Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Android

Posted by Aquib Javed
Aquib Javed
8,289 Points

A question about using the camera option for detecting texts from a paper.

I know the question is a bit odd here, since it's not directly related to any course. But does anyone know which topics in particular do I need to learn so that I can make an app that'll use the camera to detect texts from a printed paper? Most likely there's going to be some sort of image processing. Still, asking here in case anyone knows.

Thanks!

1 Answer

Harry James
Harry James
14,780 Points
Harry James
Harry James
14,780 Points

Hey Aquib!

What you're looking for is OCR (Optical Character Recognition)! Now, none of the courses teach you how to do this because OCR is still a growing technology - it's very advanced to make your own OCR program because, even the best ones out there right now aren't perfect!

Anyhow, once you have the basic jist of Android/Java programming, you should also be able to work out how to integrate other people's programs into your program (Ben shows some examples of this in the courses). I recommend you take a look at this Android OCR Repository on GitHub - you are allowed to use this code under the Apache 2.0 License.

In fact, this is a full apk project so, you could always just use the code from the project and then edit it to your liking (However, you must still follow the license of the repository).

There are other projects you can look for on sites like GitHub but, I think the project above looks pretty good!

Hope it helps and, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask!