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IAPR TC-11 (READING SYSTEMS) NEWSLETTER
January, 2018
========================================================================
IAPR TC-11 HOMEPAGE: <http://www.iapr-tc11.org>

Online Version:  
<http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=IAPR-TC11:_Newsletter_2018/1>

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

- Message from the Editor 
- Dates and Deadlines
    - Deadlines
    - Upcoming Conference Dates
- Call for Hosting Proposals for the TC10/TC11 Summer School
- Conferences
    - ICFHR 2018: Call for Papers 
    - ICFHR 2018 Competitions: Call for Participation
    - ICPR 2018: Handwritten Texts for Personality Identification Competition
- IJDAR
    - New Issue: IJDAR Dec. 2017 (Vol. 20, Issue 4)
    - IJDAR Discount for IAPR Members (repost)
- Careers
    - Funded Masters' Thesis/Internship at L3i Lab (Univ. De La Rochelle, France)
    - Student Industrial Internship Opportunities (IAPR List) - repost

Message from the Editor
=======================

This month we feature the upcoming ICFHR conference, and the TC10/TC11
Summer School. Also, the window is closing, but short paper submissions
for [DAS 2018](https://das2018.cvl.tuwien.ac.at/en) are still open
today.

**ICFHR:** [Paper submission](http://icfhr2018.org/submit-paper.html) is
now officially open. For the first time this year, reviewing will be
double-blind. A number of interesting
[competitions](http://icfhr2018.org/competitions.html) are also being
held - please have a look and consider participating.

**TC10/TC11 Summer School.** If you are at all interested in hosting the
TC10/TC11 Summer School, please contact the Education Officer Dr. Gernot
Fink by email (<Gernot.Fink@tu-dortmund.de>) to express your interest as
soon as possible. The deadline for proposal submission is Jan. 31st.

**Join us!** If you are not already a member of the TC-11 community,
please consider joining the [TC11 mailing
list](https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=iapr-tc11&A=1).

**Richard Zanibbi, TC-11 Communications Officer**  
(<rxzvcs@rit.edu>)

Dates and Deadlines
===================

Deadlines
---------

**2018**

-   **Jan. 24 (EXTENDED):** DAS 2018 Short Paper Submission ( [Call for
    Papers](https://das2018.cvl.tuwien.ac.at/media/filer_public/e6/2e/e62e0e62-34a9-46da-a64d-c5c6567d790f/cfp.pdf)
    )
-   **Jan. 31:** TC-10/TC-11 Summer School Proposal Deadline ( [Proposal
    Guidelines](http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php/Guidelines_for_Organising_and_Bidding_to_Host_the_TC10_/_TC11_Summer_School)
    )
-   **Feb. 1/8:** DocEng abstracts/manuscripts ( [Call for
    Papers](https://doceng.org/doceng2018/cfp) )
-   **Mar. 2/9:** ICFHR 2018 abstract/paper submissions ([Call for
    Papers](http://icfhr2018.org/pdf/ICFHR2018_CFP.pdf) )

Upcoming Conference Dates
-------------------------

**2018**

-   [ASAR 2018](http://asar.ieee.tn). London, UK (March 12-14, 2018)
-   [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://icfhr2018.org). Niagara Falls, USA (August
    5-8, 2018)
-   [ICPR 2018](http://www.icpr2018.org). Beijing, China (August
    20-24, 2018)
-   [DocEng 2018](https://doceng.org/doceng2018). Halifax, Canada
    (August 28-31, 2018)

**2019 and Later**

-   [ICDAR 2019](http://www.icdar2019.org), Sydney, Australia (September
    22-25, 2019)
-   [ICFHR 2020](http://www.icfhr2020.org). Dortmund, Germany (September
    8-10, 2020)

Call for Hosting Proposals for the TC10/TC11 Summer School
==========================================================

**Important Dates**

    Proposal Submission          Jan. 31, 2018

Part of the mission of IAPR TC11 and TC10 is to promote high quality
educational activities related to Reading Systems and Graphics
Recognition. Responding to this need, TC10 and TC11 have decided to
establish a bi-annual series of summer schools. After the successful
organization of the first summer school in Jaipur, India, we are now are
soliciting proposals for the organisation of the second "IAPR TC10/TC11
Summer School on Document Analysis" in 2018 or early 2019.

