Can the tesseract OCR run in Windows Phone 8 platform?

[rsteng2]

Since I successfully installed the tesseract OCR from the Nuget package manager in the Windows phone 8 app project, will it be able to run like normal? I ask this as i am still in the beginning stage of using the library, and i am still trying my best to solve some problem like "Error 1 The type or namespace name 'tesseract' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)". Truly thanks in advance.

[charlesw]

Hi Rsteng2,
Currently Windows Phone 8 (or bellow) is not supported, only the full versions of .net 2.0 and above. While I could add a build configuration for Windows 8 I do not have tesseract dlls built for ARM architecture which would be required.

[rsteng2]

Hi Charlesw.
Truly thanks for replying the issue in short time. I have searched for a lot of OCR engines but mostly won't work in windows phone 8, which is actually part of my final year project. Only leadtools and http://www.devscope.net/products/DevScopeOCR (tesseract based) will work but funding is needed. I thought you have done for Windows phone 8 as it has Shared Windows Core with windows 8. http://lazure2.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/windows-phone-8-software-architecture-vs-that-of-windows-phone-7-7-5-and-the-upcoming-7-8/
I also wonder if Portable Class Library can make out the work, i will try as much as i can. Thanks again~

[charlesw]

The trouble here isn't so much the wrapper (what I've written) but the native tesseract-ocr library, which I don't believe would currently execute since it is built targeting x86 architecture. As I mentioned previously I can easily create a new target to generate a version of the wrapper that will execute on windows phone 8, assuming there isn't any compatibility issues.

I think all Devscope has done, though I don't know for sure, is recompile the native tesseract library targeting windows phone system, or something similar. Unfortunately I don't have a windows 8 phone so can't really do this myself however would be happy to offer some assistance\help if you choose to take this on. The first place to look might be a guide to porting an existing (c++) windows app to windows phone and doing the same to tesseract sources. I'd also create a new github project to make it easier for others to give you a hand here If you choose to do this.

[rsteng2]

I am not having windows phone by now as well, however i can test it on emulator, just that the emulator need quite high requirement... and I will be determined to learn how to port the library, thank you very much. Just that i am still an amature in programming, it will need some time..

[Nabeelhassan]

please tell me what to do :/

i am also in this same trouble .... i need to use this ocr in windows phone 8 .. i tested it in my desktop app and it worked fine ...

[charlesw]

Just had a bit of a look into this and it seems that P/Invoke is NOT supported on Windows Phone 8 (Source).

According to this the only way to work with an native library, like tesseract, is to build a Windows Runtime Component for that library using C++/CX. This is unfortunately a completely different approach to using P/Invoke and would be (almost) akin to starting again from scratch.

[charlesw]

Here's the bug report for that is preventing us from supporting WP8 if you want WP8 support please up vote this issue as I do not have the time to implement a Windows Runtime Component for tesseract.

Url: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/777333/add-dllimport-support-for-net-in-windows-phone-8

[Nabeelhassan]

could you guide me what to do about this as i need tesseract in my fyp

[charlesw]

Based on what's written in https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/777333/add-dllimport-support-for-net-in-windows-phone-8 the quickest path would be to generate a WinPTR component that exposes the Tesseract C and Leptonica APIs like SharpDX has done (see: https://github.com/sharpdx/SharpDX/tree/master/Source/SharpDX.WP8).

Unfortunately I can't really provide a step by step guide for you at this time as I'm not to sure exactly what is going to be required. However If you download the SharpDX source and spend some time tracing through what they've done hopefully you'll be able to replicate the same techniques for tesseract.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

[Nabeelhassan]

i just have to write a wrapper for all the interop classes i.e. baseapi , constants , leptonicaapi marshalhelper and windowslibraryloader ????

the rest needs to be left as it is ??

[charlesw]

If you use the same approach as SharpDX then yes you'd need to write a wrapper in C++/CX to expose the function pointers that are used by the interop classes (baseapi etc) and then update those interop classes to use these function pointers instead of P/Invoke. You will also probably need to make some changes to the tesseract project itself to compile for the ARM architecture.

[Nabeelhassan]

will try my best :)

thank you for your co-operation :) ...

[Nabeelhassan]

please correct if i am wrong ..

i need to use the baseapi.h and baseapi.cpp files for making the windows runtime component ??

[Gladiatorza]

Hi Nabeelyaya

If you get this working, please post your project source here, it would be appreciated.

Thanks

[charlesw]

Yes you'll need to use the baseapi.h file, but not the cpp files directly. Basically I think you'll need to do something like this:

1. Generate Tesseract and Leptonica as a static library targeting Win Phone 8.
2. Add a new WinPTR component project to the Tesseract library that references the static libraries. This will need to be implemented using C++/CX (see links above and the SharpDx example).
3. Update the Interop wrapper classes to use the WinPTR component but only for the WP8 configuration (give me a shout when you get this far and I'll provide some info on how to create a new config).

If I were you I'd probably attempt to just expose the API to get tesseract's version first as a proof of concept rather than trying to do the whole lot in one bit.