Which Kind of Device Reads the Numbers Printed at the Bottom of Checks?

Capturing of human being-marked data from document forms

Optical mark recognition (as well called optical mark reading and OMR) is the process of reading information that people mark on surveys, tests and other paper documents.

OMR is used to read questionnaires, multiple pick test papers in the form of shaded areas.

OMR background [edit]

OMR tests form, with registration marks and drib-out colors, designed to be scanned by defended OMR device

Many OMR devices have a scanner that shines a light onto a form. The device then looks at the contrasting reflectivity of the calorie-free at certain positions on the class. It will detect the blackness marks because they reflect less light than the blank areas on the form.

Some OMR devices apply forms that are printed on transoptic paper. The device tin can then measure the amount of low-cal that passes through the newspaper. It will option up any black marks on either side of the paper because they reduce the corporeality of light passing through.

In contrast to the dedicated OMR device, desktop OMR software allows a user to create their own forms in a word processor or reckoner and print them on a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation printer. The OMR software and then works with a mutual desktop prototype scanner with a document feeder to procedure the forms once filled out.

OMR is generally distinguished from optical grapheme recognition (OCR) by the fact that a complicated blueprint recognition engine is non required. That is, the marks are synthetic in such a style that there is trivial take a chance that the OMR device will non read them correctly. This does crave the image to take loftier contrast and an easily recognizable or irrelevant shape. A related field to OMR and OCR is the recognition of barcodes, such as the UPC bar lawmaking found on product packaging.

Ane of the almost familiar applications of OMR is the utilise of #2 pencil (HB in Europe) bubble optical answer sheets in multiple pick question examinations. Students mark their answers, or other personal information, by concealment circles on a forms. The sheet is and so graded past a scanning car.

In the Us and most European countries, a horizontal or vertical "tick" in a rectangular "lozenge" is the most ordinarily used blazon of OMR form;
The well-nigh familiar form in the United Kingdom is the UK National lottery form.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Lozenge marks represent a subsequently technology that is easier to marking and easier to erase. The large "bubble" marks are legacy applied science from very early OMR machines that were and so insensitive a large mark was required for reliability. In most Asian countries, a special marker is used to fill up in an optical reply sheet. Students, likewise, mark answers or other information by darkening circles marked on a pre-printed sheet. Then the sheet is automatically graded past a scanning machine.

Many of today'due south OMR applications involve people filling in specialized forms. These forms are optimized for estimator scanning, with careful registration in the printing, and careful pattern and then that ambivalence is reduced to the minimum possible. Due to its extremely depression error charge per unit, low cost and ease-of-use, OMR is a popular method of tallying votes.^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[five] ^[6] ^[7] ^[8] ^[9] ^[ten]

OMR marks are also added to items of printed postal service so folder inserter equipment tin can be used. The marks are added to each (normally facing/odd) page of a mail document and consist of a sequence of black dashes that binder inserter equipment scans in order to determine when the mail should be folded then inserted in an envelope.

Optical answer canvas [edit]

A response to an SAT math question marked on an optical respond canvass

An optical answer sheet or bubble canvass is a special blazon of course used in multiple choice question examinations. OMR is used to discover answers. The Scantron Corporation creates many optical respond sheets, although certain uses require their own customized arrangement.^{[ citation needed ]}

Optical reply sheets normally have a gear up of blank ovals or boxes that correspond to each question, often on separate sheets of paper. Bar codes may mark the sheet for automatic processing, and each series of ovals filled will return a certain value when read. In this way students' answers can be digitally recorded, or identity given.

Reading [edit]

The first optical answer sheets were read by shining a calorie-free through the sheet and measuring how much of the light was blocked using phototubes on the contrary side.^[xi] As some phototubes are mostly sensitive to the blue stop of the visible spectrum,^[12] bluish pens could non be used, as bluish inks reflect and transmit bluish calorie-free. Considering of this, number two pencils had to be used to make full in the bubbles—graphite is a very opaque substance which absorbs or reflects most of the light which hits information technology.^[11]

Modernistic optical reply sheets are read based on reflected light, measuring lightness and darkness. They exercise not need to be filled in with a number two pencil, though these are recommended over other types (this is due to the lighter marks fabricated past higher-number pencils and the smudges from number ane pencils). Black ink will exist read, though many systems volition ignore marks that are the same color the form is printed in.^[11] This also allows optical answer sheets to exist double-sided because marks made on the opposite side volition not interfere with reflectance readings as much as with opacity readings.

