MARCH 29--Concepts In Computing Inc. (CIC; South Beloit, IL) has enhanced its EconoCR industrial optical-character-recognition (OCR) software, making it compatible with several new environments and processors. Originally offered as a C++ library of OCR-related routines for Pentium-compatible PCs or machine-vision implementation platforms running Microsoft Windows 9X or NT, an enhanced version of EconoCR is now available for National Instruments' popular LabVIEW environment. EconoCR is also available for implementation on a variety of products powered by Analog Devices' 21XX family of Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Texas Instruments' TMS320C62XX family of DSPs, Motorola's PowerPCs, and Hitachi's SH4 processor.
EconoCR performs identification, matching, sorting, tracking, and verification of products as they move through various laboratory, manufacturing, or material handling processes. Typical applications for the EconoCR software include automatic reading of serial numbers or identification codes that are machine-marked on printed-circuit boards/substrates/wafers, glass lenses and molds, electronic components and carriers, disk-drive read/write heads, medical/dental devices and instruments, automotive or aerospace components, currency, and packaged goods. It has also been proven effective reading liquid-crystal displays and computer monitors during automated test operations. Reading accuracy is virtually 100% on "good" characters, while similar performance can be achieved on mediocre, and in many cases, poor quality characters via activation of certain advanced features. Additionally, on-site training of a new font can be accomplished in minutes.
For those unable to operate at the library level, implementations of EconoCR are featured as an integral component of DVT Series 600 SmartImage sensors, certain DVT Legend 5XX Series sensors, and DVT's automatic identification-specific SmartReader units, as "tools" or optional modules for Data Translation's DT Vision Foundry, Western Vision Software's HLImage++, and CORECO Imaging's Sherlock products. EconoCR is also the recognition engine of complete OCR application packages developed for deployment on smart cameras and sensors available from Baumer Electric/QualiVision, MATRIX Vision, and Vision Components.
EconoCR is priced at $1000 for end users, $700 for OEMs/Integrators, and $500 for manufacturers of machine vision hardware or software. A volume licensing discount schedule is available upon request.
Interested parties are encouraged to download a Windows-based demonstration program from www.c-in-c.com.
