Lesson Videos:
Introduction
Evaluation is the process of reviewing captured images to make sure they meet quality standards. You are required to evaluate images before closing a folder and shipping it to the processing center.
There are 2 kinds of image evaluation: Full Evaluation and Sampled Evaluation. During full evaluation, you review all captured images in the folder. This is the default evaluation mode.
During sample evaluation, an operator views and evaluates a sampling of the images in a folder. Leave the default (full evaluation) selected until you receive supervisor approval to begin using sampled evaluation. No matter which evaluation you perform, watch for the same quality issues as you review the captured images.
Image evaluation is required before closing out an archival unit or digital folder.
An evaluation can be initiated, however, at any time during the image capturing process. For example, if the archival unit is very large, you may want to perform an evaluation after every 200 images to decrease difficulty finding the original document if a retake is identified. During evaluation look for images that need to be retaken. As you evaluate, you should watch for the following:
- Hands, cords, or other objects in an image. (The only exception is the appearance of clamps on pages. Clamps are okay if they do not block information.)
- Blurring caused by movement in the camera environment.
- Images that are out of focus or partly out of focus (caused, for example, by capturing a book’s page when it is not flat).
- Shadows in an image.
- Records outside the capture frame, black edges missing, or only a part of the page is captured.
- Spots with white flaring or glares (reflections).
- Image corruption.
To evaluate images, select the Evaluate tab, or at the bottom of the Capture screen, click the Evaluate X-key. The Evaluate panel displays.
With the Evaluation Mode set to Full Evaluation, choose to view images automatically or manually.
Setting Up Your Screen
The best practice for setting up your screen view for evaluation, begins with the Pan Window. This best practice should also be used when capturing. If the screen was already set during capture, it carries over and portrays appropriately in the evaluation screen view.
From the Image View Toolbar, select the Pan Window Tool, and place it in the center of your screen, enlarged enough so that you can ensure these things:
- The entire page has been captured.
- There is a black border around all sides of the image (with the exception of the gutter of a book).
- No hands or other content is in the frame.
- The document is not skewed.
Set the view screen to 2,300% on an area that continuously has writing or lines so that you can monitor the pixels for good focus.
From the Image View Toolbar, select the Zoom Windows Tool, and set the zoom windows to show the page numbers and certificate numbers to ensure that no pages have been missed.
Automatic Viewing
To set the amount of time to view each image, click the Minimum Display Time down arrow. Using automatic viewing, DCam displays images on the Capture screen for the time set in the Minimum Display Time field. Choose a setting between half of a second (0.5) and 5 seconds. Click Play.
You can pause viewing to flag an image for closer review by pressing Pause on the screen or pressing the space bar on the keyboard.
Note: The system does not immediately pause, so be prepared for several images to pass by on the capture screen. After it stops, you can then go back to the thumbnail you want to review and highlight it.
If you would like to recapture the image immediately rather than flagging the image, place the correct document on your copy board, and click the Retake button. Or to execute a retake, press Ctrl+F3. The system returns to the capture screen, automatically retakes the image, and provides a dialog message which allows you to continue to evaluate images. If you continue evaluation, the system returns to the exact image that was retaken, and the evaluation can be started again by clicking the green arrow in the command panel.
Manual Viewing
To view images manually with your mouse, click each thumbnail image, or to move to the next image, on your keyboard, press the right or left arrow keys. To move to the next consecutive image, on the screen, click the single arrow button. To move to the next unevaluated image, click the double arrow button.
Evaluating
Once you have evaluated the image for all of the things listed above, a green check mark displays with the thumbnail. If one or more images need to be fixed or recaptured, highlight the image and click Flag, or press Ctrl+F. The thumbnail shows a red flag. You can then continue evaluating the other images.
At the end of the evaluation process, view all of the flagged images together. When the last image in the folder has been evaluated, an “Evaluation Finished” dialog displays. You can then return to the capture screen by selecting the Review Flagged Images button.
Fix any image problems, such as retaking, inserting, or deleting the image. If you review an image and decide that it does not need any further correction, to remove the flag from the image, in the command panel, click the Clear Flag button.
Before closing a folder, all images must have the green check mark, indicating that the images have met the quality standards and are ready to be transferred to the external hard drive.
Note: If you flagged any images and returned to the capture screen to retake them, you need to complete the evaluation for the images you flagged. To return to the evaluation screen, click the Evaluation tab or X-key.
Finishing Evaluation
When the last image in the folder has been evaluated and there are no flagged images, the “Evaluation Finished” dialog displays.
A Closer Look at Image Problems
Some of the problems that can occur in image capture (and that you may find in your evaluation) are issues that can require rework if you do not catch them now.
Remember that your DCam User Guide has more details on the following problems and what to do about them.
| Motion Blur is a common occurrence. It is caused when something moves during image capture. |
Image too dark.
| Clipping or other poor tonal balance can be seen in a histogram. It might indicate something changed with the environmental lighting. White board and grayscale calibrations need to be redone. |
| Covered information is a common error. Notice how the page itself is covering some information. |
Notice the hand in the image.
| Extra objects may be in the frame, like hands, tape, paper clips, or any number of things. |
Notice that the top of the page is missing because it is improperly cropped.
| Sometimes images are improperly cropped. Notice whether 1 side of the page is missing or whether the image has excess border around the right, left, and bottom of the document. |
The image needed the Tight Binding image quality tag.
| Sometimes images need quality tags like Tight Binding or Faded or Damaged Documents. |
Notice that the lines in the image look slightly fuzzy.
| When an image is out of focus, you will see that it looks fuzzy. In an out-of-focus image, more than 3 transitional pixels show on all sides of a character. |
Notice the bright line along the left side that is obscuring the text.
| There can be reflections that appear as bright spots in the image that obscure the text. Reflections can be caused by shiny paper, ink, or lamination. |
Notice the spot on the white board. This spot appears on all images in the same location.
| Faint spots are found on images, causing a warning to be issued. Spots can be caused from a dirt smudge or some other problem with the white board when you capture it. This spot appears on all images in the same location. The white circle in this image is caused by a dirty white board. |
Notice that the top of this document is on the left side.
| Sometimes images are not readable because the top of the document is not at the top of the image. This problem with image orientation can be solved by simply rotating the image with the Rotate Image Tool after capturing it, or by creating and using a template with an autorotation feature. |
Notice the jagged lines that should be smooth.
| Sometimes images contain corrupted pixels. |
Each page should be split into its own image because a single record does not span across both the right and left pages. (This is not a register.)
| Sometimes the wrong capture mode is used. If it is not a register, each page should be split into its own image. In this example, a single record does not span across both the right and left pages, so single capture mode was inappropriate. |
| In this example, a document page was not captured when it should have been. |
Be sure to take time to study your DCam User Guide to study all of these problems in more depth.
Learning Experiences
Activity 1: Check Your Understanding
When should an operator perform a folder evaluation? Mark all that apply.
- At the end of every archival unit or digital folder.
- At the end of the week when you need to transfer to my HD.
- At specified times throughout a very large archival unit.
- Only when my supervisor or manager instructs me to.
Which is a quality issue you will not identify during your evaluation?
- Out of focus
- Hands or items in the image frame
- Missed pages
- Incorrect metadata
True or False: An operator must wait until the evaluation is complete to fix any flagged images.
Full evaluation is the default setting in DCam. When can an operator change to Sampled evaluation?
- When they feel confident enough.
- When instructed by their supervisor or manager.
- When they need to save time.
- When their archival unit is too large to evaluate every image.