The "IAPR TC10/TC11 Summer School on Document Analysis" is intended to
become the prime educational activity of IAPR TC11 (Reading Systems) and
TC10 (Graphics Recognition). The School is meant to be a training
activity where participants are exposed to the latest trends and
techniques of Reading Systems and Graphics Recognition.

The aim of the School is to provide both an objective and clear overview
and an in-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art research in selected
topics of Reading Systems and Graphics Recognition. The School should
aim to provide a stimulating opportunity for young researchers and
Ph.D. students in the field.

Individuals and groups who are interested in Reading Systems and
Graphics Recognition are invited to submit proposals for organizing and
hosting the 2018 IAPR TC10 / TC11 Summer School. As the last summer
school was organized in Asia, organizing teams from Europe or the
Americas are encouraged to submit a bid in order to facilitate the
envisioned rotational scheme of the IAPR TC10 / TC11 Summer School.

It is expected that proposers familiarise themselves with the guidelines
for organising the School first, to fully plan their bid. The Guidelines
can be found at the TC11 Web site:

<http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php/Guidelines_for_Organising_and_Bidding_to_Host_the_TC10_/_TC11_Summer_School>

The submission of a bid implies full agreement with the rules and
procedures for organising the School. Especially, this means that
organizers will apply for IAPR support and that the event will use the
series title "IAPR TC10/TC11 Summer School on Document Analysis" with an
optional sub-title denoting a special focus of the respective event.

Proposals should be sent to:

-   Gernot A. Fink, TC-11 Education Officer, gernot.fink@udo.edu
-   Syed Saqib Bukhari, TC-10 Educational Officer, saqib.bukhari@dfki.de

**Gernot Fink, TC-11 Education Officer**  
( <Gernot.Fink@tu-dortmund.de> )

Conferences
===========

ICFHR 2018: Call for Papers
---------------------------

**The 16th International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting
Recognition**  
*August 5 - 8, 2018 - Niagara Falls, USA*  
Web page: [icfhr2018.org](http://icfhr2018.org)

**Paper Submission is now Open!**

PDF Version of this Call:
[ICFHR2018\_CFP.pdf](http://icfhr2018.org/pdf/ICFHR2018_CFP.pdf)

**Important Dates**

    March 2, 2018  Paper abstract submission
    March 9, 2018  Full paper submission
     May 25, 2018  Author notifications
    June 22, 2018  Camera-ready papers due

The **International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition
(ICFHR)** is the flagship conference for handwriting recognition
research and applications. The conference brings together experts in
handwriting recognition from academia and industry to share their
experiences and promote research and development in all aspects of
handwriting recognition and handwriting applications.

**ICFHR 2018** is sponsored by the International Association for Pattern
Recognition (IAPR), and organized in part by [IAPR Technical Committee
No. 11 (Reading
Systems)](http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php/IAPR-TC11:Reading_Systems).

**Topics of interest to the conference include, but are not limited
to:**

-   Handwriting Recognition  
-   Cursive Script Recognition  
-   Symbol, Equation, Sketch and Drawing Recognition  
-   Handwritten Document Processing and Understanding  
-   Language Models in Handwriting Recognition  
-   Web-Based Applications  
-   Handwritten Databases and Digital Libraries  
-   Information Extraction & Retrieval  
-   Document Characterization  
-   Form Processing  
-   Word Spotting  
-   Bank-Check Processing  
-   Historical Document Processing  
-   Forensic Studies and Security Issues  
-   Writer Verification and Identification  
-   Performance Enhancement and System Evaluation  
-   Electronic Ink and Pen-Based Systems  
-   Other Offline and Online Applications

**Authors are invited to submit full-length papers of not more than six
(6) pages.** Papers must describe original work, and paper reviews will
be double blind. Instructions for paper submission will be available on
the ICFHR 2018 web site ([icfhr2018.org](http://icfhr2018.org)).

Questions about paper submission should be directed to the Program
Chairs ( <pc@icfhr2018.org> ).