Most systems accommodate for human mistake in filling in ovals imprecisely—equally long equally they practice not stray into the other ovals and the oval is well-nigh filled, the scanner volition detect it as filled in.

Designing and Printing [edit]

Design of OMR Sail – There are specific dimensions of designing OMR Sheet with 0.05 mm precision on scale. If the dimensions are not upwardly to the precision scale the accuracy of OMR sail may vary. So it is advisable that the sheet should be designed and printed with perfection and the cutting of the canvas should be perfect.

Types of OMR Sheet Single Function – Sheets are printed on 105 gsm to 120 gsm paper on A4/Legal sheet. Double Part (Carbonless) – Two Sheets are printed i 105 gsm paper and one on 60-70 gsm newspaper on A4 canvass . The lesser of commencement canvass and the peak of second sheet is chemically treated so that the impression of the kickoff sheet should come on the 2d sheet. Three Part (Carbonless) – Three Sheets are printed one 105 gsm paper and other 2 on 60-70 gsm paper on A4 sheet . The bottom of first sheet, the top and bottom of 2d canvas and the elevation of third sheet is chemically treated and then that the impression of the commencement canvass should come on the second and tertiary sheets.

Errors [edit]

It is possible for optical answer sheets to be printed incorrectly, such that all ovals will be read as filled. This occurs if the outline of the ovals is also thick, or is irregular. During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, this occurred with over nineteen,000 absentee ballots in the Georgia county of Gwinnett, and was discovered after effectually 10,000 had already been returned. The slight difference was not apparent to the naked centre, and was not detected until a test run was fabricated in late October. This required all ballots to be transferred to correctly printed ones, by sequestered

OMR software [edit]

Obviously paper OMR survey form, without registration marks and drib-out colors, designed to be scanned by an image scanner and OMR software

OMR software is a computer software awarding that makes OMR possible on a desktop computer by using an Image scanner to procedure surveys, tests, attendance sheets, checklists, and other plain-paper forms printed on a laser printer.

OMR software is used to capture information from OMR sheets. While information capturing scanning devices focus on many factors like thickness of newspaper dimensions of OMR sheet and the designing design.

Commercial OMR software [edit]

One of the commencement OMR software packages that used images from common epitome scanners was Remark Part OMR, made by Gravic, Inc. (originally named Principia Products, Inc.). Remark Role OMR ane.0 was released in 1991.

The demand for OMR software originated considering early optical marker recognition systems used dedicated scanners and special pre-printed forms with driblet-out colors and registration marks. Such forms typically price US$0.10 to $0.19 a page.^[thirteen] In contrast, OMR software users pattern their ain marking-sense forms with a word processor or born form editor, impress them locally on a printer, and tin save thousands of dollars on large numbers of forms.^[14]

Identifying optical marks inside a class, such equally for processing census forms, has been offered by many forms-processing (Batch Transaction Capture) companies since the late 1980s. Mostly this is based on a bitonal paradigm and pixel count with minimum and maximum pixel counts to eliminate extraneous marks, such equally those erased with a dirty eraser that when converted into a black-and-white image (bitonal) tin await similar a legitimate marker. Then this method tin crusade bug when a user changes their mind, and then some products started to utilize grayscale to meliorate identify the intent of the marker—internally scantron and NCS scanners used grayscale.

OMR Development Libraries [edit]

Company	Product	Founded Year
ABBYY	ABBYY FineReader Engine	1993
Accusoft	FormFix	1991
Aspose	.Cyberspace OMR Reader & Parser	2001
GDPicture	.NET OMR and Template Recognition SDK	2003
Lead Technologies	LEADTOOLS	1990
VintaSoft	Forms Processing.NET Plug-in	2001

Open source OMR software [edit]

Some OMR software developed and distributed nether free or open source licenses:

