Note: These instructions are for Android SDK r16 and Android NDK r7, at least for the time being (written at this tree). You would also need proper PATH variables added.

1. Download or check out the source from this git repository. This project contains tools for compiling the Tesseract, Leptonica, and JPEG libraries for use on Android. It contains an Eclipse Android library project that provides a Java API for accessing natively-compiled Tesseract and Leptonica APIs. You don’t need eyes-two code, you can do without it.
2. Build this project using these commands (easy to do it on Mac and Linux – does not work on Windows - try an Ubuntu VM) (here, tess-two is the directory inside tess-two – the one at the same level as of tess-two-test):

   cd <project-directory>/tess-two
   ndk-build
   android update project --path .
   ant release

3. Now import the project as a library in Eclipse. File -> Import -> Existing Projects into workspace -> tess-two directory. Right click the project, Android Tools -> Fix Project Properties. Right click -> Properties -> Android -> Check Is Library.
4. Configure your project to use the tess-two project as a library project: Right click your project name -> Properties -> Android -> Library -> Add, and choose tess-two. You’re now ready to OCR any image using the library.
5. First, we need to get the picture itself. For that, I found a simple code to capture the image here. After we have the bitmap, we just need to perform the OCR which is relatively easy. Be sure to correct the rotation and image type by doing something like:

   // _path = path to the image to be OCRed
   ExifInterface exif = new ExifInterface(_path);
   int exifOrientation = exif.getAttributeInt(
           ExifInterface.TAG_ORIENTATION,
           ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_NORMAL);
   
   int rotate = 0;
   
   switch (exifOrientation) {
   case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_90:
       rotate = 90;
       break;
   case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_180:
       rotate = 180;
       break;
   case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_270:
       rotate = 270;
       break;
   }
   
   if (rotate != 0) {
       int w = bitmap.getWidth();
       int h = bitmap.getHeight();
   
       // Setting pre rotate
       Matrix mtx = new Matrix();
       mtx.preRotate(rotate);
   
       // Rotating Bitmap & convert to ARGB_8888, required by tess
       bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(bitmap, 0, 0, w, h, mtx, false);
       bitmap = bitmap.copy(Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888, true);
   }

6. Now we have the image in the bitmap, and we can simple use the TessBaseAPI to run the OCR like:

   TessBaseAPI baseApi = new TessBaseAPI();
   // DATA_PATH = Path to the storage
   // lang for which the language data exists, usually "eng"
   baseApi.init(DATA_PATH, lang); baseApi.setImage(bitmap);
   String recognizedText = baseApi.getUTF8Text();
   baseApi.end();

7. Now that you’ve got the OCRed text in the variable recognizedText, you can do pretty much anything with it – translate, search, anything! ps. You can add various language support by having a preference and then downloading the required language data file from here. You might even put them in the assets folder and copy them to the SD card on start.

To make things easy, and for you to have a better understanding, I have uploaded a simple application on OCR that makes use of Tess Two on Github called Simple Android OCR (for beginners). If you want a full-fledged application, that has a selectable region while capturing the image, translating the text, preferences etc., then you can checkout Robert Theis’s Android OCR application on Github too (for intermediate+)!

Updated: 3 February 2012

References

1. Using Tesseract Tools for Android to Create a Basic OCR App by Robert Theis
2. Simple Android Photo Capture by MakeMachine
3. tess-two README

Troubleshooting

Translations

1. Japanese by datsuns

1. This program would encourage students to just learn the things that would come in the UT to help them pass. This means that they won’t actually try to study anything more than that, leaving them with half-learned concepts or even quarter-learned concepts. They wouldn’t actually read the book, but just skim through the topics. Even though it might help them achieve short term results and improve the school’s Xth class result, it won’t help them in their entire life for sure!
2. Some students might still not even learn that portion and just cram up the answer of those question. I know many like this. This is definitely a setback as it removes the “learning” word from the program’s name itself.
3. Going back to the history of the start of exams, they were basically made to compare the students’ ability. Forcefully passing them is illogical. With this program in effect, logically, students could just only be compared based on the questions that the teachers didn’t give them before the test.