**ICFHR 2018 Organizing Committee**

*General Chairs*  
[Venu Govindaraju](https://cubs.buffalo.edu/about-the-director),
University of Buffalo, USA  
[R. Manmatha](http://ciir.cs.umass.edu/~manmatha), A9/Amazon, USA  
[Richard Zanibbi](https://www.cs.rit.edu/~rlaz), Rochester Institute of
Technology, USA

*Program Chairs*  
[Luiz S. Oliveira](http://web.inf.ufpr.br/luizoliveira), Federal
University Parana, Brazil  
[Umapada Pal](http://www.isical.ac.in/~umapada/), Indian Statistical
Institute, India  
[Christian Viard-Gaudin](http://www.irccyn.ec-nantes.fr/~viardgau),
University of Nantes, France

*Tutorial and Workshop Chairs*  
[Elisa Barney-Smith](https://coen.boisestate.edu/EBarneySmith), Boise
State, USA  
[Seiichi Uchida](http://human.ait.kyushu-u.ac.jp/~uchida/index-e.html),
Kyushu University, Japan

*Competition Program Chairs*  
[Harold
Mouchère](http://www.irccyn.ec-nantes.fr/~mouchere/index.php?lg=en),
University of Nantes, France  
[Nicholas R. Howe](http://www.cs.smith.edu/~nhowe), Smith College, USA

*Publicity Chairs*  
[Thierry Paquet](http://thierry.paquet.free.fr), University of Rouen,
France  
[Utkarsh Porwal](http://labs.ebay.com/people/utkarsh-porwal), eBay, USA  
[Masaki Nakagawa](http://web.tuat.ac.jp/~nakagawa/en/nakagawa.shtml),
Tokyo University Agriculture and Technology, Japan

*Publications Chair*  
[Srirangaraj Setlur](http://www.cedar.buffalo.edu/personnel/ranga.html),
University of Buffalo, USA

*Organizing Chairs*  
[Srirangaraj Setlur](http://www.cedar.buffalo.edu/personnel/ranga.html),
University of Buffalo, USA  
[Ifeoma Nwogu](http://cubs.buffalo.edu/~inwogu), Rochester Insitute of
Technology, USA

*Sponsorship Chair*  
[Prem Natarajan](http://www.isi.edu/about/bio/prem_natarajan),
University of Southern California (ISI), USA

**Richard Zanibbi, Co-Chair, ICFHR 2018**  
( <rxzvcs@rit.edu> )

ICFHR 2018 Competitions: Call for Participation
-----------------------------------------------

-   Web: <http://icfhr2018.org/competitions.html>  
-   Twitter:
    [@IAPR_TC11](http://www.iapr-tc11.org/mediawiki/index.php/IAPR-TC11:Reading\_Systems)
    @@ICFHR2018 @@ICFHR2018competitions

**Important Dates**

        1 June 2018:  Full papers describing competitions due 
       29 June 2018:  Accepted camera-ready papers due

ICFHR 2018 is hosting seven competitions in the following areas:

-   Handwritten Document Image Binarization Contest
-   Recognition of Historical Arabic Scientific Manuscripts
-   Multi-script Writer Identification
-   Vietnamese Online Handwritten Text Recognition using HANDS-VNOnDB
-   Competition on Automated Text Recognition on a READ Dataset
-   Document Image Analysis Tasks for Southeast Asian Palm Leaf
    Manuscripts
-   Thai Student Signature and Name Components Recognition and
    Verification

Please visit the competitions [web
page](http://icfhr2018.org/competitions.html), and contact the
organizers through the available links. If you have any questions,
please contact the Competitions Chairs at <competitions@icfhr2018.org>.

**Harold Mouchère and Nicholas Howe, ICFHR 2018 Competition Chairs**  
( <competitions@icfhr2018.org> )

ICPR 2018: Handwritten Texts for Personality Identification Competition
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

A Competition on <i>Multimedia Information Processing for Personality
and Social Networks Analysis</i> is being held as a part of ICPR 2018 by
members of IAPR TC-12. One task in particular may be of interest to the
TC-11 community:

**Task 2 - HWxPI: Handwritten texts for Personality Identification.**
The corpus used in this task consists of handwritten Spanish essays from
undergraduates Mexican students. For each essay two files are available:
a manual transcript of the text and a scan image of the original sheet
where the subject hand-wrote the essay. The texts of manual
transcriptions have tags to mark some handwritten phenomena namely:

-   FO (well-written word (misspelling)),
-   D (description (drawing)),
-   IN (insertion of a letter into a word),
-   MD (modification of a word, that is a correction of a word),
-   DL (elimination of a word),
-   NS (when two words were written together; e.g. Iam instead of I am )
    and,
-   SB (syllabification).

