Extraction of Text Touching Graphics Using SURF

In this paper we propose a novel part-based method for the extraction of text touching graphic components. The Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) are used to localize the text components and distinguish them from graphics. We introduce several post-processing steps to finally detect the text. We have tested our method on a publicly available data set of architectural floor plans and on real geographical maps. On floor plans we have located more than 95% of the text components which were not identified as text beforehand because they were touching graphic components.