Extracting Grid Numbers from Image Table using OCR

Extracting Grid Numbers from an Image Table using OCR

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that enables the conversion of different types of documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDF files or images captured by a digital camera into editable and searchable data.

Introduction to OCR

OCR technology has been around for decades, but recent advances in machine learning and computer vision have significantly improved its accuracy and capabilities. OCR is used in various industries, such as finance, healthcare, and logistics, to automate data entry and analysis tasks, reducing manual effort and errors.

Extracting Grid Numbers from an Image Table using OCR

In this article, we will focus on extracting grid numbers from an image table using OCR. Grid numbers are numbers arranged in a grid or table format, such as a spreadsheet or a data table in a report. Extracting grid numbers from an image table is a common use case in data analysis and machine learning applications.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this article, you will need the following:

• An image file containing a grid of numbers
• A computer with OCR software installed

Using Microsoft Power Query/Power Toys

One of the recommended tools for extracting grid numbers from an image table is Microsoft Power Query, which is part of Microsoft Power BI. However, if you don't have access to Microsoft Power BI, you can use Microsoft Power Toys, a set of utilities for Windows that includes an OCR tool.

To install Microsoft Power Toys, follow these steps:

1. Go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/install
2. Download the latest version of Microsoft Power Toys
3. Install Microsoft Power Toys

Once you have installed Microsoft Power Toys, you can use the OCR tool to extract grid numbers from an image table. Here are the steps:

1. Open the image file containing the grid of numbers
2. Press the Print Screen key to capture the image
3. Open Microsoft Power Toys and select the OCR tool
4. Paste the captured image into the OCR tool
5. Select the area of the image containing the grid of numbers
6. Click the Extract button
7. Save the extracted text as a text file

Using Other OCR Tools

If you don't have access to Microsoft Power Query or Microsoft Power Toys, you can use other OCR tools to extract grid numbers from an image table. Some of the popular OCR tools are:

• ABBYY FineReader
• Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
• Google Cloud Vision API
• Tesseract OCR

These OCR tools have their own user interfaces and features, but the general steps for extracting grid numbers from an image table are similar.

Formatting the Extracted Text

After extracting the grid numbers from the image table, you may need to format the extracted text to make it usable for further analysis. The format of the extracted text may vary depending on the OCR tool and the image quality.

Here are some tips for formatting the extracted text:

• Remove any unnecessary characters, such as punctuation marks or special symbols
• Trim any leading or trailing white spaces
• Split the text into rows and columns based on the grid structure
• Convert the text into a data structure, such as a list or a table

Extracting grid numbers from an image table using OCR is a powerful technique for automating data entry and analysis tasks. With the advancements in OCR technology, the accuracy and capabilities of OCR tools have significantly improved, making it easier to extract and process data from various types of documents and images.

References

• Optical Character Recognition - Wikipedia
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - Microsoft Power Query
• Microsoft Power Toys
• ABBYY FineReader
• Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
• Google Cloud Vision API
• Tesseract OCR