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Sikuli is good for desktop automation. For browser automation an extension based solution (such as this one) is easier to use.

Such a thing already exists. The ui.vision extension is roughly the same, but it runs locally (no cloud):

https://ui.vision/rpa/docs/selenium-ide/capturescreenshot

I like the name. But how is this extension different from iMacros, Selenium IDE or UI.vision?

These extensions are some well-known browser automation tools, each with > 100K users.

Did you look at them and decided to do something different?

Please be accurate. Correct would be: They removed a book they consider anti-semitic. That is quite different from what you stated.

But great to include the source.

How about https://ocr.space/tablerecognition

It returns table data line by line.

You can try the free ocr api at https://ocr.space/ocrapi

"The primary entry point for this API is a file picker (i.e. a chooser)."

...so what would be difference to today, where a user can "upload" files to the browser's local storage, and then the web app can work with the file(s)?

I get it that you avoid to have to "re-download" the file, but that seems to be a small benefit for the risks we get.

With Abbyy and ocr.space Local there are good and (for companies) affordable local OCR solutions available. There is really no need to use online(!) OCR for sensitive data. Plus, local ocr is faster.

But the website says:

Your license comes with a year’s worth of updates. Once that year is up, you can keep using the last version of Sketch you downloaded, forever.

That sounds ok to me.

Sikuli's big advantage is that it is cross-platform. If you are on Windows, KantuX does the same but optimised for Windows desktop automation.

Web browser macros! ...to automate logins plus some daily and weekly reporting and repetitive "check something" tasks. Once set up, macros are a huge time and typing saver. Formerly I used iMacros for this, and now the open-source Kantu extension:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kantu-browser-auto...

I should have explained this. The linked page allows you to try out several online OCR services instantly and compare their results with an overlay. This includes Google Cloud vision and MS Azure. My idea was that anyone can use this link to verify my test results. In other words, this link is much more useful for non-developers than the official API docs at https://cloud.google.com/vision/ (which anyone can find easily anyway)

2015.... A quick test gives me much better results today with Google cloud vision: https://ocr.space/compare-ocr-software

The "best tool" is different for web developers and non-coders. If you are a non-technical person that just needs some data there is:

(1) hosted services like mozenda

(2) visual automation tools like Kantu Web Automation (which includes OCR)

(3) and last but not least outsourcing the scraping on sites like Freelancer.com

The ability to create searchable PDFs is very useful and convenient. But creating searchable PDFs does not require a deep understanding of the document format (like column detection etc). You just place the words at the right coordinates of their bounding boxes. You can test this for example here: https://ocr.space - select the option to create a searchable PDF. It works even for the most complex documents.

Now, creating a Word document from a scan is a different beast because it requires layout analysis. This is where Abbyy with its long experience still has a good lead.

"The common element in all these deaths is a gun. But the causes are very different, and that means the solutions must be, too."

Nonsense... Proof: Any other country that has introduced strict gun control. It makes all the numbers go down.

Nope... I am actually happy to admit that I am a below average driver (as driving is sooo boring), and from what I read, the AI is already driving better than me - if used in the conditions it is designed for.

Birkenstock does not mind anyone selling cheaper sandals, but they do mind that "after deeming that Amazon wasn’t doing enough to guard against fakes."... which is actually reason I buy less on Amazon these days. I can never be sure if I am simply getting a "good price" or a cheap look-alike product.

+1 If time is an issue I would first migrate to a C# (or even VB.NET) based desktop app, and then later (if needed) add a web front end with ASP.NET

FWIW, here is a similar project done in C#: https://github.com/A9T9/OpenCV-Face-andmore-Tracker

In the "better than Tesseract" category is also Microsoft Azure OCR (not as good as Google) and the OCR.space OCR API (also not as good as Google, but 100* times cheaper/free, and supports PDF).

The best - and most expensive - solution is still Abbyy OCR. They provide an SDK than can be used locally.

A new local OCR solution is Anyline.io, but I have not used them yet.

Progress in this area is very slow, but there is progress.

Example: Some court proceedings in Germany can now be done in English:

http://www.fgvw.de/en/news/archive-2015/the-introduction-of-...

Now that is interesting. From the tender specification PDF doc:

3.1. Subject

The subject of the contract is to provide the Commission with technical expertise in the field of:

i. Search Engine Optimisation ("SEO");

ii. Search Engine Marketing ("SEM"); and

iii. statistical and economic analysis related to the above-mentioned subject matters.

That expertise is necessary in the context of:

i. the monitoring by the Commission of Google's implementation of the Decision; and

ii. the Commission's defence before the Union Courts in relation to actions forannulment of the Decision, or any other action against the Commission in relationto the Decision, or of any subsequent Commission decision related to theimplementation ofthe Decision.

3.2. Task description

The Services to be provided consists of advising the Commission, on Google's compliance with the order to put an end to the infringement defined by the Decision and to treat competing comparison shopping services no less favourably than its own comparison shopping service within its general search results pages.

...

It could be the algorithm: Maybe the original EU story got many downvotes from HN users that work at Google?

It seems German car companies are trying hard to not become the next Nokia.

Just recently Bosch, Mercedes and Porsche joined forces with local universities in the "Cyber Valley" initiative: https://a9t9.com/blog/facebook-cyber-valley/

Time will tell if this is enough. It certainly is difficult to turn them into software-focused companies. One reason is that everyone who works there right now, went there to work because she/he wants to work on ICE engines, and not all this "modern stuff".

For C#, there is also CEFSharp. This is used, for example, by the image(recognition)-driven Kantu automation: https://a9t9.com/kantu/web-automation

Because other people know that the mutually agreed deadline for the 2% spending target is 2024. Now is 2017.

Although to be fair, the net number of lives saved by military funding is debatable.)

That is the 2nd, and maybe more important reason.

it takes to even get a basic understanding of what the subtitles say?

The main challenge with Chinese is that - unlike any Western language - you can not guess the characters you do not know. You either know it or you don't. Only the context might offer some clues.

Getting started with Chinese: Depends on your talent. For me (untalented) taken a "real" class was essential for a good start. Self-learning for languages does not work for me.

Lately I am using the Copyfish Chrome extension for help with Chinese subtitles/images. The very nice thing about it is that it plays nice with the Zhongwen dictionary, which is another essential Chrome extension for Chinese learners.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/copyfish-%F0%9F%90...

Before that I was using the "Chinese Subtitle Translator" software: https://ocr.space/blog/p/chinese-subtitles-translator.html (Source code at https://github.com/A9T9/Chinese-Subtitles-Translator )

It uses Microsoft OCR and gets very good results.

Or maybe integrating visual selection and OCR like Kantu: https://a9t9.com/kantu/scraping#ocr