New Android feature includes scanner with optical character-recognition technology

May 23, 2013

Document scanning services have been aware of the improvements in scanning technology for years. What could once only scan in a photo of a document can now, with optical character-recognition technology, actually read the text and embed it into a digital copy, so users can search for information later. Improvements have also allowed this software to read and decipher handwriting, so well that the U.S. Postal Service has been shutting down the plants that at one time interpreted messy penmanship.

But now, the same technology used to decipher text will be accessible to nearly anyone, not just bulk scanning services. Android announced this week that its new phones would feature a Google Drive application with optical character-recognition technology. Users will be able to take a picture of bills or letters with their phone, and not only will they be turned into PDFs, but will be searchable later, according to an article in android-gets-card-style-redesign/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Tech Crunch.

While the technology itself isn’t new, being able to quickly and easily scan data with optical character-recognition for Android may give new meaning to the term “paperless office.” Instead of needing to transport bills or other paper, employees can now scan and send documents without the need of a traditional scanner.

At the same time, this also means that companies that still rely on paper may need to catch up a bit in order to fully use these new Android features. To become completely paperless, companies can work with document scanning services to quickly and efficiently scan all documents into readable documents, to fully adapt to new scanning practices.

Tab Service Company is a Chicago based company with over 53 years of experience as a data processing service provider.  We provide business with outsourcing solutions for document scanning services, data entry services and mailing/lettershop services.  As a SOC2-approved service organization, we apply industry-best practices to our approach with clients.