Automated system tests with image recognition : focused on text detection and recognition

Abstract: Today’s airplanes and modern cars are equipped with displays to communicate important information to the pilot or driver. These displays needs to be tested for safety reasons; displays that fail can be a huge safety risk and lead to catastrophic events. Today displays are tested by checking the output signals or with the help of a person who validates the physical display manually. However this technique is very inefficient and can lead to important errors being unnoticed. MindRoad AB is searching for a solution where validation of the display is made from a camera pointed at it, text and numbers will then be recognized using a computer vision algorithm and validated in a time efficient and accurate way. This thesis compares the three different text detection algorithms, EAST, SWT and Tesseract to determine the most suitable for continued work. The chosen algorithm is then optimized and the possibility to develop a program which meets MindRoad ABs expectations is investigated. As a result several algorithms were combined to a fully working program to detect and recognize text in industrial displays.