Typography Workshop

Searching for printed images with computer vision 

Abstract: Computer vision has made rapid progress in recent years: computers can now reliably match the same image; find differences in similar images; and classify content within multiple images. This hands-on session will demonstrate how to install and use state-of-the-art open source software from the University of Oxford’s Visual Geometry Group. Attendees will leave the session with knowledge of how to match, differentiate, classify and annotate content within many kinds of images, but with particular reference to print.

Requirements: a relatively recent laptop (not a tablet or phone), ideally one capable of running Docker (please install in advance, if possible). Online demos will be provided for those unable to install software. Demonstration data will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring along (1) pairs of images exhibiting small differences, such as variant printings, restruck coins or altered photographs and (2) collections of images containing identical features, such as multiple images of buildings, duplicate photographs or collections of woodcuts and other printed images, and their original printing surfaces.

Bio: Dr. Giles Bergel (www.printing-machine.org) is a digital humanist and book historian based in the Department of Engineering Sciences at the University of Oxford and the Department of Information Studies at University College London. He has been working on computer vision within the humanities since the creation of the Bodleian Library’s Broadside Ballads Online resource in 2012, which implements a computer vision tool that is among several that he now manages and supports. HIs other interests include bibliography, typography and book design; the history of copyright; book trade history; and text encoding

The workshop will take place in Typography Room T4.  If you are interested in attending this workshop and have not already registered, please contact Dr Rob Banham directly – r.e.banham@reading.ac.uk