Each essay is labelled with five values corresponding to 5 personality
traits in the Big Five Model of Personality. The traits are
Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional stability, and
Openness to experience. The range of the value for each trait is 1 to 7.

For additional details, please contact Dr. Dimos Karatzas, who can
direct you to the competition organizers.

Dimosthenis Karatzas, ICPR Contest Co-Chair  
(<dimos@cvc.uab.es>)

IJDAR
=====

New Issue: IJDAR Dec. 2017 (Vol. 20, Issue 4)
---------------------------------------------

**Table of Contents**

Click on the links to go directly to the Springer Link page for each
article.

[A restoration method for distorted comics to improve comic contents
identification.](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10032-017-0291-9)  
Authors:Sang-Hoon Lee, Doyoung Kim, Sagar Jadhav, Sanghoon Lee

[Character segmentation and transcription system for historical Japanese
books with a self-proliferating character image
database.](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10032-017-0292-8)
Authors: Chulapong Panichkriangkra, Liang Li, Takaaki Kaneko, Ryo Akama,
Kozaburo Hachimura

[Recognition of handwritten Lanna Dhamma characters using a set of
optimally designed moment
features.](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10032-017-0290-x)
Authors: Papangkorn Inkeaw, Phasit Charoenkwan, Hui-Ling Huang,
Sanparith Marukatat, Shinn-Ying Ho, Jeerayut Chaijaruwanich

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/intjournal.php>
-   [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**  
( <kise@cs.osakafu-u.ac.jp>, <lopresti@cse.lehigh.edu>,
<simone.marinai@unifi.it> )

Careers
=======

Funded Masters' Thesis/Internship at L3i Lab (Univ. De La Rochelle, France)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following funded masters thesis/internship is available at the L3i
Lab at the University of Rochelle (France), under the supervision of a
young and dynamic team. Please forward this information to students at
your institution.

**Topic: Applications of Scene Text Detection/Recognition for the
Visually Impaired and/or Tourist Guidance**

**Executive Summary**

Text appears everywhere in our natural surrounding environments such as
in traffic signs, license plates, advertisement billboards, business
cards, building signs, labels on posted parcels and on name plates.
People who suffer from visual impairment face challenges reading the
text in all those situations, whether reading such text is a necessity
for their everyday life or simply for navigating and/or enjoying the
world around them. We propose to develop an app for mobile and/or
wearable devices to assist the visually impaired by narrating the text
in their surrounding natural scenes.

This internship would produce a complete working pipeline of a mobile
scene text accessibility system for the visually impaired. The main
modules of this pipeline of a smartphone app are: video capture,
preprocessing and frame selection, text detection, text recognition
(OCR), text-to-speech and/or augmented reality. The app will be tested
on Android smartphones and smart-glasses.

**Key Words**

Scene text detection, scene text recognition, OCR, text accessibility
for the visually impaired, Android, wearable devices, mobile-captured
images

**For more details** please refer to the website of L3i La Rochelle:
<http://l3i.univ-larochelle.fr/Emplois-Stages>.

**Muzzamil Luqman, L3i Lab, Univ. de la Rochelle**  
( <mluqma01@univ-lr.fr> )

Student Industrial Internship Opportunities (IAPR List) - repost
----------------------------------------------------------------

[IAPR's Industrial Liaison
Committee](http://www.iapr.org/committees/committees.php?id=5&subid=53)
is pleased to announce the opening of its Company Internship Brokerage
List.

The web page lists internship opportunities for students at different
levels of education and specialism. We expect many additional internship
opportunities to be listed here as the community becomes more aware of
the site.

IAPR Company Internship Brokerage List:

<http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/IAPR/INDUSTRIAL>

**Bob Fisher, Chair, IAPR Industrial Liason Committee**  
( <rbf@inf.ed.ac.uk> )

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. *The TC-11 newsletter goes out on roughly the
15th of each month - submissions that arrive by the 14th will be included.*

**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](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.