require "base64" require 'net/http' require 'json' # Base 64 the input image b64_data = Base64.encode64(File.open(ARGV[0], "rb").read) # Stuff we need api_key = " " content_type = "Content-Type: application/json" url = "https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate?key=#{api_key}" data = { "requests": [ { "image": { "content": b64_data }, "features": [ { "type": "TEXT_DETECTION", "maxResults": 1 } ] } ] }.to_json # Make the request url = URI(url) req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url, initheader = {'Content-Type' =>'application/json'}) req.body = data res = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port) res.use_ssl = true # res.set_debug_output $stderr detected_text = "" res.start do |http| puts "Querying Google for image: #{ARGV[0]}" resp = http.request(req) # puts resp json = JSON.parse(resp.body) # puts json if json && json["responses"] && json["responses"][0]["textAnnotations"] && json["responses"][0]["textAnnotations"][0]["description"] detected_text = json["responses"][0]["textAnnotations"][0]["description"] end end puts "Google says the image is: #{detected_text}"

Just create a new api key in the developer console, replace it in the code below and it should work. Then you can call "whatever_you_call_the_file.rb /Downloads/some_image_with_text.jpg" and google will OCR-it and the script will print out the recognized text.