
Bar Code/OCR Reading
Effectively applying OCR
POSTED 03/04/2010 | By: Jeff Schmitz
People often intermix the terms OCR (optical character recognition) –optimally used in identification and traceability, and OCV (optical character verification) – optimally used to verify correct content and quality of text print.
OCR – Optical Character Recognition is a function that allows a vision system to “understand” human readable code. It is the translation of typewritten or printed text into machine-editable text. Here, the vision system uses a stored library of images to compare individual characters or strings of text to and then subsequently decides what is printed. It is the equivalent to a human asking “What is this word?”
OCV – Optical Character Verification is a function that grades the quality of human readable typewritten or printed text. In this case the vision system checks the character or string against a known, trained pattern and grades the quality of the match. Typically, the higher the match score the greater the confidence that the inspected word is the trained word. This is the same as a human asking “Does this word match another word?”
Why manufacturers invest in Machine Vision OCR
OCR/OCV serves 2 overall functions in manufacturing:
• Inspecting for correct print – both content and quality [OCV]
• Identifying parts or components (sorting and assembly checking) [OCR]
Industry experts point to Machine Vision’s (MV) OCR function as a valuable tool in the important objectives of
• mistake-proofing</li>
• simplifying processes and reducing cost
Major ROI or business justification reasons customers choose MV OCR include:
• Revenue stream protection: Prevent revenue loss – incorrectly marked parts are often rejected by major
customers resulting in costly returns, costly rework and even customer loss.
• Decrease liability risks and cost – incorrectly marked packaging can cost money, customers, and even lives.
• Improve Productivity & save $’s
- Increase process efficiency. A good OCR tool will eliminate the human factor and provide guaranteed
reliability. An example would be 100% reliability in product labeling.
- Decrease process complexity. Manufacturers can save additional coding and marking costs, OCR
allows human-readable information on packages to also be used for part identification and tracking
during the production process.
• Increase customer satisfaction and expand customer base – Error proofed automated processes with MV
OCR doing 100% inspection meet vendor requirements of demanding large customers.
OCR Target market segments and Industries:
Pharmaceutical – Marking on tablets and packaging is critical not only for consumer safety and regulatory compliance, but also for anti-counterfeiting. Typical applications are:
• Expiration date verification
• Lot code and batch verification
• Mold cavity print, for example print within a bottle top
• Label placement on bottles or packaging
Food and Beverage
• Date code accuracy and legibility
• Label verification
• Expiration date verification
• Lot code and batch verification
• Mold cavity print, for example print within a bottle top
• Label placement on bottles or packaging
Automotive and discrete component manufacturers
• VIN tracking
• component sorting
• Label verification
• Lot code and batch verification
Why OCR from PPT VISION?
Competitor’s machine vision OCR tools all operate fine in laboratory evaluations, but where they begin to have trouble is in the industrial world of high-speed print. PPT VISION OCR stands out by reading challenging real-world dot-matrix print, at varying speeds with less-than ideal lighting. Consult with a PPT VISION application engineer about solving your customer’s OCR challenges and learn first-hand how IMPACT repeatedly beats the competition with superior character scoring, speed and flexibility in applications requiring OCR.
One key reason PPT VISION wins is IMPACT's OCR algorithm with built-in thresholding and segmentation that rapidly reads through a library of individually taught characters, unlike competitor libraries made up of merged synthetic characters. A second reason is that in applications with challenging substrates and print medium, pre-processing tools can be used to improve character readability. The powerful image processing tools that are standard in IMPACT are not available on competitively priced smart cameras (only available in higher end vision software, typically more than $10,000 per camera).