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Access by content to handwritten archive documents: generic document recognition method and platform for annotations

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Abstract

This paper presents annotations needed for handwritten archive document retrieval by content. We propose two complementary ways of producing these annotations: automatically by using document image analysis and collectively by using the Internet and manual input by users. A platform for managing these annotations is presented as well as examples of automatic annotations on civil status registers, military forms (tested on 165,000 pages) and naturalization decrees, using a generic method for structured document recognition and handwriting recognition on names. Examples of collective annotations built on automatic annotations are also given. This platform is already open to the public in the reading room of the new building of the Archives départementales des Yvelines and on the Internet. About 1,450,000 images of civil status registers are available for collective annotation as well as 105,000 pages of military forms with automatic annotation of handwritten names.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRISA/INRIA, Campus universitaire de Beaulieu, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    Bertrand Coüasnon

  2. IRISA/INSA, Campus universitaire de Beaulieu, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    Jean Camillerapp & Ivan Leplumey

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  1. Bertrand Coüasnon
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  2. Jean Camillerapp
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  3. Ivan Leplumey
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Correspondence to Bertrand Coüasnon.

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Coüasnon, B., Camillerapp, J. & Leplumey, I. Access by content to handwritten archive documents: generic document recognition method and platform for annotations. IJDAR 9, 223–242 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10032-007-0044-2

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