ScioTR Available Now in the Win8 Store!

What would it take to "Go Paperless?"

Do you have labels or small forms from which you need to get structured data - in an excel spreadsheet or CSV file?

ScioTR is a new touch-enabled Windows 8 app which integrates Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Consensus Strategy, and Machine Learning (ML) to provide an efficient workflow for digitizing images into custom data fields.

Download and Try it FREE from the Windows 8 Store!

Here is our latest walk through video showing a number of the app's features including how images are organized and how data is extracted from the images:

Calling all label images in need of digitization!

Last summer, we presented a talk and demonstration of ScioTR, a new Windows 8 app for digitizing images of documents (specifically images of natural history collections labels), at the SPNHC conference in Rapid City, South Dakota. You can watch a video very similar to the content presented in South Dakota on our YouTube channel. For a description of the data entry workflow in ScioTR, visit ScioTR.com.

I would like to take this opportunity to solicit images of collections labels for testing purposes during our final development cycle. We are looking for various types of labels, from various disciplines, including those that are handwritten, typewritten in different fonts, not straight, dirty, etc. Of course, in return, you will receive an excel spreadsheet of the records in the format of your choice, complete with GUIDs. Here are the only requirements:

1. Please limit the number of labels to the equivalent of no more than 200 specimens (some specimens may have more than one label/image). 
2. Include a field list (or we can send the data back to you in Darwin Core)
3. Images should have a resolution of 72 dpi or greater

Please email robin@scioqualis.com if you would like to participate.

Introduction

This blog will detail many of the features in ScioQualis.com, an Online Natural History Collections (aka Biocollections) management database, and ScioTR, a integrative digitization tool for the rapid digitization of Natural History Collections labels. It will become something of a living user's manual and forum, in one place. The intention here is not to sound like a commercial for these software products, but to explain certain features in depth; particularly in cases where wide adoption of a technical strategy could result in a positive outcome for the community as a whole.

ScioQualis.com was modeled after the Darwin Core standard, but adds a number of other useful fields. It uses GUIDs (Globally Unique IDentifiers) throughout to link pieces of information together. It was specifically designed to address many of the high level needs (like those described in the NIBA Implementation Plan) that are specific to the accessibility and usefulness of Natural History Collections data while also offering an easy management solution for small and large collections alike, as well as collections in areas of the world in which access to technical resources for database development are scarce. Because ScioQualis is 100% online, it is accessible from anywhere there is an internet connection. For more information, please see the ScioQualis Training Page.

www.scioqualis.com

ScioTR is a Windows 8 'Modern' app, currently under development. In June of 2013, we presented the strategies and theories behind ScioTR’s comprehensive workflow process and later gave a live demo of the software in action at SPNHC, DemoCamp in South Dakota. A video covering content similar to that presented in the SPNHC demo is available on the ScioQualis YouTube Channel:

We welcome your comments and feedback - please contact us via the comments after blog posts and/or privately at robin (a) scioqualis.com.