I need to make an app that can scan addresses from labels of parcels, and converts into map route. Where do I start about the recognising of address? I’m lost. Any pointers would be helpful.

Address probably has some road name and numbers after that. And it's conventionally between receiver name and zip code. Where do you live?

How about you check in with OpenCV?

@electrineer the requirement is for London.

Given the question, just pay for the paceltrack api. There are companies that offer those solutions at a fraction of what it would cost you to develop them.

State Postal Services for example use cheap labour in vietnam to verify ocr adress results. They'll enter adresses from scaned mail manually into the system if the computer can't read the adress.
How do think to solve this?

Like @SortOfTested said I would also advise against building this on your own and start doing research for a commercial available solution.

have a look at the google cloud vision api
https://cloud.google.com/vision/...

Oh...okay....so I should look for commercially available solution for scanning and converting to address.
I found one called parascript.com
Looking for more...
The app is supposed to show optimised route for a batch of scanned package addresses, like Route4Me...I’ll find about routing later....

OpenCV or some Abbyy stuff for image recognition, a large dataset with fuzzy search to turn that into a standardized address, openstreetmap to make a route out of it. I can do the whole thing using PWA, that’s actually a website that can turn into an “app” on your homescreen. There’s no need for an actual app to be honest

@uyouthe yeah no doubt you can build it on your own but what about the reliability? How do you make sure that it works 99% of the time?

@heyheni as long as the internet connection is there, it’ll work. If you need it offline, well, maybe you have to choose a gigabyte mobile app with addresses database already in

@uyouthe thanks you make it sound easy. I didn’t understand the dataset part....how do we have that, do u mean a database of all the addresses in the target city (London) and then fuzzy matching the scanned text with that?
Google maps geocoding won’t do that part? Sorry if I sound stupid....

@scout okay.

it will be longer but I'll try to cover it.

1st Part: Address data. All parcel labels usually have an QRCode or C39 barcode. Depending on logistics service, it's closed sourced, un -/ bad documented and might not be readable at all unless you implement your own scanner.

So yes, rext recognition will be simpler.

2) Prepare. There are some helpful APIs out there, who can do the heavy lifting. But make sure you'll have the knowledge first.

I'd highly recommend to inform yourself about geocoding, postal -/ address system, ...

There is quite some funky stuff out there. (Yes - A4 can be a valid street / house number, and such cases can make APIs HARD…)

3) https://github.com/pelias/pelias

Pelias, OSM and so on are your friend.

I don't recommend Google for a simple reason: To achieve your goal, you'll need documentation. Like a lot of it (unless your goal is to post a link to Google Maps...).

OSM has you covered. You'll find a lot of projects, eg for creating routes, based on OSM.

I'm not saying OSM is the perfect solution - Google isn't, too. Just that it's easier to find documentation ;)

If you've got questions, ask.

@scout you understood right. But gmaps are paid and openstreetmap is not. If you have a budget for gmaps so of course go ahead and ditch the custom database

@IntrusionCM & @uyouthe
That was sooooo helpful u guys. Thanks. Going ahead