2b. Set Up Google Cloud Platform for Text Recognition and Extraction

To enable the use of the Google OCR API, first you must create the necessary credentials in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). There is an summary of this process in the Google documentation under the section on Creating a service account; what follows below is a walk through with screenshots for better clarity.

NOTE: YOU SHOULD CREATE A NEW GOOGLE/GMAIL ACCOUNT BEFORE GETTING STARTED WITH GCP; YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE YOUR BROWN EMAIL ACCOUNT TO CREATE AND RUN PROJECTS. YOU WILL ALSO NEED A CREDIT/DEBIT CARD TO ENABLE BILLING, THOUGH, LIKE MICROSOFT AZURE GCP OFFERS FREE SERVICES AND CREDIT WHEN SIGNING UP

Since you won’t be able to use GCP with your Brown email, create a new Google Account

1. Create a project in Google GCP

Visit the Google GCP page for creating service accounts. Click the project pull-down menu in the top blue bar, located in-between the name "Google Cloud Platform" and search field – look for the small white down arrow in the screenshot below:

This will generate a pop-up dialog in which you can select an existing project or create a new one. It’s probably best to create a new project, so click the “New project” link in the upper right of the pop-up:

In the page that is presented next, give the project a name that makes sense for your needs, and leave the rest of the fields as they are. Click the Create button at the bottom.

2. Create a service account key

The next page should look something like this:

Click on ‘SELECT PROJECT’;
Click on the “Select…” button and select “New service account”, which should be the only option in the pop-up menu anyway. Give this new service account a name in the “Service account name” field, and then under “Role”, click the “Select a role” button and pick “Project” > “Owner” as the role. Finally, click the Create button at the bottom.

3. Rename the JSON file

The previous step should have resulted in a JSON file being downloaded to your computer. Check that the file contents look something like this:

{
  "type": "service_account",
  "project_id": "my-project-1533599323905",
  "private_key_id": "79e2e3c5ca55989a86001f0463bd159711b73042",
  "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----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\ndAa2iAJpYkumjMqjZBR//HL0\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n",
  "client_email": "handprint-demo-916@my-project-1533599323905.iam.gserviceaccount.com",
  "client_id": "101550716014308063202",
  "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
  "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
  "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
  "client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/handprint-demo-916%40my-project-1533599323905.iam.gserviceaccount.com"
}

Rename the file mygooglecredentials.json

4. Enable billing

Billing needs to enabled before the account can be used for accessing Google cloud API resources. Go back to the GCP dashboard and look for the “Billing” option in the left-hand list:

The page that comes next will probably say that there is no billing account associated with the project:

Click “Manage billing accounts”. The next screen should look like this:

Click “Add billing account”. Sign up for $300 of free credit:

In the next screen that follows after that one, which will contain a form for filling in your account information, select “Individual” as the “Account type”, and fill in the rest with information such as address and a credit card. The card will not be charged even after the free trial ends; Google does not autocharge but rather uses the card as a way to weed out robots.

➩Continue to Step 3. Installing and running a Python module (handprint) that interacts with Azure and/or GCP