NEWS & EVENTS
System Components: PrintUp — Automatic Document Capture
The PrintUp is one of our methods used for electronically capturing printed information in real-time at the very instance they are printed.
During the 2010 year
more than 1,000,000 tickets from
over 140 asphalt plants and load out locations
were successfully captured and sent to our eRoutes™ online service.
The PrintUp box is typically connected between the printing source and the printer. The data printed are captured in real-time, the document is recognized
and targeted information is extracted to be sent securely through the
Internet
to the eRoutes™ database. Authorized users can access the data through any Internet browser or current mobile device to retrieve them.
Universal compatibility
The PrintUp is compatible with any operating system, software or hardware
that prints data. The current PrintUp version it captures data through
Centronic (Parallel/Printer) or RS-232 (Serial) ports.
Transparency
The PrintUp is totally transparent to the printing process. The
capture
takes less than a few seconds and the data are generally
recorded into our servers
before the physical printer has finished printing.
Recognition success rate
The recognition success rate is tremendously better than commonly
achieved with scanners and OCR. The reason for this is that there is no interference
as the printed data are perfectly repeatable and entirely defined.
Furthermore, the complete document can be captured for later look
up or reprint.
Proof that document
has been captured
An acknowledge receipt of capture as a unique coded identifier can
be added to the printed data and appear on the paper document. This
identifier enables further follow up by establishing a
correlation between
paper document & electronic data. This provides evidence that the document
has been successfully captured.
Data capture and
publication without printing
The
PrintUp can be set not to print the received data. This enables
virtual printing where data are captured but not printed. Any software
with a print function can take advantage of this feature. At the
time data are received a narrower paper document can be printed
with a unique coded identifier as a proof of capture.
Capturing algorithm
The capture algorithm is build upon different techniques:
- Printer recognition and emulation
- Characters, symbols and words extraction
- Document distinctiveness recognition according to templates
- Artificial neural networks
- Learning process
