Understanding Optical Music Recognition

For over 50 years, researchers have been trying to teach computers to read music notation, referred to as Optical Music Recognition (OMR). However, this field is still difficult to access for new researchers, especially those without a significant musical background: Few introductory materials are available, and, furthermore, the field has struggled with defining itself and building a shared terminology. In this work, we address these shortcomings by (1) providing a robust definition of OMR and its relationship to related fields, (2) analyzing how OMR inverts the music encoding process to recover the musical notation and the musical semantics from documents, and (3) proposing a taxonomy of OMR, with most notably a novel taxonomy of applications. Additionally, we discuss how deep learning affects modern OMR research, as opposed to the traditional pipeline. Based on this work, the reader should be able to attain a basic understanding of OMR: its objectives, its inherent structure, its relationship to other fields, the state of the art, and the research opportunities it affords

Chapter 1 Formulaic sequences: a drop in the ocean of constructions or something more significant?

This article investigates how formulaic sequences fi t into a constructionist approach to grammar, which is a major post- Chomskyan family of approaches to linguistic structure. The author considers whether, in this framework, formulaic sequences represent a phenomenon that is suffi ciently diff erent to warrant special status or whether they might best be studied in terms of the larger set of all constructions found in language. Based on data drawn from a large corpus of Wikipedia texts, it is argued that it is extremely diffi cult to form a distinct class of formulaic sequences without creating highly arbitrary boundaries. On the other hand, based on existing theoretical claims that formulaic sequences are the basis of fi rst language acquisition, a marker of profi ciency in a language, critical to the success of communicative acts and key to rapid language processing, it is argued that formulaic sequences as constructions are nevertheless signifi cant enough to be the focus of research, and a theoretical category meriting particular attention. These fi ndings have key repercussions both for research primarily interested in formulaic language and phraseology as well as for construction grammatical research

An online handwritten music symbol recognition system

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comArticleINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON DOCUMENT ANALYSIS AND RECOGNITION. 9(1): 49-58 (2007)journal articl

A Computational Theory of Contextual Knowledge in Machine Reading

Machine recognition of off–line handwriting can be achieved by either recognising words as individual symbols (word level recognition) or by segmenting a word into parts, usually letters, and classifying those parts (letter level recognition). Whichever method is used, current handwriting recognition systems cannot overcome the inherent ambiguity in writingwithout recourse to contextual information. This thesis presents a set of experiments that use Hidden Markov Models of language to resolve ambiguity in the classification process. It goes on to describe an algorithm designed to recognise a document written by a single–author and to improve recognition by adaptingto the writing style and learning new words. Learning and adaptation is achieved by reading the document over several iterations. The algorithm is designed to incorporate contextual processing, adaptation to modify the shape of known words and learning of new words within a constrained dictionary. Adaptation occurs when a word that has previously been trained in the classifier is recognised at either the word or letter level and the word image is used to modify the classifier. Learning occurs when a new word that has not been in the training set is recognised at the letter level and is subsequently added to the classifier. Words and letters are recognised using a nearest neighbour classifier and used features based on the two–dimensional Fourier transform. By incorporating a measure of confidence based on the distribution of training points around an exemplar, adaptation and learning is constrained to only occur when a word is confidently classified. The algorithm was implemented and tested with a dictionary of 1000 words. Results show that adaptation of the letter classifier improved recognition on average by 3.9% with only 1.6% at the whole word level. Two experiments were carried out to evaluate the learning in the system. It was found that learning accounted for little improvement in the classification results and also that learning new words was prone to misclassifications being propagated

Aspects of Order in Language and in Music : A Referential-Structural Research on Universals

This research and practice project studies the way in which some aspects of linguistic order are also found in music’s order. Whereas some aspects of order and organisation are attributed to music because of their psychophysical integration, other aspects seem to be more related to the configuration of music in memory and experience (i.e. individual memory and memory-in-society processes). This fundamental condition is shared with speech and visual symbolizing. Since order in music is commonly referred and/or justified by verbal or visual language, several cases of analogy and metaphor are studied, in the context of music composition and analysis. This project also discusses the role of figuration and referentiality in some examples of geometry associated with musical ideas, in order to analyse how such mediums are intertwined with speech and musical constructions

The Baby project: processing character patterns in textual representations of language.

