Populate a database via scanning in a paper form?

[joe789]

Hi folks,

Just wondering if it is possible to populate a database by scanning in a form into a scanner? For instance, if I had a standard paper form with typed data inside of the paper form's fields, to place that form into a scanner and have a program extract the characters in each one of the fields and place them into the appropriate fields in a database. I have heard of some agencies doing this, but don't know the names of software packages that would make this possible. Can anyone suggest some software packages or methods of doing this?

Thank you,

Joe

 

[FoFa]

I know visionier (SP) can do this, not sure if it will put it in a custom DB or just their own. I was not wrapped up in this project, but we their scanner/software scan receipts and it detected (OCR) 2 or 3 fields in our case, and populated that information to our Oracle DB along with the image.

 

[Bat17]

Had this link for ages but have never tried the product, but it looks good
http://www.kendata.com/autodata.html