UiBot Tutorial: How to Use OCR Functionality?

Today, let’s talk about OCR, which stands for Optical Character Recognition. This term may sound a bit technical, but it’s not far from our daily lives. Imagine when you need to extract text from images or screens at work; OCR acts like an invisible assistant, helping you complete this task without the need for tedious typing or manual copying.

The Origin of OCR

In fact, the history of OCR can be traced back to the last century when it was already capable of scanning and extracting text from printed books. With the development of technology, OCR has been continuously evolving, especially in recent years, with the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies like deep learning, which have greatly improved the recognition rates of OCR. Nowadays, whether it’s printed text or digital text on screens, OCR can efficiently recognize them.

Many smart applications now integrate OCR functionality, especially in the field of intelligent document processing. For example, some advanced document processing tools can automatically recognize and handle the textual content within documents, all thanks to the support of OCR technology.

However, in some scenarios, intelligent document processing may not be the best choice. Particularly when we encounter situations where interface elements cannot be directly accessed, such as certain special application interfaces, OCR technology is needed to solve the problem.

Taking the familiar Steam gaming platform as an example, the Steam interface uses DirectUI technology, which typically makes it difficult to extract text easily like ordinary web pages or desktop applications.

Although we can clearly see these texts with our eyes, it becomes challenging to capture them with code. At this point, OCR technology comes into play. By taking a screenshot and performing OCR recognition, we can easily extract this textual content.

Local OCR Functionality

At this point, we must mention UiBot’s local OCR functionality, which is definitely a powerful tool for solving these types of problems. What is local OCR? As the name suggests, local OCR runs OCR recognition on your own computer without relying on an internet connection.

This means that even in environments where internet access is unavailable, you can still use the OCR functionality, and the recognition rate is very high. This feature is particularly suitable for work scenarios where connecting to the internet is inconvenient or not allowed.

In UiBot, the local OCR commands mainly include several types: screen OCR recognition, image OCR recognition, mouse click OCR text, mouse move to OCR text, and find OCR text location.

The usage of these commands is quite intuitive. Taking the “screen OCR recognition” command as an example, you only need to select an area on the screen, and UiBot will automatically recognize the text content within that area and output the results to a specified variable. The entire process is remarkably simple and efficient.

If you have a saved image and need to extract text from it, you can use the “image OCR recognition” command. This command is similar to screen OCR recognition, except it directly recognizes the specified image file rather than the content on the screen. This way, you don’t need to adjust the screen or worry about content changes; just point to the image file, and OCR will automatically complete the recognition work.

In addition to these basic OCR functionalities, UiBot also provides some advanced operation commands, such as “mouse click OCR text” and “find OCR text location.” These commands allow you to directly click, move, and perform other operations on the recognized text. For instance, after recognizing a segment of text on the Steam interface, the mouse can automatically click on the area of that text, completing some automated task processes. This is particularly useful in complex automation tasks.

Baidu OCR

Of course, OCR is not limited to local recognition; cloud OCR is also a powerful tool. There are many cloud OCR services available in the market, among which Baidu OCR is quite famous.

Baidu OCR can not only recognize general text but also optimizes for specific images, such as invoices, identity cards, train tickets, etc. This optimization allows it to achieve more accurate recognition when processing these specific types of images.

For users who have already purchased Baidu OCR services, UiBot also provides relevant command support. You only need to enter the Baidu OCR Access Key and Secret Key in UiBot to easily call the functionality of Baidu OCR.

One advantage of Baidu OCR is that it provides a certain amount of free usage quota daily, which is sufficient for most daily needs for individual users. However, enterprise users may need to consider the cost when choosing to use it.

In Baidu OCR, there is a command called “image special OCR recognition,” specifically designed to handle certain types of images, such as identity cards and train tickets. When using this command, you only need to specify the image file to be recognized, select the appropriate OCR engine (such as the train ticket recognition engine), and then run the command, and OCR will automatically recognize the key information in the image and output the results. This targeted recognition makes Baidu OCR more adept at handling complex documents.

Conclusion

Finally, let’s make a simple comparison: local OCR and Baidu OCR each have their pros and cons. UiBot’s local OCR functionality does not require internet access, is easy to operate, and is particularly suitable for scenarios where internet connection is inconvenient. On the other hand, Baidu OCR has a clear advantage in processing complex documents and specific images, especially for recognition tasks that require powerful cloud computing capabilities.

In summary, OCR technology has a wide range of applications, whether locally or in the cloud. UiBot’s local OCR commands can help you solve many offline recognition tasks, while Baidu OCR provides you with more cloud recognition options. Which method to choose depends on your specific needs and work environment.

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