Design guidelines for character rejection and substitution for off-line document processing systems

Abstract

Most optical character recognition systems are not error-free. Thus, some characters are rejected or substituted when an off-line document is processed. Alternatives of a rejected character can be provided to help a human user to select the correct one while proofreading the processed document. This study investigated several ways of presenting alternatives for rejected characters and the user strategy of proofreading documents with rejected and substituted characters. Design factors examined included rejection and substitution rates, number of alternatives, and the availability of the original document for proofreading. Proofreading speed and accuracy were measured. The results were analyzed statistically and analytically to come up with human factors design guidelines. Detailed design strategies and recommendations were suggested based upon the results.