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OCRdroid: A Framework to Digitize Text Using Mobile Phones

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Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services (MobiCASE 2009)

Abstract

As demand grows for mobile phone applications, research in optical character recognition, a technology well developed for scanned documents, is shifting focus to the recognition of text embedded in digital photographs. In this paper, we present OCRdroid, a generic framework for developing OCR-based applications on mobile phones. OCRdroid combines a light-weight image preprocessing suite installed inside the mobile phone and an OCR engine connected to a backend server. We demonstrate the power and functionality of this framework by implementing two applications called PocketPal and PocketReader based on OCRdroid on HTC Android G1 mobile phone. Initial evaluations of these pilot experiments demonstrate the potential of using OCRdroid framework for real-world OCR-based mobile applications.

This work was supported in part by NSF grant CCR-0120778 (CENS: Center for Embedded Networked Sensing), and by a gift from the Okawa Foundation.

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© 2010 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Zhang, M., Joshi, A., Kadmawala, R., Dantu, K., Poduri, S., Sukhatme, G.S. (2010). OCRdroid: A Framework to Digitize Text Using Mobile Phones. In: Phan, T., Montanari, R., Zerfos, P. (eds) Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services. MobiCASE 2009. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 35. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12607-9_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12607-9_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12606-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12607-9

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