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.
There are 2 kinds of image evaluation: full evaluation and sampled evaluation. During full evaluation, you review all captured images in the folder. During sampled evaluation, you review a small sample of the images.
Note: The default is to perform a full evaluation. You should only switch to the sampled evaluation under the direction of your camera supervisor or manager.
Sections:
Evaluating Images in a Folder
Best Practices
Full Evaluation
Automatic Viewing
Manual Viewing
Flagging Images for Later Review
Retaking an Image During Evaluation
Reviewing Flagged Images
Finishing Full Evaluation
Sampled Evaluation
Auto-Evaluating Imported Images
Evaluating Images in a Folder
After completing the digital capture of the group of records on which you are basing the folder, you are required to evaluate the images. As you evaluate, you should watch for the following. (See also Image Quality Checks.)
- Hands, cords, or other inappropriate objects in an image (clamps are okay if they do not block information)
- Blurring caused by turning pages or other movement
- Images that are out of focus
- Shadows
- Records outside the capture frame, missing black edges, or partial image of page is captured
- Spots with white flaring or glare
- Image corruption
Best Practices
Best practices for setting up your screen view for evaluation include the following:
Step 1: Select the pan window, and locate it in the center of the screen, enlarged enough to ensure that:
- The entire page has been captured.
- There is a black border around all sides of the image.
Note: An exception is the gutter of a book.
- No hands or other content is in the frame.
- The document is not skewed.
Step 2: Set the view screen to 2,300% on an area that will continuously have text, handwriting, or lines so that you can examine the pixels for motion blur and focus.
Step 3: Set the zoom windows to show the page numbers, certificate numbers, and other information to ensure that no pages have been missed.
Full Evaluation
Step 1: To evaluate images, select the Evaluate tab, or at the bottom of the capture screen, click the Evaluate X-Key. The evaluate panel displays.
Step 2: Set the evaluation mode to full evaluation, and then choose to view images automatically or manually.
Automatic Viewing
Using automatic viewing, DCam displays images on the capture screen for the time set in the minimum display time field, with a minimum display time between .5 to 5 seconds.
Step 1: To set the amount of time to view each image, click the Minimum Display Time down arrow.
Step 2: Click the green play button.
Step 3: You can pause viewing to flag an image for closer review by pressing pause or the spacebar on the keyboard. The system does not immediately pause, so be prepared for several images to continue to be evaluated and pass by on the capture screen.
Step 4: Go back to the thumbnail of the image you want to review and highlight it.
Manual Viewing
Step 1: To display each image on the screen, click each thumbnail. To navigate, do the following:
- To move to the next image, press the right arrow on the keyboard.
- To move between images, on the evaluate panel, use the arrow buttons on your screen.
- To move to the next consecutive image, click the right single-arrow button on your screen.
- To move to the previous image, click the left single-arrow button on your screen.
- To move to the next unevaluated image, click the right double-arrow button on your screen.
- To move to the previous unevaluated image, click the left double-arrow button on your screen.
Step 2: From the image viewer toolbar, open the pan window, and enlarge it enough to look for inappropriate objects in the image, incorrect cropping, and other issues.
Step 3: To view the actual image for focus and blurs at the pixel level, click outside the pan window on the image, and use the mouse roller ball to increase the background image to 2,300%.
Step 4: Select multiple zoom windows to show the outer edges of the document magnified at 400% or more. Zoom windows are helpful during evaluation to check image focus. (See The Zoom Windows Icon.)
Step 5: Check the image for quality.
Step 6: When you have evaluated an image, a green check mark displays with its thumbnail. Before you can close a folder, all of the images within it must display this designation. It signifies that they have met quality standards. This is a necessary step before they can be transferred to an external hard drive.
Flagging Images for Later Review
During evaluation, if an image needs to be fixed or recaptured, you can flag it and then return to it later. That way you can review all the problem images together.
- Flag an individual image: highlight its thumbnail and click Flag or press Ctrl+F. When an image is flagged, a red flag displays in the thumbnail.
- Select multiple images to flag: hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click the thumbnail images with the mouse.
