Anyone play with OCR software?

This is more of a discussion even though I will throw in a few of my personal questions here and there. Recently the following app is gaining popularity:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photomath/id919087726?mt=8

For those that don't know it is an app that basically solves your math equations almost instantly. All you have to do is hover your phone over the equation area. Not only does it solve the equation for you but it will also break down the steps for you. Stuff like this really intrigues me. Of course there will always be some flaws mainly with detecting but overall it is a pretty amazing app.

Has anyone here ever played around with OCR software (optical character recognition software)? I kind of want to play around with making a crappier version of this app for fun. Is there any free iOS OCR out there (preferably that I don't have to sign up for anything)?

I wonder how long before OCR will be able to accurately pick up handwritten equations. It is definitely much harder then static fonts like times new roman, etc.

Does anyone have an idea of how OCR software works anyway? First I assume it has to detect the font style, then it can proceed to detecting characters? Would the characters be detected by a bunch of offsets from colours (usually black would define the character colour i'm assuming)? The fact that it is all based around offsets is probably what makes OCR for handwritten an extremely difficult thing to make?

This is more of a discussion.

 

OCR (at least for character analysis) works in 2 main ways:
- Comparing captured characters against a library of stored characters of the same font, and simply matching
- Comparing by pixel or by line of pixels or other similar structures (used for handwriting and varying fonts)

If you're making an OCR for iOS, look for a 3rd party obj-C library instead of making your own or making a software plugin.

I've dicked around with OCR briefly in my bot-making days, when I tried to detect characters on an RS screen to determine when a mod was nearby, etc.

 

Interesting. How did you detect a mod that was nearby? Or just scanning for the crown colours (so mod would have to talk)?

 

Yeah. Typically if they suspect you of bottling they'll try to chat with you or mess up your movements before taking action. The OCR was also good for making in-game automatic high score lookups and stuff as well, for clients. Quantum Kit sported a feature like that I think.