Dynamsoft Label Recognizer for Your Website
Add the capability of reading passport MRZs, ID cards, VIN numbers, and various other fixed text fields in your web application with just a few lines of code.
Once integrated, your users can open your website in a browser, access their cameras, and read the intended text directly from the video input.
In this guide, you will learn step by step on how to integrate this SDK into your website.
Table of Contents
Example Usage - MRZ Reading
Let's start by testing the "MRZ Reading" example of the SDK which demonstrates how to enable a web page to read the machine-readable zones (MRZ) found on passports, ID cards, VISAs, etc. from a live video stream.
Check the code
The complete code of the "MRZ Reading" example is shown below
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>MRZ Reading</title>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dynamsoft-label-recognizer@2.2.30/dist/dlr.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dynamsoft-camera-enhancer@3.0.1/dist/dce.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<script>
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.license = 'DLS2eyJvcmdhbml6YXRpb25JRCI6IjIwMDAwMSJ9';
(async () => {
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.onResourcesLoadStarted = (resourcePath) => {
console.log("Loading " + resourcePath);
};
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.onResourcesLoaded = (resourcePath) => {
console.log("Finished loading " + resourcePath);
};
let recognizer = await Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.createInstance();
let cameraEnhancer = await Dynamsoft.DCE.CameraEnhancer.createInstance();
let options = {
resultsHighlightBaseShapes: Dynamsoft.DCE.DrawingItem
};
await recognizer.setImageSource(cameraEnhancer, options);
await recognizer.updateRuntimeSettingsFromString("video-mrz");
recognizer.onMRZRead = (txt, results) => {
console.log("Found and read a MRZ:")
console.log(txt);
};
recognizer.onImageRead = results => {
console.log("Finished reading an image:")
for (let result of results) {
for (let lineResult of result.lineResults) {
console.log(lineResult.text);
}
}
};
recognizer.onUniqueRead = (txt, results) => {
console.log("Found a new unique text:")
console.log(txt);
};
await recognizer.startScanning(true);
})();
</script>
</body>
</html>
About the code
-
LabelRecognizer.createInstance()
: This method creates a LabelRecognizer
object called recognizer
.
-
CameraEnhancer.createInstance()
: this method creates a CameraEnhancer
object called cameraEnhancer
, which is used to control the camera as well as the default user interface. Once cameraEnhancer
is bound to recognizer
via setImageSource()
, it can send video frames from the camera to recognizer
for recognition as well as highlight the recognized text areas directly in the video feed.
-
updateRuntimeSettingsFromString("video-mrz")
: this sets up recognizer
with a built-in template optimized for reading MRZ from continous video frames. Note that all built-in templates starting with "video-" are only valid after cameraEnhancer
has been bound to recognizer
.
Built-in templates include
Name | Description |
---|
number | For pure number recognition. |
numberLetter | For number and English letter recognition. |
numberUpperCase | For number and uppercase English letter recognition. |
letter | For pure English letter recognition. |
MRZ | For MRZ (machine-readable zone) recognition. |
passportMRZ | For passport MRZ recognition. |
visaMRZ | For Visa (Country not Credit Card) MRZ recognition. |
VIN | For VIN (vehicle identification number) recognition. |
VIN_NA | For North American VIN (vehicle identification number) recognition. |
When recognizing from video input, add the prefix "video-" for a slightly different template optimized for continuous frame recognition. For example, use video-passportMRZ
to read the MRZ on passports with a camera.
-
onMRZRead
: This event is only used with one of the templates "MRZ", "passportMRZ" and "visaMRZ" (similarly, "onVINRead" is only used with either "VIN" or "VIN_NA"). It is triggered each time the SDK has identified and finished the recognition of a MRZ zone. The results
object contains 2 or 3 lines of text results corresponding to the 2 or 3 lines in the MRZ. In this example, we simply print the results to the browser console.
The events onImageRead
and onUniqueRead
are used in the code but they are not required. You can compare the results returned in the 3 events and see what the differences are.
-
onImageRead
: This event is triggered every time the SDK finishes scanning a video frame image. The results
object contains all the text results that the SDK has found on this frame. In this example, we print the results to the browser console.
