📜 Bold Text to Braille Converter

This project captures bold text from a webcam, processes it using OpenCV for optimal OCR accuracy, extracts the text with Tesseract OCR, and converts it to Braille using a predefined dictionary. The future goal is to integrate a micro servo motor system to emboss the Braille output onto a tactile surface, making the text physically readable.

🚀 Features

• ✅ Optimized Preprocessing → Uses Otsu's thresholding and morphological operations for better text detection on white backgrounds.
• ✅ Noise Reduction → Removes small artifacts and enhances contrast.
• ✅ OCR Tuning → Uses --psm 6 for paragraph-level recognition and limits detected characters to English letters.
• ✅ Braille Conversion → Converts extracted text into Braille symbols.
• ✅ Debug Mode → Saves intermediate images (grayscale, binary, denoised, enlarged) for troubleshooting.
• ✅ Future Physical Braille Output → Planned integration with a servo-based embossing system.

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📌 How It Works

1️⃣ Image Processing Pipeline

1️⃣ Convert to Grayscale → Converts image to black & white.
2️⃣ Thresholding (Otsu's) → Segments text from background.
3️⃣ Morphological Operations → Removes noise and enhances text edges.
4️⃣ Upscaling → Enlarges the image for better OCR accuracy.
5️⃣ OCR Extraction → Detects text using Tesseract with --psm 6.
6️⃣ Braille Conversion → Converts extracted text to Braille characters.

2️⃣ Text Capture Instructions

• 📌 Hold the text 20-30 cm away from the camera.
• 📌 Ensure even lighting (avoid shadows).
• 📌 Use bold text (size 48+) on a plain white background.
• 📌 Press 's' to capture and convert text.
• 📌 Press 'q' to exit the program.

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📜 Applications

This project is useful in various accessibility and assistive technologies, including:

• 🔹 Education for the Visually Impaired → Helps convert printed or digital text into tactile Braille.
• 🔹 Instant Braille Translation → Captures and converts text in real-time using a webcam.
• 🔹 Smart Reading Devices → Can be integrated into reading devices for the blind.
• 🔹 Automated Braille Printers → Future goal is to control a micro servo motor system that embosses the detected Braille onto a tactile surface.

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🏗 Future Developments

• 🔹 Micro Servo-Based Braille Output → Utilize a servo array to emboss Braille on paper or a refreshable tactile display.
• 🔹 Support for More Languages → Enhance Tesseract OCR for multilingual recognition.
• 🔹 Advanced AI-based OCR → Train a deep learning model for better text recognition accuracy.
• 🔹 GUI-based Interface → Make the application more user-friendly.
• 🔹 Handwritten Text Support → Enhance processing to work with handwritten documents.

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🖼 Debugging & Logs

📂 If DEBUG_MODE = True, the script saves intermediate images in debug_images/ for analysis.

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📜 Example Output

=== RESULTS ===
Detected Text: FIELD PROJECT
Braille Equivalent: ⠋⠊⠑⠇⠙ ⠏⠗⠕⠚⠑⠉⠞

<img width="1284" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8ebdefc3-5b29-481a-b316-cfba707f355a" />

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🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a new branch (feature-xyz)
3. Commit changes (git commit -m "Added new feature")
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature-xyz)
5. Open a Pull Request 🚀

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.