b9 raines venice_timemachine_minimized
TRANSCRIPT
Frédéric Kaplan Dorit Raines
Ecole Polytecnique Fédérale de Lausanne Università Ca’ Foscari Venice
The Venice Time Machine
A new way of navigating in the past
The ambition of The Venice Time Machine project is to transform
this huge archive into a digital information system.
The Venice Time Machine project
aims to address this question by
structuring the information
contained in the records
1. Digitization of all documents
2. Semi-automatic transcription
of handwritten documents
3. Data mining and structured
data base
* We are currently in the experimental phase
Virtual X-ray reading
“Reading” manuscripts using x-ray tomography.
A single tomographic set could indeed yield the same information of traditional digitization process with minimized interaction with the document, drastically reducing the risk of damage and speeding up the process.
The X-ray imaging of the writings is made possible by the use, for many centuries and all over Europe, of iron-based inks generically denominated “iron gall”.
There is a direct correlation between the ink iron content and the quality of x-ray attenuation-contrast images: a fundamental issue of the studies is the chemistry of the inks.
Semi-automatic Transcription of
Handwritten Documents
The framework based on machine-vision and machine-learningtechniques is comprised of the following steps:
1. Pre-processing algorithms used to enhance the readability of the textual content
Optimal binarization
2. The pre-filtered images go through a classification process with the purpose of classifying
the document contents in graphical and textual elements and layout structure
3. The textual content is finally processed using a semi-automatic transcription tool in order
incrementally construct a digital version of the documents
Data mining and structured data base
Each archival series will need its own structure (reduced to minimum to match others)
BUT
On a metacontent level ONLY 4 categories are important:
� Persons
� Places
� Institutions
� Objects
The search will be done using the above 4 categories (metacontent), with sub divisions:
METACONTENT: Painting 16th century; GRANULAR LEVEL: Titian; woman
METACONTENT: Pietro Basadonna 1675; GRANULAR LEVEL: Capuchin order;
mansionary
Each source creates the link between dates and facts
+ date
But we can do better still – we can create 3D representations of Venice and link documents to each palace in order to tell its history and the urbanisticchanges throughout the ages
The Venice Time Machine ProjectOur website: dhvenice.eu
Partner Institutions
Archivio di Stato di Venezia, direttore Raffaele SantoroÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), president Patrick AebischerUniversità Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, rettore Michele BugliesiWith the support of
Fondation Lombard OdierDirector
Frédéric Kaplan, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Project Management
Giovanni Colavizza, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Isabella di Lenardo, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Katerina Kunz, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Andrea Mazzei, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Giovanni Caniato, Archivio di Stato di VeneziaSimon Levis Sullam, Università Ca’ Foscari di VeneziaDorit Raines, Università Ca’ Foscari di VeneziaPartner projects
“Garzoni project”, coordinator Valentina Sapienza, Université de Lille“Visualizing Venice”, Steering Committee: Caroline Bruzelius, Donatella Calabi, Andrea Giordano, Mark Olson, Andrea Rinaldo, Victoria Szabo, Guido Zucconi. Technical support
4DigitalBooks, Ivo Iossiger, scanner provider, Ecublens, SwitzerlandBread and Butter, digital media, Lausanne, SwitzerlandAMstudio, 3D modelling, Venezia, ItalyOlivo Bondesan, foto-riproduzione, Archivio di Stato di Venezia
Thank you!