A novel approach for text detection in images using structural features

Abstract

We propose a novel approach for finding text in images by using ridges at several scales. A text string is modelled by a ridge at a coarse scale representing its center line and numerous short ridges at a smaller scale representing the skeletons of characters, Skeleton ridges have to satisfy geometrical and spatial constraints such as the perpendicularity or non-parallelism to the central ridge. In this way, we obtain a hierarchical description of text strings, which can provide direct input to an OCR or a text analysis system. The proposed method does not depend on a particular alphabet, it works with a wide variety in size of characters and does not depend on orientation of text string. The experimental results show a good detection. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.