ScanTools Prisma

Introduction to whats new in

ScanTools Prisma
 Prisma: A brand new product
• Reset the counter
– ScanTools Plus reached 8.313
– ScanTools Prisma starts new at 1.0
– Why reset the counter?
• Prisma will increase focus on Imaging as a solution
• OMR remains the same, but Imaging is entirely
replaced
 Prisma not Side by Side compatible with
Plus
• At this time, Plus and Prisma cannot be installed on the
same computer
– Scantron only supports One Scanner for One Computer
• Prisma only supports the iNSIGHT 700c and that scanner is not
supported by Plus
– If Plus is installed on a computer with Prisma, there could
be unknown, but very difficult to diagnose issues with both.
• Uninstalling either becomes troublesome
• Two separate disk partitions recommended if Plus and
Prisma must be installed on the same computer
• Side by side compatibility expected for future release
Why does Prisma not look new?
 If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
• OMR features in ScanTools work well and require no
changes
– Less training required for support staff
– Customers will be more comfortable upgrading to the new version
– Training can be focused in depth on new imaging features
• Only slight changes to the interface
– Removed references to iNAME
– Some terminology changes
• Online => ScanTime
– New Archiving tool and associated controls
– New ICR/OCR tool
 What is new in Prisma
• User Exits replace with User Extensions
– User Exits will not move forward to ScanTools Prisma
– All User Exits must be rewritten as a User Extensions
• Free ScanFlex
• Free Score
• Online Scanning is now Scan-Time Scanning
• Imaging
– ImageFlex
– SIDIF files replace Master TIFF files
– New Scanning/Archiving Engine
 User Exits vs User Extensions
• User Exits • User Extensions
– C++ – C# and VB
– Installed with ScanTools – Works on the .NET Framework
– Visual Studio 2005, 2008, 2010 only
– Offered as part of SDK
– Not an officially supported feature
–
– Works in current Visual Studio
Use at your own risk
– Never QA or tested – API for reading application files
– No training available – API for reading document data
– Mostly supported by ScanTools – QA and testing done before
Engineers release
– Complicated to use – Training available
– Complicated Naming Conventions (Internationally at least)
and structure
– Simplified setup and design
– Required intimate knowledge of
ScanTools – Secure implementation
– Could potentially break ScanTools – Intuitive naming conventions
 Free ScanFlex and Score
• Score is now included in the base package of
ScanTools (No longer requires STX301)
• Every copy of ScanTools will come with
ScanFlex
• When migrating applications from previous
versions, ScanFlex will be enabled
automatically
 ImageFlex
• Ability to capture two separate images in a single pass with a single
read head
• As sheet passes under read head, two separate images in two
separate channels are captured
– One channel for OMR/ICR/Barcode processing
• Standard 240x240 DPI
• Red or Infrared read
• This image can only be viewed using Scanner Exerciser
– One channel for image archiving
• Up to 600x600 DPI
• Full Color Read
• Read head quality check verification
– Sekonic Scanners capable of imaging use a second read head for image
• No quality control checks to confirm head is capturing accurate image
 Image Scanning Option
• Three options exist for setting image quality captured
from the scanner
– Dots Per Inch
– Light Source
– Image Compression
• These options are distinctly separated from the data
results and only affect the image
• These options affect what the scanner captures and
places in the SIDIF file
– Once in the SIDIF file, these qualities cannot be changed
without rescanning the forms
 Dots Per Inch
• OMR image
– Always capture in 240x240
• Archiving image
– Can choose from
• 240x240
• 240x120 (i150 high speed only)
– silently changes to 200x200 on i700c
• 200x200
• 300x300
• 600x600
– This selection has no impact on OMR/ICR/Barcode data
 Clipping Light Source
• OMR Image
– 8bit Red or Infrared drop out colors
– Standard Pen or Pencil Options
• Archiving Image
– Drop out colors
• 8bit Red, Green, Blue, or Infrared
• Requires Background Form Merge
– Non Drop Colors
• 8bit Grey Scale (full picture, but in black and white)
• 24 bit Full Color (can later be archived in 8bit color)
– If you do not capture in color, you cannot archive color
 Image Compression
• Medium – Visually indistinguishable, no loss in speed, very
good saving in file size
– Use medium in almost all situations
• High – Minimal image quality loss, slight loss in speed,
immense savings in file size
• Low – Virtually no quality loss, slower than Medium and
High, file sizes not much smaller
– A lot of processing is required for low compression
• Lossless – Perfect quality true image, slow, large file sizes
• None – Image is exactly what the scanner sees, no loss in
speed, massive file sizes
 Image Compression
• Ringing can occur during compression
– Image becomes slightly blocky
• Compression can save up to 98% in file size
 Master Tiffs vs SIDIF Files
• Master Tiffs • SIDIF Files
– Image stored as it would – Image stored as scanner sees
it
be archived
– Virtually no size limit (16
– Old, outdated, rigid Petrabytes)
– Size limit of 1GB, – Fast to process
failure expected by 2GB – ScanTools has reading tool
– Slow to process built in for perusing file
– Could not be parsed or – Stores information related to
perused by user the scanning session
– Holds images differently,
– Only stored images
can hold images in different
formats
Real Case: What's wrong here?
(PS: We promise this is already fixed)
 Real Case: What we did.
• What we did when we saw the problem
– Scanned a sheet to see it was happening again
– Altered the scan resolution and scanned again
– Altered the Compression Rate and scanned again
– Removed the front plate of the scanner
– Removed the back plate of the scanner
– Removed the bottom plate of the scanner
– Wiggled the cable to make sure it was firm
– Reassembled the scanner
– Updated the firmware
– Had one of the scanner engineers come look at the problem
– Had the director of engineering come look at the problem
– Scanned another sheet to show them the problem
– Scanned again to prove this problem was reproducible
Real Case: What we should have done
• We should have done
– Opened the SIDIF file
– Viewed the scanned sheet in the SIDIF file
• Confirmed the scanner scanned the sheet correctly
– The issue must be in the archiving software
 What is a SIDIF File
• Scantron Image Data Interchange Format
• Stores exact image captured by scanner
– Images can be archived a second time in different formats based on changing needs
• Master Tiff Files saved the image based on archive specification
– If archived as Bitone, stored as Bitone in Master TIFF, impossible to get lost color back
• SIDIF stores the raw image, raw image can be archived in Bitone, or Grayscale, or Color
• Stores the original image for editing.
– During editing, you can view dropped pen marks.
• Phantom Clipping
– The same image data is not capture more than once
– If a region for a clip fits within a different region, only the larger region is captured
– A phantom record of a clip then matches to the region within the larger clip data
• Stores full sheet if specified in application
– If just capturing a clip for editing, only stores clip unless told to capture full sheet
– At most, only captures full sheet once
• Does not capture same clip multiple times for different stored images
• Stores more than just the image
– Text information can also be stored in file, including
• Scanner model, Scan Resolution, Scan Light source, date of scan, Sheets saved, clips saved, file size, clip image sizes,
percent of size saved by compression
 Scan-Time Archiving
• Online Archiving now called Scan-Time Archiving
• Archiver runs entirely independently of OMR scanning
• Two separate engines designed to run concurrently
– Scanning Engine
• Always take precedence over Archiving Engine
• Captures OMR data and Raw Image and stores Image in SIDIF FIle
– Archiving Engine
• Archiver designed to operate during processor down time while scanning
• Pulls image data from SIDIF file, not directly from scanner
• Scanning speed not impacted by archiving engine
– Archiver will continue running even after scanning has stopped
– User warned if attempting to stop session before archiving has finished.
• Small progress bar near bottom of scanning window shows archiver
progress
 Archiving Clips
• Archive properties replaces iNAME
– All drawn grids can be divided into different Archive
Sets
– Each Archive set has different rules for Clips properties
and output File Names/Paths
– Same clip can appear in different archive sets
• Clip Properties no longer used for individual clips
– New box lets users specify clip name and rotation of
each drawn grid
– Properties specified as part of Archive set
 Archive Properties
• Clips can now be saved in several new • Output path and file name can be
formats built from any combination of
– TIFF
several options
– JPEG
– Scan\Current\Julian Dates
– JPEG2000
– PDF
– Serial\Batch\Run Numbers
– PNG – Document Information
– PSD – Field Data
– BMP – Etc…
– GIF

