<p>You can use Opencv3.0 "Scene Text Detection" functions. It is based on 'Class-specific Extremal Regions for Scene Text Detection'. It also has sample code.</p>

<p><em>You can find them at:</em></p>

<p>[1] <a href="http://docs.opencv.org/3.0-beta/modules/text/doc/erfilter.html" rel="nofollow">http://docs.opencv.org/3.0-beta/modules/text/doc/erfilter.html</a></p>

<p>[2] <a href="https://github.com/Itseez/opencv_contrib/blob/master/modules/text/samples/textdetection.cpp" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Itseez/opencv_contrib/blob/master/modules/text/samples/textdetection.cpp</a></p>

<p><strong>Papers:</strong></p>

<p>[Neumann12] Neumann L., Matas J.: Real-Time Scene Text Localization and Recognition, CVPR 2012. The paper is available online at <a href="http://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/~neumalu1/neumann-cvpr2012.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/~neumalu1/neumann-cvpr2012.pdf</a></p>

<p>[Neumann11] Neumann L., Matas J.: Text Localization in Real-world Images using Efficiently Pruned Exhaustive Search, ICDAR 2011. The paper is available online at <a href="http://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/~neumalu1/icdar2011_article.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/~neumalu1/icdar2011_article.pdf</a></p>

<p>[Gomez13]   Gomez L. and Karatzas D.: Multi-script Text Extraction from Natural Scenes, ICDAR 2013. The paper is available online at <a href="http://158.109.8.37/files/GoK2013.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://158.109.8.37/files/GoK2013.pdf</a></p>

<p>[Gomez14]   Gomez L. and Karatzas D.: A Fast Hierarchical Method for Multi-script and Arbitrary Oriented Scene Text Extraction, arXiv:1407.7504 [cs.CV]. The paper is available online at <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.7504" rel="nofollow">http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.7504</a></p>
Any good algorithms for text localization in images?
<p>I would like to ask you if you know any good text localization algorithms that would detect text candidates in an image (for my OCR project)</p>

<p>Essentially, after 'applying' this algorithm I would like to be able to get regions (bounding boxes) with character candidates, e.g. </p>

<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/GX1E6.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>

<p>I am trying to find something that I might use but even if I find something it's most likely in an extremely difficult paper with really high maths that needs to be applied. I have already encountered MSER (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximally_stable_extremal_regions" rel="noreferrer">Maximally Stable Extremal Regions</a>) or Gradient Vector Flow method but both of them are quite difficult for me (although I understand a lot in maths I still have hard time figuring these out)</p>