List of OMR software
Proper noun	Creator	Notes	Latest stable version	Cost (US$)	Software license	Open source
FormScanner	Alberto Borsetta	multiplatform Java awarding, supports custom forms	2017-06-07	Free	GPLv3	Yes
queXF	Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated	tin be used alone or in conjunction with surveys exported from LimeSurvey	2019-05-13	Free	GPLv2	Yes
Udai OMR	Aaditeshwar Seth		2007	Free	GPLv2	Yes
Shared Questionnaire System (SQS)			2016	Free	Apache License v2.0	Yes
Auto Multiple Option	Alexis Bienvenüe	for class tests, with LaTeX formatting	2018-12-29	Free	GPLv2	Yeah
Moodle Quiz OMR		online support for offline quizzes conducted on OMR sheets		Free	GPLv3	Yes
SDAPS: Scripts for data acquisition with paper-based surveys	Benjamin Berg	for surveys, supports LaTeX and ODT formatted documents	2019-06-02	Free	GPLv3	Yes
OMR Mark Engine		C# implementation supports majority scanning with custom forms	2015	Free	Apache License v2.0	Yes
Grand'n'T Eval	Stefan Breunig		2013	Free	ISC license	Aye

History [edit]

Optical marker recognition (OMR) is the scanning of newspaper to find the presence or absence of a mark in a predetermined position.^[4] Optical marking recognition has evolved from several other technologies. In the early 19th century and 20th century patents were given for machines that would assist the bullheaded.^[ii]

OMR is now used as an input device for information entry. 2 early forms of OMR are paper tape and dial cards which use actual holes punched into the medium instead of pencil filled circles on the medium. Paper tape was used as early every bit 1857 as an input device for telegraph.^[10] Punch cards were created in 1890 and were used as input devices for computers. The use of punch cards declined greatly in the early on 1970s with the introduction of personal computers.^[8] With modern OMR, where the presence of a pencil filled in bubble is recognized, the recognition is done via an optical scanner.

The start marking sense scanner was the IBM 805 Exam Scoring Machine; this read marks by sensing the electric conductivity of graphite pencil lead using pairs of wire brushes that scanned the page. In the 1930s, Richard Warren at IBM experimented with optical mark sense systems for test scoring, as documented in US Patents 2,150,256 (filed in 1932, granted in 1939) and ii,010,653 (filed in 1933, granted in 1935). The kickoff successful optical marking-sense scanner was adult by Everett Franklin Lindquist as documented in Us Patent 3,050,248 (filed in 1955, granted in 1962). Lindquist had developed numerous standardized educational tests, and needed a amend exam scoring motorcar than the then-standard IBM 805. The rights to Lindquist'southward patents were held by the Measurement Research Center until 1968, when the Academy of Iowa sold the operation to Westinghouse Corporation.

During the aforementioned menstruation, IBM besides developed a successful optical mark-sense test-scoring machine, as documented in Usa Patent ii,944,734 (filed in 1957, granted in 1960). IBM commercialized this equally the IBM 1230 Optical mark scoring reader in 1962. This and a variety of related machines immune IBM to migrate a broad variety of applications developed for its marking sense machines to the new optical applied science. These applications included a variety of inventory management and trouble reporting forms, near of which had the dimensions of a standard punched card.

While the other players in the educational testing arena focused on selling scanning services, Scantron Corporation, founded in 1972,^[15] had a dissimilar model; it would distribute cheap scanners to schools and make profits from selling the examination forms. As a effect, many people came to think of all mark-sense forms (whether optically sensed or not) every bit scantron forms. .

In 1983, Westinghouse Learning Corporation was caused by National Computer Systems (NCS). In 2000, NCS was caused by Pearson Education, where the OMR technology formed the core of Pearson's Information Management grouping. In February 2008, M&F Worldwide purchased the Information Management group from Pearson; the group is at present part of the Scantron make.^[xvi]

OMR has been used in many situations every bit mentioned below. The use of OMR in inventory systems was a transition between punch cards and bar codes and is non used as much for this purpose.^[8] OMR is all the same used extensively for surveys and testing though.

Usage [edit]

The use of OMR is not limited to schools or data collection agencies; many businesses and health care agencies utilise OMR to streamline their data input processes and reduce input error. OMR, OCR, and ICR technologies all provide a means of data drove from newspaper forms. OMR may also be done using an OMR (discrete read head) scanner or an imaging scanner.^[17]

Applications [edit]

Betting ticket using this course.

At that place are many other applications for OMR, for examples:

In the process of institutional research
Community surveys
Consumer surveys
Tests and assessments
Evaluations and feedback
Data compilation
Production evaluation
Fourth dimension sheets and inventory counts
Membership subscription forms
Lotteries and voting
Geocoding (e.thou. postal codes)
Mortgage loan, banking, and insurance applications

Field types [edit]

OMR has dissimilar fields to provide the format the questioner desires. These fields include:

Multiple, where there are several options simply merely one is called. For example, the form might ask for one of the options ABCDE; 12345; completely disagree, disagree, indifferent, concur, completely agree; or similar.
Grid: the bubbles or lines are fix upwardly in a filigree format for the user to fill up in a phone number, name, ID number and then on.
Add, full the answers to a single value
Boolean, answering yep or no to all that apply
Binary, answering yes or no to just one
Dotted lines fields, developed past Smartshoot OMR, permit border dropping like traditional color dropping.

