IAPR TC-11 (READING SYSTEMS) NEWSLETTER June, 2017 ======================================================================== IAPR TC-11 HOMEPAGE: http://www.iapr-tc11.org Online Version: http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=IAPR-TC11:_Newsletter_2017/06 THIS MONTH: 1 Message from the Editor 2 Dates and Deadlines 3 New Datasets 4 ICDAR 2017: Workshop List 5 ICDAR 2017: Competitions List (repost) 6 ICDAR 2017: Doctoral Consortium (repost) 7 Calls for Papers 7.1 1st International Workshop on Human-Document Interaction (repost) 7.2 ICDAR Workshop on Machine Learning (repost) 7.3 DAS 2018: Call for Papers 8 IJDAR 8.1 IJDAR Discount for IAPR Members (repost) 8.2 IJDAR Special Issue: Deep Learning for Document Analysis and Recognition (repost) 9 Contributions and Subscriptions 1 Message from the Editor =========================== At the time of this writing, the ICDAR 2017 Program Committee is in the process of making paper decisions. Final paper decisions along with updated reviews are expected to be available to authors on July 1st. I wish to express my sincere thanks to all Program Committee members for their hard work. Their efforts greatly contribute to the high quality of our flagship conference! For your convenience, here is a brief overview of upcoming events and activities related to ICDAR 2017. Lists of workshops and competitions at the conference may be found elsewhere in this newsletter. **The schedule for ICDAR workshops and tutorials will be available soon on the conference website.** - **Competitions.** Many of the 25 competitions at ICDAR 2017 are currently drawing to a close. Details may be found in the competition web pages ([ICDAR Competitions](http://u-pat.org/ICDAR2017/program_competitions.html)). - **Workshops.** Nine interesting workshops on a variety of topics are being held at ICDAR 2017. A number of the workshops have upcoming submission deadlines ([ICDAR Workshops](http://u-pat.org/ICDAR2017/program_workshops.html)). - **Tutorials.** Three tutorials on state-of-the-art work in reading text in natural scenes, graph-based pattern recognition/document analysis, and word spotting will be offered at ICDAR 2017 ([ICDAR Tutorials](http://u-pat.org/ICDAR2017/program_tutorials.html)). - **Doctoral Consortium (Deadline: July 15th, 2017).** Submissions for the ICDAR [Doctoral Consortium](http://u-pat.org/ICDAR2017/call_for_dc.html) are due soon. Please note that preference will be given to PhD students who have identified a research direction and published initial results, but whose specific thesis topic is still being explored. Looking ahead, please consider submitting your work to the upcoming IJDAR special issue on Deep Learning in Document Recognition, and to DAS 2018 and ICFHR 2018 whose calls for papers are now available (the DAS CFP is also included in this newsletter). Finally, a new dataset containing handwritten Vietnamese has been added to the TC-11 dataset collection. Have a look, and please consider submitting your own datasets for use by members of TC-11 and the research community at large. Instructions on how to submit your datasets is available here: http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Datasets. **Richard Zanibbi, TC-11 Communications Officer** () 2 Dates and Deadlines ====================== Deadlines --------- **2017** - **July 15th** ICDAR Doctoral Consortium Submissions - **Aug. 31:** IJDAR Special Issue: *Deep Learning for Document Analysis and Recognition* ([Call for Papers](http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/Special+Issue+on+Deep+Learning+for+DAR.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-1600550-p1122349)) - **Nov. 15:** ICPRAI 2018 Paper Submission ([Call for Papers](http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~icprai18/index.html)) - **Nov. 20:** DAS 2018 Paper Submission ([Call for Papers](https://das2018.caa.tuwien.ac.at/media/filer_public/9f/2e/9f2e9653-b73f-4899-902e-3dfa4109d744/cfp.pdf)) **2018** - **Jan. 19:** DAS 2018 Short Paper Submission ([Call for Papers](https://das2018.caa.tuwien.ac.at/media/filer_public/9f/2e/9f2e9653-b73f-4899-902e-3dfa4109d744/cfp.pdf)) - **Mar. 2:** ICFHR 2018 Submissions ([Call for Papers](http://www.cs.rit.edu/~icfhr2018)) Upcoming Conferences -------------------- - [ICDAR 2017](u-pat.org/ICDAR2017) Kyoto, Japan (Nov. 9-15, 2017) - [DAS 2018](https://das2018.caa.tuwien.ac.at) Vienna, Austria (24-27 April, 2018) - [ICPRAI 2018](http://icprai2018.com/) Montreal, Canada (May 14-17, 2018) - [ICFHR 2018](https://www.cs.rit.edu/~icfhr2018)   **(!! Note Corrected Dates !!)** Niagara Falls, USA (August 5-9, 2018) - ICFHR 2020 Dortmund, Germany (September 8-10, 2020) 3 New Datasets =============== HANDS - Vietnamese Online Handwriting Database HANDS-VNOnDB (TUAT Nakagawa Lab) http://tc11.cvc.uab.es/datasets/HANDS-VNOnDB_1 Andreas Fischer, TC-11 Dataset Curator (andreas.fischer@unifr.ch) 4 ICDAR 2017: Workshops List ============================= Nine workshops will be offered at ICDAR 2017. **The schedule for workshops will be posted soon on the ICDAR 2017 website.** Below is a list of the ICDAR Workshops along with the names of their corresponding organizers. Web pages and submission deadlines for each Workshop may be found online: http://u-pat.org/ICDAR2017/program_workshops.html **HDI: First International Workshop on Human-Document Interaction** Organizers: Jean-Christophe Burie, Mickaël Coustaty, Dimosthenis Karatzas and Koichi Kise **CBDAR: 7th International Workshop on Camera-Based Document Analysis and Recognition** Organizers: Lluis Gomez-Bigorda, Muhammad Muzzamil Luqman and Dimosthenis Karatzas **MANPU: 2nd International Workshop on coMics Analysis, Processing and Understanding** Organizers: Jean-Christophe Burie, Toshihiko Yamasaki and Motoi Iwata **ICDAR-WML: Workshop on Machine Learning** Organizers: Umapada Pal and Eric Granger **HIP: 4th International Workshop on Historical Document Imaging and Processing** Organizers: Andreas Fischer, Angelika Garz, Kengo Terasawa and Bill Barrett **Deadlines updated:** http://events.unifr.ch/hip2017/important-dates **IWCDF: 1st International Workshop on Computational Document Forensics** Organizers: Jean-Marc Ogier, Utpal Garain and Apostolos Antonacopoulos **ICDAR-OST: 1st International Workshop on Open Services and Tools for Document Analysis** Organizers: Marcel Würsch and Joseph Chazalon **GREC: 12th International Workshop on Graphics Recognition** Organizers: Alicia Fornés and Bart Lamiroy **MOCR: 6th International Workshop on Multilingual OCR** Organizers: Venu Govindaraju, Prem Natarajan, Santanu Chaudhury and Srirangaraj Setlur We are looking forward to your submissions for these Workshops. We also solicit your gracious support in circulating this information among your students, colleagues and scientific/research community to give it higher visibility. Thank you very much. With regards, **Michael Blumenstein & Umapada Pal, ICDAR-2017 Workshop Co-Chairs** (, ) 5 ICDAR 2017: Competitions List ================================ HANDWRITTEN HISTORICAL DOCUMENT LAYOUT RECOGNITION - Competition on Baseline Detection in Archival Documents: - Competition on Layout Analysis for Challenging Medieval Manuscripts: - Competition on Historical Book Analysis: HISTORICAL HANDWRITTEN SCRIPT ANALYSIS - Competition on the Classification of Medieval Handwritings in Latin Script: - Competition on Historical Document Writer Identification: - Competition on Multi-script Writer Identification Using LAMIS-MSHD and CERUG Databases: CHARACTER/WORD SPOTTING - Competition on Query-by-Example Glyph Spotting of Southeast Asian Palm Leaf Manuscript Images: - Handwritten Keyword Spotting Competition: HANDWRITING RECOGNITION - Competition on Handwritten Text Recognition on the READ Dataset: - Competition on Information Extraction in Historical Handwritten Records: DOCUMENT IMAGE BINARIZATION - Document Image Binarization Competition: DOCUMENT RECOGNITION (LAYOUT ANALYSIS & TEXT RECOGNITION) - Competition on Recognition of Documents with Complex Layouts: - Competition on Early Indian Printed Documents: - Competition on Page Object Detection in Document Images: DOCUMENT DOCUMENT RECONSTRUCTION - Smartphone-captured Document Image Reconstruction from Multiple Views: POST OCR CORRECTION - Competition on Post-OCR Text Correction: ROBUST READING COMPETITIONS - Competition on Reading Chinese Text in the Wild: - Challenge on COCO-Text: - Challenge on Text Extraction from Biomedical Literature Figures: - Challenge on Robust Reading Challenge on Omnidirectional Video: - Competition on Multi-lingual scene text detection and script identification: TEXT IN VIDEO - Competition on Arabic Text Detection and Recognition in Multiresolution Video Frames (AcTiVComp17) - Competition on Video Script Identification: http://[www.ict.griffith.edu.au/cvsi2017](www.ict.griffith.edu.au/cvsi2017) FORENSICS - Competition on File Type and Altered Image Identification: MISCELLANEOUS COMPETITIONS - Competition on Multi-font and Multi-size Digitally Represented Arabic Text: 6 ICDAR 2017: Doctoral Consortium (repost) =========================================== **Important Dates** Submission deadline: July 15 Doctoral Consortium: November 12 In 2011, the first Doctoral Consortium in the Document Analysis community was organized in conjunction with the International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR). This has led to successful successor events at ICDAR 2013 and ICDAR 2015. The tradition of having a Doctoral Consortium as a satellite event to the ICDAR main conference will be continued at ICDAR 2017 in Kyoto, Japan. The goal of the ICDAR 2017 Doctoral Consortium is to create an opportunity for Ph.D. students to test their research ideas, present their current progress and future plans, and receive constructive criticism and insights related to their future work and career perspectives. A mentor (a senior researcher who is active in the field) will be assigned to each student to provide individual feedback. In addition, students will have the opportunity to present an overview of their research plan during a special poster session. Participation in the ICDAR 2017 Doctoral Consortium will be limited to 25 students. Prospective participants are encouraged to submit their application by July 15 (submission procedure to be announced). The Doctoral Consortium Chairs will then review all applications received. Preference will be given to students who are at a stage in their studies most likely to benefit (i.e., they have identified a research direction and published some initial results, but the thesis is not yet set in stone). Participation to the Doctoral Consortium will be free for all accepted students, i.e., there will be no extra registration fees! The ICDAR 2017 Doctoral Consortium will take place the day before the main conference, i.e., on Sunday, November 12. We are looking forward to your participation! **Véronique Eglin & Rafael Dueire Lins, ICDAR 2017 Doctoral Consortium Co-Chairs** ( , ) 7 Calls for Papers =================== 7.1 Call for Papers: 1st International Workshop on Human-Document Interaction (repost) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Location:** Kyoto Japan (in conjunction with ICDAR 2017) **Web Page:** [www.cvc.uab.es/HDI2017](http://www.cvc.uab.es/HDI2017) **Important Dates:** Regular paper submissions: July 1, 2017 ICDAR resubmission deadline: July 15, 2017 Notifications: July 31, 2017 Camera Ready: September 1, 2017 Workshop Dates: November 10 or 11th, 2017 (TBD) HDI 2017 will focus on how humans interact with written information around them, and the interfaces between users and documents. The term document is meant in the wider possible sense, to refer to any physical object that carries written information. The workshop aims to create a space for debate between the Document Image Analysis and Recognition and the Human-Computer Interaction communities, and it is motivated by a number of recent developments that point to a coming change of paradigm in the way we interact with written information around us. Fresh paper submissions as well as re-submissions of improved versions of rejected ICDAR papers (submitted along with the original reviews) are welcome. Accepted papers will be published in the "ICDAR 2017 Workshops" IEEE CPS volume. **Topics of interest** include, among others: - Augmented documents - Linking physical and digital content - Reading behaviour analysis - Human factors - User experience and usability - Wearable sensors in reading - Interaction for facilitating Document Image Analysis (teaching reading systems through the way humans interact with written information) - Document Image Analysis for enabling Interaction - Content personalisation - Applications (e.g. document editing, interactive translation, collaborative editing) ### Workshop Chairs **Jean-Christophe Burie** (L3i Laboratory, University of La Rochelle, France) **Mickaël Coustaty** (L3i Laboratory, University of La Rochelle, France) **Dimosthenis Karatzas** (Computer Vision Centre, Spain) **Koichi Kise** (Osaka Prefecture University) **Kai Kunze** (Keio University, Japan) **Dimosthenis Karatzas, HDI 2017 Workshop Co-Chair** () 7.2 ICDAR Workshop on Machine Learning (repost) ------------------------------------------------ **Submission Deadline** Paper Submissions: July 5, 2017 Please consider participating in the Workshop on Machine Learning in Kyoto, Japan on November 11, 2017, which is co-located with the ICDAR 2017 conference. The workshop aims to facilitate interaction, collaboration and engagement between the document analysis community and other research communities including pattern recognition, machine learning, computer vision, and image analysis. We ask that you please consider submitting your work to this workshop. For more details about the workshop, please visit: **Topics of interest** include, but are not limited to: - Analysis and recognition of document images and handwritings using machine learning techniques, such as deep learning - Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs) - Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) - Semantic Analysis (e.g., Word Embedding and Topic Models) - Graphical Models and their Optimization (e.g., HMM and CRF/MRF) - Feature Reduction and Selection (e.g., Sparse Representation and Latent Space Analysis) - Metric Learning, Ensemble Learning (e.g., Boosting and Random Forests) - Semi-Supervised and Weakly-Supervised Learning - Support Vector Machines (SVM) - Instance-Based Methods (e.g., k-Nearest Neighbor classifier) - Applications of Machine Learning **Manuscript length:** IEEE format with 6 pages (maximum). WML-2017 follows a single-blind review process, and so authors are asked to include their names and affiliations in their paper submissions. Submissions will be made through EasyChair. For further information please contact to WML Secretariat through [icdarwml@gmail.com](icdarwml@gmail.com). Thanks and Regards, **Umapada Pal and Eric Granger, General Chairs for WML-2017** (, ) 7.3 DAS 2018: Call for Papers (repost) --------------------------------------- **13th IAPR International Workshop on Document Analysis Systems (DAS 2018)** *April 24-27 2018, Vienna, Austria* **Important Dates** Full papers due: Nov. 20, 2017 * Decision notification: Jan. 15, 2018 Short papers due: Jan. 19, 2018 * Decision notification: Jan. 31, 2018 Tutorial proposals due: Nov. 30, 2017 **Overview.