Automatic Analysis and indexing of variable-layout documents

In this paper a methodology for analysis and automatic indexing of imaged documents within an archiving and retrieval system is described. This system, which is being developed within the Esprit project STRETCH (STorage and RETrieval by Content of imaged documents), is based on a new generation Archiving and Retrieval Engine (ARE), which overcomes the bottleneck of document profiling by alleviating the existing limitations of pre-defined indexing schemes. The ARE exploits a structured document representation and can activate appropriate methods to characterise and automatically index heterogeneous documents with variable layout. The objective of this system is twofold. First, it aims at combining direct digitalisation, based on location of information fields and OCR, with advanced techniques derived from Image Analysis and Pattern Recognition. Second, it aims at offering ease of use and programming and ability to dynamically adapt to new types of documents. After experiments in some other document domains (i.e. invoices, medical images, circular letters), the system has been tested on bank documents. In this application, several classes of documents are involved. The indexing strategy first automatically classifies the document, thus avoiding pre-sorting, then locates and reads the information pertaining to the specific document class. Experimental results are encouraging.