Localizing and segmenting text in images and videos

Many images--especially those used for page design on web pages--as well as videos contain visible text. If these text occurrences could be detected, segmented, and recognized automatically, they would be a valuable source of high-level semantics for indexing and retrieval. In this paper, we propose a novel method for localizing and segmenting text in complex images and videos. Text lines are identified by using a complex-valued multilayer feed-forward network trained to detect text at a fixed scale and position. The network's output at all scales and positions is integrated into a single text-saliency map, serving as a starting point for candidate text lines. In the case of video, these candidate text lines are refined by exploiting the temporal redundancy of text in video. Localized text lines are then scaled to a fixed height of 100 pixels and segmented into a binary image with black characters on white background. For videos, temporal redundancy is exploited to improve segment...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: TCSV
• Authors: Rainer Lienhart, Axel Wernicke
• Keywords: Candidate Text Lines, Images, TCSV 2002, Text Line