The first goal of data automation is to avoid mistakes in data entry by making the initial entering of the data as automatic as possible. Different situations require different methods and equipment.
 
A second goal of data automation is to avoid having to re-enter data to perform a different task with it.

For example, the old style cash register would add up your purchase and calculate the tax. The clerk entered the amounts by hand (the data entry part). Later the numbers off the store copy of the cash register tapes would have to be added up manually, or entered into a computer program (another data entry task). For an up-to-date inventory someone would have to go count all the things on the shelves (a third data entry task). 

With modern data automation, using bar codes on every item in the store, a computer check-out register along with a bar code scanner will calculate the sale plus transfer the information directly to the computer that does the store bookkeeping plus adjust the inventory records by subtracting the items just sold. The human errors possible at each step of data entry are now avoided. Of course, there are still ways for errors to occur, just not as many. In addition,  a new feature is available with computerized cash registers - a receipt that states the name of the item bought as well as the price.

General Devices

Scanner-	The scanner works like a copy machine. It creates a digital image of what it scanned.  Scanned text cannot be edited at this point. Flat bed scanners open wide enough to allow you to lay a document or book flat on the glass surface. You can even make a scan of your hand! A document scanner can only scan individual sheets of paper, not books or objects.
Bar-Code Scanner	Hand-held or fixed devices that can read the bar codes on packages.
Credit Card Reader	Swipe the credit card through the device, which reads the magnetic numbers in the magnetic strip on the card.
Special types of characters read with special devices
Bar Codes-	Retail shops now use printed bar codes on products to track inventory and calculate the sale at the checkout counter. The US Post Office uses bar codes to sort mail, but the bars are different from those used for pricing products.
Optical Marks-	example - test scoring A special machine "reads" the marks. Woe to the student who takes a test with this kind of score sheet and doesn't get those bubbles colored in correctly!
Magnetic Ink-	Bank account # is printed in special ink with magnetic qualities which can be read by the right machine.
Magnetic Strip-	The back of a credit card has a metallic strip that contains magnetically encoded numbers. A credit card reader can read the numbers and transmit them to a computer to verify that the card is good.
Optical Characters-	There are coding systems that use letters or special characters that are especially shaped to be easy for machines to read.

OCR software 

Optical Character Recognition: This software takes a scanned image and converts the characters in the image into computer characters. The document can now be edited with a word processor. This is a very tricky process. Documents must be carefully checked for wrong conversions. If the original print was not very crisp and clean, errors are very likely. Manually checking for proper translation is necessary. These programs are getting really good if they have a clear scan to work with.