Optical mark recognition
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Optical mark recognition (OMR) collects data from people by identifying markings on a paper. OMR enables the hourly processing of hundreds or even thousands of documents. For instance, students may remember completing quizzes or surveys that required them to use a pencil to fill in bubbles on paper (seen to the right). A teacher or teacher's aide would fill out the form, then feed the cards into a system that grades or collects data from them.[1]
Background
Many
Some OMR devices use forms that are printed on transoptic paper. The device can then measure the amount of light that passes through the paper. It will pick up any black marks on either side of the paper because they reduce the amount of light passing through.
In contrast to the dedicated OMR device, desktop OMR
OMR is generally distinguished from
One of the most familiar applications of OMR is the use of
- In the United States and most European countries, a horizontal or vertical "tick" in a rectangular "lozenge" is the most commonly used type of OMR form;
- The most familiar form in the United Kingdom is the UK National lottery form.[citation needed]
Lozenge marks represent a later technology that is easier to mark and easier to erase. The large "bubble" marks are legacy technology from very early
Many of today's OMR applications involve people filling in specialized forms. These forms are optimized for computer scanning, with careful registration in the printing, and careful design so that ambiguity is reduced to the minimum possible. Due to its extremely low error rate, low cost and ease-of-use, OMR is a popular method of tallying votes.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
OMR marks are also added to items of printed mail so folder inserter equipment 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 folder inserter equipment scans in order to determine when the mail should be folded then inserted in an envelope.
Optical answer sheet
An optical answer sheet or bubble sheet is a special type of form used in multiple choice question examinations. OMR is used to detect answers. The Scantron Corporation creates many optical answer sheets, although certain uses require their own customized system. [citation needed]
Optical answer sheets usually have a set of blank ovals or boxes that correspond to each question, often on separate sheets of paper.
Reading
The first optical answer sheets were read by shining a light through the sheet and measuring how much of the light was blocked using
Modern optical answer sheets are read based on reflected light, measuring lightness and darkness. They do 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 made by higher-number pencils and the smudges from number 1 pencils). Black ink will be read, though many systems will ignore marks that are the same color the form is printed in.[12] This also allows optical answer sheets to be double-sided because marks made on the opposite side will not interfere with reflectance readings as much as with opacity readings.
Most systems accommodate for human error in filling in ovals imprecisely—as long as they do not stray into the other ovals and the oval is almost filled, the scanner will detect it as filled in.
Designing and printing
There are specific dimensions of designing OMR sheets with 0.05 mm precision on scale. If the dimensions are not up to the precision scale, the accuracy of the OMR sheet may vary, so the sheet should be designed, printed and cut perfectly.
- Single Part – Sheets are printed on 105 gsm to 120 gsm paper on A4/Legal sheets.
- Double Part (Carbonless) – Two sheets are printed; one on 105 gsm paper and one on 60-70 gsm paper on A4 sheets. The bottom of the first sheet and the top of the second sheet are chemically treated so that the impression of the first sheet comes on the second sheet.
- Three Part (Carbonless) – Three sheets are printed on one 105 gsm paper and the other two are printed on 60-70 gsm paper on A4 sheets. The bottom of the first sheet, the top and bottom of the second sheet, and the top of the third sheet are chemically treated so that the impression of the first sheet comes on the second and third sheets.
Errors
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 too thick, or is irregular. During the
OMR software
OMR software is a computer software application that makes OMR possible on a desktop computer by using an Image scanner to process surveys, tests, attendance sheets, checklists, and other plain-paper forms printed on a laser printer.
OMR software is used to capture data from OMR sheets. While data capturing scanning devices focus on many factors like thickness of paper dimensions of OMR sheet and the designing pattern.
Commercial OMR software
One of the first OMR software packages that used images from common image scanners was Remark Office OMR, made by Gravic, Inc. (originally named Principia Products, Inc.). Remark Office OMR 1.0 was released in 1991.
The need for OMR software originated because early optical mark recognition systems used dedicated scanners and special pre-printed forms with drop-out colors and registration marks. Such forms typically cost US$0.10 to $0.19 a page.[14] In contrast, OMR software users design their own mark-sense forms with a word processor or built-in form editor, print them locally on a printer, and can save thousands of dollars on large numbers of forms.[15]
Identifying optical marks within a form, such as for processing
OMR software is also used for adding OMR marks to mail documents so they can be scanned by folder inserter equipment. An example of OMR software is Mail Markup from UK developer Funasset Limited. This software allows the user to configure and select an OMR sequence then apply the OMR marks to mail documents prior to printing.