-
onUniqueRead
: This event is triggered when the SDK finds a new text, which is not a duplicate among multiple frames. txt
holds the text value while results
is an array of objects that hold details of the text. In this example, an alert will be displayed for this new text.
-
startScanning(true)
: Starts continuous video frame scanning. The return value is a Promise which resovles when the camera is opened, the video shows up on the page and the scanning begins (which means cameraEnhancer
has started feeding recognizer
with frames to recognize).
Test the code
Create a text file with the name "readMRZ.html", fill it with the code above and save. After that, open the example page in a browser, allow the page to access your camera and the video will show up on the page. After that, you can point the camera at something with a simple line of text to read it.
You can also just test it at https://jsfiddle.net/DynamsoftTeam/kc35htxd/
Remember to open the browser console to check the resulting text. Also note that the found text will be highlighted on the UI.
Note:
- Although the page should work properly when opened directly as a file ("file:///"), it's recommended that you deploy it to a web server before accessing it. Also, most browsers require a secure connection (HTTPS) to access the cameras, so deploying the page to a HTTPS website is the best choice.
- On first use, you need to wait a few seconds for the SDK to initialize and download the necessary model file.
- The license "DLS2eyJvcmdhbml6YXRpb25JRCI6IjIwMDAwMSJ9" used in this sample is an online license and requires network connection to work.
If the test doesn't go as expected, you can contact us.
Check out the official sample for MRZ reading
You can also try the official sample for MRZ reading (test in Github or check the code). This sample also demonstrates how to parse the MRZ text into meaningful fields.
Building your own page
In this section, we'll break down and show all the steps required to build a web page that reads the machine readable zone (MRZ) on a passport.
Include the SDK
Use a CDN
The simplest way to include the SDK is to use either the jsDelivr or UNPKG CDN. The "hello world" example above uses jsDelivr. Since the recognition is mostly on a video input, we should also include the supporting SDK Dynamsoft Camera Enhancer.
-
jsDelivr
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dynamsoft-label-recognizer@2.2.30/dist/dlr.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dynamsoft-camera-enhancer@3.0.1/dist/dce.js"></script>
-
UNPKG
<script src="https://unpkg.com/dynamsoft-label-recognizer@2.2.30/dist/dlr.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/dynamsoft-camera-enhancer@3.0.1/dist/dce.js"></script>
Host the SDK yourself
Besides using the CDN, you can also download the SDK and host its files on your own website / server before including it in your application.
To download the SDK:
Depending on how you downloaded the SDK and where you put it, you can typically include it like this:
<script src="/dlr-js-2.2.30/dist/dlr.js"></script>
<script src="/dlr-js-2.2.30/dce/dist/dce.js"></script>
or
<script src="/node_modules/dynamsoft-label-recognizer/dist/dlr.js"></script>
<script src="/node_modules/dynamsoft-camera-enhancer/dist/dce.js"></script>
or
import { LabelRecognizer } from 'dynamsoft-label-recognizer';
import { CameraEnhancer, DrawingItem } from 'dynamsoft-camera-enhancer';
Configure the SDK
Before using the SDK, you need to configure a few things.
Specify the license
The SDK requires a license to work, use the API license
to specify a license key.
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.license = "YOUR-LICENSE-KEY";
To test the SDK, you can request a 30-day trial license via the customer portal.
Specify the location of the "engine" files
If the engine files (*.worker.js, *.wasm.js and *.wasm, etc.) are not in the same location with the main SDK file (dlr.js), you can use the API engineResourcePath
to specify the engine path, for example:
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.engineResourcePath = "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dynamsoft-label-recognizer@2.2.30/dist/";
Dynamsoft.DCE.CameraEnhancer.engineResourcePath = "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dynamsoft-camera-enhancer@3.0.1/dist/";
This configuration is usually required with frameworks like Angular or React where dlr.js is compiled into another file.
