Strategy for Line Drawing Understanding

Abstract

In this paper, we present different strategies for localization and recognition of graphical entities in line drawings. Most systems include first a segmentation step of the document followed by a sequential extraction of the graphical entities. Some other systems try to recognize symbols directly on the bitmap image using more or less sophisticated techniques. In our system, an intermediate representation of the document provides a precise description of all the shapes present in the initial image. Thereafter, this representation constitutes the main part of a shared resource that will be used by different processes achieving the interpretation of the drawings. The actions (recognition) done by these different specialists are scheduled in order to read and understand the content of the document. The knowledge that is provided by the shared representation is used instead of the bitmap image material to drive the interpretation process. In the current system, the specialists are trying, during several cycles to interpret the drawings in an intelligent way by interpreting the simplest parts of a drawing first and making the shared representation evolve until the total understanding of the document. © Springer-Verlag 2004.