Communications of the ACM
A Google For Handwriting
A new digital platform is rendering handwritten works searchable through the use of handwritten text recognition software.
Credit: M.C. Escher
A digital platform launched by Uppsala University's library offers a database of digitized works from cultural heritage collections, with handwritten works rendered searchable by handwritten text recognition software.
The initiative is competing with others around the world to develop a workable handwriting search application. "If someone today had an algorithm to carry out large-scale digital searches of things like the collection of manuscripts in the Vatican Library, it would be worth a fortune," notes Uppsala's Anders Brun. "Whilst the market value is enormous, so is the scale of the task."
Brun and his colleagues are attempting to devise a technique that enables analysis and searches of large volumes of handwritten texts, many of which are hard to read given their age, the era, and the language in which they were written. Decoding text with a method through which the computer tries to interpret the digital image of the text forms the core of the research.
"Using expert knowledge, we try to give the computer the right answer for a small portion of the material and then automate this," says Ph.D. student Frederick Wahlberg.
A collaborative and interdisciplinary focus is necessary, due to the project's relevance to various humanities.
From Uppsala University
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Abstracts Copyright © 2015 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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