This project processes an image of a Sudoku puzzle, extracts the puzzle using OCR, and then solves it using a C-based solver. The solution is executed via a Python script that interacts with both the OCR API and the C executable.

• Project Structure
• Requirements
• Setup
• Usage
• License

/CLionProjects/sudoku_solver/src/
├── image_processing
│   ├── main.py              # Main Python script to handle OCR, puzzle creation, and C program execution
│   ├── sudoku_photo.jpg     # Input Sudoku image
│   ├── sudoku_puzzle.txt    # Generated text file containing the Sudoku puzzle
│   └── sudoku.txt           # Placeholder text file (could be used for solving or debug purposes)
└── solver
├── main.c               # C program source code for solving the Sudoku puzzle
├── sudoku               # Compiled C executable for solving Sudoku
└── Makefile              # Build instructions for the C program (optional)

• Python 3.x
• Libraries:
  • requests for making API calls
  • python-dotenv for loading environment variables
  • subprocess for running the C program
• C Compiler:
  • A C compiler like gcc or clang to compile the C program.
• Tesseract OCR: To extract the puzzle from the image.

You can install the required Python libraries using pip:

pip install -r requirements.txt

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/sudoku_solver.git
   cd sudoku_solver

2. Create .env File: In the image_processing directory, create a .env file with the following content:

   RAPIDAPI_KEY=your_rapidapi_key_here
   RAPIDAPI_HOST=sudoku-ocr.p.rapidapi.com
   

   Replace your_rapidapi_key_here with your actual API key from RapidAPI.

3. Compile the C Program: Navigate to the solver directory and compile the C program:

   gcc -o sudoku sudoku.c  # or use 'clang' if that's your preferred compiler

4. Make Sure the Executable Has Permission: Ensure that the sudoku executable has the correct permissions to execute:

   chmod +x solver/sudoku

Run the Python script from the image_processing directory:

python3 main.py

The script will:

• Upload the Sudoku image to the OCR API.
• Receive the extracted puzzle and generate a sudoku_puzzle.txt file.
• Pass the generated sudoku_puzzle.txt file to the C solver program (sudoku).
• Print the result from the C solver.

Place your Sudoku image in the image_processing directory as sudoku_photo.jpg. The script will automatically use this image for OCR.

The C program will solve the Sudoku puzzle, and the output will be printed in the terminal.