http://www.ai.rug.nl/~axel/teaching/hwr/2009/
Period 2b (block 4), 2009
Progress code: KIM.SCHR03
In this course you learn how an automatic handwriting recognizer works. You will make a recognizer yourself and write a scientific report on it. (Have a peek at Assignment 4 to get an impression.)
The handwriting material for this course is historical handwriting from the "Queen's Cabinet" (Kabinet der Koningin) (stored at the Dutch National Archive, Nationaal Archief, Den Haag) as shown in the figure to the right.
Several smaller assignments are steps towards the final assignment and report. Some of the assignments will be tested on a separate (secret) test set; the results will be shown in a live highscore online. You must work in groups of 2–4 persons.
On Monday* Prof. dr. Schomaker first gives a lecture. After that, one or two students give an oral presentation. This presentation counts for 10% of your final grade. (* The schedule is different in the first and last week.)
On Wednesday** practical sessions supervised by Axel Brink are scheduled; you can use these to work on the practical assignments. At least one computer is available for each group. Programming is done in a combination of Python and C++: Python for quickly creating the general framework; C++ for the low-level procedures. (** The schedule is different in the first week.)
All deadlines are on Friday midnight (see the table below). You may twice extend any deadline with exactly one week. If you missed more, then all your submissions will be taken as submissions for the repeat (herkansing) (see below).
Grades appear in Nestor. The final grade appears in Progress. There is no exam other than the mentioned assignments.
Repeat (herkansing): deadline August 31, 2009. Submit only assignment 5 (40%) and your report (50%); make an agreement with Axel about a date (31 August or earlier) for your presentation (10%).
| Week | Lecture | Student presentation (10%) | Practical | Assignment |
| 17 | Introduction (sheets), determine presentation dates, history of scripts (sheets). | (none) | Introduction | (none) |
| 18 | Human writing (sheets), human reading (sheets), lxj encoding. | R. Berendsen: human reading E. van der Wal: pattern recognition |
Work on ass. 1 | Assignment 1: Projection profiles 0%, obligatory, deadline 1 May |
| 19 | Features (sheets) (Axel Brink) | A. Murov: preprocessing, segmentation H. van Hoof: off-line HWR H. Jeurink: postal automation |
Work on ass. 2 | (none) |
| 20 | Crash course in pattern classification (sheets), classification of handwriting. | A. Veenstra: on-line HWR F. Vermeulen: (t.b.d.) |
Work on ass. 2 | Assignment 2: Word zone hypotheses 10%, deadline 15 May highscore |
| 21 | Off-line recognition, preprocessing, segmentation, Writer verification and identification. | C. van Leeuwen: writer verification/identification D. Kanon: preprocessing using wavelets |
Work on ass. 4 | Assignment 3: Literature study 0%, obligatory, deadline 22 May |
| 22 | Language and context modeling, Hidden Markov Models. | M. Koster: Language and context modeling M.Stollenga: Hidden-Markov models S.P. Takens: Document structure and layout analysis |
Work on ass. 4 | Assignment 4: First recognizer 10%, deadline 29 May highscore |
| 23 | P. Noordhuis: team report H.A. de Weerd: team report M. Mulder: team report G. Bearda: team report A. Somers: team report W. Klijn: team report W. Bouma: team report S. van Dijk: team report J. Zondag: pen-computing applications H. Jeurink: F. Vermeulen: |
Work on ass. 5 | (none) | |
| 24 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Assignment 5: Final recognizer 20%, deadline 12 June highscore |
| 25 | (none) | (none) | (none) | (none) |
| 26 | (none) | (none) | (none) | (none) |
| 27 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Assignment 6: Report 50%, deadline 3 July |
Notes:
Direct your questions to Axel Brink.
Last modified: 4 June 2009, by Axel Brink.