Use camera to read equations
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Ondřej Čertík
Oct 21, 2014, 2:58:47 PM10/21/14
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Hi,
This looks really awesome:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/21/photomath/
I wish there was something like that for SymPy, that you snap a
picture and it gives you Python code for SymPy to represent the
equation.
Ondrej
This looks really awesome:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/21/photomath/
I wish there was something like that for SymPy, that you snap a
picture and it gives you Python code for SymPy to represent the
equation.
Ondrej
Aaron Meurer
Oct 21, 2014, 3:45:20 PM10/21/14
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I tried it out. The recognition is actually quite good, at least for
the equations I found in my browser. It says it doesn't work with
handwritten equations, so the typography of the math may be a factor.
It's pretty limited on the types of expressions it can recognize, and
even more limited in the kinds of equations it can solve.
Another very impressive app in this area is MyScript calculator (there
are iOS and Android versions, both free). You draw the expression with
your finger and it computes it for you. It doesn't do much in the way
of computer algebra, the mathematical handwriting recognition is quite
good.
Aaron Meurer
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the equations I found in my browser. It says it doesn't work with
handwritten equations, so the typography of the math may be a factor.
It's pretty limited on the types of expressions it can recognize, and
even more limited in the kinds of equations it can solve.
Another very impressive app in this area is MyScript calculator (there
are iOS and Android versions, both free). You draw the expression with
your finger and it computes it for you. It doesn't do much in the way
of computer algebra, the mathematical handwriting recognition is quite
good.
Aaron Meurer
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> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CADDwiVAX04_%3DTrmaWnL%2BEOdY3%2BAT0L477P12zXpV_z9bAYnihQ%40mail.gmail.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Saurabh Jha
Oct 22, 2014, 1:36:58 AM10/22/14
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This looks good. However I am not sure if this would be really useful in Sympy given the amount of effort it will take to implement this thing.
SaurabhTo view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAKgW%3D6JATy%3DcHg2TOGU%2BoquR8yCD13Ni31Sr%2BU54XWm32scK1Q%40mail.gmail.com.
Francesco Bonazzi
Oct 22, 2014, 4:13:28 AM10/22/14
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Apparently there's an open issue to recognize math in tesseract (open source OCR software)
https://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/issues/detail?id=270
Unfortunately, tesseract seems to have limited support for layout analysis, so it's probably not going to recognize fractions/square roots.
Anyways, such an idea would require to use external software unrelated to SymPy (camera handling, OCR, layout analysis and formulae syntax tree building).
An OCR engine that working really well, even with very complicated formulae, is InftyReader. Unfortunately it's paid software, they sell the single license for 800 dollars I think (that's crazy!).
https://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/issues/detail?id=270
Unfortunately, tesseract seems to have limited support for layout analysis, so it's probably not going to recognize fractions/square roots.
Anyways, such an idea would require to use external software unrelated to SymPy (camera handling, OCR, layout analysis and formulae syntax tree building).
An OCR engine that working really well, even with very complicated formulae, is InftyReader. Unfortunately it's paid software, they sell the single license for 800 dollars I think (that's crazy!).
Denis Akhiyarov
Oct 22, 2014, 11:21:13 AM10/22/14
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I have Note 3, which has 3 programs that recognize stylus-hand-written formulas in real-time:
S Finder + WolframAlpha
S Note
MyScript Calculator (mentioned above)
Also Windows has Math Input Panel which is highly integrated with Word equations and even Mathematica.
I tried both FineReader and InftyReader and found InftyReader very reliable!
Richard Fateman
Oct 22, 2014, 2:10:17 PM10/22/14
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Math InputPanel and InftyReader both work OK, but not perfect by any means.
I would expect this program to work only on very clean images well focused and within
its probably quite limited domain of known notation. That is, excellent demo-ware but
probably not ready for prime time. This technology is easy at the 20% level, hard at
the 80%, and beyond state of the art at 95%. If all you want to do is read novels to
translate into Kindle form, it is close to 100%. But not for math.
There used to be a free version of InftyReader, maybe not any more?
Camera input (or scanner input) is quite different technically from stylus (or finger) input.
Also typeset vs handwritten.
My favorite mostly -under-developed technology is SPEECH --i.e. speaking math into
your phone or computer. I've done some work on this (search for Math Speak and Write)
which someone would be free to pick up and run with. Unfortunately it currently depends
on some windows speech SDK. Could be done with some free speech stuff maybe.
I would expect this program to work only on very clean images well focused and within
its probably quite limited domain of known notation. That is, excellent demo-ware but
probably not ready for prime time. This technology is easy at the 20% level, hard at
the 80%, and beyond state of the art at 95%. If all you want to do is read novels to
translate into Kindle form, it is close to 100%. But not for math.
There used to be a free version of InftyReader, maybe not any more?
Camera input (or scanner input) is quite different technically from stylus (or finger) input.
Also typeset vs handwritten.
My favorite mostly -under-developed technology is SPEECH --i.e. speaking math into
your phone or computer. I've done some work on this (search for Math Speak and Write)
which someone would be free to pick up and run with. Unfortunately it currently depends
on some windows speech SDK. Could be done with some free speech stuff maybe.
Jason Moore
Oct 22, 2014, 10:56:53 PM10/22/14
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