RE: [PHP] simple OCR in php

On Fri, June 29, 2007 11:32 am, Jay Blanchard wrote: > [snip] > I am looking for a way to incorporate some simple OCR into a php > script. > The > user will bulk scan a pile of invoices. I want the php script to look > at > each > invoice and read a number off the invoice. The image will then be > renamed, > and be organized into a directory and the file name will be added to a > database. (all of these steps are straight forward once the number is > read.) > I have no problem with a system that requires a special OCR font > and/or > some > sort of registration mark to help locate the Invoice number. Can > anybody > tell > me of any tools out there that can do this? > [/snip] > > In short PHP cannot perform OCR functions. You could insert an OCR > application into the process and have the OCR app pass PHP the > information. Really? So that OCR routine I wrote to hack a CAPTCHA doesn't exist? Weird. :-) If you really do want to write OCR in PHP, it's pretty trivial: http://php.net/imagecolorat You'll need to build up a "dictionary" of known characters and define a "distance" function to decide when two characters "match" or not, but it's not rocket science. It doesn't even qualify as Artificial Intelligence anymore. :-) But since you have standard un-obfuscated content, using exec() to run a well-established OCR package might be easier. Or not, as I could never get the dang things to work in the first place, personally. :-v YMMV NAIAA -- Some people have a "gift" link here. Know what I want? I want you to buy a CD from some indie artist. http://cdbaby.com/browse/from/lynch Yeah, I get a buck. So?