OCR Service

A lightweight Node.js OCR service utilizing chrome-lens-ocr, Express, and Multer, providing a free alternative to Google Cloud Lens API..

Table of Contents

• About the Project
• Built With
• Getting Started
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
• Usage
  • POST /api/ocr/glens
  • GET /scan
• Docker Deployment
• Contributing
• License
• Contact

About the Project

This service provides Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities through two endpoints:

• POST /upload: Accepts image file uploads and returns the extracted text.
• GET /scan: Fetches an image from a provided URL and returns the extracted text.

Built With

• Node.js
• Express
• Multer
• chrome-lens-ocr

Getting Started

To set up the project locally, follow these steps:

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher)
• npm (comes with Node.js)
• Docker (optional, for containerized deployment)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/dgbkn/lens_api_chromium_docker.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd lens_api_chromium_docker

3. Install dependencies:

   npm install

4. Start the server:

   npm start

   The server will run on http://localhost:3000.

Usage

POST /api/ocr/glens

Endpoint to perform OCR using Google Lens internal API (requires Protobuf definitions).

• URL: http://localhost:3000/api/ocr/glens
• Method: POST
• Headers: Content-Type: multipart/form-data
• Body: Form-data with a key image containing the image file.

Example using cURL:

curl -X POST -F "image=@path_to_your_image.png" http://localhost:3000/api/ocr/glensweb

POST /api/ocr/glensweb

Endpoint to perform OCR by simulating requests to the Google Lens website.

• URL: http://localhost:3000/api/ocr/glensweb
• Method: POST
• Headers: Content-Type: multipart/form-data
• Body: Form-data with a key image containing the image file.

Example using cURL:

curl -X POST -F "image=@path_to_your_image.png" http://localhost:3000/api/ocr/glensweb

Docker Deployment

To deploy the service using Docker:

1. Build the Docker image:

   docker build -t ocr-service .

2. Run the Docker container:

   docker run -p 3000:3000 ocr-service

Alternatively, use Docker Compose:

1. Start the service:

   docker-compose up --build

The service will be accessible at http://localhost:3000.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.

2. Create a new branch:

   git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

3. Make your changes.

4. Commit your changes:

   git commit -m "Add your commit message"

5. Push to the branch:

   git push origin feature/your-feature-name

6. Open a pull request.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Contact

Dev Goyal
📧 anandrambkn@gmail.com