How can I recognize OCR characters on flood levels?

[TANDIS]

Hello all

I am reading letters and numbers from car cylinder by using OCR. The numbers and letters are carved out on cylinder. I attached a sample image. My OCR code cannot category characters. I guess this is because of the same color of the characters with their around.

Can anyone suggest me solution?

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Illumination methods may be the key to success here-

Can you try darkfield or polarized lighting techniques?

http://www.edmundoptics.com/technical-resources-center/illumination/choose-the-correct-illumination/

-AK2DM