Check if image contains text?

Question

I have few images. Some images contain text, and some others contain no text at all. I want a reliable algorithm that can conclude if the image contains text or not.

Even probabilistic algorithms are beautiful.

Can anyone suggest such an algorithm?

thanks

Answer 1

There are some features you want to customize:

• Will there be many images in the image? Or just a character or two?
• Will the text be correctly oriented? Or do you also need to make a turn?
• How big do you expect the text to be?
• How similar will the text be?

Since the images can vary significantly, you want to identify the problem and find as many restrictions as possible to make the problem as simple as possible. This is a difficult problem.

For such an algorithm, you will want to focus on what makes the text unique on the background (consistent distance between characters and lines, constant height, consistent baseline, etc.). In the field of "text detection" there is a field of research. I want to research, and you will find several algorithms there. Two reviews of some of these methods can be found here and here.