reading numerical or text strings in a pic file

[cmarchman]

Does anyone have a tool or script that would be able to read a number or string from a jpg, gif, or any other graphic to place it into a variable? I'm looking to scan documents into my computer (namely auto manuals that have pictures of exploded views of various parts), then turn them into web pages that link the number displayed in the picture to the description below the picture.

I know it may be a big undertaking, and I appreciate any suggestions of scripts or pointers to open source sites.

Thanks,


cmarchman

 

[sleipnir214]

That is certainly doable. I just don't think that optical character recognition is exactly PHP's forte.


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[Olavxxx]

Some scanners provide software for doing exactly this, but:
Each font has to be defined by the user!

I would say that this project is "impossible".
eg. I know everything is possible, but you have to think about how much resources you would use on making this.

Also, it would never be perfect, so I think it's cheaper to have someone manually typing in the text.

You could store text in the comment-xif header:

http://maconlinux.net/php-online-manual/en/function.exif-read-data.html

then you could search on the comments...
it would however be faster to put the text in a database, and simply referencing to the image, in one of the fields.

The text however, I would think, would only be doable inputted by a humanbeeing.

good luck in your project!

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster