Finding text in color images

In this paper, we consider the problem of locating and extracting text from WWW images. A previous algorithm based on color clustering and connected components analysis works well as long as the color of each character is relatively uniform and the typography is fairly simple. It breaks down quickly, however, when these assumptions are violated. In this paper, we describe more robust techniques for dealing with this challenging problem. We present an improved color clustering algorithm that measures similarity based on both RGB and spatial proximity. Layout analysis is also incorporated to handle more complex typography. THese changes significantly enhance the performance of our text detection procedure.