Patent ID: 7988047

Claim:
A method for decoding an optically readable sheet having one or more regions of choices and a plurality of mark spaces thereon in which one or more selections may be marked for each of one or more choices, each mark space being a space defined for marking a selection therein, the sheet having at least two fiducial marks thereon in respective predetermined locations, the method comprising: imaging the sheet having one or more choice regions and a plurality of mark spaces and at least two fiducial marks thereon wherein the image of the sheet includes all of the mark spaces for the choice regions and the at least two fiducial marks thereon and is in a pixelated or bitmapped format including a plurality of pixels; defining for each sheet the one or more choice regions each containing a plurality of reading regions each including one mark space; processing the image of the sheet including: decoding from the image of the sheet the respective locations of the at least two fiducial marks therein; comparing the decoded respective locations of the at least two fiducial marks from the image of the sheet and the respective predetermined locations of the at least two fiducial marks for scaling the image of the sheet; and decoding from the scaled image of the sheet the defined one or more choice regions and the plurality of reading regions including the one mark space thereof; and for each decoded choice region: counting at least the number of dark pixels for each reading region; determining from the counts of the dark pixels for each reading region whether the mark space therein is unmarked or is marked as a selection; and counting each determined marked selection.