Simple Digit Recognition OCR in OpenCV-Python

Question

I am trying to implement a \"Digit Recognition OCR\" in OpenCV-Python (cv2). It is just for learning purposes. I would like to learn both KNearest and SVM features in OpenCV

Answer 1

For those who interested in C++ code can refer below code. Thanks Abid Rahman for the nice explanation.

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The procedure is same as above but, the contour finding uses only first hierarchy level contour, so that the algorithm uses only outer contour for each digit.

Code for creating sample and Label data

//Process image to extract contour
Mat thr,gray,con;
Mat src=imread("digit.png",1);
cvtColor(src,gray,CV_BGR2GRAY);
threshold(gray,thr,200,255,THRESH_BINARY_INV); //Threshold to find contour
thr.copyTo(con);

// Create sample and label data
vector< vector  > contours; // Vector for storing contour
vector< Vec4i > hierarchy;
Mat sample;
Mat response_array;  
findContours( con, contours, hierarchy,CV_RETR_CCOMP, CV_CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE ); //Find contour

for( int i = 0; i< contours.size(); i=hierarchy[i][0] ) // iterate through first hierarchy level contours
{
    Rect r= boundingRect(contours[i]); //Find bounding rect for each contour
    rectangle(src,Point(r.x,r.y), Point(r.x+r.width,r.y+r.height), Scalar(0,0,255),2,8,0);
    Mat ROI = thr(r); //Crop the image
    Mat tmp1, tmp2;
    resize(ROI,tmp1, Size(10,10), 0,0,INTER_LINEAR ); //resize to 10X10
    tmp1.convertTo(tmp2,CV_32FC1); //convert to float
    sample.push_back(tmp2.reshape(1,1)); // Store  sample data
    imshow("src",src);
    int c=waitKey(0); // Read corresponding label for contour from keyoard
    c-=0x30;     // Convert ascii to intiger value
    response_array.push_back(c); // Store label to a mat
    rectangle(src,Point(r.x,r.y), Point(r.x+r.width,r.y+r.height), Scalar(0,255,0),2,8,0);    
}

// Store the data to file
Mat response,tmp;
tmp=response_array.reshape(1,1); //make continuous
tmp.convertTo(response,CV_32FC1); // Convert  to float

FileStorage Data("TrainingData.yml",FileStorage::WRITE); // Store the sample data in a file
Data << "data" << sample;
Data.release();

FileStorage Label("LabelData.yml",FileStorage::WRITE); // Store the label data in a file
Label << "label" << response;
Label.release();
cout<<"Training and Label data created successfully....!! "<

Code for training and testing

Mat thr,gray,con;
Mat src=imread("dig.png",1);
cvtColor(src,gray,CV_BGR2GRAY);
threshold(gray,thr,200,255,THRESH_BINARY_INV); // Threshold to create input
thr.copyTo(con);


// Read stored sample and label for training
Mat sample;
Mat response,tmp;
FileStorage Data("TrainingData.yml",FileStorage::READ); // Read traing data to a Mat
Data["data"] >> sample;
Data.release();

FileStorage Label("LabelData.yml",FileStorage::READ); // Read label data to a Mat
Label["label"] >> response;
Label.release();


KNearest knn;
knn.train(sample,response); // Train with sample and responses
cout<<"Training compleated.....!!"< > contours; // Vector for storing contour
vector< Vec4i > hierarchy;

//Create input sample by contour finding and cropping
findContours( con, contours, hierarchy,CV_RETR_CCOMP, CV_CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE );
Mat dst(src.rows,src.cols,CV_8UC3,Scalar::all(0));

for( int i = 0; i< contours.size(); i=hierarchy[i][0] ) // iterate through each contour for first hierarchy level .
{
    Rect r= boundingRect(contours[i]);
    Mat ROI = thr(r);
    Mat tmp1, tmp2;
    resize(ROI,tmp1, Size(10,10), 0,0,INTER_LINEAR );
    tmp1.convertTo(tmp2,CV_32FC1);
    float p=knn.find_nearest(tmp2.reshape(1,1), 1);
    char name[4];
    sprintf(name,"%d",(int)p);
    putText( dst,name,Point(r.x,r.y+r.height) ,0,1, Scalar(0, 255, 0), 2, 8 );
}

imshow("src",src);
imshow("dst",dst);
imwrite("dest.jpg",dst);
waitKey();

Result

In the result the dot in the first line is detected as 8 and we haven’t trained for dot. Also I am considering every contour in first hierarchy level as the sample input, user can avoid it by computing the area.