** DAS 2018 is the 13th edition of the 100% participation single-track IAPR sponsored workshop focusing on system-level issues and approaches in document analysis and recognition. The workshop comprises invited speaker presentations, oral, poster, tutorial and demo sessions as well as working group discussions. DAS 2018 will be organized at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), in the heart of Vienna’s city center, which places the attendees within walking distance to a large variety of world-famous historical and cultural attractions. The program will include long and short papers, posters and demonstrations of working or prototype systems. All submissions will undergo a rigorous review process with a minimum of 3 reviews considering the originality of work, the quality of research or analysis of experience, the relevance to document analysis systems, and quality of presentation. Information regarding paper submissions is provided below. **Note:** Submission of a paper involves a commitment that, if accepted, one or more authors will attend the workshop. **Full Papers.** Full papers should describe complete works of original research. Authors are invited to submit original, unpublished research papers that are not being considered in another form, up to 6 pages length. **Short Papers.** Short papers provide an opportunity to report on research in progress and to present novel positions on document analysis systems. Authors may submit short papers (up to 2 pages in length). Short papers will also undergo review and will appear in an extra booklet, not in the official DAS 2018 proceedings. **Demonstrations.** DAS 2018 seeks public demonstrations of novel systems, to be presented to the workshop as a whole during breaks between paper sessions. Prospective demonstrators should submit a two-page summary of the system to be demonstrated. Demonstration proposals will undergo review and summaries of accepted demonstrations will appear in the extra DAS 2018 booklet, as in the case of short papers. For Topics & Technologies and Commitees, please see the DAS 2018 website: **Contact:** **Robert Sablatnig and Florian Kleber, DAS 2018 General Chairs** (, ) 8 IJDAR ======== 8.1 IJDAR Discount for IAPR Members (repost) --------------------------------------------- IAPR is pleased to announce a partnership agreement with Springer, the publisher of IJDAR, the International Journal on Document Analysis and Recognition. This new agreement will allow IAPR members to receive a subscription to the electronic version of IJDAR at a discount of nearly 50%. For additional details, see the links below: - - [http://www.iapr.org/publications/intjrnlsub.php](http://www.iapr.org/publications/intjournal.php) **Koichi Kise, Daniel Lopresti and Simone Marinai, IJDAR Editors-in-Chief** ( , , ) 8.2 IJDAR Special Issue: Deep Learning for Document Analysis and Recognition (repost) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In recent years, applying Deep Learning techniques to Document Analysis and Recognition (DAR) tasks has produced significant performance gains. These have included impressive advances in handwriting recognition, word-spotting in document images, document segmentation, and text detection in natural scenes. This special issue aims to report new advances in DAR using deep learning methods. Articles presenting reviews, perspectives, new methods and applications in DAR are cordially invited. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to uses of Deep Learning for: - Document image processing and segmentation - Layout analysis - Character and text recognition - Scene text detection and recognition - Writer identification and signature analysis - Document retrieval - Context modeling - Graphics and symbol recognition - Other DAR tasks Paper submissions are due **August 31, 2017**. For further information, please see the [Call for Submissions.](http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/Special+Issue+on+Deep+Learning+for+DAR.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-1600550-p1122349) **Koichi Kise, Daniel Lopresti and Simone Marinai, IJDAR Editors-in-Chief** ( , , ) 9 Contributions and Subscriptions ================================== **Call for Contributions:** To contribute news items, please send a short email to the editor, Richard Zanibbi (mailto:rxzvcs@cs.rit.edu). Contributions might include conference and workshop announcements or reports, career opportunities, book reviews, or anything else of interest to the TC-11 community. **Subscription:** This newsletter is sent to subscribers of the IAPR TC11 mailing list. To join the TC-11 mailing list, please click on this link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=iapr-tc11&A=1 To manage your subscription, please visit the mailing list homepage: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=IAPR-TC11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IAPR TC-11 HOMEPAGE: http://www.iapr-tc11.org The IAPR is the International Association for Pattern Recognition. IAPR's Technical Committee No. 11 (TC-11) includes researchers and practitioners working with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and more generally the analysis and recognition of information in documents.