TEXT LINE SEGMENTATION WITH WATER FLOW ALGORITHM BASED ON POWER FUNCTION

Darko Brodić

   This manuscript proposes an extension to the water flow algorithm for text line segmentation. Basic algorithm assumes hypothetical water flows under few specified angles of the document image frame from left to right and vice versa. As a result, unwetted image regions that incorporate text are extracted. These regions are of the major importance for text line segmentation. The extension of the basic algorithm means modification of water flow function that creates the unwetted region. Hence, the linear water flow function used in the basic algorithm is changed with its power function counterpart. Extended method was tested, examined and evaluated under different text samples. Results are encouraging due to improving text line segmentation which is a key process stage.

Keywords: optical character recognition, image processing, text line segmentation, water flow algorithm

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