At the end, I would just like to say that this is not a “Minimum Learning Program”, but a “Minimum Scoring Program”.

Update: This post was written on the basis of as-before-told and as-before-done, which was just the beginning of the program. Now, instead of questions and instead of everyone, only the special students would be given very short notes from the whole chapter.

ps. Doesn’t necessarily need to be Siri, but that’s an interesting piece of software.

Write easy. Write often.

Things that I was busy with

1. WordCamp Jabalpur 2011 – This was one of those awesome events that I’ve attended in my life. I was invited as a speaker and I spoke on the topic bbPress. There I met many amazing people, whom I had been willing to meet for long. It was a very nice experience for me. I’d really like to thank the organising team.
2. CyberFundu – A YouTube channel of various cyber related videos, started with my schoolmates.

Things that I’ve been doing

1. DatumDroid – An Android application that I’m developing for IITB TechFest Appsurd event. Should be over by October or November.
2. fests.in – Check the site to know more! I hope it’s big! Launch date is probably the first day of 2012.
3. AIMUN – Amity International Model United Nations, to be held in November.
4. Discover I – As mentioned in a previous post, this is a project that I’m working on as a part of Youth Power.
5. SpaceSet – A project in which we’ve to design a full Space settlement. The deadline keeps getting extended and we keep missing it. Next is November 15.
6. Studies – CBSE’s CCE has really proven to be exhaustive, than stress relieving.

Things I’d be doing

1. Google Code-in ’11: I’d be participating in this year’s Google Code-in too! And try to make it to the Googleplex again to take the pictures I couldn’t, or forgot to. ps. I’ve also made it to the front page of the competition’s site, check it out!
2. TCS IT Wiz: One of the competitions, I really like to attend. Would be held on 12 November, so I better prepare.
3. Amity 46 MUN – Our school’s very own MUN to be held in December.
4. Learn Java, Python and C++

Following all this, I had also deactivated my Facebook account as that really used to eat up a lot of my time and has wasted months of my life. I changed it’s password to something that I myself didn’t know, tried to reactivate it today for my birthday via forgot password, and it has asked me to wait for 24 hours – when all the fun would have got over. Though it looks like it has been activated, but I’m still locked out. When I again have access to it, I would probably permanently delete it.

Future Plans

In India and elsewhere, one really needs to study hard to get into a good university. I would probably do the same as it would help me get my skills polished and do even better in life. Being over-confident is bad. For that I would study more of Physics, Chemistry and Maths (subjects which I like the most) in the following two years – XI and XII, than coding. I would still like to continue with a project or two but not with that pace.

More things follow as soon as they hit my mind. Just want to make sure that it’s published at 00:00 IST.

Update: As Shobhan tells me, our dear moon has revolved around me 204 times.

Update: I’ve permanently deleted it.

Junior

You can view it below or download the PDF (2.1 mb, water-marked).

Hauts (Senior)

You can view it below or download the PDF (2.7 mb, water-marked).

The trip to Google was one of the most memorable and happiest moments of my life. I got to meet all the intelligent high-school coders from around the world, meet all the amazing Googlers and learn from them, receive a beautiful (but heavy ) trophy, have a lunch at Charlie’s Cafe at Google HQ, hack around the Google buildings, clicking pictures in photography-prohibited areas (well, kidding ), getting the Google Goodies (which included bottles, chocolates, pens, notebooks, books, stickers, big android plushie aka bugdroid, souvenirs, shirts, jackets and a blanket), buying Google Schwag (mouse, torch, key chain, USB port hub and other geeky stuff), having wonderful dinners at restaurants, touring the California Academy of Sciences and riding those cool Segways. It all amounted to be a whole ton of fun and enjoyment, but wouldn’t of course not have been possible without the efforts and hard work of Carol, Stephanie and the whole Google team, to which I salute!

A picture says a thousand words and, I have ~150 pictures uploaded on Picasa. That amounts to 150,000 words! OMG! Here is a slideshow of all of the pics that I took.

Google is inviting 14 participants instead of the pre-announced 10 to their Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. This would happen somewhere in May. Anybody whom I could meet?