An Open-Source FaxOCR for Emergency Communication
Takashi Okumura, Sohgo Takeuchi, Kaizaburo Chubachi · 2018
Various information needs emerge in emergency situations, and authorities plan ahead to meet such needs. However, historical lessons suggest that unexpected issues must be resolved under time and resource constraints in disastrous situations. Accordingly, we have been developing tools to make the best use of faxes, which are flexible and possesses properties preferable in such situations. This article first presents a disastrous case and illustrates how one such system can be of help. Then, the design of an open-source fax OCR (Optical Character Recognition) system for emergency communication developed by the authors is presented. A simple evaluation shows advantages of OCR systems combined with fax in a crisis response scenario, and the scalability of the implementation.