Adaptive and interactive approaches to document analysis

Abstract

This chapter explores three aspects of learning in document analysis: (1) field classification, (2) interactive recognition, and (3) portable and networked applications. Context in document classification conventionally refers to language context, i.e., deterministic or statistical constraints on the sequence of letters in syllables or words, and on the sequence of words in phrases or sentences. We show how to exploit other types of statistical dependence, specifically the dependence between the shape features of several patterns due to the common source of the patterns within a field or a document. This type of dependence leads to field classification, where the features of some patterns may reveal useful information about the features of other patterns from the same source but not necessarily from the same class. We explore the relationship between field classification and the older concepts of unsupervised learning and adaptation. Human interaction is often more effective interspersed with algorithmic processes than only before or after the automated parts of the process. We develop a taxonomy for interaction during training and testing, and show how either human-initiated and machine-initiated interaction can lead to human and machine learning. In a section on new technologies, we discuss how new cameras and displays, web-wide access, interoperability, and essentially unlimited storage provide fertile new approaches to document analysis. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.