World first – OCR software successfully responds to handwritten Vietnamese

World first – OCR software successfully responds to handwritten Vietnamese

～Document OCR software “Prexifort-OCR^®” compatible with Vietnamese, sales to be expanded to Southeast Asian Nations～

Tokyo and Hanoi, February 5^th 2016 NTT DATA Corporation (hereinafter NTT DATA) and NTT DATA Vietnam Co., Ltd. (hereinafter NTT DATA Vietnam), in a world first^{(Note 1)}, have succeeded in developing handwritten Vietnamese OCR technology. The two companies, with an aim of expanding into Southeast Asian Nations, centered around Vietnam, will release their document OCR software^{(Note 2)} “Prexifort-OCR®” Vietnamese compatible version in February.

“Prexifort-OCR”, which NTT DATA has been providing, is OCR recognition software which extracts character information from image data and converts it into text data. Until now, the high recognition rates of Japanese, English and Chinese (simplified) has been its strength, being employed by many companies, and contributing to efficient operations.
By making “Prexifort-OCR” compatible with the tone symbols characteristic of the Vietnamese language, and also making it compatible with handwritten Vietnamese, starting with printed Vietnamese, it has become possible to convert the handwritten applications etc. in Vietnamese into text data. With this, it has become possible to greatly optimize application inputting operations at banks and life insurance companies etc. in Vietnam.
With both NTT DATA and NTT DATA Vietnam being jointly involved in the full-scale introduction of “Prexifort-OCR”, we are planning to introduce it to not only Vietnam, but the whole Southeast Asian region.

Background

In order to support operation optimization for the core systems of central government ministries and agencies until now, NTT DATA has been utilizing OCR technology for over 40years. “Prexifort-OCR” is a product based on long-time accumulation of knowledge, has been employed by many companies in Japan, and is now starting to expand globally into countries such as China.

While OCR technology is being put to use in Japan and China, and the digitalization of application forms and vouchers etc. is progressing, processing and storage using paper is still the mainstream in Southeast Asian nations, and there was a need for electronic document management OCR etc., especially in banks and life insurance companies which deal with a lot of application forms. From this background, NTT DATA and NTT DATA Vietnam cooperated to meet these needs in Southeast Asia and developed the Vietnamese compatible “Prexifort-OCR” product and, starting with Vietnam, will begin a full-scale introduction in the whole Southeast Asian region.

Outline and features

“Prexifort-OCR” is OCR recognition software which extracts character information from image data and converts it into text data. Special features include correct character recognition of both handwritten and printed characters, flexible compatibility regardless of scanner model, and realization of smooth coordination without needing to select application. Also, Electronic Document Management OCR, which improves the ease of document searches and strikes a balance between security and sharing, and Image Work Flow OCR, which shortens the lead time from proposal to approval, are available as options.With these, because operations usually performed by the users at the counter, such as application input operations, and electronic storage / search operations for contract documents etc. can be semi automated, it is possible to greatly optimize operations.

Future activities

NTT DATA plans to expand “Prexifort-OCR” into Southeast Asian countries, centering on banks and the life insurance industry.