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Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#21

Post by NetMonkey »

rikkus wrote: post #7

It doesn't appear that you can use this in a 'normal' .NET app. Any ideas why?

This is really one of my big frustrations with Microsoft.

On one hand, they really try to push everybody to upgrade to their newest and shiniest, by making a lot of stuff (like this) only available on Windows 8+.

On the other hand, they don't even bother to put in a box with "What operating systems will this work on", so you don't have to do trial/error, research WinRT, and then be disappointed when you realize this will apparently never work on Windows 7. And maybe only in Metro apps? What is Windows Runtime and am I just supposed to know this?

I really enjoy coding C# and working in .NET. Microsoft has some really great stable techs which work well for years and years - but increasingly if you want anything new and shiny from them, you have to run the newest OS. Which if you work with anything related to enterprise, good luck only targetting Windows 8.

And honestly, despite working almost exclusively with MS tech, I just don't really trust any platform from them that doesn't have significant traction and track record as they all too often just give up and try something new - and sometimes without real replacements available.

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#22

Post by tiedemann »

cipher0 wrote: post #16

"demonstrated in code snippets below". The code snippets are actually images and even worse, they're JPEGs which is the reason why the text looks horrible.

"This blog was written by Jelena Mojasevic, Program Manager at Microsoft" - I seems no one told her how to embed code snippets.

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#23

Post by danbruc »

NetMonkey wrote: post #21
rikkus wrote: post #7

It doesn't appear that you can use this in a 'normal' .NET app. Any ideas why?

This is really one of my big frustrations with Microsoft. On one hand, they really try to push everybody to upgrade to their newest and shiniest, by making a lot of stuff (like this) only available on Windows 8+. On the other hand, they don't even bother to put in a box with "What operating systems will this work on", so you don't have to do trial/error, research WinRT, and then be disappointed when you realize this…

The MSDN documentation for the classes [1] clearly states the supported platforms. Admittedly the restriction to store apps is missing on the page for the namespace [2].

  Minimum supported client  Windows 8.1 [Windows Store apps only]
  Minimum supported server  Windows Server 2012 R2 [Windows Store apps only]
  Minimum supported phone   Windows Phone 8
[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi...

[2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi...

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#24

Post by danbruc »

steeve wrote: post #8

We had great results using tesseract-ocr[1] with SWT (state of the art text detection algorithm, via libccv[2]) on Linux. You can use our python bindings for both[3,4], although they might be slightly outdated: [1] https://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/ [2] http://libccv.org/doc/doc-swt/ [3] https://github.com/veezio/pytesseract [4] https://github.com/veezio/pyccv

Be aware that SWT is patented [1] if you want to use it commercially.

[1] http://www.google.com/patents/US20090285482

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#25

Post by NetMonkey »

danbruc wrote: post #23
NetMonkey wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really one of my big frustrations with Microsoft. On one hand, they really try to push everybody to upgrade to their newest and shiniest, by making a lot of stuff (like this) only available on Windows 8+. On the other hand, they don't even bother to put in a box with "What operating systems will this work on", so you don't have to do trial/error, research WinRT, and then be disappointed when you realize this…

The MSDN documentation for the classes [1] clearly states the supported platforms. Admittedly the restriction to store apps is missing on the page for the namespace [2]. Minimum supported client Windows 8.1 [Windows Store apps only] Minimum supported server Windows Server 2012 R2 [Windows Store apps only] Minimum supported phone Windows Phone 8 [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi... [2] h…

Ah, don't know how I missed that. Thanks.

Crazy that it's limited to 8.1, and not even working on 8.0.

I really wonder if there is a valid technical reason, or they just use it to push upgrades.

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#26

Post by allegory »

drblast wrote: post #19
cipher0 wrote: post #16

"demonstrated in code snippets below". The code snippets are actually images and even worse, they're JPEGs which is the reason why the text looks horrible.

If only there were some automated way to convert those images to text.

Now that is possibly the cruellest irony I've seen for a while. Well spotted :)

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#27

Post by silon3 »

NetMonkey wrote: post #25
danbruc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MSDN documentation for the classes [1] clearly states the supported platforms. Admittedly the restriction to store apps is missing on the page for the namespace [2]. Minimum supported client Windows 8.1 [Windows Store apps only] Minimum supported server Windows Server 2012 R2 [Windows Store apps only] Minimum supported phone Windows Phone 8 [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi... [2] h…

Ah, don't know how I missed that. Thanks. Crazy that it's limited to 8.1, and not even working on 8.0. I really wonder if there is a valid technical reason, or they just use it to push upgrades.

It's crazy that it's Windows Store only. On my only Windows machine the Windows Store won't even open because I have UAC disabled.

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#28

Post by kyberias »

cipher0 wrote: post #16

"demonstrated in code snippets below". The code snippets are actually images and even worse, they're JPEGs which is the reason why the text looks horrible.

Yeah, stop being silly and just click the link on the page to the actual documentation with examples:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi...

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#29

Post by [deleted] »

NetMonkey wrote: post #25
danbruc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MSDN documentation for the classes [1] clearly states the supported platforms. Admittedly the restriction to store apps is missing on the page for the namespace [2]. Minimum supported client Windows 8.1 [Windows Store apps only] Minimum supported server Windows Server 2012 R2 [Windows Store apps only] Minimum supported phone Windows Phone 8 [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/wi... [2] h…

Ah, don't know how I missed that. Thanks. Crazy that it's limited to 8.1, and not even working on 8.0. I really wonder if there is a valid technical reason, or they just use it to push upgrades.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime

#30

Post by pjmlp »

NetMonkey wrote: post #21
rikkus wrote: post #7

It doesn't appear that you can use this in a 'normal' .NET app. Any ideas why?

This is really one of my big frustrations with Microsoft. On one hand, they really try to push everybody to upgrade to their newest and shiniest, by making a lot of stuff (like this) only available on Windows 8+. On the other hand, they don't even bother to put in a box with "What operating systems will this work on", so you don't have to do trial/error, research WinRT, and then be disappointed when you realize this…

> What is Windows Runtime and am I just supposed to know this?

If you subscribe to MSDN like any Windows developer, this has been explained multiple times in the last two years.

Just for the clueless ones.

Windows Runtime is an evolution of COM, based on the ideas that were on the genesis of .NET. Namely Ext-VOS.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dsyme/archive/2012/07/05/more-c-net-...

So a native version of .NET, so to speak. And unless Windows 9 changes it, the future of Windows APIs.

The .NET runtime starting with Windows 8 acquired additional capabilities:

- Ahead of time compilation to native code for Windows Phone apps, with the MDIL binary format

- Consumption and creation of Windows Runtime components

> but increasingly if you want anything new and shiny from them, you have to run the newest OS.

No different from other commercial vendors.

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