Personal computers (PC's) are enabling park and recreation professionals to accumulate and analyze all types of data. Today's recreation supervisor can compile and review all types of information regarding participants in programs, i.e., age, sex, fees, geographic distribution, transaction dates, and resident vs. non-resident status. An agency's administrator can calculate multiple budget variations of projected tax, fee and interest revenues, and expenses. A Superintendent of Parks can more efficiently allocate and schedule his personnel and equipment based on previous records which reflect time and personal service and materials; costs required to accomplish a given activity. A number of Superintendents are also utilizing PC's to retain and to review inventories, preventive maintenance schedules (facilities and vehicles), and records of incidents and accidents. Even with this diversity of PC use, there is one factor that is related to all PC uses, irrespective of the end user's application. This common factor is data entry — the numbers and the text which have to be entered into the PC in order for any software program to store the data and manipulate this information as determined by the user.

It is my guess that the majority of the data which is currently being entered into PC's is being accomplished by the use of the PC's keyboard.

Thousands upon thousands of alpha and numeric characters are being manually typed in daily. If the plateau of 11,800 keystrokes per hour (Data Entry Management Association's Survey) is accepted as the maximum number of characters of data which can be entered by a typist on a keyboard, and if it is also accepted that individuals will want to utilize PC's to retain a greater amount of information, the bottle neck in the process will occur at the point of entry.

How can this problem be resolved while maintaining the accuracy of information which is entered?

One of the answers appears to be by using "scanners" with PC's. Scanners are units which can be connected to personal computers in order to enter characters and graphics into a PC which can then be used in word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, and data base programs.

Scanners generally are available in three configurations and two types. The three configurations are: "hand" held units, "page" scanners, and desk top devices (very similar to a desk top copy machine). Those familiar with PC desktop publishing programs may have seen desk top scanners or hand scanners which scan graphic images into a computer.

Although graphic-type scanners are marvellous devices which have revolutionized desktop publishing, there is another type of scanner which is even more amazing; with the potential for more widespread use by park and recreation professionals than graphic scanners. This other type of scanner is called an Optical Character Reader (OCR). OCR scanners allow the user to enter alpha and numeric characters into a PC at an amazing speed. For example, one of the OCR hand scanners, the Translmage 1000, scans at a rate of 40 characters per second or just about as fast as you can run your finger over this line of text. At 40 characters per second, 144,000 characters can be entered in one hour using a hand scanner, compared to the maximum of 11,800 keystroke entries when a keyboard is used. The result is that entry by use of this hand scanner is 12 times as fast as typing entries. Not only has the speed of data (information) entry been increased 12 times, but this has been accomplished while retaining a 95-99% accuracy rate. There is another factor concerning OCR and graphic hand scanners; they require very little time spent on training or practice on the part of the user.

The Department of Conservation has experimented with both OCR "page" and "hand" scanners. Page scanners have been tested to extract information from up to 81/2 x 14 inch forms and documents. The SABA "page" scanner can scan all of the information (2500 characters) from a document into a PC at the rate of 80 seconds. This is equivalent to a secretary typing at over 300 words per minute.

In situations where the user does not want all of the contents of every page scanned into the computer, OCR hand scanners are a must. The user can position the hand scanner over just the specific information which he or she wants entered onto the PC.

A stack of documents such as invoice vouchers, or bills, can be scanned for entry of the precise data required for the agency's accounting system.

OCR scanners do have drawbacks, and I highly recommend that you obtain a number of different products on a trial basis prior to purchasing. Try before you buy — have a number of individuals in your agency scan each type of form and document your agency utilizes to record information. Compare each unit and note whether it accepts all of the alpha and numeric characters, how accurately it performs, and which documents and print types it will read.

In my personal experiments with hand scanners, I tested the accuracy, ease of use, and speed of several highly rated OCR and one graphic hand scanner. The majority of the OCR hand scanners cannot read carbon or poor quality copies or nine-pin dot matrix printing and hand written documents. Even though some of the OCR hand scanners can be adjusted to different contrasts, there will be some documents, even originals,

(Continued next page)

Scanners (Continued) ————————————————

which will not be read.

During my tests of a number of hand scanning units, such as the TransImage 1000 by Everex, I scanned documents from numerous sources which I use daily to extract numeric information and enter onto my PC using the keyboard. The TransImage 1000 scanned 9 out of 10 different types of documents almost perfectly. This was not the case when I tested and retested the SABA Handscan by SABA Technologies. Your experiences with these products may be just the opposite of mine because of the type of documents and print you scan. Therefore, it is critical that YOU, not a company sales representative, experiment scanning the documents of your choice.

There are several other drawbacks concerning OCR scanners, the first being the price. OCR Scanners are not cheap; page scanners cost over $1,200.00 per unit and hand scanners range from $700 + for the SABA Handscan to $2,000 for the Translmage 1000. Some units cost much more.

Another drawback is that some scanners require a minimum of 640K of RAM (temporary memory) in your PC before they can be operational. The descriptive literature on the Translmage 1000 stated, "System configuration and training requires 384K RAM", but in reality, it could not be set up without 640K RAM.

If you have the need, now or in the future, to enter more data into your PC more efficiently, then you might consider OCR scanners as one means to an end — an end to the bottle neck at the keyboard. If the idea of OCR scanners does not appeal to you, wait a little longer. Voice recognition data entry systems for PC's are on the next horizon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen Gonzalez is a conservation grant administrator for the Illinois Department of Conservation.