Signature Verification: Man vs. Machine

Visual signature verification is one of the most common fraud prevention methods that has remained unchanged for many decades. Although criticized, visual verification is still used as the final arbiter when automatic signature verification cannot make a reliable conclusion, or makes the wrong conclusion about signature authenticity. How reliable is visual verification? How does visual […]

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3 things I learned at AIIM 2013

I spent the last 3 days at the 2013 AIIM Conference in New Orleans, featuring a multitude of visionaries and speakers including Seth Godin, Thornton May, David Pogue, and others; on topics ranging from social organizations, information management, and mobile device trends as they relate to business. The following 3 tidbits have little direct relevance […]

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Understanding OCR, ICR, and Parascript ICR

Over the years, recognition technology companies (including Parascript) have attempted to create acronyms to delineate the differences between OCR, ICR, and the technology needed to effectively read many types and styles of handwriting, including cursive. In the end, we haven’t run into anybody who asks about natural handwriting recognition and the such. People just ask […]

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3 Signature elements used in automatic verification

In 1897 Abbé Jean-Hippolyte Michon, the founder of graphology, divided handwriting into seven fundamental elements: speed, pressure, form, dimension, continuity, direction, and order. Since then, the anatomy of handwriting (including signatures) has not changed and these characteristics are still key in signature verification analysis. Forensic expertise looks at such features of handwriting as height, width, […]

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Infographic: 55% of forms data is being rekeyed — why?!

Last year, Parascript set out to measure the adoption of automated recognition of both Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) for processing forms. The results were astounding, especially the lack of organizations utilizing automated recognition. Only 32% of organizations surveyed are using OCR to extract document content. Over the last year, we […]

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Signature Biometrics and Validation: An Introduction

What is biometrics? A biometric is a substantially stable physical or behavioral characteristic or trait of a person which can be automatically measured and characterized for comparison. In the context of signatures, biometrics are physiological and behavioral characteristics that make a signature unique.

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7 Reasons your Document May not be Suited for Unstructured OCR/ICR

Structured and semi-structured document analysis with ICR engines is complex enough; enter in an unstructured requirement with a data extraction workflow and you have a major challenge. When considering an unstructured approach, an analyst needs to determine if the project is a good candidate. The following 7 document characteristics present clues as to why your […]

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The future of remittance processing in one word – “more”

Regardless of whether or not you are a bank offering lockbox remittance solutions or a corporate receivables department collecting and reconciling your income—the future of remittance processing can be summed up with one word: MORE. More payment types. More back-end integration. More complication. And more automation tools required to manage it all. Merchant Warehouse put […]

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The Unique Challenge of Remittance Processing

When the word “remittance” is uttered, many in the business world tend to think of those stubs attached to business checks or the portion of a bill that is returned with a payment back to the electric or phone company. These types of payment remittances are typically handled in an orderly fashion and many are […]

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Signature Verification — Software + Humans = Great Fraud Prevention

Do you ever wonder what happens to signatures on the checks you sign? On two different days your signature, although genuine, might look very different. So why don’t you ever get a call from the bank asking to confirm a transaction? There are a number of reasons, but one might be that their signature analysts […]

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Why context is essential in handwriting recognition

Context plays a significant role in the recognition process. When people read handwriting, they look at entire words — or even the entire document — to correctly identify what is written. They can read a sentence and understand illegible words within the “context” of the document. In the same way, recognition engines use context as […]

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What (and what not) to expect with ICR, handwriting recognition

A lot of folks, both technologists and end users, are very familiar with the capabilities of OCR and the technology’s ability to convert images of typewritten documents into searchable electronic text. Thanks to incorporation with software packages from companies including Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft— consumers and businesspeople alike can take advantage of OCR’s capabilities to […]

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