Drkatzbot
April 28, 2016 1:56 PM   Subscribe

Reverse OCR is a bot that picks a word and then draws randomly until an OCR library recognizes it
posted by a lungful of dragon (18 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
These look like Kuzushiji (Japanese cursive) characters lined up. It's also equally comprehensible for me.
posted by Hactar at 2:11 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


You have identify one of these to prove you're a robot and gain access to the secret AI speakeasy.
posted by contraption at 2:13 PM on April 28, 2016 [17 favorites]


The Singularity is only a few decades away. Right after self-driving cars.
posted by timdiggerm at 2:17 PM on April 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


This is great.
posted by defenestration at 2:34 PM on April 28, 2016


- words + people
posted by ethansr at 3:09 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I guess they weren't content with letting Watson go on Jeopardy and give medical advice, they also want it to start writing prescriptions.
posted by radwolf76 at 3:40 PM on April 28, 2016 [13 favorites]


Metafilter: prove you're a robot and gain access to the secret AI speakeasy.
posted by CynicalKnight at 3:43 PM on April 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


See also: Pareidoloop (previously).
posted by qbject at 4:28 PM on April 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


It's a neat idea, but if I had built this, I would assume it wasn't working. Maybe the OCR library is too good at its job.
posted by lollusc at 4:52 PM on April 28, 2016


(Oops, my comment might seem needlessly terse. I love generative loops like this! Very cool.)
posted by qbject at 4:53 PM on April 28, 2016


So this is like a CAPTCHA that you have to fail to pass.
posted by pwnguin at 5:22 PM on April 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


this is awesome
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 5:33 PM on April 28, 2016


I am a bot that grabs a random word and draws semi-random lines until the OCRad.js library recognizes it as the word.

I wish there was more about how the semi-random part works! (is it linked somewhere and I'm missing it?)
posted by NikitaNikita at 5:44 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Spoiler is something I might hang on my wall.
posted by Monochrome at 5:50 PM on April 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is great fun. And so, I've now discovered, is a lot of the other stuff the creator has done.

But, I sure wish there was more detail about what's actually happening. The parameter space of lines you that can be drawn in a hundred kilopixel canvas seems huge. How are they actually exploring it? What do the initial configurations look like? Is there some letter-position feedback and storage going on? Interested viewers demand more detail!
posted by eotvos at 9:30 PM on April 28, 2016


> I wish there was more about how the semi-random part works! (is it linked somewhere and I'm missing it?)

It's not linked, but it is listed on the author's github: reverseocr. The central drawing routine uses canvas graphics:

  function glyph(x, y) {
    gCtx.beginPath();
    gCtx.moveTo(x,y);
    for (var i=0; i<20; i++) {
      x += Math.random()*80-40;
      y += Math.random()*80-40;
      gCtx.lineTo(x, y);
    }
    gCtx.closePath();
    gCtx.stroke();
  }
posted by Phssthpok at 10:39 PM on April 28, 2016 [8 favorites]


I wish he would try a bunch of words that make a whole paragraph to see whether humans could read this crazy handwriting with some context to help.
posted by straight at 10:48 AM on April 29, 2016


I get that it's not really in the spirit of the project, but I'd be curious to see what would happen if it kept iterating until it were deemed legible by two (or more?) OCR libraries.
posted by nobody at 11:05 AM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


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