Introduction

  • 2 minutes

Suppose you are given thousands of images and asked to transfer the text on the images to a computer database. The scanned images have text organized in different formats and contain multiple languages. What are some ways you could complete the project in a reasonable time frame and make sure the data is entered with a high degree of accuracy?

Companies around the world are tackling similar scenarios every day. Without AI services, it would be challenging to complete the project, especially if it were to change in scale.

Using AI services, we can treat this project as a computer vision scenario and apply Optical Character Recognition (OCR). OCR allows you to extract text from images, such as photos of street signs and products, as well as from documents — invoices, bills, financial reports, articles, and more.

To build an automated AI solution, you need to train machine learning models to cover many use cases. Azure's Computer Vision service is a Cognitive Service that gives access to advanced algorithms for processing images and returns data to secure storage.

In this module, you'll learn how to:

  • Identify how the Computer Vision service enables you to read text from images with the Read API
  • Use the Computer Vision service with SDKs and the REST API
  • Develop an application that can read printed and handwritten text