physics

IBM optical mark and character readers

IBM optical mark and character readers is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand IBM optical mark and character readers rather than just read about it. In short: IBM designed, manufactured and sold optical mark and character readers from 1960 until 1984. The IBM 1287 is notable as being the first commercially sold scanner capable of reading handwritten numbers.

Key takeaways

IBM optical mark and character readers belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect IBM optical mark and character readers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of IBM optical mark and character readers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

IBM designed, manufactured and sold optical mark and character readers from 1960 until 1984. The IBM 1287 is notable as being the first commercially sold scanner capable of reading handwritten numbers.

Initial development work IBM Poughkeepsie studied machine character recognition from 1950 till 1954, developing an experimental machine that used a cathode-ray-tube attached an IBM 701 which performed the character analysis. They pursued a technique known as lakes and bays which examined different areas of dark and light where the lakes were white areas enclosed by black and the bays were partially enclosed areas. Their machine and mission was moved to IBM Endicott in 1954, where research continued. From 1955 to 1956 they then worked on the VIDOR (Visual Document Reader) program, but they could not get agreement on acceptable reject rate. The developers felt 80% recognition was acceptable (meaning 20% of documents would need to be manually processed), while product planners and IBM Marketing felt that compared to punched card, the reject rate was unacceptably high. This led to no new products being released. In 1956 the American Bankers Association chose to use Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) to automate check handling, rejecting a proposed solution generated by an IBM Poughkeepsie banking project that used optical characters formed by vertical bars and digits. IBM developed a magnetic read head to handle the new standard, releasing the IBM 1210 MICR reader/sorter in 1959. The development work for this product both with read heads and document handling, helped move optical character recognition forward, with development focusing on reading one or two lines of print from a paper document larger than an IBM punched card. The first product to be released was the IBM 1418.

IBM 123x Optical Mark Readers The IBM 1230, IBM 1231, and IBM 1232 were optical mark readers used to input the contents of data sources such as questionnaires, test results, surveys as well as historical data that could be easily entered as marks on sheets. Educational institutes used them to score test results and they were effectively a replacement for the IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine that used electrical resistance and a mark sense pencil to score a test, rather than optical mark detection. They were developed and manufactured by IBM Rochester. They have the following features:

A pneumatic input hopper that can hold approximately 600 sheets Two output stackers: the normal stacker that holds 600 sheets and the select (or reject) stacker which holds 50 sheets. Pluggable SMS printed circuit cards They can read positional marks made by a lead pencil using an optical read head that consists of photovoltaic(solar) cells and lamps The 1230 has 21 photovoltaic cells, 20 for reading the pencil marks and one to read timing marks on the right hand border of the sheet. The 1231 and 1232 have 22 photovoltaic cells, 20 to read data, one to read timing marks and one to read a special feature called a master mark. Input size is a 8+1⁄2 in × 11 in (22 cm × 28 cm) sheet called a data sheet that can have up to 1000 marked or printed positions per side. Uses electromechanical devices known as sonic delay lines to store results.

IBM 1230 Optical Mark Scoring Reader The IBM 1230 is an offline optical mark scoring machine announced on 2 November 1962 that was designed to read and scores 1,200 answer sheets per hour.

Scored results are printed via a wire matrix printer on the right margin of each answer sheet as it is processed. Two master sheets are required for the process: one that encoded the correct answers and one for the machine to record run information. Output could be sent to an IBM 534 Model 3 Card Punch as an option, which limits throughput to 750 sheets per hour when punching 80 columns of data.

IBM 1231 Optical Mark Page Reader The IBM 1231 is an online optical mark reader that was designed to read and score 2000 test answer sheets per hour, depending on downstream operations.

The correct answers for the test can either be entered using a master sheet (like the 1230) or sent to the 1231 using the optional master-mark special feature.

IBM 1232 Optical Mark Page Reader The IBM 1232 is an offline optical mark reader that was designed to read up to 2000 marked sheets per hour.

Documents can be read at up to 2000 sheets per hour, but this depends on the number of characters that need to be punched from each sheet. The IBM 1232 reads the marks and then punches them into cards using a IBM 534 Model 3 Card Punch. Together they can read up to 64,000 characters per hour or 800 fully punched cards.

Example customers The California Test Bureau (CTB) that provided standardised achievement tests for educational institutes across the USA, began replacing their IBM 805s with IBM 1230s in 1963. They then installed two IBM 1232s in 1964. Being able to use a full 8+1⁄2 in × 11 in (22 cm × 28 cm) answer sheet rather than a 7+3⁄8 in × 3+1⁄4 in (18.7 cm × 8.3 cm) mark sense card, eliminated the need to use multiple answer cards per test per student, as well as dramatically increased the marking speed for test answers. Credit Bureau Services of Dallas used an IBM 1232 in 1966 as part of their first computerisation project. They marked credit history data onto optical scanning sheets that were fed into their IBM 1232. The attached IBM 534 then punched this data onto punched cards, which were then fed into their IBM System/360 Model 30. In 1968 the US Army Corps of Engineers Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) began using special log books for their coastal surveyors to record coastal survey data, which was then converted to punched cards by an IBM 1232.

IBM 2956 Optical Mark/Hole Reader

The IBM 2956 Models 2 and 3 are custom build optical mark/hole readers designed to be attached to an IBM 2740 Communications Terminal.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with IBM optical mark and character readers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what IBM optical mark and character readers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to IBM optical mark and character readers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about IBM optical mark and character readers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of IBM optical mark and character readers

In research: IBM optical mark and character readers appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses IBM optical mark and character readers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: IBM optical mark and character readers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics IBM hardware, Optical character recognition, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for IBM optical mark and character readers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “IBM optical mark and character readers” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study IBM optical mark and character readers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what IBM optical mark and character readers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain IBM optical mark and character readers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is IBM optical mark and character readers in simple terms?

Why does IBM optical mark and character readers matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study IBM optical mark and character readers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on IBM optical mark and character readers.