Robust binarization of degraded document images using heuristics

Jon Parker; Ophir Frieder; Gideon Frieder

doi:10.1117/12.2042581

24 March 2014 Robust binarization of degraded document images using heuristics

Jon Parker, Ophir Frieder, Gideon Frieder

Proceedings Volume 9021, Document Recognition and Retrieval XXI; 90210U (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042581
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2014, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Historically significant documents are often discovered with defects that make them difficult to read and analyze. This fact is particularly troublesome if the defects prevent software from performing an automated analysis. Image enhancement methods are used to remove or minimize document defects, improve software performance, and generally make images more legible. We describe an automated, image enhancement method that is input page independent and requires no training data. The approach applies to color or greyscale images with hand written script, typewritten text, images, and mixtures thereof. We evaluated the image enhancement method against the test images provided by the 2011 Document Image Binarization Contest (DIBCO). Our method outperforms all 2011 DIBCO entrants in terms of average F1 measure – doing so with a significantly lower variance than top contest entrants. The capability of the proposed method is also illustrated using select images from a collection of historic documents stored at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel.

Citation Download Citation

Jon Parker, Ophir Frieder, and Gideon Frieder "Robust binarization of degraded document images using heuristics", Proc. SPIE 9021, Document Recognition and Retrieval XXI, 90210U (24 March 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042581

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