History
Optical mark recognition (OMR) is the scanning of paper to detect the presence or absence of a mark in a predetermined position.[5] Optical mark recognition has evolved from several other technologies. In the early 19th century and 20th century patents were given for machines that would aid the blind.[3]
OMR is now used as an input device for data entry. Two early forms of OMR are
The first
During the same period, IBM also developed a successful optical mark-sense test-scoring machine, as documented in US Patent 2,944,734 (filed in 1957, granted in 1960). IBM commercialized this as the IBM 1230 Optical mark scoring reader in 1962. This and a variety of related machines allowed IBM to migrate a wide variety of applications developed for its mark sense machines to the new optical technology. These applications included a variety of inventory management and trouble reporting forms, most of which had the dimensions of a standard punched card.
While the other players in the educational testing arena focused on selling scanning services,
In 1983, Westinghouse Learning Corporation was acquired by National Computer Systems (NCS). In 2000, NCS was acquired by Pearson Education, where the OMR technology formed the core of Pearson's Data Management group. In February 2008, M&F Worldwide purchased the Data Management group from Pearson; the group is now part of the Scantron brand.[17]
OMR has been used in many situations as mentioned below. The use of OMR in inventory systems was a transition between punch cards and bar codes and is not used as much for this purpose.[9] OMR is still used extensively for surveys and testing though.
Usage
The use of OMR is not limited to schools or data collection agencies; many businesses and health care agencies use OMR to streamline their data input processes and reduce input error. OMR, OCR, and ICR technologies all provide a means of data collection from paper forms. OMR may also be done using an OMR (discrete read head) scanner or an imaging scanner.[18]
Applications
There 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
- Product evaluation
- Time sheets and inventory counts
- Membership subscription forms
- Lotteries and voting
- Geocoding (e.g. postal codes)
- Mortgage loan, banking, and insurance applications
Field types
OMR has different fields to provide the format the questioner desires. These fields include:
- Multiple, where there are several options but only one is chosen. For example, the form might ask for one of the options ABCDE; 12345; completely disagree, disagree, indifferent, agree, completely agree; or similar.
- Grid: the bubbles or lines are set up in a grid format for the user to fill in a phone number, name, ID number and so on.
- Add, total the answers to a single value
- Boolean, answering yes or no to all that apply
- Binary, answering yes or no to only one
- Dotted lines fields, developed by Smartshoot OMR, allow border dropping like traditional color dropping.[clarification needed]
Capabilities/requirements
In the past and presently, some OMR systems require special paper, special ink and a special input reader (Bergeron, 1998). This restricts the types of questions that can be 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 own forms and use a scanner (preferably with a document feeder) to read the information.[19] The user is able to arrange questions in a format that suits their needs while still being able to easily input the data.[20] OMR systems approach one hundred percent accuracy and only take 5 milliseconds on average to recognize marks.[19] Users can use squares, circles, ellipses and hexagons for the mark zone. The software can then be set to recognize filled in bubbles, crosses or check marks.
OMR can also be used for personal use. There are all-in-one printers in the market that will print the photos the user selects by filling in the bubbles for size and paper selection on an index sheet that has been printed. Once the sheet has been filled in, the individual 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
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.[21] There is also the possibility of missing data in the scanning process, and incorrectly or unnumbered pages can lead to their being scanned in the wrong order. Also, unless safeguards are in place, a page could be rescanned, providing duplicate data and skewing the data.[19]
As a result of the widespread adoption and ease of use of OMR, standardized examinations can consist primarily of multiple-choice questions, changing the nature of what is being tested.
See also
- AI effect
- Applications of artificial intelligence
- Clock mark
- Electronic data capture
- Mark sense
- Object recognition
- Optical character recognition
- Pattern recognition
- Benjamin D. Wood
- Lists
References
- ^ "What is OMR (Optical Mark Reading)?". www.computerhope.com. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
- ^ "Optical mark recognition". Archived from the original on June 13, 2006. Retrieved June 13, 2006.
- ^ a b Research Optical Character 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 Information Age (3rd ed.). Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
- ^ "Statisticians' Lib: Using Scanners and OMR Software for Affordable Data Input". Archived from the original on November 10, 2005. Retrieved June 13, 2006.
- ^ "Data Collection on the Cheap". July 2015. Archived from the original (PPT) on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
- ^ "Remark Office OMR, by Gravic (Principia Products), works with popular image scanners to scan surveys, tests and other plain paper 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), 30-33
- ^ "Forms Processing Technology". Tkvision.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2015-07-03.
- ^ a b Research Input Devices | Macmillan Science Library: Computer Sciences. Bookrags.com. 2010-11-02. Retrieved 2015-07-03.
- ^ a b c Bloomfield, Louis A (29 May 2006). "Question 1529: Why do scantron-type tests only read #2 pencils? Can other pencils work?". HowEverythingWorks.org.
- ^ Mullard Technical Handbook Volume 4 Section 4:Photoemissive Cells (1960 Edition)
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-20. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as 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 14, 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?]
Example of OMR sheet : OMR Sheet PDF