Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that enables the electronic conversion of scanned images of text into machine-encoded text. This process transforms physical documents like passports, ID cards, or any text-based image into editable and searchable data. OCR plays a vital role in document verification within the digital identity landscape, allowing for the automated extraction of critical information from various documents.

How Does OCR Work?

OCR technology utilises a combination of techniques to achieve accurate character recognition:

• Image Preprocessing: The initial stage involves noise reduction, skew correction, and image binarisation to prepare the scanned image for character recognition.
• Character Recognition: The OCR engine analyses the preprocessed image, identifying individual characters and matching them against a database of known letterforms.
• Text Reconstruction: Once characters are recognised, OCR software reconstructs the extracted characters into words and sentences, generating the final machine-encoded text output.

Applications of OCR in Document Verification

OCR technology finds numerous applications in document verification processes, including:

• Know Your Customer (KYC): Businesses can leverage OCR to extract customer information from passports, ID cards, and other documents during KYC onboarding procedures.
• Document Automation: OCR automates data entry tasks by extracting relevant information from invoices, receipts, and other business documents.
• Data Archiving and Retrieval: OCR can convert scanned documents into searchable digital formats, facilitating efficient archiving and retrieval of information.
• Identity Verification Solutions: Smile ID and similar platforms integrate OCR technology to extract and verify data from identity documents during user authentication processes.

Benefits of Using OCR

• Enhanced Efficiency: OCR automates manual data entry tasks, saving time and resources during document verification processes.
• Improved Accuracy: OCR reduces human errors associated with manual data entry, leading to more accurate data capture.
• Faster Processing: Automating data extraction through OCR expedites document verification workflows.
• Scalability: OCR technology can handle large volumes of documents efficiently, making it ideal for enterprises with high document processing needs.

Smile ID and OCR Technology

Smile ID utilises advanced OCR technology as a core component of our Document Verification solution. Personal information is extracted from documents with OCR and returned in textual response with 96% accuracy. Our OCR engines are trained on a massive dataset (8500+) of identity documents from 226 countries, ensuring exceptional accuracy in data extraction across different document formats and languages.

Conclusion

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a transformative technology that has evolved document processing and verification exponentially. Smile ID leverages cutting-edge OCR technology to provide seamless and secure identity verification, across many markets including multiple compliance jurisdictions in the African market unlike any provider. To get started with Smile ID, book a demo here.