Computer Vision API (v2.0)

The Computer Vision API provides state-of-the-art algorithms to process images and return information. For example, it can be used to determine if an image contains mature content, or it can be used to find all the faces in an image. It also has other features like estimating dominant and accent colors, categorizing the content of images, and describing an image with complete English sentences. Additionally, it can also intelligently generate images thumbnails for displaying large images effectively.

This API is currently available in:

  • Australia East - australiaeast.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Brazil South - brazilsouth.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Canada Central - canadacentral.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Central India - centralindia.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Central US - centralus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • East Asia - eastasia.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • East US - eastus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • East US 2 - eastus2.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • France Central - francecentral.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Japan East - japaneast.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Japan West - japanwest.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Korea Central - koreacentral.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • North Central US - northcentralus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • North Europe - northeurope.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • South Africa North - southafricanorth.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • South Central US - southcentralus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Southeast Asia - southeastasia.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • UK South - uksouth.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • West Central US - westcentralus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • West Europe - westeurope.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • West US - westus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • West US 2 - westus2.api.cognitive.microsoft.com

Get Read Operation Result

This interface is used for getting OCR results of Read operation. The URL to this interface should be retrieved from "Operation-Location" field returned from Batch Read File interface.

Select the testing console in the region where you created your resource:

Open API testing console

Request URL

Request parameters

string

Id of read operation returned in the response of the Batch Read File interface.

Request headers

string
Subscription key which provides access to this API. Found in your Cognitive Services accounts.

Request body

Response 200

JSON fields in response body:

Fields Type Description
status String Read operation status. Possible values of "status" field are:
  • NotStarted: The text recognition process has not started.
  • Running: The text recognition is being processed.
  • Failed: The text recognition process failed.
  • Succeeded: The text recognition process succeeded.
If the status is Succeeded, the response JSON will include the text recognition result. The result is organized in the hierarchy of Line/Word/Text. Result fields include lines, words, bounding box, text, etc.
recognitionResults [Object] An array of objects, where each object represents OCR result for each page in the input document.
lines [Object] An array of objects, where each object represents a line of recognized text. The maximum number of lines returned is 300 per page.
The order of text lines generally goes left to right, top to bottom, although in certain cases proximity is treated with higher priority. Sorting order may change based on text detection result, and thus across images and versions the order may change. Due to this, order should not be used for logic. Use the location returned in bounding box to build logic on top of.
words [Object] An array of objects, where each object represents a recognized word.
boundingBox [Number] Bounding box of a recognized region, line, or word, depending on the parent object. It's an arrary of eight numbers represent the four points (x-coordinate, y-coordinate from the left-top corner of the image) of the detected rectangle from the left-top corner in the clockwise direction. For images, coordinates are in pixels. For PDF, coordinates are in inches.
text String String value of a recognized word or line.
confidence String The flag used to indicate that the recognized word is of low confidence.
width Number The width of the image in pixels or the PDF in inches.
height Number The height of the image in pixels or the PDF in inches.
clockwiseOrientation Number The orientation of the image in degrees in the clockwise direction. Range between [0, 360).
page Integer The page number of the recognition result.
unit String The unit used in the Width, Height and BoundingBox. For images, the unit is "pixel". For PDF, the unit is "inch".

{
  "status": "Succeeded",
  "recognitionResults": [
    {
      "page": 1,
      "clockwiseOrientation": 349.59,
      "width": 3200,
      "height": 3200,
      "unit": "pixel",
      "lines": [
        {
          "boundingBox": [202,618,2047,643,2046,840,200,813],
          "text": "Our greatest glory is not",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": [204,627,481,628,481,830,204,829],
              "text": "Our"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [519,628,1057,630,1057,832,518,830],
              "text": "greatest"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [1114,630,1549,631,1548,833,1114,832],
              "text": "glory"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [1586,631,1785,632,1784,834,1586,833],
              "text": "is"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [1822,632,2115,633,2115,835,1822,834],
              "text": "not"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": [420,1273,2954,1250,2958,1488,422,1511],
          "text": "but in rising every time we fall",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": [423,1269,634,1268,635,1507,424,1508],
              "text": "but"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [667,1268,808,1268,809,1506,668,1507],
              "text": "in"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [874,1267,1289,1265,1290,1504,875,1506],
              "text": "rising"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [1331,1265,1771,1263,1772,1502,1332,1504],
              "text": "every"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [1812, 1263, 2178, 1261, 2179, 1500, 1813, 1502],
              "text": "time"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [2219, 1261, 2510, 1260, 2511, 1498, 2220, 1500],
              "text": "we"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [2551, 1260, 3016, 1258, 3017, 1496, 2552, 1498],
              "text": "fall"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": [1612, 903, 2744, 935, 2738, 1139, 1607, 1107],
          "text": "in never failing ,",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": [1611, 934, 1707, 933, 1708, 1147, 1613, 1147],
              "text": "in"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [1753, 933, 2132, 930, 2133, 1144, 1754, 1146],
              "text": "never"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [2162, 930, 2673, 927, 2674, 1140, 2164, 1144],
              "text": "failing"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": [2703, 926, 2788, 926, 2790, 1139, 2705, 1140],
              "text": ",",
              "confidence": "Low"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Response 404

Return 404 if read operation id is invalid or expired.

