Abstract: In this paper we present some conclusions about the advantages of having an efficient task formulation when a crowdsourcing platform is used. In particular we show how the task atomization and distribution can help to obtain results in an efficient way. Our proposal is based on a recursive splitting of the original task into a set of smaller and simpler tasks. As a result both more accurate and faster solutions are obtained. Our evaluation is performed on a set of ancient documents that need to be digitized.

Abstract: Reliable indexing of documents having seal instances can be achieved by recognizing seal information. This paper presents a novel approach for detecting and classifying such multi-oriented seals in these documents. First, Hough Transform based methods are applied to extract the seal regions in documents. Next, isolated text characters within these regions are detected. Rotation and size invariant features and a support vector machine based classifier have been used to recognize these detected text characters. Next, for each pair of character, we encode their relative spatial organization using their distance and angular position with respect to the centre of the seal, and enter this code into a hash table. Given an input seal, we recognize the individual text characters and compute the code for pair-wise character based on the relative spatial organization. The code obtained from the input seal helps to retrieve model hypothesis from the hash table. The seal model to which we get maximum hypothesis is selected for the recognition of the input seal. The methodology is tested to index seal in rotation and size invariant environment and we obtained encouraging results.

Abstract: Zero-shot sketch-based image retrieval (SBIR) is an emerging task in computer vision, allowing to retrieve natural images relevant to sketch queries that might not been seen in the training phase. Existing works either require aligned sketch-image pairs or inefficient memory fusion layer for mapping the visual information to a semantic space. In this work, we propose a semantically aligned paired cycle-consistent generative (SEM-PCYC) model for zero-shot SBIR, where each branch maps the visual information to a common semantic space via an adversarial training. Each of these branches maintains a cycle consistency that only requires supervision at category levels, and avoids the need of highly-priced aligned sketch-image pairs. A classification criteria on the generators' outputs ensures the visual to semantic space mapping to be discriminating. Furthermore, we propose to combine textual and hierarchical side information via a feature selection auto-encoder that selects discriminating side information within a same end-to-end model. Our results demonstrate a significant boost in zero-shot SBIR performance over the state-of-the-art on the challenging Sketchy and TU-Berlin datasets.

Abstract: We present a new methodology for symbol recognition, by employing a structural approach for representing visual associations in symbols and a statistical classifier for recognition. A graphic symbol is vectorized, its topological and geometrical details are encoded by an attributed relational graph and a signature is computed for it. Data adapted fuzzy intervals have been introduced for addressing the sensitivity of structural representations to noise. The joint probability distribution of signatures is encoded by a Bayesian network, which serves as a mechanism for pruning irrelevant features and choosing a subset of interesting features from structural signatures of underlying symbol set, and is deployed in a supervised learning scenario for recognizing query symbols. Experimental results on pre-segmented 2D linear architectural and electronic symbols from GREC databases are presented.

Abstract: Writer identification consists in determining the writer of a piece of handwriting from a set of writers. In this paper we introduce a symbol-dependent approach for identifying the writer of old music scores, which is based on two symbol recognition methods. The main idea is to use the Blurred Shape Model descriptor and a DTW-based method for detecting, recognizing and describing the music clefs and notes. The proposed approach has been evaluated in a database of old music scores, achieving very high writer identification rates.