OCR in Mass Digitisation – Conference announcement

[posted upon request]

On 6-7 April the first IMPACT Conference on ‘OCR in Mass Digitisation – Challenges between Full Text, Imaging and Language’ will take place at the KB – National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague.
The conference programme with additional information on the speakers is now available from the project website (http://www.impact-project.eu/news/ic2009/). Highlights include:

•  Many Hands Make Light Work: Collaborative OCR Text Correction in Australian Historic Newspapers by Rose Holley (National Library of Australia)
• Future Challenges for OCR Technology by Claus Gravenhorst (CCS)
• The Context of IMPACT by Ms. Patricia Manson, Head of Unit ‘Cultural heritage and technology enhanced learning’ of the European Commission (tentative)
• Measuring the OCR Accuracy across The British Library 2 Million Page Newspaper Archive by Simon Tanner (King’s College London)

 

And from the IMPACT project:

• Introduction to IMPACT by Hildelies Balk (KB)
• Library challenges for mass digitisation by Astrid Verheusen (KB)
• Adaptive OCR by Asaf Tzadok (IBM)
• A User Friendly Platform for Document Image Enhancement and Segmentation by Basilis Gatos (NCSR)
• Language Technology for Improving OCR on Historical Texts by Klaus Schulz (LMU)
• Digital Restoration and Layout Analysis: Challenges and IMPACT by Apostolos Antonacopoulos (PRIMA, University of Salford)
• Historical Lexicon Building and How it Improves Access to Text by Katrien Depuydt (INL)
• Decision Support Tools by Neil Fitzgerald (BL)

 

Registration is still possible at a fee of €110,-

IMPACT is a European project that aims to speed up the process and enhance the quality of mass digitisation in Europe. The IMPACT research programme will significantly improve digital access to historical printed text through the development and use of innovative Optical Character Recognition software and linguistic technologies.
IMPACT will also build capacity in mass digitisation across Europe. The fifteen partners (seven libraries, six research institutes and two private sector companies) collectively constitute a Centre of Competence that will share best practice and expertise with the cultural heritage communities in Europe.

 

If you would like to be added to the IMPACT mailing list to stay updated on the project’s progress, please send a request to impact@kb.nl

 

 

 

IMPACT: Improving Access to Text

“IMPACT is a project funded by the European Commission. It aims to significantly improve access to historical text and to take away the barriers that stand in the way of the mass digitization of the European cultural heritage.” (text published on http://www.impact-project.eu)

Hildelies Balk – Programme Manager IMPACT – further explains:

IMPACT is a European project that aims to speed up the process and enhance the quality of mass digitization in Europe. The IMPACT research will significantly improve digital access to historical printed text by innovating Optical Character Recognition software and language technology. IMPACT will also build capacity in mass digitization across Europe.The fifteen partners (seven libraries, six research institutes and two private sector companies) together form a Centre of Competence that will share best practices and expertise with the MLA community.

Fact sheet

· IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands (KB)

· Project type: Large-scale Integrating Project

· Start date: 1 January 2008

· Duration: 48 months

· EU funding: € 11 500 000

· Contact: impact@kb.nl

· Web site: www.impact-project.eu

More Information

The concept and project objectives are described extensively in the IMPACT Description of Work, that forms the basis of the projects’ contract with the EC. A public version of this document is available from the IMPACT Project Office impact@kb.nl .

Do you want to know how things are going? Curious about the general state of affairs, or which prototypes have been made available? The recently produced half year report gives a full update of all developments (and includes pictures of involved people – nice!). It can sent by request.