Abbyy Software House has released a software development kit (SDK) for integrating optical character recognition (OCR) and business card reading functions into mobile devices and applications. The OS-independent Abbyy Mobile OCR SDK supports Linux, uClinux, and other popular embedded OSes, according to the company.

Abbyy says its Mobile OCR SDK offers development support specifically designed for the mobile application market, allowing developers to embed OCR functionality into any mobile device with imaging hardware, including camera phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and handheld scanners.

The company lists the following key features of the Mobile OCR SDK:

• Multilingual — supports 60 languages
• Target OS agnostic — can be easily integrated into any operating system including Linux, uClinux, Windows, Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS, and some proprietary RTOSes for GSM and CDMA phone platforms (porting and customization services are available)
• Small footprint — uses 1.5MB to 5MB of RAM and 2MB to 20MB of flash
• Digital camera OCR — includes special algorithms for handling image distortions typically associated with images taken with digital cameras
• Business card processing support — provides intelligent text parsing capabilities specialized for reading text from business card images; contact information can be scanned directly into an on-device address book

Abbyy chief product manager Alexander Rylov said, “With the recent advancements in mobile hardware and digital camera technology, the time is right for this type of mobile recognition technology. Digital cameras have become a standard feature in mobile phones and PDAs and users are quickly learning how to take advantage of these functions. Providing compatibility with any platform and with significantly enhanced functionality, this new version will help hardware vendors turn mobile phones and other handhelds into powerful business devices.”

Abbyy Mobile OCR SDK is available immediately, according to the company. A free trial copy can be requested here.

 
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