Optical character recognition (OCR) is an important technique in industrial environments. After all, machine vision makes it possible to reliably identify workpieces and products throughout the entire value chain based on printed or stamped characters. With the aid of modern deep learning technologies and convolutional neural networks (CNNs), certain fonts can be trained in such a way that font recognition rates are significantly improved.
OCR techniques are especially well known from office communication. The scanning of paper documents such as invoices, delivery notes, and other records allows them to be quickly converted to a digital format, to extract relevant information from them and to integrate this data into a continuous, electronic flow of information. The method also plays a key role in industrial design and production processes, particularly in the context of Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things. Printed letter or number combinations make it possible to clearly and quickly identify components and make them available for automated process chains.