Google Releases Tesseract as Open Source

An anonymous reader writes "Google recently released Tesseract as open source. Originally developed at the HP Labs from 1985-1995, it has been touted as one of the most accurate Optical Character Recognition (OCR) programs available. Having sat on the shelf gathering dust for so many years, Google cleaned up some of the more outdated portions of the code and released it for general consumption. You can download Tesseract over at Sourceforge.

improvements

[Anonymous Coward]

Google cleaned up some of the more outdated portions of the code
i.e., added AdSense to the OCR output.

Re:As much as I like open source software ...

[illuminatedwax]

You're right! Let us never delve into research that could conceivably overturn weak software security! Some things man was never meant to discover! Turn back, before we fly too close to the sun and our wings melt!! O, Prometheus, why hast thou given us this OCR technology??

Finally!

[nihilatron]

Now I can finally see how to tell the difference between the 'A'-ness of 'A' and the 'P'-ness of 'P'!

(Credit to S.G.)

I'm sorry Dave...

[macadamia_harold]

Originally developed at the HP Labs from 1985-1995, it has been touted as one of the most accurate Optical Character Recognition (OCR) programs available.

Yeah, but how is it on lip-reading? That's when we really need to worry.

Re:Hosting

[larry bagina]

Yes. They need the 99.9999% uptime (6 9s) that only sourceforge can provide.

Re:Sonny Bono pwned Gutenberg

[Anonymous Coward]

Once all notable pre-1923 books are scanned, OCR'd, and cleaned up, then what does PG do?

Maybe they could ... I dunno ... READ the books?

Re:As much as I like open source software ...

[binarybum]

careful, statements like that are likely to get you voted governor in some states.

HP decided to got out of the OCR business?

[Frosty Piss]

In 1995 it was one of the top 3 performers at the OCR accuracy contest organized by University of Nevada in Las Vegas. However, shortly thereafter, HP decided to get out of the OCR business...

Actually, shortly thereafter, HP decided to get out technology innovation business, and into the printer ink business.

W0W1

[Anonymous Coward]

TH18 IS GRLAT NEWf4 FOR TH0Sj OF US U$1NZ BA) O(R RLCOGN1+ION!

THAHKS, G00GLL!1!!!

Re:As much as I like open source software ...

[ajs]

That's no problem! All I really need it to do is allow all of those geeks out there to share those great Playboy articles with me over p2p networks! I'm tired of just getting the filler photography! ;-)

Re:Hosting

[Leto-II]

I think you need to recalibrate your sarcasm detector.

Re:Music OCR

[Scaba]

I'm sick and tired of a piece of dust being interpreted as a meter change.

You're just not avant-garde enough.

Re:NFB owns you

[maxwell demon]

Of course you can resort to other, harder to calculate questions like: "What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?" Oops, Computers seem to have become much faster since Deep Thought! [google.de] :-)

Re:Totally OT response to sig.

[Anonymous Coward]

and don't forget the ADA, the Dyslexics Association of America

Re:NFB owns you

[indifferent children]

'm a big fan of asking the user a simple random question, such as "what is 2 + 5".

I'm tired of all of the anti-Americanism on /. If you want to exclude Americans from your site, go ahead; but don't rub our noses in it.

Re:improvements

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope this isn't the same OCR Google Books is using. They managed to mangle one of the most famous chapter titles [google.com] in literature.