Add a visual cue about the loading of a .data file
The .data files are crucial for the recognition of certain types of text. For example, to read the MRZ zone on passports, the file MRZ.data must be loaded first. These .data files are loaded from the server on demand at runtime which could be time-consuming. To make the process user-friendly, it's recommended to show a visual cue about the loading process to the user with the help of the APIs onResourcesLoadStarted
, onResourcesLoadProgress
and onResourcesLoaded
:
These files are cached locally as soon as they are downloaded, so they load very quickly from the second time on.
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.onResourcesLoadStarted = (resourcePath) => {
console.log("Loading " + resourcePath);
};
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.onResourcesLoadProgress = (resourcePath, progress) => {
console.log(resourcePath + "loading progress: " + progress.loaded + "/" + progress.total);
}
Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.onResourcesLoaded = (resourcePath) => {
console.log("Finished loading " + resourcePath);
};
Interact with the SDK
Create a LabelRecognizer
object
To use the SDK, we first create a LabelRecognizer
object.
let recognizer = null;
try {
recognizer = await Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.createInstance();
} catch (ex) {
console.error(ex);
}
Create a CameraEnhancer
object and bind it to the LabelRecognizer
object
A CameraEnhancer
object is required for video recognition.
let cameraEnhancer = await Dynamsoft.DCE.CameraEnhancer.createInstance();
let options = {
resultsHighlightBaseShapes: Dynamsoft.DCE.DrawingItem
};
await recognizer.setImageSource(cameraEnhancer, options);
Change the camera settings if necessary
In some cases, a different camera might be required instead of the default one. Also, a different resolution might work better. To change the camera or the resolution, we use the CameraEnhancer
object. Learn more here.
let allCameras = await cameraEnhancer.getAllCameras();
await cameraEnhancer.selectCamera(allCameras[0]);
await cameraEnhancer.setResolution(1280, 720);
Set up the recognition process
Check out the following code:
let scanSettings = await recognizer.getScanSettings();
scanSettings.duplicateForgetTime = 5000;
scanSettings.intervalTime = 100;
scanSettings.captureAndRecognizeInParallel = false;
await recognizer.updateScanSettings(scanSettings);
await recognizer.updateRuntimeSettingsFromString("video-passportMRZ");
As you can see from the above code snippets, there are two types of configurations:
-
get/updateScanSettings
: Configures the behavior of the recognizer which includes duplicateForgetTime
and intervalTime
, etc.
-
updateRuntimeSettingsFromString
: Configures the recognizer engine with a built-in template or a template represented by a JSON string. This will override the previous RuntimeSettings. In our case, we use the template "video-passportMRZ" which is meant for reading the machine readable zone (MRZ) on a passport.
Note that templates starting with "video-" are only valid after a CameraEnhancer
instance has been bound to this LabelRecognizer
instance.
Customize the UI
The built-in UI of the LabelRecognizer
object is defined in the file dist/dlr.ui.html
. There are a few ways to customize it:
-
Modify the file dlr.ui.html
directly.
This option is only possible when you host this file on your own web server instead of using a CDN. Note that this file is put in the dist directory of the dynamsoft-camera-enhancer package.
-
Copy the file dlr.ui.html
to your application, modify it and pass its URL to the API setUIElement
to set it as the default UI.
await cameraEnhancer.setUIElement("THE-URL-TO-THE-FILE");
-
Append the default UI element to your page, customize it before showing it.
<div id="recognizerUI"></div>
await cameraEnhancer.open();
document.getElementById('recognizerUI').appendChild(cameraEnhancer.getUIElement());
document.getElementsByClassName('dce-btn-close')[0].hidden = true;
-
Build the UI element into your own web page and specify it with the API setUIElement(HTMLElement)
.
-
Embed the video
<div id="div-ui-container" style="width:100%;height:100%;">
<div class="dce-video-container" style="position:relative;width:100%;height:500px;"></div>
</div>
<script>
(async () => {
let cameraEnhancer = await Dynamsoft.DCE.CameraEnhancer.createInstance();
await cameraEnhancer.setUIElement(document.getElementById('div-ui-container'));
let recognizer = await Dynamsoft.DLR.LabelRecognizer.createInstance();
let options = {
resultsHighlightBaseShapes: Dynamsoft.DCE.DrawingItem
};
await recognizer.setImageSource(cameraEnhancer, options);
await recognizer.updateRuntimeSettingsFromString("video-passportMRZ");
await recognizer.startScanning(true);
})();
</script>
The video element will be created and appended to the DIV element with the class dce-video-container
, make sure the class name is the correct. Also note that the CSS property position
of the DIV element must be either relative
, absolute
, fixed
, or sticky
.
