Document Analysis

Grounded in real examples, this book gives you the skills and confidence to conduct rich, systematic analysis of print and digital documents.

Thisvolumecontainspapersselectedforpresentationatthe6thIAPRWorkshop on Document Analysis Systems (DAS 2004) held during September 8–10, 2004 at the University of Florence, Italy. Several papers represent the state of the art in a broad range of “traditional” topics such as layout analysis, applications to graphics recognition, and handwritten documents. Other contributions address the description of complete working systems, which is one of the strengths of this workshop. Some papers extend the application domains to other media, like the processing of Internet documents. The peculiarity of this 6th workshop was the large number of papers related to digital libraries and to the processing of historical documents, a taste which frequently requires the analysis of color documents. A total of 17 papers are associated with these topics, whereas two yearsago (in DAS 2002) only a couple of papers dealt with these problems. In our view there are three main reasons for this new wave in the DAS community. From the scienti?c point of view, several research ?elds reached a thorough knowledge of techniques and problems that can be e?ectively solved, and this expertise can now be applied to new domains. Another incentive has been provided by several research projects funded by the EC and the NSF on topics related to digital libraries.

This book provides the first comprehensive look at the emerging field of web document analysis. It sets the scene in this new field by combining state-of-the-art reviews of challenges and opportunities with research papers by leading researchers. Readers will find in-depth discussions on the many diverse and interdisciplinary areas within the field, including web image processing, applications of machine learning and graph theories fat content extraction and web mining, adaptive web content delivery, multimedia document modeling and human interactive proofs for web security.

The famous Lindbergh kidnapping in the 1930s was solved, in part, through a detailed analysis of the kidnapper's handwriting. Other criminal cases, such as selling phony manuscripts, forgery, and fraud can be broken with detailed analyses of handwriting, typewriting, photocopied documents, and the inks and papers used on documents. The science of analyzing documents has been growing for more than a century. In this book, readers will learn how to document analysis has helped solve various crimes, from kidnappings and famous forgeries, to bombings and other violent crimes. Readers will also see how document examiners present their findings in court. Crime leaves a paper trail—and document analysis provides the techniques for following that trail.

Recently, there has been an increased interest in the research and development of techniques for components of complete document analysis systems. In recognition of this trend, a series of workshops on Document Analysis Systems commenced in 1994, under the leadership of Henry Baird. The first workshop, held in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in October, 1994, was chaired by Andreas Dengel and Larry Spitz. The second workshop on Document Analysis Systems was held in Malvern, PA, USA, in October, 1996, chaired by Jonathan J. Hull and Suzanne Liebowitz Taylor. The DAS workshop has been one of the most prestigious technical meetings, bringing together a large number of scientists and engineers from all over the world to express their innovative ideas and report on their latest achievements in the area of document analysis systems. The papers in this special book edition were rigorously selected from the Third IAPR Workshop on Document Analysis Systems (DAS’98), held in Nagano, Japan, on 4 - 6 November 1998. It is worth mentioning that the papers were chosen for their original and substantial contributions to the workshop theme and this special book edition. From among the 53 papers that were presented by authors from 11 countries at the DAS’98 after critical reviews by at least three experts, we carefully selected 29 papers for this special book edition. Most of the contributions in this edition have been expanded or extensively revised to include helpful discussions, suggestions, or comments made during the workshop.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Document Analysis Systems, DAS 2002, held in Princeton, NJ, USA in August 2002 with sponsorship from IAPR.The 44 revised full papers presented together with 14 short papers were carefuly reviwed and selected for inclusion in the book. All current issues in document analysis systems are adressed. The papers are organized in topical sections on OCR features and systems, handwriting recognition, layout analysis, classifiers and learning, tables and forms, text extraction, indexing and retrieval, document engineering, and new applications.

Uniting methods from disciplines across the social sciences and humanities, this hands-on guide develops a novel approach to doing document analysis. The authors present a framework for studying documents that enables you to conduct a rich and systematic analysis of documents in all their diversity. Focussing on document analysis both in practice and as practice, the book provides you with an innovative and versatile toolkit for analysing print and digital documents. It also: Highlights the impacts of digitalisation on documents themselves and the methods used to study them Has a strong focus on research ethics and critical engagement with digital sources Offers practical guidance on preparing and doing a document analysis research project. The book offers insightful perspectives both on the indispensable role of documents in our society and practical advice on how you can best analyse documents and their significance.