Reading Systems: An introduction to Digital Document Processing

As an introduction to the area of digital document processing we first take a few steps back and take a look at the purpose of digital document processing. Subsequently a detailed comparison between the human and the artificial reading system is made. Finally, the chapter provides an overview on the book as a whole. Methods for the creation and persistent storage of text [10] have existed since the Mesopotamian clay tablets, the Chinese writings on bamboo and silk as well as the Egyptian writings on papyrus. For search and retrieval, methods for systematic archiving of complete documents in a library were developed by monks and by the clerks of emperors and kings in several cultures. However, the technology of editing an existing document by local addition and correction of text elements has a much younger history. Traditional copying and improvement of text was a painstakingly slow process, sometimes involving many man years for one single document of importance. The invention of the pencil and eraser in 1858 was one of the signs of things to come. The advent of the typing machine by Sholes in 1860 allowed for faster copying and a simultaneous on-the-fly editing of text. The computer, finally, allowed for a very convenient processing of text in digital form. However, even today, methods for generating a new document are still more advanced and mature than are the methods for processing an existing document. ?? Appeared as Chapter 1 in: Digital Document Processing (2007). B. Chaudhuri (Ed.). Springer, pp. 1-28, ISBN 978-1-84628-501-1 (Advances in Pattern Recognition Se-