Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology has revolutionized the way we interact with text. With OCR, you can digitize scanned documents, extract text from images, and even translate text from one language to another. In this tutorial, we will show you how to create an OCR app for Android using Thunkable, a visual programming platform that allows you to create mobile apps without writing any code.
Before you begin, you will need to sign up for a Thunkable account and create a new project.
Step 1: Add Components to the Design Interface
The first step is to add the necessary components to the design interface. These components include a text box, a button, and an image component. To add a component, simply drag and drop it onto the design interface.
Step 2: Link Your App to an OCR API
There are several OCR APIs available, including the Google Cloud Vision API and the Tesseract OCR API. In this tutorial, we will be using the Tesseract OCR API. To use this API, you will need to sign up for an API key. Once you have an API key, you can enter it into your Thunkable project by going to the “Connections” tab and clicking on the “API Key” component.
Step 3: Add Blocks to Handle the OCR Process
Next, you will need to add blocks to your project to handle the OCR process. When the button is pressed, the image component should be passed to the OCR API, and the resulting text should be displayed in the text box.
To do this, you will need to use the “When Button1.Click” block, which is triggered when the button is clicked. Inside this block, you will need to use the “OCR.Get Text” block, which passes the image to the OCR API and returns the extracted text. Finally, you can use the “Set TextBox1.Text” block to display the extracted text in the text box.
Step 4: Test Your App
Once you have added all of the necessary blocks, you can test your app to ensure that it is working properly. To do this, simply click the “Test” button in the top menu. This will open a simulator where you can interact with your app as if it were running on a real device.
If everything is working as expected, you should be able to select an image, click the button, and see the extracted text displayed in the text box. If there are any issues, you can use the debug tools in Thunkable to troubleshoot them.
Step 5: Export Your App
When you are satisfied with your app, you can export it to your Android device for further testing. To do this, click the “Export” button in the top menu and follow the prompts to export your app as an APK file. Once the export is complete, you can transfer the APK file to your device and install it like any other app.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have shown you how to create an OCR app for Android using Thunkable. With OCR technology, you can digitize scanned documents, extract text from images, and even translate text from one language to another. By following the steps outlined above, you can create your own OCR app and start exploring the many possibilities of OCR technology.