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I don't get how their address recognition technology seems to work so well with all the handwritten addresses. I am assuming it is mostly automated.

by yters 6y ago

dtparr 6y ago
OCR of handwriting has come a long way, but it's a lot easier to do a good job when you have a database of every valid address and can bounce your OCR probabilities off that database to fuzzy match your way there.
toast0 6y ago
A very high volume of mail is machine addressed (much of it uses printed address barcodes too). Many people have legible handwriting, so those can get a barcode added when they hit the system. The remaining letters addressed by people like me can get exception processing. If the zip code is legible, at least it can route to the right post office and get figured out there, otherwise, it can make its way to a dead letter office for help.
supernova87a 6y ago
Handwriting recognition is like the canonical problem to solve, that they teach in the introduction to every textbook. The USPS has billions of letters. You would expect they have it right by now.
technofiend 6y ago
The answer is if a machine can't decode it, a human does. One of my aunts worked as a postal worker for a while many years ago. She was hired for her ability to both read and type quickly. She reviewed addresses that couldn't be automatically recognized and did some sort of encoding that (I believe) generated that yellow printed barcode you see on some letters. At least according to Atlas Obscura OCR has improved to the point that there's only one remote encoding site left and it's in Salt Lake City. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/usps-remote-encoding-facility https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/usps-remote-encoding-fac...
gnicholas 6y ago
I assume they disambiguate using the zip code. If you've got the correct zip code (or even just part of the correct zip code) you can really narrow things down. I don't have the best handwriting, but I always try to write the zip code legibly on the assumption that if my letter gets to the right neighborhood, the local post office will be able to recognize the full address easily enough.

I don't get how their address recognition technology seems to work so well with all the handwritten addresses. I am assuming it is mostly automated.

by yters 6y ago

I don't get how their address recognition technology seems to work so well with all the handwritten addresses. I am assuming it is mostly automated.

dtparr 6y ago

OCR of handwriting has come a long way, but it's a lot easier to do a good job when you have a database of every valid address and can bounce your OCR probabilities off that database to fuzzy match your way there.

toast0 6y ago

A very high volume of mail is machine addressed (much of it uses printed address barcodes too). Many people have legible handwriting, so those can get a barcode added when they hit the system. The remaining letters addressed by people like me can get exception processing. If the zip code is legible, at least it can route to the right post office and get figured out there, otherwise, it can make its way to a dead letter office for help.

supernova87a 6y ago

Handwriting recognition is like the canonical problem to solve, that they teach in the introduction to every textbook. The USPS has billions of letters. You would expect they have it right by now.

technofiend 6y ago

The answer is if a machine can't decode it, a human does. One of my aunts worked as a postal worker for a while many years ago. She was hired for her ability to both read and type quickly. She reviewed addresses that couldn't be automatically recognized and did some sort of encoding that (I believe) generated that yellow printed barcode you see on some letters. At least according to Atlas Obscura OCR has improved to the point that there's only one remote encoding site left and it's in Salt Lake City. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/usps-remote-encoding-facility https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/usps-remote-encoding-fac...

gnicholas 6y ago

I assume they disambiguate using the zip code. If you've got the correct zip code (or even just part of the correct zip code) you can really narrow things down. I don't have the best handwriting, but I always try to write the zip code legibly on the assumption that if my letter gets to the right neighborhood, the local post office will be able to recognize the full address easily enough.