US Driver License Data Extraction

A multi-approach machine learning project for extracting text data (name, DOB, address, state) from US driver's license images using object detection and OCR techniques.

Overview

This repository explores multiple approaches for driver's license data extraction:

• YOLO-v8 + EasyOCR: Production-ready pipeline combining YOLOv8 for field detection with EasyOCR for text recognition
• YOLO-v5: Custom-trained YOLOv5 model for license field detection
• Donut (Document Understanding Transformer): End-to-end transformer-based document parsing without OCR
• pyTesseract: Traditional OCR approach using Tesseract engine
• YOLO + TensorFlow 1.0: Legacy implementation using Darkflow

Repository Structure

.
├── DATASET/                    # Training datasets (US & India driver licenses)
├── Donut/
│   ├── CORD/                   # Fine-tuning notebooks and data preparation scripts
│   └── deployment/             # Gradio web app for Donut model inference
├── YOLO-v5/
│   ├── LegacyTrain/            # Training artifacts
│   └── yolov5/                 # YOLOv5 implementation
├── YOLO-v8/
│   ├── main.py                 # FastAPI REST API endpoint
│   ├── streamlit-app.py        # Streamlit web interface
│   ├── parseq/                 # Scene text recognition model
│   └── new_models/             # Trained model weights
├── pyTesseract_OCR/            # Tesseract-based extraction
└── YOLO___TF1.0/               # Legacy TensorFlow 1.x implementation

Quick Start

YOLOv8 + EasyOCR (Recommended)

1. Install dependencies:

   cd YOLO-v8
   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Run the Streamlit app:

   streamlit run streamlit-app.py

3. Or start the FastAPI server:

   uvicorn main:app --reload

   API endpoint: POST /predict with image file

Donut Transformer

1. Install dependencies:

   cd Donut/deployment
   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Run the Gradio app:

   python gradio-app.py

YOLOv5

1. Create conda environment:

   cd YOLO-v5
   conda env create -f my_conda_env_yolov5.yml
   conda activate YOLO-v5

2. Training:

   python train.py --img 640 --batch 4 --epochs 100 --data train/US_DL.yaml --cfg train/custom_yolov5l.yaml --weights train_L/yolov5l.pt

3. Inference:

   python detect.py --weights runs/train/{exp}/weights/best.pt --img 640 --conf 0.2 --source test/images

Tech Stack

• Deep Learning: PyTorch, Ultralytics YOLOv8/v5, Hugging Face Transformers
• OCR: EasyOCR, pyTesseract, PARSeq
• Web Frameworks: FastAPI, Streamlit, Gradio
• Computer Vision: OpenCV, PIL/Pillow
• Other: PyTorch Lightning, CUDA support for GPU acceleration

Models

Approach	Detection	Text Recognition	Use Case
YOLOv8 + EasyOCR	YOLOv8	EasyOCR	Production API/UI
Donut	Transformer	End-to-end	Zero-OCR pipeline
YOLOv5	YOLOv5	-	Field detection only
pyTesseract	-	Tesseract	Basic OCR

Extracted Fields

• Name
• Date of Birth (DOB)
• Address
• State

License

See individual component licenses in YOLO___TF1.0/licenses/.