OCR

OCR sample

This sample demonstrates how to use Windows.Media.Ocr API. Optical character recognition (OCR) API allows for application developer to extract text in the specific language from an image.

This sample covers:

Scenario 1: Load image from a file and extract text in user specified language.

1. Determine whether any language is OCR supported on device.
2. Get list of all available OCR languages on device.
3. Create OCR recognizer for specific language.
4. Create OCR recognizer for the first OCR supported language from GlobalizationPreferences.Languages list.
5. Load image from a file and extract text.
6. Overlay word bounding boxes over displayed image.
7. Differentiate vertical and horizontal text lines.

Scenario 2: Capture image from camera and extract text.

1. Check if specific language is available on device.
2. Capture image from camera and extract text.
3. Overlay word bounding boxes and recognized text over displayed image.

Related topics

Reference

Windows.Media.Ocr namespace

Windows.Globalization.Language class

GlobalizationPreferences.Languages property

[Language matching] (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj673578.aspx)

Windows.Graphics.Imaging.BitmapDecoder class

Windows.Media.Capture.MediaCapture namespace

System requirements

Hardware: Camera

Client: Windows 10

Server: Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview

Phone: Windows 10

Build the sample

1. If you download the samples ZIP, be sure to unzip the entire archive, not just the folder with the sample you want to build.
2. Start Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 and select File > Open > Project/Solution.
3. Starting in the folder where you unzipped the samples, go to the Samples subfolder, then the subfolder for this specific sample, then the subfolder for your preferred language (C++, C#, or JavaScript). Double-click the Visual Studio 2015 Solution (.sln) file.
4. Press Ctrl+Shift+B, or select Build > Build Solution.

Run the sample

The next steps depend on whether you just want to deploy the sample or you want to both deploy and run it.

Deploying the sample:

1. Select Build > Deploy Solution.

Deploying and running the sample:

1. To debug the sample and then run it, press F5 or select Debug > Start Debugging. To run the sample without debugging, press Ctrl+F5 or select Debug > Start Without Debugging.