001/**
002 * Copyright (c) 2011, The University of Southampton and the individual contributors.
003 * All rights reserved.
004 *
005 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
006 * are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
007 *
008 *   *  Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
009 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
010 *
011 *   *  Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
012 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
013 *      and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
014 *
015 *   *  Neither the name of the University of Southampton nor the names of its
016 *      contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
017 *      software without specific prior written permission.
018 *
019 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
020 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
021 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
022 * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
023 * ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
024 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
025 * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
026 * ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
027 * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
028 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
029 */
030/**
031 *
032 */
033package org.openimaj.image.text.ocr;
034
035import java.util.Map;
036
037import org.openimaj.image.Image;
038import org.openimaj.image.analyser.ImageAnalyser;
039import org.openimaj.image.processor.ImageProcessor;
040import org.openimaj.math.geometry.shape.Rectangle;
041
042/**
043 * Top-level class for classes that are able to process images to extract
044 * textual content by performing OCR.
045 *
046 * @author David Dupplaw (dpd@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
047 * @created 4 Aug 2011
048 *
049 * @param <T>
050 *            The type of {@link ImageProcessor}
051 */
052public abstract class OCRProcessor<T extends Image<?, T>>
053                implements ImageAnalyser<T>
054{
055        /**
056         * After processing, this method should return a set of bounding boxes of
057         * regions within the image mapped to a String that contains the recognised
058         * text. If the OCR processor cannot extract regions (it just reads whatever
059         * image it's given), then the map can be singular with the rectangular
060         * bounding box the same as the image bounding box.
061         *
062         * @return A map of rectangle to string
063         */
064        public abstract Map<Rectangle, String> getText();
065}