Mobile OCR Data Recognition and Conversion Process

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing data recognition and conversion processes are inefficient for transferring information from physical documents to digital formats, particularly when documents lack a common template or format, as they often require manual intervention and are time-consuming, and existing automated solutions fail to isolate and extract data effectively on mobile devices.

Innovation Solution

A User-Initiated Data Recognition and Data Conversion process using a mobile device application that captures, scales, and uploads images to an optical character recognition (OCR) server, allowing users to select and structure unstructured data via a touch interface, and store it on a remote server, enabling conversion of unstructured data to structured data across various document templates and formats.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If automated data extraction is used for documents with common templates, then productivity is improved, but adaptability deteriorates because the system cannot handle documents without common templates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata extraction speedVSAvoiddocument format compatibility
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent uses optical character recognition (OCR) to create a digital copy of the physical document, which can then be processed and searched. This copying approach allows the system to handle any document format without requiring pre-defined templates, resolving the contradiction between automation efficiency and format adaptability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The system transforms the document from physical to digital format through OCR, changing the state parameter from physical paper to digital text. This parameter change enables automated processing while maintaining compatibility with diverse document formats, as the digital text can be universally processed regardless of original format

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Adaptability or versatility

If manual data transfer from physical documents is performed, then adaptability is maintained, but productivity deteriorates due to time-consuming processes

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedocument format flexibilityVSAvoiddata transfer efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of copying and typing data with an automated optical character recognition system. This substitution maintains adaptability to various document formats while dramatically improving productivity by automatically extracting and digitizing text from any physical document

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

3Measurement precision

If OCR is performed on full document images, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases due to processing large images on mobile devices

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata recognition accuracyVSAvoidmobile device processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the OCR processing task by performing initial text recognition on the mobile device and then uploading only the extracted text data to remote servers for further processing and storage. This segmentation reduces the computational burden on mobile devices while maintaining recognition accuracy

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

4Speed

If data is stored locally on mobile devices, then speed of access is improved, but loss of information increases due to device storage limitations

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata access speedVSAvoiddata retention capacity
Core Design Contradiction:
SpeedVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent transitions from two-dimensional local device storage to three-dimensional cloud-based storage architecture. This dimensional change allows virtually unlimited data retention capacity while maintaining fast access speeds through network connectivity, resolving the contradiction between storage capacity and access speed

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentEP3049914B1User-initiated data recognition and data conversion process
Publication Date: 2020.08.12 CHARTSPAN MEDICAL TECH
  • EP3049914B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3049914B1 patent drawingFigure 2

AI summary

A user-initiated data recognition and data conversion process allows for the conversion of unstructured data to structured data from a capture of an optical character recognition image with the unstructured data underneath. A method for converting unstructured data to structured data includes uploading a digital representation of a document to an optical character recognition server, scaling the digital representation of the document to fit the display size of a mobile device, using a touch interface to select unstructured data from the scaled digital representation of the document, populating the selected unstructured data in an electronic record to create structured data, and storing the structured data on a remote server.