Walker R. Thompson

Walker Thompson read Russian and German as an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, going on to complete his Master’s in Syriac Studies at Wolfson College in 2019. From 2019–2020, he was an Academic Assistant at the Slavic Institute of Heidelberg University. Since October 2020, he has been continuing his doctoral research on Epifanij Slavineckij’s lexicographical works as a DAAD-GSSP scholar at the Heidelberg Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HGGS). His teaching and research interests span a diverse range of topics including digital humanities, graphematics, language contact, early modern lexicography, the history of Church Slavonic, and Eastern Orthodox liturgics.

Thompson, Walker R.

walker.thompson@slav.uni-heidelberg.de

Slavic Institute, Heidelberg University

Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 23, 2023

Achim Rabus Walker R. Thompson Ефективност на генерични модели HTR за историческа кирилица и глаголица: Сравнение на средства

Performance of Generic HTR Models on Historical Cyrillic and Glagolitic: Comparison of Engines

Summary/Abstract

The present study offers a comparative evaluation of the performance of different AI-based digital tools for handwritten text recognition (HTR) on historical manuscripts and prints. The focus is on generic models capable of transcribing a range of texts in a similar script. The training dataset for these comprises Old Cyrillic ustav and poluustav manuscripts, on the one hand, and early Glagolitic printed books, on the other. We give an overview of the performance statistics for the HTR platforms Transkribus and eScriptorium as well as for the command-line tool Calamari. In each case, we additionally offer a close, qualitative analysis of select examples in order to convey a sense of the models’ real-world performance. In this way, our study supplies comparative data on the respective capabilities of these technologies that ought to be of interest to scholars working with them in digital humanities projects.

Subject: Language studies Language and Literature Studies Theoretical Linguistics Applied Linguistics Historical Linguistics Computational linguistics South Slavic Languages Philology Translation Studies

Keywords: handwritten text recognition TRANSKRIBUS MACHINE LEARNING Cyrillic palaeography Glagolitic printings

Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 21, 2021

Walker R. Thompson Using Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) Tools to Transcribe Historical Multilingual Lexica

Използване на приложения за разпознаване на ръкописни текстове (HTR) при транскрибиране на многоезични исторически лексикони

Summary/Abstract

The paper discusses some results obtained as part of an ongoing project at the Slavic Institute of Heidelberg University to produce automatic transcriptions of an early 18th century trilingual printed dictionary (Fedor Polikarpov’s Leksikon trejazyčnyj) and, on a preliminary basis, of a 17th century trilingual manuscript (Epifanij Slavineckii’s working copy of his Greek–Slavic–Latin dictionary) using the handwritten text recognition (HTR) platforms Transkribus and eScriptorium. It is argued that there are considerable advantages to employing such tools in terms of the simplification and acceleration of work on multilingual edition projects. Moreover, a comparison of our experience working with Transkribus and eScriptorium is given, along with an overview of the practical benefits and challenges of working with each of these platforms.

Subject: Digital humanities

Keywords: TRANSKRIBUS eScriptorium handwritten text recognition HTR pre-modern Early modern multilingual lexica

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