AON: Towards Arbitrarily-Oriented Text Recognition

Recognizing text from natural images is a hot research topic in computer vision due to its various applications. Despite the enduring research of several decades on optical character recognition (OCR), recognizing texts from natural images is still a challenging task. This is because scene texts are often in irregular (e.g. curved, arbitrarily-oriented or seriously distorted) arrangements, which have not yet been well addressed in the literature. Existing methods on text recognition mainly work with regular (horizontal and frontal) texts and cannot be trivially generalized to handle irregular texts. In this paper, we develop the arbitrary orientation network (AON) to directly capture the deep features of irregular texts, which are combined into an attention-based decoder to generate character sequence. The whole network can be trained end-to-end by using only images and word-level annotations. Extensive experiments on various benchmarks, including the CUTE80, SVT-Perspective, IIIT5k, SVT and ICDAR datasets, show that the proposed AON-based method achieves the-state-of-the-art performance in irregular datasets, and is comparable to major existing methods in regular datasets.Comment: Accepted by CVPR201

Artefacts and Errors: Acknowledging Issues of Representation in the Digital: Imaging of Ancient Texts

It is assumed, in palaeography, papyrology and epigraphy, that a certain amount of uncertainty is inherent in the reading of damaged and abraded texts. Yet we have not really grappled with the fact that, nowadays, as many scholars tend to deal with digital images of texts, rather than handling the texts themselves, the procedures for creating digital images of texts can insert further uncertainty into the representation of the text created. Technical distortions can lead to the unintentional introduction of ‘artefacts’ into images, which can have an effect on the resulting representation. If we cannot trust our digital surrogates of texts, can we trust the readings from them? How do scholars acknowledge the quality of digitised images of texts? Furthermore, this leads us to the type of discussions of representation that have been present in Classical texts since Plato: digitisation can be considered as an alternative form of representation, bringing to the modern debate of the use of digital technology in Classics the familiar theories of mimesis (imitation) and ekphrasis (description): the conversion of visual evidence into explicit descriptions of that information, stored in computer files in distinct linguistic terms, with all the difficulties of conversion understood in the ekphratic process. The community has not yet considered what becoming dependent on digital texts means for the field, both in practical and theoretical terms. Issues of quality, copying, representation, and substance should be part of our dialogue when we consult digital surrogates of documentary material, yet we are just constructing understandings of what it means to rely on virtual representations of artefacts. It is necessary to relate our understandings of uncertainty in palaeography and epigraphy to our understanding of the mechanics of visualization employed by digital imaging techniques, if we are to fully understand the impact that these will have

Rotation-invariant features for multi-oriented text detection in natural images.

Texts in natural scenes carry rich semantic information, which can be used to assist a wide range of applications, such as object recognition, image/video retrieval, mapping/navigation, and human computer interaction. However, most existing systems are designed to detect and recognize horizontal (or near-horizontal) texts. Due to the increasing popularity of mobile-computing devices and applications, detecting texts of varying orientations from natural images under less controlled conditions has become an important but challenging task. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to detect texts of varying orientations. Our algorithm is based on a two-level classification scheme and two sets of features specially designed for capturing the intrinsic characteristics of texts. To better evaluate the proposed method and compare it with the competing algorithms, we generate a comprehensive dataset with various types of texts in diverse real-world scenes. We also propose a new evaluation protocol, which is more suitable for benchmarking algorithms for detecting texts in varying orientations. Experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our system compares favorably with the state-of-the-art algorithms when handling horizontal texts and achieves significantly enhanced performance on variant texts in complex natural scenes

Pharmacologies of Texts and Images

The problematic of Ekphrasis will be the central tenant of this paper, a relationship between text, language and image. Ekphrasis broadly understood as the relationship between images and words, however, in the case of this paper it will be taken to mean the relationship between words and images in relation to memory. Bernard Stiegler’s work has become well renowned in relation to his exploration of texts and in particular the relationship between texts and technology; an intimate relationship, if writing is to be considered as a form of technology, a mnemonic form. However, there is also another aspect in the work of Bernard Stiegler, which to date has not been fully explored, the role of the image as a placeholder for memory. By examining the proposition that writing functions as a pharmakon, and that a positive pharmacology is possible this paper will attempt to posit the question of images as a pharmacology. Bernard Stiegler has become prominent within debates in critical theory in media and Critical Theory studies in the last number of years. His development of an approach to technology as, firstly, an innately human activity and, secondly, his extension of the work of both Jacques Derrida and Georges Simondon have led to the establishment of a key concept in Bernard Stiegler’s philosophy : Pharmacology. This paper will firstly give an overview of the development of what Bernard Stiegler has termed a positive pharmacology and secondly scope the relationship between pharmacology and the image. In Plato’s Phradeus writing is considered a poison, a mechanical placeholder for memory and not true memory, the rejection of wiring by Plato is founded upon a distinction between memory as mechanical repetition, hypomnesis and memory as access to the truth, anamnesis. Writing for Plato is not a form of anamnesis but a form of hypomnesis. Derrida’s well known text, Plato’s Pharmacy develops a detailed critique of Plato’s understanding of writing as a pharmakon, however whilst Derrida exploits the semantic ambiguity of writing as a pharmakon, as a cure and a poison, he never details how the curative aspects of the pharmakon might be established. The revisiting of Plato’s Pharamacy enables Stiegler to develop both a criticism of Plato and of Derrida. The contention that Plato dismisses wirting as a form of pharmakon, cure and poison, by stating that writing is a form of hypomnesis, a form of automatic memory or regurgitation, is revisited and Stiegler’s analysis leads to a reappraisal of writing as a form of placeholder for memory. Stieglers develops a positive pharmacology through positing relations between anamnesis and hypomnesis, hypomnesis enables anamnesis. Meno’s slave is literate, the slave can read and this enables the philosophical reflection to take place. Therefore, the relationship between anamnesis and hypomnesis is not an exclusive relationship for Stiegler, writing functions as a placeholder for memory but also a means of access to alethea, writing enables reflection to take place. However, in this famous passage from the Phradreus where Plato is said to reject writing, this paper will argue that the reference to image in the text poses a particular problematic, according to Plato words and images continue to say the same thing forever. Writing and Images both function as a form of pharmakon as placeholders for memory. This paper will argue that images are according to Stiegler placeholders, the have a hypomnesic function. The image functions not only a placeholder for memory, a tertiary retention but also according to Stielger as a form of transindividuation. Stiegler developing on from the work of Georges Simondon posits writing as technology and as form of individuating, a form of transindividuation. There is a circuit of transindividuation, where the work acts, works, through a process of individuation and transindividuation. The recipient of the work has a potential, the work of art releases within the recipient. This paper will argue that the work of art, or the image, functions as a form of transindividuation, a circuit of individuating between artist and work of art