Category: Supporting tool | Status: Prototype, development paused
A tool for automating the transcription of paper forms into software systems — reading a completed paper form and producing structured data ready for entry into whatever system is meant to hold it.
The problem
A great deal of institutional work still begins life on paper and ends up being retyped by a person into a database. That step is slow, and worse, it is a place where errors are introduced silently: a transposed digit at transcription time is invisible thereafter, because the paper original is filed away and the typed value becomes the truth.
Goals
- Eliminate data-entry errors introduced at transcription time.
- Substantially reduce the time between a form being submitted on paper and its data being available in the system.
- Remain independent of any particular destination system, so the same captured form can feed proprietary or in-house software.
- Provide a clean mechanism for version-controlled (and evolving) forms, with consistency over time and no data loss between versions.
Current status
A working prototype with the core data model built out. Provides a toolset for versioning and high capability to version forms needed in larger applications.