OCR Braille Diagram Tools

This tool should not exist. And it also doens't work very well. BUT, it has a few, limited, useful cases.

Here is the basic idea: import an existing diagram of some kind and use OCR+manual touch ups to have appropriate highlights and text values. Then, whiteout existing text and replace it with braille. This is an arduous, annoying process, but it can be useful in rare cases.

Requirements

• python (3.8+)
  • louis (in requirements.txt)
• libouis (from package manager)

Usage

Use ./easy.sh. The file must be called diagram.png in the same directory as the easy.sh file. The generated file will be called out.png.

Generate OCR Data

./easy.sh gen-ocr

This creates an out.json file with all OCR data.

Show OCR Detection Boxes

./easy.sh show-labels

This writes to the out.png file with OCR boxes highlighted in red, using the out.json file to create the highlights. The highlight box has the number on the left of it, that is the box ID. This is important for later.

Editing Data

Open out.png in an image viewer which will automatically update when the file is written to. When any of these commands are run, the out.png file will be rewritten with the new data.

./easy.sh edit-json
# merges boxes 1 and 2, from smallest (x,y) to largest (x+w,y+h)
merge|1|2
# split box 3 vertically in two
vsplit|3
# split box 7 horizontally in two
hsplit|7
# show raw JSON data of box 9
show|9
# change text of box 1 to "hello world"
text|1|hello world
# add new box at (420,69) with width of 80, height of 150
add|420|69|80|150
# add 10px width/height to the left/right/top/bottom of box 1
paddl|1|10
paddr|1|10
paddt|1|10
paddb|1|10
# remove 15px width/height to the left/right/top/bottom of box 3
triml|3|15
trimr|3|15
trimt|3|15
trimb|3|15
# move box 1 left/right/up/down by 8px
movel|1|8
mover|1|8
moveu|1|8
moved|1|8
# remove box 6
rem|6
# save data to `out.json`
save
# exit program
^C
$

Whiteout Existing Text

./easy.sh whiteout

This will rewrite out.png with an image that has all the boxes defined in out.json replaces by entirely white pixels.

Add Braille To Diagram

./easy.sh add-braille

This will rewrite out.png with braille text at the position of all the OCR objects in out.json.

easier.sh

The easier.sh script builds on top of the easy.sh, making it more like a menu. Ensure the file you want to work with is called diagram.png, and that the extra dependencies are fulfilled, and run:

./easier.sh

easier.sh dependencies

• convert
• nvim
• sxiv

Examples

See the /done directory for examples of OCR, pngs at various states of done-ness and the final version. Most of these have a massive fault: the braille font is NOT the right size and is not readable.

But it should give you an idea of how to use the tool.

Contribution

If you'd like to contribue, please use the Github repo unless you work with Bytetools and have permission.