• If file name matches name of

• Image quality is selected here
– 24 bit Full Color (16 Million Colors)
existing file, files can be appended
– 8 bit Color (256 Colors) together or file is named [FileName]
– 8 bit Grey Scale (256 Greys) (1)
– 4 bit Color (16 Colors)
– 4 bit Grey Scale (16 Greys) • Sample full file path used to show what
– 1 bit Bitone (Black or White) output looks like
 Data Editing Window
• Image displayed during data editing is image used
for Archiving
– Marks made in drop out colors will be displayed in editor
• If using infrared light source, pen marks will not affect the
OMR data, but can be used as notes for the editor.
• More direct image highlighting
– Surrounding image of bubble in question fully shaded out
– Grid of bubble in question half shaded out
– Response position of Bubble in question completely
highlighted
 Advanced Character Recognition
• New Character recognition engine in ScanTools Prisma
• Windows 8 and Windows 10 compatible
• No longer called Real Time Character Recognition
(RTCR)
• Now called Advanced Character Recognition (ACR)
• Most functionality remains identical
– Newer, simplified interface
• ACR like RTCR needs a separate license key to install
• If selecting Custom Characters, you must close and
reopen ScanTools to unselect Custom Characters
 Migrating applications
• Applications must now be run through migrater
– Application extension is still .STXAppDef but .STXAppDef
applications from Plus(8.X) will not be recognized by Prisma
• ScanFlex is automatically enabled when migrating
applications
– ScanFlex is required for iNSIGHT 700c
– Some scanners could potentially see different results from Plus
to Prisma if ScanFlex unintentionally turned on
• iNAME Archiving settings will not be migrated from Plus
– Users will have to recreate the archiving properties in Prisma.
 Application Settings
• Removed Release for Scanning
• Removed Use OMR from Scanner
• Removed User Exit
• iNSIGHT 150 scanner speed moved to
Scanner Resolution
• Added Scanner Resolution
• Added Clipping Light source
• Added Compression
 What’s to come in the future
• Currently only enabled for iNSIGHT 700c
– Support for older scanners is in continued
development
• Prisma/Plus Side by side installation support
• ScanTools Prisma SDK
– User Extensions will be packaged in the SDK
• All future features are subject to change