bombcaron Hacker News • Recommends
On “What Is the Most Minimal UK Address Possible?”
link to this video might be of interest - it has some of what the machines are trying to read and what accuracy they need.
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#ocr#usps#handwritingrecognition
How the US Postal Service reads terrible handwriting
Tom Scott
6.7M subscribers • 28 videos on Hallway
- Recommended by 4 people: 4 on Hacker News.
- Presented by Tom Scott
Beginner. No background in the topic needed.
7M views4 years ago4 recommendations
AI and machine learningSystems programmingComputer visionData engineering and warehouses
Tom Scott visits the USPS Remote Encoding Center to show how human keyers and OCR systems decode difficult handwriting on mail.
At the Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City, keyers process 1.2 billion images of mail every year. It's a more difficult job than I thought. Edited by Michelle Martin: youtube.com/@OnTheCrux Thanks to Zack from JerryRigEverything for being the camera op: youtube.com/jerryrigeverything 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there too) ❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: lateralcast.com/ youtube.com/lateralcast/ 👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: youtube.com/techdifWhy it's here
4 people recommend thisWhat people say. Recommended as an interesting look at the limits of automated OCR and the human-in-the-loop systems that support it.
simmonmton Hacker News • Recommends
On “What Is the Most Minimal UK Address Possible?”
This Tom Scott video shows some of the surprising (to me) lengths to which the USPS does go to figure out the right address: link to this video Obviously this doesn't apply to your case, but I certainly didn't think they'd have a national center for decoding terrible handwriting.
LordDragonfangon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores”
Tom Scott did a great video showing the last one in operation. They use totally unique keyboards with what is essentially a stenography system: link to this video
Caligatioon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Postzegelcode”
And like almost all things that are interesting, here's a Ton Scott video about the same topic: link to this video
omginternetson Hacker News • Mentions
On “Apple Kills Plans to Scan for CSAM in iCloud”
Actually, we're talking about both, and you are wrong on both counts. If you weren't, you would be able to point to an existing system that has demonstrated the capability of classifying an image set on the order of iCloud's, without producing a false-positive. You can't, because such a system doesn't exist. Even the "solved" problem of OCR isn't capable of such a feat: link to this video
bombcaron Hacker News • Mentions
On “What Is the Most Minimal UK Address Possible?”
One of Don Rosa's books has the letters he sent to a friend in college, each with a drawing on the envelope and less and less address, until finally it was all drawing and barely part of a name - they all got (eventually) delivered. There's a specific branch of the post office that works on these - the dead letter office: link to this video
yencabulatoron Hacker News • Mentions
On “Using an Engineering Notebook”
> Though USPS has been doing handwriting recognition since the 80's. On a very restricted dictionary of possible content, with a pool of people employed to fix anything where the computer is unsure. link to this video
shagieon Hacker News • Mentions
On “AI helps add 10k more photos to OldNYC”
As a profession (and under time constraints) ... Tom Scott : How the US Postal Service reads terrible handwriting - link to this video Part of the story is that the OCR that is handling hand lettered addresses. I also chuckled at the cursive letter recognition sheet on the side of the cube.