[blindlaw] High-Volume OCR

[Aser Tolentino]

Hi All,

This is probably a bit off topic, but I had an assistive technology
question. I’m a 3L in Northern California, and have been interning with area
DA’s offices. I started out in one office working misdemeanor files; that
office paired me with an intern to act as a reader. I signed on with a
different office where I helped the felony unit out with research and
preliminary hearings; they let me scan case files to PDF with one of those
big office scanners, which I then ran through Kurzweil 1000 OCR. I’m now at
a third office that doesn’t have one of those wonderful multifunction
scanners readily at hand and am thinking my Canon flatbed isn’t up to the
task when I’m handed a file an inch thick.



I was thinking of getting one of those high-speed scanners (e.g. Fujitsu
ScanSnap) to create PDFs to feed to Kurzweil. But before I committed myself
though, I figured I’d ask if there was something in the OCR solutions market
that was better/faster: is there something purpose-built to handle this sort
of thing?



Any advice, including telling me I’m going about this all wrong (perhaps
especially that), would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

Aser