Matrox Imaging has introduced Matrox SureDotOCR, the first OCR technology specifically designed to overcome the challenges of using inkjet-printed, dot-matrix text in vision inspection applications, particularly on packaging lines in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. SureDotOCR will be made available initially as an add-on tool to Matrox Imaging Library (MIL) machine vision software.
Existing solutions for reading dot-matrix product identification information such as manufacturing date, expiry date, lot size and product number are limited because they involve case-specific image pre-processing to form solid-stroked text prior to using traditional OCR. SureDotOCR requires simply specifying the expected dot size and dimensions of a box framing the entire text of interest. The software handles non-uniform dot spacing; deformed, skewed and touching characters; rotated text strings; varying contrast; uneven backgrounds and other anomalies. SureDotOCR also accepts grammar rules such as letter only, digit only, specific letter(s), specific digit(s), specific punctuation mark(s) and other designations at each character position to further enhance reading accuracy. SureDotOCR lets users define the expected dot-matrix character font but also includes predefined fonts.
“Equipment makers and integrators, especially those serving the packaging industry, are eagerly anticipating SureDotOCR so they can finally offer a more reliable and universal solution for reading product identification information printed as dot-matrix text,” said Sam Lopez, director of sales and marketing at Matrox Imaging. “SureDotOCR is easy to use; it requires minimal tuning for particular conditions and it’s robust enough to handle all commonly encountered circumstances that make vison applications that need to do dot-matrix text reading challenging.”
“Mettler-Toledo’s turnkey vision inspection systems are designed from the ground up to inspect product labels across all market segments and packaging types,” said Tobias Vancura, Head of R&D, SBU Vision Inspection, Mettler-Toledo. “We are thrilled to see the release of Matrox’s much anticipated and innovative OCR technology because it will be a major enhancement to our CIVCore platform, finally allowing us to confidently address a significant packaging inspection requirement.”
Availability
SureDotOCR will be available first as an add-on to MIL 10 by the end of the second quarter of 2016 and licensed with MIL’s solid-stroke String Reader OCR tool at no additional cost.
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