{
    "error": {
        "code": "BadArgument", 
        "message": "Operation ID is invalid or expired."
    }
}

Response 500

Returns 500 if there's any internal error.

{
    "error": {
        "code": "Unspecified", 
        "message": "Internal server error."
    }
}

Response 503

Returns 503 if transient faults occurred when dealing with Microsoft Azure storage services.

{
    "error": {
        "code": "StorageException", 
        "message": "Transient faults occurred when dealing with Microsoft Azure storage services, please try it later."
    }
}

Code samples

@ECHO OFF

curl -v -X GET "https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}"
-H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: {subscription key}"

--data-ascii "{body}" 
using System;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web;

namespace CSHttpClientSample
{
    static class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            MakeRequest();
            Console.WriteLine("Hit ENTER to exit...");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
        
        static async void MakeRequest()
        {
            var client = new HttpClient();
            var queryString = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);

            // Request headers
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key", "{subscription key}");

            var uri = "https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}?" + queryString;

            var response = await client.GetAsync(uri);
        }
    }
}	
// // This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
import java.net.URI;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

public class JavaSample 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        HttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();

        try
        {
            URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder("https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}");


            URI uri = builder.build();
            HttpGet request = new HttpGet(uri);
            request.setHeader("Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key", "{subscription key}");


            // Request body
            StringEntity reqEntity = new StringEntity("{body}");
            request.setEntity(reqEntity);

            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(request);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

            if (entity != null) 
            {
                System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(entity));
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>JSSample</title>
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function() {
        var params = {
            // Request parameters
        };
      
        $.ajax({
            url: "https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}?" + $.param(params),
            beforeSend: function(xhrObj){
                // Request headers
                xhrObj.setRequestHeader("Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key","{subscription key}");
            },
            type: "GET",
            // Request body
            data: "{body}",
        })
        .done(function(data) {
            alert("success");
        })
        .fail(function() {
            alert("error");
        });
    });
</script>
</body>
</html>
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    
    NSString* path = @"https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}";
    NSArray* array = @[
                         // Request parameters
                         @"entities=true",
                      ];
    
    NSString* string = [array componentsJoinedByString:@"&"];
    path = [path stringByAppendingFormat:@"?%@", string];

    NSLog(@"%@", path);

    NSMutableURLRequest* _request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:path]];
    [_request setHTTPMethod:@"GET"];
    // Request headers
    [_request setValue:@"{subscription key}" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key"];
    // Request body
    [_request setHTTPBody:[@"{body}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    
    NSURLResponse *response = nil;
    NSError *error = nil;
    NSData* _connectionData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:_request returningResponse:&response error:&error];

    if (nil != error)
    {
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    }
    else
    {
        NSError* error = nil;
        NSMutableDictionary* json = nil;
        NSString* dataString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:_connectionData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        NSLog(@"%@", dataString);
        
        if (nil != _connectionData)
        {
            json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:_connectionData options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&error];
        }
        
        if (error || !json)
        {
            NSLog(@"Could not parse loaded json with error:%@", error);
        }
        
        NSLog(@"%@", json);
        _connectionData = nil;
    }
    
    [pool drain];

    return 0;
}
<?php
// This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
require_once 'HTTP/Request2.php';

$request = new Http_Request2('https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}');
$url = $request->getUrl();

$headers = array(
    // Request headers
    'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key' => '{subscription key}',
);

$request->setHeader($headers);

$parameters = array(
    // Request parameters
);

$url->setQueryVariables($parameters);

$request->setMethod(HTTP_Request2::METHOD_GET);

// Request body
$request->setBody("{body}");

try
{
    $response = $request->send();
    echo $response->getBody();
}
catch (HttpException $ex)
{
    echo $ex;
}

?>
########### Python 2.7 #############
import httplib, urllib, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.urlencode({
})

try:
    conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('*.cognitiveservices.azure.com')
    conn.request("GET", "/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}?%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################

########### Python 3.2 #############
import http.client, urllib.request, urllib.parse, urllib.error, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.parse.urlencode({
})

try:
    conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection('*.cognitiveservices.azure.com')
    conn.request("GET", "/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}?%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/vision/v2.0/read/operations/{operationId}')
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
})

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
# Request headers
request['Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key'] = '{subscription key}'
# Request body
request.body = "{body}"

response = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, :use_ssl => uri.scheme == 'https') do |http|
    http.request(request)
end

puts response.body