Dear Apple Support,
I would like to report a long-standing issue affecting Khmer text recognition in Live Text (Vision Framework/OCR). Based on my testing, this issue has persisted for more than two years, from iOS 17 through iOS 27 Beta 3, and is also reproducible on iPadOS and macOS.
I would appreciate clarification on the following questions:
Is Apple aware of an issue where Live Text (OCR/Text Recognition) incorrectly recognizes Khmer script as Thai script, causing copied text to become Thai characters instead of Khmer?
Has this issue been officially logged as a bug within the Vision Framework or Live Text team?
Since this behavior has remained reproducible from iOS 17 to iOS 27 Beta 3, why has it not yet been resolved?
Is the problem caused by:
automatic language detection,
the OCR recognition model,
the Vision Framework,
or another component of Apple's AI pipeline?
Does Apple currently have a dedicated OCR and language recognition model for the Khmer script, or is Khmer being inferred through another language model?
Is there an estimated timeline for improving Khmer OCR and preventing Khmer text from being misidentified as Thai?
Can Apple confirm whether this issue affects all products using Vision Framework, including:
Live Text
Photos
Preview
Screenshot OCR
APIs provided to third-party developers?
How can Apple work with the Khmer technology community to improve OCR accuracy and language support for Khmer?
This issue is more than a simple OCR bug. When Khmer text is automatically converted into Thai characters, users lose access to the original text, developers receive incorrect OCR output, and it negatively impacts the digital representation of the Khmer language.
For reference, I have documented the issue in detail here:
https://app.notion.com/p/Inaccurate-OCR-Language-Inference-Khmer-Script-Misidentified-as-Thai-in-Vision-Framework-2d8a24f4ee6680fcbc49d989f8bb606f
I hope Apple can investigate this issue and prioritize improving Khmer language support across Vision Framework and Live Text.
Thank you.
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