Capabilities/requirements [edit]

In the past and presently, some OMR systems require special newspaper, special ink and a special input reader (Bergeron, 1998). This restricts the types of questions that tin can exist asked and does not allow for much variability when the form is being input. Progress in OMR now allows users to create and print their ain forms and use a scanner (preferably with a document feeder) to read the data.^[18] The user is able to accommodate questions in a format that suits their needs while still being able to easily input the data.^[19] OMR systems approach i hundred per centum accuracy and only accept v milliseconds on average to recognize marks.^[18] Users can use squares, circles, ellipses and hexagons for the mark zone. The software tin so be set to recognize filled in bubbles, crosses or check marks.

OMR can also be used for personal use. At that place are all-in-one printers in the market that volition print the photos the user selects by filling in the bubbling for size and paper selection on an index sail that has been printed. Once the sheet has been filled in, the private places the sheet on the scanner to be scanned and the printer will print the photos according to the marks that were indicated.^{[ citation needed ]}

Disadvantages [edit]

There are also some disadvantages and limitations to OMR. If the user wants to gather large amounts of text, then OMR complicates the data collection.^[20] There is also the possibility of missing data in the scanning procedure, and incorrectly or unnumbered pages can lead to their being scanned in the wrong guild. Also, unless safeguards are in place, a folio could be rescanned, providing duplicate data and skewing the data.^[18]

As a result of the widespread adoption and ease of apply of OMR, standardized examinations can consist primarily of multiple-choice questions, changing the nature of what is being tested.

References [edit]

^ "Optical mark recognition". Archived from the original on June thirteen, 2006. Retrieved June xiii, 2006.
^ ^a ^b Research Optical Grapheme Recognition | Macmillan Science Library: Computer Sciences. Bookrags.com. 2010-11-02. Retrieved 2015-07-03 .
^ "Optical Scanning Systems —". Aceproject.org. Retrieved 2015-07-03 .
^ ^a ^b Haag, S., Cummings, M., McCubbrey, D., Pinsonnault, A., Donovan, R. (2006). Management Information Systems for the Data Historic period (tertiary ed.). Canada: McGraw-Colina Ryerson.
^ "Statisticians' Lib: Using Scanners and OMR Software for Affordable Data Input". Archived from the original on November 10, 2005. Retrieved June 13, 2006.
^ "Information Collection on the Inexpensive". July 2015. Archived from the original (PPT) on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-07-21 .
^ "Remark Function OMR, by Gravic (Principia Products), works with pop image scanners to scan surveys, tests and other plain newspaper forms". Omrsolutions.com. Retrieved 2015-07-03 .
^ ^a ^b ^c Palmer, Roger C. (1989, Sept) The Basics of Automatic Identification [Electronic version]. Canadian Datasystems, 21 (9), xxx-33
^ "Forms Processing Engineering". Tkvision.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2015-07-03 .
^ ^a ^b Research Input Devices | Macmillan Scientific discipline Library: Estimator Sciences. Bookrags.com. 2010-11-02. Retrieved 2015-07-03 .
^ ^a ^b ^c Bloomfield, Louis A. "Question 1529: Why do scantron-type tests but read #two pencils? Can other pencils work?". HowEverythingWorks.org.
^ Mullard Technical Handbook Volume iv Section four:Photoemissive Cells (1960 Edition)
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-xx. Retrieved 2009-03-12 . {{cite spider web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy equally title (link)
^ Michael Wagenheim. "Grading Biology Exams at a Large State University". RemarkSoftware.com. Retrieved 2015-07-21 .
^ "The Marketplace for Educational Testing". Bc.edu . Retrieved 2015-07-03 .
^ "NCS Pearson, Inc". Archived from the original on June fourteen, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
^ http://datamanagement.scantron.com/pdf/icr-ocr-omr.pdf^{[ dead link ]}
^ ^a ^b ^c Bergeron,^{[ who? ]}
^ LoPresti, 1996^{[ who? ]}
^ Green, 2000^{[ who? ]}

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_mark_recognition