This thesis describes an investigation into a proposed theory of AI. The theory postulates that a machine can be programmed to predict aspects of human behaviour by selecting and processing stored, concrete examples of previously experienced patterns of behaviour. Validity is tested in the domain of natural language. Externalisations that model the resulting theory of NLP entail fuzzy components. Fuzzy formalisms may exhibit inaccuracy and/or over productivity. A research strategy is developed, designed to investigate this aspect of the theory. The strategy includes two experimental hypotheses designed to test, 1) whether the model can process simple language interaction, and 2) the effect of fuzzy processes on such language interaction. Experimental design requires three implementations, each with progressive degrees of fuzziness in their processes. They are respectively named: Nonfuzz Babe, CorrBab and FuzzBabe. Nonfuzz Babe is used to test the first hypothesis and all three implementations are used to test the second hypothesis. A system description is presented for Nonfuzz Babe. Testing the first hypothesis provides results that show NonfuzzBabe is able to process simple language interaction. A system description for CorrBabe and FuzzBabe is presented. Testing the second hypothesis, provides results that show a positive correlation between degree of fuzzy processes and improved simple language performance. FuzzBabe's ability to process more complex language interaction is then investigated and model-intrinsic limitations are found. Research to overcome this problem is designed to illustrate the potential of externalisation of the theory and is conducted less rigorously than previous part of this investigation. Augmenting FuzzBabe to include fuzzy evaluation of non-pattern elements of interaction is hypothesised as a possible solution. The term FuzzyBaby was coined for augmented implementation. Results of a pilot study designed to measure FuzzyBaby's reading comprehension are given. Little research has been conducted that investigates NLP by the fuzzy processing of concrete patterns in language. Consequently, it is proposed that this research contributes to the intellectual disciplines of NLP and AI in general

Formulaic sequences: a drop in the ocean of constructions or something more significant?

This article investigates how formulaic sequences fit into a constructionist approach to grammar, which is a major post-Chomskyan family of approaches to linguistic structure. The author considers whether, in this framework, formulaic sequences represent a phenomenon that is sufficiently different to warrant special status or whether they might best be studied in terms of the larger set of all constructions found in language. Based on data drawn from a large corpus of Wikipedia texts, it is argued that it is extremely difficult to form a distinct class of formulaic sequences without creating highly arbitrary boundaries. On the other hand, based on existing theoretical claims that formulaic sequences are the basis of first language acquisition, a marker of proficiency in a language, critical to the success of communicative acts and key to rapid language processing, it is argued that formulaic sequences as constructions are nevertheless significant enough to be the focus of research, and a theoretical category meriting particular attention. These findings have key repercussions both for research primarily interested in formulaic language and phraseology as well as for construction grammatical research

Formulaic sequences: a drop in the ocean of constructions or something more significant?

This article investigates how formulaic sequences fit into a constructionist approach to grammar, which is a major post-Chomskyan family of approaches to linguistic structure. I consider whether, in this framework, formulaic sequences represent a phenomenon that is sufficiently different to warrant special status or whether they might best be studied in terms of the larger set of all constructions found in language. Based on data drawn from a large corpus of Wikipedia texts, it is argued that it is extremely difficult to form a distinct class of formulaic sequences without creating highly arbitrary boundaries. On the other hand, based on existing theoretical claims that formulaic sequences are the basis of first language acquisition, a marker of proficiency in a language, critical to the success of communicative acts and key to rapid language processing, it is argued that formulaic sequences as constructions are nevertheless significant enough to be the focus of research, and a theoretical category meriting particular attention. These findings have key repercussions both for research primarily interested in formulaic language and phraseology as well as for construction grammatical research

Vocatives in Subtitles: a Survey across Genres

The purpose of this contribution is to investigate the function of vocatives and their translation in interlinguistic subtitles over different film genres. Our previous investigation (Bruti, Perego 2005) was based on a small corpus that included 2 British and 2 American films, belonging approximately to the same genre, i.e. COMEDY (with the exception of "The Talented Mr Ripley", which begins as a COMEDY but turns into a DRAMATIC MYSTERY STORY). This project aims to investigate the various roles vocatives play in the construction of the narrative according to the different needs that different film genres aim to fulfil. The corpus has therefore been extended to include: a full-length animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures ("Bambi", D. Hand, 1942), an action film ("Lethal Weapon 4", R. Donner, 1998), an adaptation from a literary masterpiece ("Sense and Sensibility", A. Lee, 1996), a popular comedy series (two episodes of "Sex and the City", Season 4, “The Agony and the Ex-tasy”, M.P. King, 2001 and “I heart NY”, M.P. King 2002) and an animated series (two episodes of "The Simpsons", “Homer in the night”, R. Moore, 1989-90; “Homer the Moe”, J. Kamerman, 2001-02)