[OCR] OCR Recognition without computer

[hitachicm615]

Hello everybody,

I will start new personnal project (for my new electronic blog) based on numbers recognition but i want to do it without computer.
My small board composed of Camera and microcontroller process the pictures directly in the board and it just send the result as an int value to my computer via UART.

I will design all my electronic board to have small box.


Firstly, i want to focus my work on recognition part. So i want to buy camera module like this : https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11745
it's capturing video with 30fps at 728x488. However i need to take one picture for processing after pushing manual button, not video.

So how i can calculate size of picture to know if i'll take microcontroller with high ram memory capacity or i add Ram memory in my board ?
Do you have advice ? How calculate this ?

Secondly, the image processing could be done in microcontroller directly or special fpga part exist between Camera module (take pictures) and Microcontroller ?

Best !

Paul

 

[andre_luis]

...the image processing could be done in microcontroller directly or special fpga part exist between Camera module (take pictures) and Microcontroller ?

Paul,


You can perform the processing at high speed microcontrollers, but need a big amount of external memory.
One of the most promising solutions in this area has been the core ARM Cortex-A8, especially the Allwinner, widely used in development kits for about USD $ 49.

I have one of these (PCduino), and besides having installed Linux, I also put there OpenCV2.3 and QT4.8 C++ IDE, which even is able to compile on board !

For the camera, I suggest something more standard market as Webcam rather than OEM modules, so that the project will not be tied to some specific brand manufacturer becoming depending on this model.

Take a look here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/pcduino/book/Introduction+to+pcDuino.pdf


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[hitachicm615]

Thank you for your answer,

PCduino is a good issue but it's complete board kit for many application.
I would like start from empty board to design optimized issue with parts which i only need for my application.

Do you have testimony about parts needed just for king of application as mine ?

Thank you,

Paul

 

[andre_luis]

Paul,


Before working with this card, I was also trying to develop a minimum embedded system able to deal with a OEM module camera, but the first issue was due to mechanics, because the camera should be soldered on the board. If you work with a webcam that can be externally positioned, image handling becomes easiest, due you will not need to adjust the view by moving entire board.

In the problem statement, you mentioned sending the images over serial UART. Note that although this is perfectly possible, would require a prohibitive time if we consider relevant the usability of the product, and transmission over Ethernet or USB becomes as almost a mandatory requirement.


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[hitachicm615]

you mentioned sending the images over serial UART.
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I don't want send image via UART. I know that's impossible and it have no interrest for me because i want to do image processing in the board.
I want take picture with number (from Camera) -> Recognize the number in the picture (image processing) -> send the number as an int from Microcontroller UART to my computer.

Do you see the difference and what i want to do now ?

 

[andre_luis]

...I want take picture with number (from Camera) -> Recognize the number in the picture (image processing) -> send the number as an int from Microcontroller UART to my computer...

It´s perfectly feasible, but the choice about what platform hardware to start design will impact on developing time.
Just remarking that you´ll need to deal with large data array in volatile external memory, which can be achieved for high performance cores.



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[hitachicm615]

It´s perfectly feasible, but the choice about what platform hardware to start design will impact on developing time.
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It's true but design platform it's my final goal.
However, regarding to my novice experience in image processing to be done in hardware platform, maybe the best way to achieve my project is starting from "Starter Kit" ?
I can choose Starter kit with minimum possibilities, just enought for my processing project ? Because i don't want develop something today and change many many things in my copde to adapt it for my own board. Maybe find development board with large external memory (1024Kb external of PIC but not SD), video input, LCD integrated screen or VGA output to see processing steps reasults ?

What do you think ?

Paul

 

[andre_luis]

...I can choose Starter kit with minimum possibilities, just enought for my processing project ? Because i don't want develop something today and change many many things in my copde to adapt it for my own board. Maybe find development board with large external memory (1024Kb external of PIC but not SD), video input, LCD integrated screen or VGA output to see processing steps reasults ?

What do you think ?

Paul,


Due to excessive amount of processing required, I´m not sure if a 8-bit or even a 16-bit core processor would be able to deal with.
Although it doesn´t matches to your need to perform the task on an optimized HW platform, I keep leaning to insist on hi-end architetures.

Take a look on that X86 based board, even cheapest than other ARM based above ( only USD 39 ): http://www.86duino.com/

**broken link removed**



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