No response from Google Vision OCR API call

Other Questions API
1

I’m having trouble with the Google Vision OCR API in my Spring Boot Maven project. The API call to extract text from an image is not returning a response. It hangs for a long time and then throws a DEADLINE_EXCEEDED exception.

Here’s a simplified version of my code:

ImageAnnotatorSettings settings = ImageAnnotatorSettings.newBuilder()
    .setCredentialsProvider(FixedCredentialsProvider.create(credentials))
    .build();

try (ImageAnnotatorClient vision = ImageAnnotatorClient.create(settings)) {
    List<AnnotateImageRequest> requests = new ArrayList<>();
    Feature feat = Feature.newBuilder().setType(Type.TEXT_DETECTION).build();
    
    Image img = Image.newBuilder().setContent(ByteString.copyFrom(imageData)).build();
    AnnotateImageRequest request = AnnotateImageRequest.newBuilder()
        .addFeatures(feat)
        .setImage(img)
        .build();
    requests.add(request);

    BatchAnnotateImagesResponse response = vision.batchAnnotateImages(requests);
    // Process response here
}

The vision.batchAnnotateImages(requests) call never returns. After a long wait, I get this error:

Caused by: io.grpc.StatusRuntimeException: DEADLINE_EXCEEDED: deadline exceeded: -538368540044 ns from now

I’ve checked my credentials and network connection. Any ideas on what might be causing this or how to fix it?

2

hey, have u tried checking ur API key permissions? sometimes thats the culprit. also, double-check ur image format - the api can be picky. if all else fails, try breaking down the request into smaller chunks. that worked for me once when i had a similar issue. good luck!

3

Have you considered the possibility of network issues or firewall restrictions? Sometimes, corporate networks can interfere with API calls, causing timeouts. You might want to test your code on a different network to rule this out.

Another thing to check is your API quota. If you’ve exceeded your quota, it could lead to API calls hanging. You can verify your quota usage in the Google Cloud Console.

Lastly, try implementing exponential backoff and retry logic. This can help handle transient errors. Here’s a basic example:

int maxRetries = 3;
long retryDelay = 1000;

for (int attempt = 0; attempt < maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
        BatchAnnotateImagesResponse response = vision.batchAnnotateImages(requests);
        // Process response here
        break;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        if (attempt == maxRetries - 1) throw e;
        Thread.sleep(retryDelay);
        retryDelay *= 2;
    }
}

This approach can often resolve intermittent issues with API calls.

4

I’ve encountered similar issues with the Vision API before. One thing that helped me was adjusting the timeout settings. The default timeouts can be too short for complex images or slower connections.

Try modifying your ImageAnnotatorSettings like this:

ImageAnnotatorSettings settings = ImageAnnotatorSettings.newBuilder()
    .setCredentialsProvider(FixedCredentialsProvider.create(credentials))
    .setTransportChannelProvider(
        ImageAnnotatorSettings.defaultTransportChannelProvider()
            .setReadTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(300))
    )
    .build();

This extends the read timeout to 5 minutes. You might need to adjust this based on your specific needs.

Also, check your image size. Large images can cause processing delays. I usually resize images to around 1000px on the longest side before sending them to the API. This has significantly improved response times for me without noticeably affecting OCR accuracy.

If these don’t work, you might want to look into your network setup. Sometimes corporate firewalls or proxy servers can interfere with API calls. Hope this helps!