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Archiver > ROOTS > 1990-03 > 0637522818-01


From: Roots-L List Operations <>
Subject: Re: random information
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 90 11:40:18 CST


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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
In article <>,
(John Guest) says:

>In a message to All <01 Mar 90 19:43:00> Ed Mertes wrote:
> EM> the OCR scanner. I've often thought
> EM> that a scanner would be nice for copying.
>.
>This could be a VERY POWERFUL genealogical tool!
>--
>John Guest via cmhGate

IT COULD BE A VERY POWERFUL GENEALOGICAL TOOL: Picture access to the records
in the future (2052 AD). People may have the ablity to scan all the tax
lists from any state in the US plus any country in the world. Census
records will be scanned and computerized (with the 1980 Census just
available--after the 70-year waiting period). Death records, cemetery
records, bible records will be able on your home computer. The possibilities
for genealogical research would be endless--then; but, not yet!

The scanners manufactured now just can't handle the materials we would need
to scan. We put an IBM 3118 on-line last weekend. It could handle clear
images but would not be able to scan old documents with all the blotches
and dirt marks. We tried text from an old history book and it could not
distinguish the characters. The text was 14-pitch and the scanner could
only handle up to 12-pitch. It might be possible to photocopy and enlarge
the text but the scanner would still have problems identifying double "t",
etc.

I have been patiently (or impatiently) watching the progress of scanners
since IBM's 1288. The machines just can't do what we need, yet. It appears
that one of the problems may be a need for some type of adjustable
magnification device to focus the page into the size of character and the
clarity which the machine can take. For hand-written documents, there
should be a way to erase sections of the document selectively to improve
the computer image prior to scanning for the permanent image which would
be stored--a preliminary pass to erase blotches.

Our test was discouraging; the machine isn't reading for our application.

Kathy

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