On 6/29/07, M. Sokolewicz <tularis@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Robert Cummings wrote: > On Fri, 2007-06-29 at 11:32 -0500, 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. > > Why can PHP not perform OCR functions? > > Cheers, > Rob. It's not so much impossible to perform OCR as it is unrealistic to do so. PHP contains only the very most basic support for such things, not to mention there are barely any (OS) libraries for PHP to do this, it's simply not realistic to try and make one if you're "on your own". Other languages (ie. C) have libraries, written by people specifically for this purpose, so it seems clear to me: PHP is (currently) not the most realistic language to try and do OCR with, instead it'd be a lot easier (at this point) to "borrow" from another. Be this a low-level library in C, or a full-blown package, it doesn't matter.
Take the library of a C OCR program, write some PHP C code around it and a new extension is born :) Tijnema -- Vote for PHP Color Coding in Gmail! -> http://gpcc.tijnema.info -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
