Project Naptha is a browser extension software for Google Chrome that allows users to highlight, copy, edit and translate text from within images.
[5] By adopting several Optical Character Recognition (OCR) algorithms, including libraries developed by Microsoft Research and Google, text is automatically identified in images.
Project Naptha also makes use of a method called Stroke Width Transform (SWT),[7] developed by Microsoft Research in 2008 as a form of text detection.
The name Naptha is derived from Naphtha, which is a general term that originated few thousand years ago and refers to flammable liquid hydrocarbon.
The process of editing, copying or quoting text inside images was difficult before software such as Project Naptha arrived.
A particularly verbose comic inspired him to develop a software which can read images (with canvas), figure the positions of the lines and letters, and draw selection overlays to assuage a pervasive text-selection habit.
The relevant technology exists and was readily available for quite some time, yet for inexplicable reason, it hadn't been expanded for the application of translating texts from images.
Once Kevin Kwok decided to start on his project again, the technology for transcription, translation, text erasure, and modification flowed naturally afterwards.
[6] This function provides users with the option to copy, translate and even modify text directly in every image, in real-time and in their Google Chrome browser.
In this case, the programme becomes highly intuitive, similar to humans whereby we do not need to understand a language in order to recognize a written text.
[8] In order to provide a seamless and intuitive experience for the user, the extension technique tracks cursor movements and continuously extrapolates a second ahead based on its position and velocity, predicting where highlights might be made over an image.
[1] The Project Naptha software then scans and runs a processor-intensive character recognition algorithms, processing potential text that users might want to pick out from an image, ahead of time.
This includes comics, photos, screenshots, images with text overlays such as internet memes, animated GIFS, scans, diagrams with labels, and translations.
The algorithm used by Project Naptha for photos is the Stroke Width Transform, which was specially designed for detecting text in natural scenes and photographs.
The language-agnostic nature of Project Naptha's underlying Stroke Width Transform algorithm allows it detect the little squiggles as text.
[12] As part of an improvement feature, Project Naptha started work on it and enabling it to support rotated text.
For techniques that make use of inpainting, present loopholes to it is that images may hardly be a substitute for the original and can leave marks of it being edited.
For any other software that is used on sites, one of the greatest concerns is due to issues arising regarding the balance between user experience and privacy.
This means that in order to achieve higher translation accuracy, there is still a need to rely on greater cloud processing and hence compromising on privacy.
On another hand, if the user does not want to allow access for Project Naptha to all images on all sides, they can also disable this function under the installation dialog.
However, he firmly believes that over time, text recognition, translation and deletion can all be developed further and this immense potential is definitely one that will be exciting.