Intelligent character recognition or ICR technology is an advanced form of optical character recognition. Where optical character recognition is primarily known for its conversion of typewritten text into computer-readable format, ICR technology converts handwritten text into the same.
Intelligent character recognition, because of its similarity with OCR technology, is commonly associated with having few applications in very restricted settings. However, optical character recognition is an old technology with a stronghold on various institutions. On the off-hand, ICR technology is just popping up as it is fairly new. This means that ICR is absolutely going to catch its pace too.
Gradually the applications of ICR are becoming increasingly known. However, the biggest of these applications for online character recognition lies in the classroom.
Understanding ICR intelligent character recognition for the education industry
The education industry collectively requires the management of millions of students. From schools and universities to government agencies managing public education, all institutions require the processing of a lot of handwritten paperwork.
In the classroom, in particular, almost all documents are 100% handwritten. These include but aren’t limited to students’ notes, assignments, and exams. Such an extent of handwritten content in the classroom makes it a hotspot for the application of ICR technology.
While ICR technology is not currently being commonly used in the classroom today, it most certainly has massive potential to get adopted by the mainstream.
Benefits of ICR Algorithms and Solutions in the Classroom
The implementation of intelligent character recognition in schools and classrooms can be a tedious and intensive task. However, the benefits far outweigh the one-time costs.
Let’s go through a few ways in which ICR technology can help build better classrooms and ultimately better generations.
Collaborative learning:
ICR technology can facilitate collaborative learning by enabling students to work together on digital documents and assignments. This helps students also learn how to work in a team and make each other learn better. This can help build teamwork skills and foster a sense of community among students.
Moreover, this technology can facilitate the students by giving them feedback on their learning performance which can later lead students to get better concepts and work on their strategies for learning. It can teach the students studying patterns and help them to learn according to their style.
Helping students study better:
The typical process for note-taking for students involves writing down the lecture proceedings during class, and then visiting these notes later.
However, students who are slow at writing may require both listening and writing notes to study efficiently. Multitasking during class can be a concern and pushback. ICR technology allows the immediate recording of teachers’ lecture notes without having to note down everything in a rush.
Moreover, the student can then take notes as per their own personal preferences on top of the ICR technology recorded information.
Fast ICR processing is thanks to the MNIST database. The MNIST database exists to help computer systems, particularly machine learning systems, learn human methods of writing. MNIST is a digital database of handwritten text that the computer or an ICR software can refer to when it is in the process of reading handwritten content.
Ultimately in this way, ICR technology can help students focus better on the more important tasks rather than staying hung up on those that may be redundant.
Improving processes for teachers and educators:
Teachers are responsible for extremely extensive tasks in a classroom. This is even more particular for K-12 schools and their students who can be harder to manage during lectures. However, even for university students, there is a lot of pressure on the educators.
ICR technology can help ease this pressure by offering simple solutions to lessen the burden.
- Teachers can use ICR technology to immediately and efficiently grade their students’ exam papers and assignments. The likelihood of errors in grading also reduces in the presence of digital software. However, the best thing about this is that educators do not have to sit down for hours on end grading exam papers.
- In a classroom setting, it is very frequent for certain books to be unavailable. In such cases, the accession and provision of books to all students can be done with great ease with ICR. For example, if just one copy of a book is available, the teacher can take a picture of it, and run it through ICR to share it with the students. Moreover, this is also greatly beneficial for sharing and accessing teachers’ personal notes.
Helping students with disabilities:
One of the most prominent benefits of intelligent character recognition is how it can help students with certain disabilities. For example, Students with visual disabilities such as blindness can run their class fellows’ or teachers’ notes through ICR technology software. ICR can convert text and students can easily listen to content at home or on the go.
For those with visual impairment without complete blindness, ICR technology can help screen and digitalize text. Students can then zoom in on the text or change contrast etc. to improve readability.
For students with developmental disorders such as focus disorders, ICR technology can help improve studies by allowing them to take notes and study later rather than having to force through lectures without retaining anything.
Moreover, certain students with focus disorders also may work better while multitasking. Multitasking is not possible in the classroom. Thus, through ICR these students can easily record their lecture notes digitally to revise later whenever feasible.
Conclusion
ICR technology has vast applications for the educational industry. Unfortunately, however, we are not making the maximum out of this technology.
About 1.6 million elementary school kids in the US have ADHD. Current school systems can make it difficult for these millions of students to perform to their full potential. However, it does not always have to be like this. In the future, the implementation of ICR technology, alongside other accommodations, in a classroom setting will help produce better generations with greater educational affinity.