-
Add the camera list and resolution list
If the class names for these lists match the default ones, dce-sel-camera
and dce-sel-resolution
, the SDK will automatically populate the lists and handle the camera/resolution switching.
<div id="div-ui-container" style="width:100%;height:100%;">
<select class="dce-sel-camera"></select><br>
<div class="dce-video-container" style="position:relative;width:100%;height:500px;"></div>
</div>
<div id="div-ui-container">
<select class="dce-sel-camera"></select>
<select class="dce-sel-resolution"></select>
<br>
<div class="dce-video-container" style="position:relative;width:100%;height:500px;"></div>
</div>
By default, only 3 hard-coded resolutions (3840 x 2160, 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720), are populated as options. You can show a customized set of options by hardcoding them.
<select class="dce-sel-resolution">
<option class="dce-opt-gotResolution" value="got"></option>
<option data-width="1280" data-height="720">1280x720</option>
<option data-width="1920" data-height="1080">1920x1080</option>
</select>
Generally, you need to provide a resolution that the camera supports. However, in case a camera does not support the specified resolution, it usually uses the cloest supported resolution. As a result, the selected resolution may not be the actual resolution. In this case, add an option with the class name dce-opt-gotResolution
(as shown above) and the SDK will then use it to show the actual resolution.
Starts the recognition
The last step is to attach event handlers to the events onImageRead
(optional) and onMRZRead
before calling startScanning()
to starts the recognition process.
recognizer.onImageRead = results => {
for (let result of results) {
for (let lineResult of result.lineResults) {
console.log(lineResult.text);
}
}
};
recognizer.onMRZRead = (txt, results) => {
alert(txt);
};
await recognizer.startScanning(true);
API Documentation
You can check out the detailed documentation about the APIs of the SDK at
https://www.dynamsoft.com/label-recognition/docs/programming/javascript/api-reference/?ver=2.2.30&utm_source=npm&product=dlr&package=js.
System Requirements
DLR requires the following features to work:
-
Secure context (HTTPS deployment)
When deploying your application / website for production, make sure to serve it via a secure HTTPS connection. This is required for two reasons
- Access to the camera video stream is only granted in a security context. Most browsers impose this restriction.
Some browsers like Chrome may grant the access for http://127.0.0.1
and http://localhost
or even for pages opened directly from the local disk (file:///...
). This can be helpful for temporary development and test.
- Dynamsoft License requires a secure context to work.
-
WebAssembly
, Blob
, URL
/createObjectURL
, Web Workers
The above four features are required for the SDK to work.
-
MediaDevices
/getUserMedia
This API is only required for in-browser video streaming.
-
getSettings
This API inspects the video input which is a MediaStreamTrack
object about its constrainable properties.
The following table is a list of supported browsers based on the above requirements:
Browser Name | Version |
---|
Chrome | v61+1 |
Firefox | v52+ (v55+ on Android/iOS1) |
Edge2 | v16+ |
Safari3 | v11+ |
1 iOS 14.3+ is required for camera video streaming in Chrome and Firefox or Apps using webviews.
2 On Edge, due to strict Same-origin policy, you must host the SDK files on the same domain as your web page.
3 Safari v11.x already has the required features, but it has many other issues, so we recommend v12+.
Apart from the browsers, the operating systems may impose some limitations of their own that could restrict the use of the SDK. Browser compatibility ultimately depends on whether the browser on that particular operating system supports the features listed above.
Release Notes
Learn about what are included in each release at https://www.dynamsoft.com/label-recognition/docs/programming/javascript/release-notes/?ver=latest.
Next Steps
Now that you have got the SDK integrated, you can choose to move forward in the following directions
- Check out the official samples.
- Check out the official demos: MRZ Scanner, VIN Scanner and the source code for the demo.
- Learn about the available APIs.