Can openCV be used to extract character strings from images?
I have an idea of sorting through IC chips based on their types for a design project. Of course, the information about each device is printed on the top in a string of characters:
The idea is that we could take a picture of this device, and process the image and extract the string "74AC139PC."
The basis of the project would be taking a bin of random DIP chips and sorting through them to find the ones associated with a string input to the program by a user.
How difficult would it be to extract such information from an image? The process is simplified because most chips have a nice white/gold text overlaid onto a black background. Further, the text is usually formatted just like the image above, so no fancy text is used.
Any suggestions on where to start?