Assessing cross-cut shredded document assembly

Abstract

In this paper we address the problem of quantitative evaluation of cross-cut shredded document reconstruction. We propose quantitative metrics using graph theory and classic information retrieval concepts to compare the neighborhood connectivity graph of a reassembled document shredded by a cross-cut machine against the neighborhood graph of the ground-truth. These metrics focus entirely on the proper relative positioning of the shredded pieces. To do so, we have shredded 12 documents containing diverse content, such as handwriting, printed text, images and photographs. We then scanned, extracted the pieces, and reassembled them into the ground-truth. This dataset is available to the readers, with the original documents, the digital representation of the shreds, and the scripts that provide the quantitative evaluation of the users reconstructions.