How to Automate Data Extraction Process with OCR

Data extraction is a process of extracting useful data from a variety of sources (documents, images, receipts) manually. But in this modern world, people are always looking for a quick and easy way to get their job done. The same goes for manual data extraction. People have started automating the data extraction process.

Automated data extraction is a process of extracting data/text from handwritten notes, images, or handwritten documents without spending time and effort on manual extraction.

The process of automated data extraction is done by using online OCR-based tools that help users in extracting editable text from digital documents, images, and receipts. The extracted data will be editable, searchable, and indexable.

In this article, we are going to discuss how you can automate the data extraction process by leveraging OCR-based tools.

How to Automate Data Extraction with OCR

In order to extract text from images, receipts, or from handwritten documents, you first need to opt for a good OCR-based extraction tool. There are numerous good text extraction tools available online that help users in automating the data extraction process by utilizing advanced algorithms and OCR technology.

These tools can be helpful for companies who have to deal with a lot of receipts or bills on a daily basis. Anyone can just put the piece of document or image into the OCR tool and it can generate the output shortly. Extracting data using these tools can not only save time but also can reduce the overall cost (that businesses spend on manual extraction or by using any other hardware).

Now, let’s take a look at how you can utilize OCR-based to evoke data from digital images with real-time examples.

Real-time Examples of Data Extraction

To automate the data extraction process with OCR tools, all you need to do is to upload or submit the required image/receipt and click the button. And the rest will be handled by the tool you’re using.

For this guide, we are going to use one such online tool that allows users to extract text from image, handwritten notes, or from a receipt within a matter of seconds.

Extracting Data from a Random Image

To illustrate this, we are going to provide the OCR tool with an image that we have taken from an online website, in order to see how accurately it gets a text from it. The result can be seen in the attachment below:

As you see, the OCR tool has efficiently extracted all the text from the given image and provides the option to either copy the output result or download the text file for later use.

Extracting Text from Handwritten Notes

Now, we are going to provide the tool with an image that contains the handwritten text of a student in order to how accurately the tool extracts from it. See the picture attached below for the result:

So, the OCR tool has also quickly and accurately extracted the text from images containing handwritten text.

Extracting Text from a Receipt

Finally, we are going to provide the tool with an image of a receipt to see whether it gets from it or not. The output the tool provided us can be seen in the image below:

As you have seen in the above scenarios that the tool has accurately performed the text extraction no matter if it’s an image containing complex text, an image containing handwritten text, or receipts also.

Benefits of Automating Data Extraction Process with OCR

There are a lot of useful benefits of automated data extraction. Some of them are as follows:

Accuracy:

According to Raymond R Panko, the likelihood of human error when manually extracting data from images or handwritten business documents ranges from 18% to 40%. Although, these errors are not always the result of incompetence instead sometimes the human eye unintentionally ignores mistakes.

Having errors in data extraction will not only damage the risk to the job of the employee and the reputation of the company but also costs more. According to Smartein, the cost of prevention and identification of errors is $1 while the cost of correcting the error is $10.

But with the help of OCR technology users and businesses can accurately extract data without worrying about errors. The output accuracy rate of OCR is 99.99% (for proof you can check the case studies above).

Save time and effort:

Automating data extraction saves a lot of time and effort as well since it eliminates the need for manual extraction. For instance, a company needs to process 1,000 invoices for their customers in a day. In order to do this task manually, the company will definitely need at least 5 people who have to work hard in order to keep up the workflow.

On the other hand, utilizing OCR technology will not only eliminate the hiring of more people but also do the extraction process in less time.

Reduce cost

Finally, automating the data extraction process will also reduce the overall cost by eliminating the need for printers and scanners to deal with hard documents. Not just this, but it also eliminates the need to purchase cupboards and rooms for storing important business documents.

Tips for Effective Data Extraction Process

Below, we have discussed some of the useful tips that can help you to get the most out of the data extraction process.

Choose a good tool: First of all, you need to opt for a decent tool. There are a number of good tools available on the internet, this means you need to do proper research in order to find the right extraction tool. However, if you don’t have enough time, then you can use the tool that we have used in the above case studies.

Make sure the image is of the highest quality (High-quality images): After choosing the right tool, you need to ensure that the images you’re submitting for the extraction process are of good quality. Using low-quality or blurred images may confuse the tool to understand the text which may further result in inaccurate output results.

Avoid images with noisy backgrounds: For effective data extraction, you should also avoid submitting images with noisy backgrounds. Images with noisy backgrounds contain text written in different fonts, and colors increasing the chances that the tool may ignore some characters or words while performing the extraction process.

Final Words:

Automating the data extraction process with OCR can be beneficial for employees and as well as companies in a number of ways such as low costs, maximum accuracy, efficiency, and less time and effort. In this article, we have discussed how you can use automatically extract data from digital images, receipts, or handwritten documents. We have also discussed some helpful tips for a better extraction process.