The digital cleaning of dirty and old documents and the binarization into a black/white image can be a tedious process. It is usually done by experts. In this article a method is shown that is easy for the end user. Untrained persons are able to do this task now while before an expert was needed. The method uses interactive evolutionary computing to program image processing operations that act on the document image.
KEYWORDS: Databases, Image processing, Data processing, Computing systems, Astrophysics, Data archive systems, Cultural heritage, Machine learning, Pattern recognition, Imaging systems
Building a system which allows to search a very large database of document images requires professionalization of hardware and software, e-science and web access. In astrophysics there is ample experience dealing with large data sets due to an increasing number of measurement instruments. The problem of digitization of historical documents of the Dutch cultural heritage is a similar problem. This paper discusses the use of a system developed at the Kapteyn Institute of Astrophysics for the processing of large data sets, applied to the problem of creating a very large searchable archive of connected cursive handwritten texts. The system is adapted to the specific needs of processing document images. It shows that interdisciplinary collaboration can be beneficial in the context of machine learning, data processing and professionalization of image processing and retrieval systems.
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