Automatic Detection of Scale Bar/Insert New Scale Bar

Question

Two quick questions.  I have never scripted much, but I have an idea which would help my workflow professionally. 
The first questions is whether there are any professional services which I might be able to contract in order to have a script developed? 
The second question is in regards to whether my scripting idea would even be possible in Photoshop. 
I do research using electron microscopes, and as such in every micrograph I collect there is a scale bar.  Unfortunately, the scale bars are not aesthetically pleasing, and so I bring them into Photoshop.  Typically I will rescale, cut, paste, etc to use the images to tell the story about the data.  One of the things I always do is draw a line trace over the scale bar on the image (typically with my own font and applied stroke) and then adjust it (whether I want to double the scale, etc) to make it look more professional.  On all of my micrographs there is a black information bar with white lettering and a white scale bar (see attached).  Is there any way to write a script that would automatically read the region where the scale bar is located and then draw a new layer with a line the same size (with the line properties desired) using a Fourier transform or some other mathematical algorithm?  If that is possible, the next step would be to read the scale bar size and do a similar function with inserted text.
Thanks,
Matt

Answer 1

If the bar only varies in width, this might help to create a layer of the size of the bar:
// 2011; use it at your own risk;
#target photoshop
if (app.documents.length > 0) {
var myDocument = app.activeDocument;
// set to pixels;
var originalRulerUnits = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
myDocument.selection.load(myDocument.channels[0], SelectionType.REPLACE);
myDocument.selection.select([[0,960], [975,960], [975,992], [0,990]], SelectionType.INTERSECT, 0, false);
myDocument.selection.makeWorkPath(1);
var theBar = solidColorLayer(128,128,128);
theBar.name = "scalebar";
// reset;
app.preferences.rulerUnits = originalRulerUnits;
////// function to create a solid color layer //////
function solidColorLayer (theRed, theGreen, theBlue) {
// =======================================================
var idMk = charIDToTypeID( "Mk  " );
    var desc3 = new ActionDescriptor();
    var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" );
        var ref1 = new ActionReference();
        var idcontentLayer = stringIDToTypeID( "contentLayer" );
        ref1.putClass( idcontentLayer );
    desc3.putReference( idnull, ref1 );
    var idUsng = charIDToTypeID( "Usng" );
        var desc4 = new ActionDescriptor();
        var idType = charIDToTypeID( "Type" );
            var desc5 = new ActionDescriptor();
            var idClr = charIDToTypeID( "Clr " );
                var desc6 = new ActionDescriptor();
                var idRd = charIDToTypeID( "Rd  " );
                desc6.putDouble( idRd, theRed );
                var idGrn = charIDToTypeID( "Grn " );
                desc6.putDouble( idGrn,theGreen );
                var idBl = charIDToTypeID( "Bl  " );
                desc6.putDouble( idBl, theBlue );
            var idRGBC = charIDToTypeID( "RGBC" );
            desc5.putObject( idClr, idRGBC, desc6 );
        var idsolidColorLayer = stringIDToTypeID( "solidColorLayer" );
        desc4.putObject( idType, idsolidColorLayer, desc5 );
    var idcontentLayer = stringIDToTypeID( "contentLayer" );
    desc3.putObject( idUsng, idcontentLayer, desc4 );
executeAction( idMk, desc3, DialogModes.NO );
return app.activeDocument.activeLayer