Once the images are captured, automated data processing software will identify the answer sheet based on the template type.
At this stage, the image will undergo image pre-processing to confirm barcode readability, page size, presence of cornerstones etc.
After identifying a form, intelligent character recognition (ICR), optical character recognition (OCR), and optical mark recognition (OMR) technology will extract data from the scanned answer sheets.
Simple rules such as alpha, numeric, dictionaries, date ranges, database lookups and mandatory fields will be checked at this stage with exceptions queued for human review.
Automated marking for MCQs
OMR technology can, for example, read candidate responses to MCQs and export a value for each question (i.e. A, B, C, D). Alternatively, OMR can mark each question (if pre-loaded with the answer-key) and export a final score (rather than raw responses).