Coordinated Initiative for Optical Character Recognition Development (OCR) [Phase 3]

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Achim Bonte, since 7/2022; Professor Dr. Peter Burschel; Zeki Mustafa Dogan, since 1/2024; Privatdozent Dr. Alexander Geyken; Professor Dr. Philipp Wieder
• Subject Area: Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation, Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460675868

The DFG funding initiative OCR-D has been working on the further development of optical character recognition (OCR) methods since 2015. The overall goal of the project is to prepare the full text transformation of the VD (Union Catalogues of Books printed in German speaking countries) technically and conceptually. To this end, development needs were identified in the first project phase, which were then addressed in the second phase by eight module projects under the guidance of the coordination project. In the now proposed third project phase, the focus is on stabilizing the results of the previous module project phase and preparing the productive use of the OCR-D software in mass digitization technically and organizationally. Accordingly, the support of the implementation projects and the accompanying technical development and optimization are central aspects of the present project proposal. The main focus is to ensure the permanent support and further development of the OCR-D software and to communicate the results of the implementation work – stable OCR-D solutions ready for mass digitization – to a wider audience of future users who will use them for the full text digitization of the VD materials following this third project phase.

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Ehemalige Antragstellerinnen / Ehemalige Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Wolfram Horstmann, until 12/2023; Barbara Schneider-Kempf, until 7/2022