Prime Vision B.V. is a Dutch company that specializes in computer vision systems and robotics for the recognition, identification and automation of sorting processes for the postal, logistics and e-commerce markets.

Prime Vision B.V.
Company typeBesloten vennootschap
IndustryPostal Automation and Recognition Software Development
Founded1956 (origins) 2003 (standalone company) [1]
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide [2]
Key people
Eddy Thans (CEO) [3]
ServicesVideo coding (postal market) Intelligent character recognition Optical character recognition
Pattern recognition
Revenue€5.0 million (2012) [4]
Owner
Number of employees
100 (2017) [5]
Websiteprimevision.com

Headquartered in Delft, the Netherlands, Prime Vision operates globally.[6]

The company's shareholders include PostNL - the national mail delivery company in the Netherlands - and First Dutch Innovations (FDI).

History

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In 1956 what would become Prime Vision starts life as a research department of the PTT.

A few years later, in 1961, The High Yield Character Reader (HYCR), the core technology of Prime Vision, was invented. The HYCR has been developed for capturing hand written as well as machine printed text and has found a particular niche as the basis for secondary OCR engines. In this role, Prime Vision's HYCR-based systems complement other OCRs that have been principally designed for machine printed text. With the systems working in tandem the net read rate of letters, flats and parcels is boosted significantly. HYCR is now in use throughout the world and includes various language sets, including Hebrew, Chinese and Tamil.[7]

In 2003 KPN Research (formerly known as PTT) was acquired by TNO Companies. Additional investments prepared the company for its first sales outside the Netherlands.[8][9]

One year later, TNT (now known as PostNL) acquired 60% of the shares of Prime Vision from TNO. Additional investment led to an independent entity Prime Vision BV.

The majority of the TNO Companies shares are taken over in 2017 by First Dutch Innovations who became the new shareholder of Prime Vision.[10][11][12][13]

References

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  1. ^ Bloomberg Businessweek. "Company Overview of Prime Vision BV". Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2013. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Supply & Demand Chain Executive (16 March 2012). "Prime Vision Awarded First Contract in Mexico". Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  3. ^ POST-EXPO. "2008 SHOW REVIEW". Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  4. ^ Postal Technology International. "Record year heralds recruitment programme for Prime Vision". Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  5. ^ InsideView. "Prime Vision BV". Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  6. ^ PostNL. "Annual Report 2012" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  7. ^ "Handwriting recognition technology acknowledged in Dutch invention exhibition | Imaging and Machine Vision Europe". www.imveurope.com. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  8. ^ "TNO neemt KPN Research over". AG Connect (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  9. ^ "TNO neemt R&D KPN over - Emerce". Emerce (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  10. ^ "TNO Bedrijven na deal omgedoopt tot First Dutch Innovations". www.consultancy.nl (in Dutch). 4 January 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  11. ^ "TNO Bedrijven per vandaag verder als First Dutch Innovations - Emerce". Emerce (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  12. ^ "Overdracht meerderheid aandelen TNO Bedrijven aan First Dutch afgerond | TNO". TNO (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  13. ^ "24 TNO-startups verder onder nieuwe naam". www.computable.nl (in Dutch). 3 April 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
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