Genesis of postal address reading, current state and future prospects: thirty years of pattern recognition on duty of postal services

ABSTRACT

Abstract

Intro: An overview is given of the largest industrial OCR application world wide: Postal Address Reading, how it came into being, how it evolved rapidly to its current state-of-the-art and what are its future prospects. Some prominent historical-, system-, methodological-, cultural- and social aspects are illuminated.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.2 Types of Systems
          Subjects: Logistics

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Languages, Performance, Reliability, Verification

Keywords:
hidden markov models, hybrid voice, mult-expert-approach, multiline reader, ocr, polynomial classifiers, postal address reading, ptal, statistical machine learning