Testing Google's Handwriting Recognition API with a Single Image
I want to test Google’s Vision API handwriting recognition with a simple image upload to see how well it handles handwritten text.
Quick Setup
- Create Google Cloud project and enable Vision API
- Generate a service account key JSON file
- Install the Python client:
pip install google-cloud-vision
Simple Test Script
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import base64
from google.cloud import vision
def detect_handwriting(image_path, credentials_path):
"""Upload single image to Google Vision API for handwriting detection."""
# Set up client with credentials
client = vision.ImageAnnotatorClient.from_service_account_json(credentials_path)
# Read and encode image
with open(image_path, 'rb') as image_file:
content = image_file.read()
image = vision.Image(content=content)
# Call API for document text detection (best for handwriting)
response = client.document_text_detection(image=image)
# Extract text
if response.full_text_annotation:
print(f"Detected text:\n{response.full_text_annotation.text}")
print(f"Confidence: {response.full_text_annotation.pages[0].confidence:.2f}")
else:
print("No text detected")
# Check for errors
if response.error.message:
raise Exception(f'API Error: {response.error.message}')
if __name__ == '__main__':
detect_handwriting('handwriting_sample.jpg', 'service-account-key.json')
Usage
- Take a photo of handwritten text
- Save as
handwriting_sample.jpg
- Download service account key as
service-account-key.json
- Run:
python test_handwriting.py
Results
[Placeholder for actual test results]
How did it perform?
- Text accuracy:
- Setup simplicity:
- API response time:
[Will update after testing with real handwriting samples]