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]