ABBYY Announces FlexiCapture Studio at AIIM

New Tool for Enhancing and Developing Semi-Structured Forms Processing Solutions

ABBYY, a leader in document recognition and linguistic technologies today announced FlexiCapture Studio, a powerful tool that enables data capture processing of unstructured or semi-structured forms and documents. Targeted at software developers, system integrators and VARs, FlexiCapture Studio will help develop and expand semi-structured forms processing applications.

Initially designed for use with ABBYY FormReader and FineReader Engine SDK, FlexiCapture Studio is a tool that allows users to create solutions based on ABBYY recognition technology to successfully capture data from various semi-structured and unstructured forms, including such varied documents as invoices, health claim forms, resumes, loan documents and the like, without regard to scan resolution or data location.

ABBYY FlexiCapture Studio addresses three limitations of current forms processing solutions: a. the ability to handle only fixed forms and documents, but not semi-structured or unstructured forms; b. constant template-tweaking to accommodate minor document adjustments; and c. high costs associated with operator dependence.

“Built on the impeccable OCR accuracy heritage that ABBYY has come to be known for, FlexiCapture Studio is paving the way to expand the forms processing market we know today,” said Dean Tang, President and CEO of ABBYY USA.  “With the introduction of FlexiCapture Studio, ABBYY can offer its existing partners and application developers a forms processing tool that will help them greatly expand their business by allowing them to capture a wider variety of data, including semi-structured and variable forms.”

With FlexiCapture Studio’s intuitive user interface, a person who has had no previous programming experience can create a layout definition, or FlexiLayout. In the case of complex flexible forms, ABBYY FlexiCapture Studio allows users to create FlexiLayouts using the powerful FlexiCapture language to create FlexiLayout. FlexiCapture Studio is a proven technology having established efficiency with several large-scale projects in Eastern Europe.

FlexiCapture Studio allows users to specify which key elements to look for and describes how to locate the elements in a form or document after a specific key element is found. The relationships between elements and associated data are defined using logical concepts such as “above, below, right, left, before, after, closest to, and within the range.” FlexiCapture Studio uses a unique, element-relationship algorithm to detect data fields. Unlike other approaches, which analyze separate elements one by one, FlexiCapture Studio uses whole sets of form elements and analyzes the relationship between them to identify the required fields. This drastically reduces the likelihood of error and speeds up the entire capture process.

FlexiCapture Studio allows users to define a logical layout for documents of any type. Through the layout definition, FormReader and FineReader Engine know which key elements to look for and how to locate the data after the key elements are found. FlexiCapture technology frees users from the restrictions of template-based form matching, such as the reliance on exact placement of fields on a page. Thus, FlexiCapture-enabled capture solutions can find fields elsewhere, using any information available and are able to find and extract needed data and information from any type of form or document.

Target Markets

• FlexiCapture Studio can be used by system integrators, software and consulting companies to create customized solutions for their clients or to develop their own products with flexible forms processing abilities for markets such as healthcare, finance, legal, and government, as well as corporate departments such as human resources, accounting, marketing and sales.
• Companies and developers who are currently using ABBYY FormReader or FineReader Engine, interested in processing semi-structured documents, and those who are currently using products which offer fewer capabilities than FlexiCapture Studio.

Key Features of FlexiCapture Studio

• Uses proven and established technology to describe layouts of semi-structured and flexible forms.
• Simplifies creation, editing and testing of flexible form descriptions with the help of a refined visualization environment.
• Creates FlexiLayouts in two ways: by using the program’s dialog boxes or by writing code in FlexiCapture language.
• Uses an element-relationship-based algorithm to detect data fields, using whole sets of form elements to identify the required fields.
• Allows export of the same flexible form description into ABBYY FormReader and to ABBYY FineReader Engine.

Key Benefits

• Developers can create their own products or customized solutions based on ABBYY technologies. Integrators can expand their business by offering a wide range of customization and implementation services for their clients.
• Wide application — FlexiCapture Studio can be used to capture data from all kinds of semi-structured or flexible forms and documents, expanding a developer’s ability to support new markets.
• FlexiCapture Studio can be adopted by users who have had no programming experience.
• Flexible layouts can be created in a matter of hours.

System Requirements

Software and hardware requirements:
1. PC with a Pentium 350MHz for Windows XP, Pentium 200MHz for Windows 2000/NT 4.0;
2. Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 (SP6 or later).

Pricing and Availability

ABBYY FormReader with ABBYY FlexiCapture Studio is available now. FlexiCapture Studio for ABBYY FineReader Engine will be available starting from Q3 2004. Please request fully functional trial version and check pricing and purchase terms with ABBYY sales team. Please find detailed product information and contacts of ABBYY offices worldwide at corporate web-site https://www.abbyy.com/.