RE: MSDS information

[Andrew Reed <areed@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Do you need to reference MSDS sheets based on their full textual
content? Another option would be to index it based on key reference
fields and take advantage of an AS/400-based imaging system. You can run
the OCR just on those key fields resulting in a better result from the
OCR process and less post-process editing. Just a thought...

Andrew Reed
Magellan Software

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Shaw 
> Sent: Friday, February 19, 1999 6:31 AM
> To:   MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Cc:   jccats@bright.net
> Subject:      Re: MSDS information
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BORING David <dboring@shl.com>
> 
> >Is it possible that once the MSDS sheet is scanned into the PC to run
> an
> OCR
> >scan on it (such as using Omni Page)? If so, then it could be
> uploaded to
> >the AS/400 as text and stored and referenced there.
> >
> >MSDS sheets don't need to be pretty, they just have to exist. If you
> have
> >them in text format and available it's as good as having them in any
> other
> >format.
> 
> We wrote an application 4 years ago to do exactly that with MSDS
> sheets.
> Unfortunately, our originals tended to be of such poor quality (bad
> faxes of
> bad photocopies) that even good OCR software of the time couldn't do a
> decent job with them.  The users ended up just typing them in, since
> that
> was easier than editing the OCR output.  I would suggest verifying
> that you
> don't have the same problem before putting a lot of effort into such
> an app.
> 
> ---
> Dave Shaw, General Nutrition, Greenville, SC (just down the road from
> BMW -
> Bubba Makes Wheels :)
> The opinions expressed may not be my employer's unless I'm
> sufficiently
> persuasive...
> 
> 
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