- Select a series of images to flag: click the first thumbnail image in the series and, while holding down the keyboard shift key, click the last image in the series you want to select. When the images are highlighted, release the shift key. All the images in the series will be selected.
- Select all images to flag: click any thumbnail image and press Ctrl A. Click Flag to flag all selected images. To deselect all images, click any thumbnail image.
- Remove flags from all images: click Clear All Flags.
If for some reason the evaluation needs to be performed again, and to remove all of the green check marks and return the folder to evaluation status, click Reset.
Retaking an Image During Evaluation
You can recapture images at the time of evaluation rather than flagging them for review and recapture later.
Step 1: Press either F12 or the Retake X-Key. DCam immediately switches to the capture screen and retakes the image.
Step 2: To return to the evaluation screen, press Enter, or click the Return to Evaluate tab.
Reviewing Flagged Images
When the last image in the folder has been evaluated and there are flagged images in the folder, an evaluation finished dialog displays that allows you to select Review Flagged Images.
Step 2: If an image is satisfactory, select the image and click the Flag button or press Ctrl F.
Note: The clear flag function is only enabled for images that you manually flagged. To clear quality check warnings, you must use the quality checks window. (See Image Quality Checks During Image Capture.)
Step 3: Use the Auto-Evaluate Imported Images feature to mark imported images as having been evaluated. (See Auto-Evaluating Imported Images.)
Finishing Full Evaluation
When the last image in the folder has been evaluated and there are no flagged images, the evaluation finished dialog displays. Choose among the options described below.
- Return to the Capture screen: Select this if the folder is very large and you are performing an evaluation multiple times during the image capture process. For example, the book you are capturing is 1,500 pages, so you choose to perform an evaluation after every 250 images are captured.
- Close this folder, and return to the Folders screen: Select this if the record type is changing and a new listing is required. For example, the records captured in the folder are birth records and the next group of records is death records. The death records are not associated with a listing for birth records. In this case, return to the folders screen to choose the correct listing for the death records.
- Close this folder, and return to the Transfer to External HD screen: Select this if you need to transfer closed folders to the external hard drive immediately.
- Close this folder, and create a new one copied from this folder’s information: Select this if the next group of records is associated with the same listing as the folder that is being closed. This allows you to change key fields on the folder creation screen for the new group of records. Fields you might change include title, volume, and date.
Step 1: When the last image in the folder has been evaluated and there are flagged images in the folder, a different evaluation finished dialog displays. Click Review Flagged Images to return to the capture screen.
Step 2: Use the navigation controls on the capture images panel to review flagged images and fix image problems, such as retaking, inserting, or deleting the image. If you decide the image is satisfactory, click Clear. (See Addressing Flagged Images.)
Note: If you retake or insert any images, they need to be evaluated, since they were not included in the last evaluation.
Sampled Evaluation
In sample evaluation, you only view and evaluate a subset of the images in a folder, so only seasoned operators with supervisor approval should use this method.
Step 1: On the evaluate panel, select Sampled Evaluation.
Step 2: DCam sets the required delay to at least .75 seconds per image. For a longer delay, click the Minimum Display Time down arrow.
Step 3: Click Play.
Step 4: Set the pan and zoom windows as described in Evaluating Images.
Step 5: As the images are marked in the thumbstrip, images that are virtually evaluated (not shown to you) are assumed to be good, based on the evaluated images that are shown to you. The virtually evaluated images are marked with a dashed green checkmark, indicating that the image was virtually evaluated as a result of sampling or the auto-evaluation of imported images. (See Auto-Evaluating Imported Images.)
Step 6: To complete a manually sampled evaluation, on the evaluate panel, use the arrow buttons.
Note: When you continue to the next sample image, DCam marks all images in between as virtually evaluated.
When the evaluation is finished, one of the evaluation finished dialogs displays.
Auto-Evaluating Imported Images
You can mark imported images as evaluated using the auto-evaluate imported images feature. When a folder contains imported images, the auto-evaluate imported images button is displayed on the evaluate panel.
Step 1: To mark the imported images as evaluated, click Auto-Evaluate Imported Images in the evaluate panel.
Note: As a shortcut, on either the capture screen or the evaluate screen, you can press Ctrl+Shift+E. All the imported images are marked as evaluated.