Google Writes Up OCRopus

Google is “happy to announce” the new OCRopus OCR Project, which will focus on the cutting edge of handwriting recognition technology.  Expect the Image Understanding and Pattern Recognition (IUPR) research group to do the heavy lifting, though - Google’s role will mostly be that of a sponsor.  (The state of Rhineland Palatinate, according to IUPR, is also providing funding.)

Over the next three years, the project will pursue a pretty lofty goal - “a high quality OCR system suitable for document conversions, electronic libraries, vision impaired users, historical document analysis, and general desktop use.”  But the potential benefits are obviously both impressive and abundant.

In fact, they’re even bringing some people back to the Google fan base.  “This is the sort of thing that makes me like Google again,” wrote InfoWorld’s