Optical character recognition, commonly known as OCR, detects the text found in an image or video and extracts the recognized words. By using OCR, we can provide our users a much better user experience; instead of having to manually perform data entry on a mobile device, users can simply take a photo, and OCR can extract the information required without requiring any further interaction from the user. Many mobile apps have adopted OCR as a primary user input source, such as apps for tracking expenses or keeping track of business cards, or you may have seen this feature used to “scan” your information off of a credit card rather than typing it in.
In this blog post, you will learn how to add OCR to your mobile apps in just a few lines of code by building an invoice-tracking app for iOS, Android, and Windows with Xamarin.Forms and Microsoft Cognitive Services.
Getting Started with the Computer Vision API
Microsoft Cognitive Services lets you build apps using powerful algorithms in just a few lines of code with 22 APIs to help us do everything from facial recognition to OCR. APIs are broken down into five main categories: vision, speech, language, knowledge, and search. The Computer Vision API allows us to extract rich information from images, such as recognizing objects or extracting text with OCR.
Let’s build an app that tracks due dates for payments by taking photos of invoices. To get started, download the starter code for the app. This contains one screen that allows users to view invoices, along with a button for tracking new invoices.
Obtaining an API Key
Microsoft Cognitive Services is completely free to get started. To begin using the Computer Vision API, we must first obtain an API key for the service. To do this, visit the Computer Vision API page and click “Get started for free.”
Check the row with “Computer Vision” as the product name and click “Subscribe.” Once registered, you should have a free subscription to the Computer Vision APIs, including API keys.
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