The survey of automatic character recognition techniques covered in this report has been conducted over a period of several years by teams of National Bureau of Standards personnel including, at various times, S. N. Alexander [and 10 others]. Much of the information herein was obtained through the courtesy of personnel of other organizations, especially those which are engaged in the design and development of reader devices.

Excerpt from Automatic Character Recognition: A State-of-the-Art Report Such techniques promise major advantages in a wide variety of data processing and data handling situations, specifically including thos-e of mechanized information selection systems and mechanized translation. These potential advantages include reductions in manpower requirements as well as reductions of errors and inaccuracies found in manual data transcription operations. This report incorporates the results of a fact-finding survey of automatic character reading techniques which was conducted by the National Bureau of Standards for the Rome Air Development Center in the period 1956-1957. The earlier survey has been extended and supplemented by study of the available literature, by continuing inspections of character reader devices, and by periodic discussions with research and development personnel interested in automatic character recognitiontechniques. The purpose of this report is therefore to review current developments in the-field of character recognition, with emphasis upon actual devices designed to identify printed or typed information. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Leading scholars historicize and theorize technology’s role in architectural design Although the question of technics pervades the contemporary discipline of architecture, there are few critical analyses on the topic. Design Technics fills this gap, arguing that the technical dimension of design has often been flattened into the broader celebratory rhetoric of innovation. Bringing together leading scholars in architectural and design history, the volume’s contributors situate these tools on a broader epistemological and chronological canvas. The essays here construct histories—some panoramic and others unfolding around a specific episode—of seven techniques regularly used by the designer in the architectural studio today: rendering, modeling, scanning, equipping, specifying, positioning, and repeating. Starting with observations about the epistemological changes that have unfolded in the discipline in recent decades but seeking to offer a more expansive meaning for technics, the volume casts new light on concepts such as form, experience, and image that have played central roles in historical architectural discourses. Among the questions addressed: How was the concept of form immanent in practices of scanning since the late nineteenth century? What was the historical relationship between rendering and experience in Enlightenment discourses? How did practices of specifying reconfigure the distinction between intellectual and manual labor? What kind of rationality is inherent in the designer’s constant clicking of the mouse in front of her screen? In addressing these and other questions, this engaging and timely collection thereby proposes technics as a site for historical and philosophical reflection not only for those engaged in architectural design but also for any scholar working in the humanities today. Contributors: Lucia Allais, Edward Eigen, Orit Halpern, John Harwood, Matthew C. Hunter, and Michael Osman.