7.5.2.1   Quick Setup

The Quick Setup is an easy way of setting up an OCR application. However, this preconfiguration of segmentation parameters is based on a basic description of the image content that does not take all factors into consideration that may influence a segmentation. For this reason, the Quick Setup alone may not be sufficient to segment and read characters in an image. Therefore, it is recommended and usually necessary to improve an OCR application by adapting parameters.

To get started, it is very easy to set up an OCR task with the OCR Assistant's Quick Setup in five steps:

  1. Load a sample image by clicking the icon right beside the text or alternatively acquire a live image by selecting the 图像采集助手 under Image Source on the same tab.

  2. Mark the position of the text to be read using a rectangle. The purpose of this step is to indicate the text geometry (like size and rotation). Use an axis-aligned rectangle for text in horizontal or vertical direction and a rotated rectangle for rotated text. Alternatively, set the rectangle via the Region of Interest dialog on the same tab. Allow for a small border. Note that if you are using the Quick Setup the rectangle must enclose the characters that should be read as precisely as possible and it has to include at least three characters.

  3. Enter the text that you expect to be read in the text field. Remember to enter the text exactly as it is in the sample, including all separators, line breaks and correct capitalization. If the text contains large gaps these should be mimicked for a better recognition.

  4. Describe some basic properties of the text. These properties are essential for a successful segmentation with a minimum number of parameter adaptations. Without this information, the samples in the image may not be segmented at all (for example, for characters that are printed bright on dark background, the image has to be inverted internally). Check if characters are bright on dark background, composed of individual dots or if the text is structured, that is if letters, digits or separators appear at fixed positions. Furthermore, check whether the background is textured, noisy or cluttered.

  5. Check if all information that was required so far is filled in correctly according to the features of the sample image and then click the Apply Quick Setup button when finished.

If the Quick Setup was successful, the found characters are read and the Results tab is automatically opened. Otherwise, the segmentation tab opens and allows you to adapt parameters while simultaneously observing the segmentation results.