Sebastian Colutto (University of Innsbruck, AT): Transkribus. A virtual research environment for the transcription and recognition of historical documents co:op-READ-Convention Marburg Technology meets Scholarship, or how Handwritten Text Recognition will Revolutionize Access to Archival Collections. With a special focus on biographical data in archives Hessian State Archives Marburg Friedrichsplatz 15, D - 35037 Marburg 19-21 January 2016

1. Transkribus
Sebastian Colutto
Universität Innsbruck – Inst. f. Germanistik
EU FP7 Projekt tranScriptorium
H2020 Projekt READ
A virtual research environment for the
transcription and
recognition of historical documents

2. Overview
1 General idea
2 Overview of features
3 Outlook

3. Transkribus?
• What?
„Virtual Research Environment for transcription and recognition of
historical documents“
– Software driven platform
– Multiple user groups
– Focus on handwritten documents
• When?
– Developed from 2013-2015 in the Transcriptorium EU-project
– Continues to be developed in READ project
• Where?
– Platform implementation from UIBK, tools from other partners in
the project

4. HUMANITIES
SCHOLARS
ARCHIVES - LIBRARIES
(COMPUTER)
SCIENTISTS
VOLUNTEERS
TRANSKRIBUS
Provide Images and
Metadata
DOCUMENTS
IN THE CLOUD
Work with
documents
Export to
TEI, PDF, etc.
EXPERT AND
CROWD
INTERFACES
Algorithms and
Tools
Ground-Truth Data
HTR, DIA
KWS, NLP,
AWI, HPC …
Benefit from enhanced
search functionality etc.Crowd Sourcing
Digital Editions
WEBSITE

5. Architecture
Expert interface
Server
Website
Crowd source interface
REST Webservices
Document and User Management, Tools, Filestorage, DB …

6. Core Functionality
• Document management
– Import
– Export
– Document rights management
• Document metadata
– Editorial Declaration
– Structural Metadata
– Generic tagging system on text level (TEI)

7. Tools
• Layout Analysis
– Detect layout of document pages (text regions,
lines, words …)
• HTR- Handwritten Text Recognition
• Others: Interactive transcription, OCR, etc.

8. Basic Transkribus Workflow for
Handwritten Documents
• Register on website: transkribus.eu
• Download expert interface
• Login and upload documents
• Perform Layout Analysis (on all pages)
• Transcribe some Ground-Truth data (~ 50 pages,
10000 words)
• Generate a model (training)
• Use model to recognize remaining pages (decoding)
• Correct errors, add metadata (tags)
• Export as TEI, PDF ...

9. Outlook for READ Project
• 10 archives included in platform in first year
• Implement and integrate tools from different
partners, Highlights:
– Website for digital editions with search functionality
– Alternative HTR by URO (Rostock)
– Writer identification and table recognition
– Document understanding tool
– Scan app
– E-Learning interface