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MergeCharactersIntoLines

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Module: DL_OCR

Converts a output of Deep Learning filter DL_ReadCharacters to lines of text.

Name Type Range Description
Input value inCharacters OcrResultArray Output of DL_ReadCharacters
Input value inMaxGap Real 0.0 - 10.0 Maximum horizontal gap between joint characters' boxes, denoted as fraction of 'A' char height
Input value inMaxShift Real 0.0 - 1.0 Maximum vertical misalignment between joint character's boxes, denoted as fraction of 'A' char height
Input value inMargin Real 0.0 - 10.0 Additional margin added to result, denoted as fraction of 'A' char height
Input value inMinLength Integer 1 - 200 Minimal number of chars to create line
Input value inFlatten Bool If True, it concatenates the words on the line into a single result string, otherwise each word is a separate result string
Input value inPattern GrammarRulesPattern Pattern used in Grammar rules filtering
Input value inCandidates OcrCandidateArrayArray* Candidates - optional output of DL_ReadCharacters, Required when using grammar rules (when inPattern is not empty)
Input value inMinScore Real 0.0 - 1.0 Minimum score for filtering the line of text
Output value outLines Rectangle2DArray Minimal Box which cover all selected character boxes
Output value outStrings StringArray Text of merged characters
Output value outMapping Integer?Array Mapping between input characters and output lines, outMapping[i] stores the index line to which inCharacters[i] belongs. If outMapping[i] is NIL it means that inCharacters[i] has not been added to any line
Output value outScores RealArray Calculated the score for the line

Description

This tool takes the text contained in OcrResultArray from the DL_ReadCharacters and merges it into lines.

Grammar Rules:

This feature can be used if we know the structure of the text we want to read. Define the inPattern string that you want to match against OCR results using regex syntax. This function uses more internal information inCandidates from Deep Learning filter DL_ReadCharacters to achieve the best matching to inPattern. Pattern is concatenation of pattern element.

Note: To use grammar rules the inputs: inCharacters, inPattern, inCandidates are required


Pattern elements can be:
  • Individual character: one of character supported in DL_ReadCharacters
    • Escaping operational characters: Use a backslash to treat operational characters as normal: \\, \*, \?, \., \+, \-, \], \[, \), \(.
    • Whitespace Macro: \s represents a whitespace character (applicable only if inFlatten = True), space is also supported.
  • Character class is a set of characters enclosed within square brackets []. It allows you to match any one character from the specified set. Example of usage:
    • List of characters: [abc] Matches any one of the characters a, b, or c.
    • Range: [a-z] Matches any one of the characters from a to z.
    • Mix of them: [a-zA-Z12] Matches any one of the characters from a to z, A to Z and 1,2.
    • Predefined character classes:
      • \d is equivalent to [0-9]
      • \w corresponds to [a-zA-Z0-9_]
      • . (dot) matches any single character (\w plus special characters )
      Note: Inside a character class, the following characters require escaping with a backslash \\, \-, \].
      Ex. [a.*|] is valid pattern which matches with the characters: a,.,*,|.
  • Chain is an extended string created by concatenating individual characters and character classes. Instance:
    • abc - matches text abc
    • [Aa]bc - matches texts: abc and Abc
    • \dabc - matches texts: 0abc, 1abc, ..., 9abc
  • Alternative is used to match one pattern or another. It's sequence of chains separated by pipe symbol | in round brackets (). Demonstration:
    • (abc|def) matches texts: abc and def
    • ([Aa]bc|\dabc) matches texts: abc, Abc, 0abc, 1abc, ..., 9abc

      • Note: Round round brackets are required. Ex. a|b
      Note: Nested brackets aren't supported. Ex. (a|(b|c))
  • Special operators can modify or repeat the preceding expression.
    • * (star): means zero or more occurrences of the preceding expression (in particular ".*" means any sequence), but tries to match as many characters as possible
    • + (plus): means one or more occurrences of the preceding element, maximizing the number of characters matched.
    • ? (question mark): means zero or one occurrence of the preceding element, with a preference for one.
    • *? (lazy star): means zero or more occurrences of the preceding expression, but tries to match as few characters as possible.
    • +? (lazy plus): means one or more occurrences, but minimizes the number of characters matched.
    Special operators can be added after the pattern element; Ex. [ABC]*, [0-9]?, (ABC|DEF)+
    Note: Special operators cannot be used inside alternative: Ex. (a*|b)

Hints

  1. Depending on the inMaxGap and inMaxShift values, we can get different number of lines. See the image below, where increasing the inMaxGap results in one line of text, whereas a smaller value will return two separate lines:
    Different values of the inMaxGap and inMaxShift parameters result in a different number of lines.
  2. The lines are sorted by the Y value, e.g.:

  3. The tool can also be used to get rid of false characters by setting a different value of the inMinLength parameter. In the image below setting the inMinLength to 2 resulted in filtering out single false characters returned by the DL_ReadCharacters tool.

Examples

Using of grammar rules:

  1. To find date on this image:

   inPattern= (JAN|FEB|MAR|APR|MAY|JUN|JUL|AUG|SEP|OCT|NOV|DEC)/\d\d/\d\d
   outStrings= [JAN/22/20]

 2. Finding website address:

  inPattern= www\.[a-z]+\.com[a-z/]*
  outStrings= [www.zebra.com/silverline]

 3. To get serial number:

  inPattern= Serial Number: \d+
  outStrings=[Serial Number: 678000004455]

Errors

This filter can throw an exception to report error. Read how to deal with errors in Error Handling.

List of possible exceptions:

Error type Description
DomainError If you want to use grammar rules, please add inCandidates from filter DL_ReadCharacters.outCandidates and set True value on DL_ReadCharacters.inCalculateCandidates.

Complexity Level

This filter is available on Advanced Complexity Level.

See Also

  • DL_ReadCharacters – Performs optical character recognition using a pretrained deep learning model.