Method and system for identifying marked response data on a manually filled paper form

A method of generating a digital form and corresponding metadata for a pre-stored paper form, the method comprising:

• displaying an image of the pre-stored paper form that has been manually filled by an user on a user interface screen;
• receiving inputs from the user with respect to one or more question areas and response areas on the form image, the inputs include at least one of drawing of an indicator on the one or more question areas and response areas, or coordinates of each question area on the form image along with the coordinates of each response area within each question area on the form image;
• receiving additional metadata from the user;
• and
• storing the received inputs and the additional metadata in a database.

A method for generating one or more physical paper forms, the method comprising:

• providing an user with one or more dynamic templates that determine the layout of one or more question areas and response areas on a form;
• receiving metadata from the user;
• storing the metadata in a database;
• generating a form from the metadata which contains at least the one or more question areas and response areas;
• and
• providing a bar-code on each page for machine-reading that contains user-specific information.

A method for capturing images of paper forms that have been developed outside of a response area identification system to determine if marks have been made by an user within specific coordinates, the method including:

• placing a manually filled paper form within a physical board on which a border has been pre-drawn to identify total form area of the completed paper form;
• orienting one or more question areas and/or response areas to this total form area;
• and
• capturing one or more images of the data filled physical paper forms.