Abbyy Business Card Reader
Description: Just 3 steps to save a new contact: snap, recognize, save!
ABBYY Business Card Reader (BCR) offers an easy way to add a new contact to your smartphone’s address book: simply take a picture of a business card and save the contact.
With ABBYY BCR, you can get more info about your contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or find address from business cards on Maps.
ABBYY Business Card Reader intelligently identifies various contact information on a business card, such as first and last names, company name, job title, phone number, e-mail and Web addresses, and saves it to the corresponding fields in the address book.
System requirements: OS Android version 2.1 and higher, camera with auto focus.
KEY FEATURES:
• High-quality recognition thanks to ABBYY Mobile OCR Engine technology;
• Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter search feature will allow you to obtain additional information about your new contact;
• Address search on Maps;
• Minimal time needed to check recognition results;
• If some symbols are not properly recognized, BCR will not only highlight them but will also display the original image for comparison;
• Recognizes multi-language business cards: up to three languages on one business card;
• Recognizes business cards in 19 languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian (both Bokmal and Nynorsk), Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian.
The Lite version of ABBYY Business Card Reader is also available in the Android Market.
Version: 1.0.78.5
Cost: 9.99
Developer: Abbyy
I recently reviewed another business card reader app, World Card Mobile, so this would be a good time to compare the two. This comparison is of 7/26/2011. I’m comparing Abbyy Business Card Reader version 1.0.78.5 to World Card Mobile version 2.4.20110711.
Features:
Both Abbyy Business Card Reader and World Card Mobile can use images taken with their camera or images from your SD card.
Both can save images taken with their camera.
Both can read a variety of languages. Abbyy Business Card Reader can read more languages than Mobile Card Reader.
Both can save contacts to specific accounts.
World Card Mobile can save contacts to a specific group. Abby Business Card Reader can not.
Abbyy Business Card Reader highlights scanning errors. World Card Mobile does not.
Both can edit contact information after scanning.
Both have options to find the contact address scanned in Google Maps.
Abbyy Business Card Reader has the option to search for the contact on Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter. World Card Mobile does not have this option.
Winner – Abbyy Business Card Reader
Taking pictures of business cards:
Abbyy Business Card Reader did a better job of taking pictures. Pictures came out clearer.
Abbyy Business Card Reader has the option of using the flash. World Card Mobile doesn’t have the option of flash. Because Abbyy Business Card Reader can use the flash, Abbyy Business Card Reader is able to take clear pictures even in low light conditions. World Card Mobile needs a well lit environment to take clear pictures.
Winner – Abbyy Business Card Reader
Scanning the contact information:
World Card Mobile was much more accurate scanning the information than Abbyy Business Card Reader. Every time I scanned a picture, either from the camera or the SD card, Abbyy Business Card Reader would have errors. World Card Mobile scans 100% correct most of the time. I scanned 4 different business cards multiple times. These are based on crystal clear images of business cards from the camera and SD card. They we’re all in English. As you can see on the 2 screen shots below, Abbyy Business Card Reader made some errors scanning the business card. The errors are highlighted in red. The ability to highlight errors is an advantage for Abbyy Business Card Reader.
I scanned the same business card with World Card Mobile and World Card Mobile scanned the business card correctly. You can see the same scanned business card in the World Card Mobile review.
Winner – World Card Mobile
Price:
Abbyy Business Card Reader is 9.99. World Card Mobile is cheaper for 5.99.
Winner – World Card Mobile
Based on the comparisons above, Abbyy Business Card Reader has a slight edge in options and does a way better job at taking pictures with the utilization of the flash.
Where World Card Mobile shines is recognition of the correct information scanned. World Card Mobile blew away Abbyy Business Card Reader in this department. This is the most important aspect of a card reader. A card reader should be able to recognize the correct information.
World Card Mobile is cheaper than Abbyy Business Card Reader and scans a business card more accurately so my recommendation is for World Card Mobile. If Abbyy Business Card Reader can fix the recognition issue, it would put up a better fight.
