A welcome end to this sub-forum?

[bugbear]

 

http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/machines-reading-the-archive-handwritten-text-recognition-software/

 BugBear

[goldie61]

Interesting initiative from the National Archives Bugbear.
(Only possible through a lot of work from actual people!)
Also pertinent comments from some people who actually use old documents - I hope TNA take their ideas on board.

[Karen McDonald]

Sounds like a good piece of software.
I think, however, it would not fare too well with, for example, Deskman's diary entries which we have all been scratching our heads over during the past weeks... 

Thanks for the link!

Karen

[Gadget]

Will second that, Karen - on both counts 

[bugbear]

Interesting initiative from the National Archives Bugbear.
(Only possible through a lot of work from actual people!)

Yes - a lot of modern AI software needs training sets, which have to come from somewhere.

This also means the program will never (I think) be better than humans, but it may be faster and cheaper.

Imagine all the Canterbury wills indexed and searchable!

 BugBear

[Mike Morrell (NL)]

Interesting - thanks for the link. Still early days, I think. In years to come, I'm sure the training time will decrease and the reliability will increase. It's great that 'volunteers' can use the platform too!

Mike

[Berlin-Bob]

"A welcome end ...." ??

I think not !  Apart from the technical reasons already listed,
there is also the "fun" aspect !

Here (and even more so in german Forums) people like the puzzle that such requests bring.
Some people like crossword puzzles, some people like sodoku and similar numerical puzzles and
... especially among genealogists ... some like the puzzles offered here

regards,
Bob

[bugbear]

"A welcome end ...." ??

I think not !  Apart from the technical reasons already listed,
there is also the "fun" aspect !

Here (and even more so in german Forums) people like the puzzle that such requests bring.
Some people like crossword puzzles, some people like sodoku and similar numerical puzzles and
... especially among genealogists ... some like the puzzles offered here

regards,
Bob

I think, even if paleography were completely solved (which it isn't) genealogy will continue to present puzzles for the forseeable future...

 BugBear

[goldie61]

"A welcome end ...." ??

I think not !  Apart from the technical reasons already listed,
there is also the "fun" aspect !

Here (and even more so in german Forums) people like the puzzle that such requests bring.
Some people like crossword puzzles, some people like sodoku and similar numerical puzzles and
... especially among genealogists ... some like the puzzles offered here

Funny. I like all those things Bob!