OCR in Blitz?

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/OCR in Blitz?

.rIKmAN.(Posted 2005) [#1]
Hey guys,

Is there any way to use OCR (Optical Character recognition) in Blitz?

I have found a few free OCR SDK`s but they seem to use ActiveX rather than a DLL, which is a problem for Blitz?

I`ve looked around and not found much related to Blitz, apart from a video capture ActiveX control made using VB, which can be used in Blitz, so it must be possible.

Any help appreciated.


Ice9(Posted 2005) [#2]
http://jocr.sourceforge.net/


.rIKmAN.(Posted 2005) [#3]
Just had a look at this, and then realised, I should have mentioned I`m trying to read from an image file.

Before anyone asks, I`m not trying to automate web signups - cos thats all I`ve read when searching the net for help on this..

I am trying to make an addon for a game and need to read data from the Stats screen, which I can save as an image.

Cheers.


Ice9(Posted 2005) [#4]
If you are reading from an image file and they are using
the same font and font spacing all the time on the stats
screen then why don't you write your own ocr.

Make pixel grid of all the characters in the font on the
screen and just compare them.


VP(Posted 2005) [#5]
Good OCR takes a lot of development.

A really kludgy way of doing it would be to use WinXP's built in fax viewer to do OCR and output a text file (assuming that you could do this by using command line switches for the viewer).

Not a lot of people are aware that the fax viewer does OCR ;)


.rIKmAN.(Posted 2005) [#6]
OK I got an email from the guy who posted the ActiveX Video lib in the showcase, and it isn`t even for Blitz - it`s for VB, so thats a downer! :)

I didn`t know fax viewer did OCR, thanks for the info, although it means the user has to have XP, which isn`t the best idea as it`ll alienate a lot of users...

Is there info on the OCR in this as I can`t find any anywhere on the net or in the docs.

Thanks!


VP(Posted 2005) [#7]
I think you might do better by selecting a different language for developing your application. With the lack of OCR modules for Blitz, you're going to have a very tough time completing your project.

I would hate to recommend VB, it really is an awful language. Perhaps C# or C++?


octothorpe(Posted 2005) [#8]
I think you might do better by selecting a different application. I'm assuming this is for your football game wrapping management game? I feel bad about trying to discourage you but I just want to save you from pain: creating your own game from scratch would be so much easier.

P.S. Although the main reason people put their machine specs in their sigs might be to gloat over how awesome their hardware is, the reason they cite is that it circumvents questions when reporting problems or framerates with alpha or beta tested software. I can't imagine knowing the size of your hard drive or the speed and quantity of your optical storage drives would be beneficial to anyone. Or are you being ironic? :D