Mobile OCR

A few weeks ago we have included OCR Capabilities in an application to fill credit card applications form for a important Bank, to extract the information of ID Card.
The OCR of a image captured with the camera of an iPad was a big challenge because we have not the control of the quality of the images!!
To solve this problem we have tried several solutions:

1. Automatic clipping of the ID card. This is not difficult, and if the background is a solid color, the quality is good!!! What was the problem? Differents ID card sizes!!!
2. Automatic Clipping + Camera Mask. This was a very clever (and simply) solution, and the users try to adjust the ID Card to the Mask.
3. Automatic Photo Capture!!! This was the last and the best solution!!! The photo is takes automatically by the iPad when it detect the borders of a ID Card, and the focussing is taken automatically too.

This last solution help to prevent other problem: the artificial lights!!! In the most of the station, mall, etc... the lights are in the top and the lights beams produce highlights. This doesn´t happen when you take the photo with the ID Card in a vertical position (with one hand take the iPad and with the other hand the ID Card, and you don´t need more hands because the photo is taken automatically)

The OCR used is Abbyy Finereader and the software is developed in Objective C.

The Video:
Mobile OCR Video