In Reply to: you could posted by Chris on Wednesday, 2. January 2008 at 22:51 Bali Time:
character recognition scanner and a bunch of software that goes with it: that sort of stuff probably starts at $50,000 plus, it ain't your regular $100 scanner.
I helped install one, and write the software that talked to it, at the Births, Deaths and Marraiges Registry in Western Australia... kept me off the streets for a year before we got it right.
Dave