Need more information on Seiko Instruments USA Inc.'s Smart Business Card Reader? Try reading through these frequently asked questions to see if your question is answered here. If not, call us at 1-800-688-0817 and we'll try to answer it as quickly as possible. The following topics on this page are:
General Questions
Q. Who would use/need the SBCR?
A. Anyone who collects business cards... Salespeople, executives, Realtors, etc. If you use a contact manager (like ACT!) or manage a lot of contacts, you can use the SBCR.
Q. What does the SBCR do?
A. The SBCR automates the task of manually entering business card information into your computer. The SBCR makes it easy and fast. The SBCR scans a business card, recognizes the text, and then intelligently determines where the name, address and other important information is on the card. Then the SBCR places the data into the appropriate fields in your contact management database.
Q. With business cards designed differently, how does it know what text is the name and address on the card?
A. The magic of the SBCR is how it determines where the name, address and other fields are, no matter where they are located on the card. The software has the intelligence to identify the different information on the card and place it into the appropriate fields in the database.
Working With Cards
Q. How does it work?
A. First the scanner scans the card. Then the Optical Character Recognition attempts to read the text from the card image. This text is then processed by our intelligent field-recognition software to locate the name, address and other fields on the card. The information is then put in to the built-in contact manager as text.
Q. Can I feed it several cards at a time?
A. Although the SBCR doesn't have a multiple card feeder, you can scan cards quickly using our batch scan function. This will scan many cards in a short amount of time by delaying the OCR and field recognition processing to a later time.
Q. Does it scan cards from all countries and languages?
A. No, it will only scan English language alpha-numeric text and will not recognize Chinese or other characters. The field recognition has also been optimized for US and Canadian style addresses. Versions for other countries are in the works.
Software
Q. Does the SBCR come with software?
A. Yes, it comes with the SBCR application software, which not only scans and recognizes business cards, but also is a full contact manager database!
Q. Will the SBCR work with my current contact manager or database?
A. Yes, the SBCR will work with all contact managers and databases. In fact, the most popular contact managers (like ACT!, Goldmine, ECCO and others) are supported with our "one click" data transfer. We also have export filters to export to many others.
About Accuracy
Q. How accurate is it?
A. You should expect to read most cards without any problem. When errors occur, they are very easy to correct with our advanced editing tools. Cards which are difficult to read may experience OCR errors (wrong characters) and cards with uncommon information (i.e. multiple addresses or extraneous information) may experience field recognition errors (date put into the wrong fields).
Q. How easy is it to fix the occasional errors?
A. Our advanced editing tools make it easy to edit those occasional errors or make changes. You can drag and drop from one field to another in a snap. You can even drag and drop information from the image of the card itself!
Q. What types of cards are difficult to read?
A. Cards with reversed text, angled or curved text, very thin or light-colored type, text on a dark or textured background, text with fancy script outline or shadowed text, or little contrast between the card and the text are difficult for the SBCR to read. But since logos and graphics are ignored, it doesn't matter how they are printed.
Q. Wouldn't it be faster for a typist to key in the cards rather than scanning them and correcting any errors that happen?
A. No, overall it is much faster to scan them than to type them in. Many of the infrequent errors can be corrected by quick drag-and-drop edits. Also, even an experienced typist must be careful when entering data to make certain that the appropriate data in entered in the appropriate fields- and this slows down typing.
Q. How accurate is the character recognition?
A. We use the most recent 32-bit OCR engine from Caere Corporation, the leader in OCR, with the highest accuracy available in the market. While OCR accuracy depends on the type of card scanned, most cards read at 100% accuracy, and some require editing.
Q. What if I have handwritten notes on the card, will it save it for me?
A. Although the OCR will not read handwriting, an image of the card (with your handwriting) is saved for your later recall.
System Configuration
Q. What computer and operating systems are supported?
A. PCs running Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 are supported. Windows/NT and XP are not supported. Macintosh is also not supported.
Q. How does it connect to my computer?
A. The SBCR connects to a parallel port.
Q. Does the SBCR offer a parallel port pass-through (i.e. can two peripherals connect to one parallel port)?
A. No, currently the SBCR does not have a parallel port pass-through. However, we are developing a solution.
Q. What if my computer only has one parallel port and I want to share it with my printer and the SBCR what can I do?
A. You have two easy choices:
- Use a parallel port switch box (the type which allows one parallel port to share two peripherals) or..
- Add another parallel port to your computer by adding an add-in board (typically costs $30-50)
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