Earliest ideas of optical character recognition (OCR) are conceived. Fournier d'Albe'sOptophone and Tauschek's Reading Machine are developed as devices to help the blind read.[1]
The Optacon, the first portable OCR device, is developed. Similar devices are used to digitise Reader's Digest coupons and postal addresses. Special typefaces are designed to facilitate scanning.[1][2][3]
1974–2000
Scanners are used massively to read price tags and passports.[4] Companies such as Caere Corporation, ABBYY and Kurzweil Computer Products Inc, are created. The latter one develops the first omni-font OCR software, capable of reading any text document.[5]
American inventor Charles R. Carey invents the retina scanner, an image transmission system using a mosaic of photocells, considered the first OCR invention in the world.[1]
1885
Invention
Image scanner
Paul Nipkow invents the Nipkow disk, an image scanning device that later will be a major breakthrough both for modern television and reading machines.[8]
1900
Invention
Russian scientist Tyurin envisions the first OCR machine to serve as an aid to the visually handicapped, but never manages to develop it.[1]
1912
Product
Text-to-speech
Edmund Fournier d'Albe develops the Optophone, a handheld scanner that when moved across a printed page, produces tones that corresponded to specific letters or characters, so as to be interpreted by a blind person.[9][10]
1916
Patent
American engineer John B. Flowers patents the "One-Eyed Machine Stenographer", a machine capable of reading and typing a script. It worked by superimposing all the letters to find a point that marked each of them.[11]
1921
Invention
Text-to-tactile sensations
Italian professor Ciro Codelupi envisions the "Reading machine for the blind", capable of transforming luminous sensations into tactile sensations.[12]
1929
Invention
Austrian engineer Gustav Tauschek creates the first OCR device called the "Reading Machine", with a photo-sensor pointing light on words when they corresponded to a content template in its memory.[13]
1931
Patent
Text-to-telegraph
Israeli physicist and inventor Emanuel Goldberg is granted a patent for his "Statistical machine" (US Patent 1838389), which was later acquired by IBM. It was described as capable of reading characters and converting them into standard telegraph code.[1]
1938
Invention
MIT professor Vannevar Bush develops the Microfilm Rapid Selector, a similar but simpler Goldberg' statistical machine, and 40 times faster.[14]
American cryptoanalyst David H. Shepard and Harvey Cook Jr. build "Gismo", a machine able to read aloud letter by letter and interpret Morse code (U.S. Patent 2,663,758).
American magazine Reader's Digest becomes the first business to install an OCR reader, used to convert typewritten sales reports into punched cards.[1]
1962
Invention
Portability
Stanford professor John Linvill develops the Optacon, the first portable reading device for the blind.[17]
1965
Application
Reader's Digest expands its OCR use to digitise serial numbers of coupons. with a RCA 501 computer.[citation needed]
1965
Invention
American inventor Jacob Rabinow develops an OCR machine to sort mail from the US Post Office.[3]
The US Army implemented what may have been one of the first major applications using OCR technology by converting their manual allotment program to a centralized system using IBM 360 computers. The process involved the purchase of IBM Selectric typewriters using Time Roman font 12 for all of its finance offices around the world. This application allowed all military personnel to allot portions of their paycheck through automated payroll deductions to pay bills, send to savings, etc. which eliminated monthly processing. The success of this program paved the way for all military services to follow and eventually led to the conversion to a fully automated pay system years later.[citation needed]
American inventor Ray Kurzweil creates Kurzweil Computer Products Inc., which develops the first omni-font OCR software, able to recognize text printed in virtually any font.[4]
1976
Company
Dallas company Recognition Equipment Inc. is founded to read credit card receipts from gasoline purchases (U.S. Patent 4027141).[8]
OCR Russian company ABBYY is founded by David Yang, and starts selling products intended to simplify converting paper files to digital data.[23]
1992
Invention
The first program that recognizes Cyrillic is invented by Russian company OKRUS.[1]
2000
Application
Online service
OCR technology is made available online as a service (WebOCR), in a cloud computing environment, as well as in mobile applications like real-time translation of foreign-language signs on a smartphone.[24]
^ abJ. Scott Hauger, Reading Machines for the Blind ( PDF ), Blacksburg, Virginia, Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, April 1995, pp. I-II, 11-13.