Azure AI OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a powerful service that allows you to extract printed or handwritten text from images and documents. This technology is part of Azure AI Vision and can be used to automate data entry, digitize printed documents, and enhance accessibility.

Key Features

1. Text Extraction: Extracts text from images, including mixed languages and writing styles.

2. Document Processing: Optimized for text-heavy scanned and digital documents.

3. Global Language Support: Supports multiple languages and writing styles.

4. Deployment Flexibility: Available as a cloud service and on-premises container.

How to Use Azure AI OCR

You can use Azure AI OCR through various methods, including the Azure AI Vision API and Vision Studio. Here' a basic example of how to use the OCR API:

Example:

import requests

subscription_key = "your_subscription_key"
endpoint = "https://your_endpoint.cognitiveservices.azure.com/"
ocr_url = endpoint + "vision/v3.2/read/analyze"

image_url = "https://example.com/image.jpg"
headers = {"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key": subscription_key}
data = {"url": image_url}

response = requests.post(ocr_url, headers=headers, json=data)
result = response.json()

# Extract text from the result
for read_result in result["analyzeResult"]["readResults"]:
    for line in read_result["lines"]:
        print(line["text"])

Benefits

• Efficiency: Reduces the need for manual data entry.

• Accuracy: High accuracy in text extraction from various types of documents.

• Scalability: Can handle large volumes of documents and images.

Use Cases

• Digitizing Printed Documents: Convert printed documents into digital format for easy storage and retrieval.

• Automating Data Entry: Extract data from forms, invoices, and receipts to automate data entry processes.

• Enhancing Accessibility: Make printed content accessible to visually impaired users by converting it to digital text.

For more detailed information, you can visit the Azure AI OCR documentation.

If you have any specific questions or need further assistance with Azure AI OCR, feel free to ask!