OMR Q#4 IP

OMR

Short for optical mark recognition, the technology of electronically extracting intended data from marked fields, such as checkboxes and fill-infields, on printed forms. OMR technology scans a printed form and reads predefined positions and records where marks are made on the form. This technology is useful for applications in which large numbers of hand-filled forms need to be processed quickly and with great accuracy, such as surveys, reply cards, questionnaires and ballots. A common OMR application is the use of "bubble sheets" for multiple-choice tests used by schools. The student indicates the answer on the test by filling in the corresponding bubble, and the form is fed through an optical mark reader (also abbreviated as OMR, a device that scans the document and reads the data from the marked fields. The error rate for OMR technology is less than 1%

OMR background[edit]

OMR test form, with registration marks and drop-out colors, designed to be scanned by dedicated OMR device

Many traditional OMR devices work with a dedicated scanner device that shines a beam of light onto the form paper. The contrastingreflectivity at predetermined positions on a page is then used to detect the marked areas because they reflect less light than the blank areas of the paper.

Some OMR devices use forms which are preprinted onto 'transoptic' paper and measure the amount of light which passes through the paper, thus a mark on either side of the paper will reduce the amount of light passing through the paper.

In contrast to the dedicated OMR device, desktop OMR software allows a user to create their own forms in a word processor and print them on a laser printer. The OMR software then works with a common desktop image scanner with a document feeder to process the forms once filled out.

OMR is generally distinguished from optical character recognition (OCR) by the fact that a complicated pattern recognition engine is not required. That is, the marks are constructed in such a way that there is little chance of not reading the marks correctly. This does require the image to have high contrast and an easily-recognizable or irrelevant shape. A related field to OMR and OCR is the recognition of barcodessuch as the UPC bar code found on product packaging.

One of the most familiar applications of optical mark recognition is the use of #2 pencil (HB in Europe) bubble optical answer sheets in multiple choice question examinations. Students mark their answers, or other personal information, by darkening circles marked on a pre-printed sheet. Afterwards the sheet is automatically graded by a scanning machine. 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 application being the UK National lottery form. Lozenge marks are a later technology and have the advantage of being easier to mark and easier to erase. The large 'bubble' marks are legacy technology from the very early OMR machines that were so insensitive a large mark was required for reliability. In most Asian countries, a special marker is used to fill in an optical answer sheet. Students, likewise mark answers or other information via darkening circles marked on a pre-printed sheet. Then the sheet is automatically graded by a scanning machine.

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.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

OMR marks are also added to items of physical 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.

OMR software[edit]

Plain paper OMR survey form, without registration marks and drop-out colors, designed to be scanned by an image scanner and 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 focuses on many factors like Thickness of Paper Dimensions of OMR Sheet and Designing Pattern.

One of the first OMR software packages that used images from common image scanners wasRemark 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 were designed to use dedicated scanners and special pre-printed forms with drop-out colors and registration marks. Such forms typically cost USD $0.10 to $0.19 a page.^[11] In contrast, OMR Software users design their own mark-sense forms with a word processor or built-in form editor and print them locally on a laser printer saving themselves thousands of dollars on large numbers of forms.^[12]

Identifying optical marks within a form such as for processing census forms, has been offered by many forms processing (Batch Transaction Capture) companies since the late 1980s. Mostly this is based on a bitonal image and pixel count with minimum and maximum pixel counts to eliminate extraneous marks such as those erased with a dirty eraser that when converted into a black and white image (bitonal)can look like a legitimate mark. So this method can cause problems when a user changes his mind, and so some products started to use grayscale to better identify the intent of the marker—internally scantron and NCS scanners used grayscale.

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.

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