Project news

12.12.07 Cognitive Technologies begins a first industrial Open Source project in recognition area

Cognitive Technologies company announces start of the first International Open Source recognition project with first stage – opening of Cuneiform sources. Open source tendency is suffering unbelievable worldwide progress in the last two years and its benefits are so evident:

• everyone can achieve software for free;
• everyone can enhance and improve this software for her/his requirements, because sources are open.

As global experience of Open Source solutions attests, given conditions provide large opportunities to elaborate software products. Good examples are the following: Linux, Apache, Open Office and much more.

Free software market

Size of world market of free software (research results of Saugatuck Technology analytic company) will achieve $ 22 billions to Y2010, with annual 30% elevation. Market of free software in Russia is now about $40 millions, as wrote “Finam” research center. It will achieve $200 millions to Y2010.

Cognitive Technologies quota may be 5-7% to Y2010 via service providing, technical support and advertisement.

Our experience in Open Source projects

Cognitive Technologies hopes using of “community” resource in OCR development with management by its scientists should provide significant effect.

Note Cognitive Technologies already has large experience in Open Source direction. During last two years company is executor of Federal Program “Electronic Russia” in creation of Open Source solutions for Russian public authority. In addition a few months ago company started Open Source project of recognition of car models which is realized with close cooperation with student community with management of Cognitive Technologies chair. This chair was found by Cognitive Technologies in MFTI. The first results of this project are expected in Y2010.

Expected results

Hopefully one of the main results of the Cuneiform Open Source project should be increasing of the popularity and abundance of machine printed recognition solutions because code is open and price is zero. OCR systems should be available for everybody!

As Cognitive Technologies knows number of active users of OCR systems (who uses OCR at least once per month) via Open Source can increase up to 5 times to Y2010, by active involving to OCR technology of the office workers, students of high schools and Universities, and federal employees: free software will be good alternative of piracy products.

Therefore, number of OCR users in Russia can increase to 25M to that period from current 5M.

As business company, Cognitive Technology expects a real benefit developing Open Source machine printed recognition systems. OCR-technologies occupy not too big segment of IT-market, but, to make active OCR-development significant resources should be involved. In Y1995 Cognitive Technology announced achievement of industrial quality of recognition. Next improvements of recognition rate is not too important (it is not principal two or four misreading errors will be present during reading of the five machine printed pages). Seems to us, more perspective is OCR-transformation to utilities within “big systems”. This is the main course of the company in OCR area. (Against, in ICR and IDR areas our company actively pushes research and development projects related to all spectrum of document imaging technologies including recognition of the complex documents, form reading, “understanding” of documents, etc.).

Integration of recognition engines to documents circulation systems, graphics and text editors is usual deal today. It is not top secret, that in the nearest future recognition functionality will appear in search engines too. We should accent starting Y2000 no any “revolution” changes were added to OCR systems. Main directions of those systems development were service improvement and enhancement of additional features (like new supporting languages) at that period of time. Note in the same period some significant results were achieved in forms processing and document understanding areas.

By Cognitive Technologies estimation whole cycle of CuneiForm OCR development was 470 man-years.

Open Source «OCR CuneiForm» is scientific project of Cognitive Technologies

Note, Open Source OCR project is of great value for Cognitive Technologies, because scientific researches present the major part of company’s activity. Our company expects to get number of fruitful ideas and methodologies to dramatically enforce Cuneiform OCR system and to receive in the nearest future number of revolutionary technological solutions.

Program “Recognition should be in each PC”

Roadmap of this project includes three stages:

1. OCR Cuneiform – Freeware program

In December,12th of Y2007 CuneiForm OCR became available for everybody (freeware). Full version of CuneiForm is downloadable now on Cognitive Technologies www.cognitive.ru site and also available on thematic resources like www.download.ru, www.freeware.ru, etc. (done)

2. Web-сервиса development

www.Cuneiform.ru Internet resource will be created at this stage. Everybody will be able to recognize documents online.

Cognitive Technologies is going to achieve number of recognition sessions on www.Cuneiform.ru  to 10 000 per year to end of Y2008.

3. Preparation and placement of OCR Cuneiform sources

Done April, 02nd Y2008.

Starting March Y2008 Cognitive Technologies (as investor and coordinator) is going to begin the new version of Cuneiform OCR with wide participation of “computer community”.

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