Extracting Text From Real-World Scenes

J.Patrick Bixler; David P. Miller

doi:10.1117/12.948952

5 January 1989 Extracting Text From Real-World Scenes

J.Patrick Bixler, David P. Miller

Proceedings Volume 1003, Sensor Fusion: Spatial Reasoning and Scene Interpretation; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.948952
Event: 1988 Cambridge Symposium on Advances in Intelligent Robotics Systems, 1988, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

Many scenes contain significant textual information that can be extremely helpful for understanding and/or navigation. For example, text-based information can frequently be the primary cure used for navigating inside buildings. One might first read a marquee, then look for an appropriate hallway and walk along reading door signs and nameplates until the destination is found. Optical character recognition has been studied extensively in recent years, but has been applied almost exclusively to printed documents. As these techniques improve it becomes reasonable to ask whether they can be applied to an arbitrary scene in an attempt to extract text-based information. Before an automated system can be expected to navigate by reading signs, however, the text must first be segmented from the rest of the scene. This paper discusses the feasibility of extracting text from an arbitrary scene and using that information to guide the navigation of a mobile robot. We consider some simple techniques for first locating text components and then tracking the individual characters to form words and phrases. Results for some sample images are also presented.

Citation Download Citation

J.Patrick Bixler and David P. Miller "Extracting Text From Real-World Scenes", Proc. SPIE 1003, Sensor Fusion: Spatial Reasoning and Scene Interpretation, (5 January 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.948952

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