ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Building a computer vision pipeline for historical sources: the EIDA project and the automation of astral diagram edition

• In Event: DH in the History of Premodern Sciences 2

English Abstract

By creating digital humanities tools for researchers in history of science, the EIDA project – started in February 2023 – incorporates artificial intelligence into the study and analysis of a corpus of manuscripts of Ptolemaic tradition and early prints of mathematical astronomy. With the help of computer vision algorithms to accelerate specific steps (such as visual elements extraction, clustering, and vectorization) of the processing of the sources, EIDA opens new perspectives for the study of astral diagrams. The information system created for the project, based on a data model enabling the detailed description of the sources, will provide a diversity of tools dedicated to the exploration, analysis, and edition of diagrams in historical sources.

This presentation synthesizes how computer vision algorithms can be integrated to the work of historians and automate multiple steps of the processing of their source material, and how digital tools can be built in collaboration with researchers to both support their work and lay the groundwork for a public platform featuring reusable resources.

Author

• Somkeo Norindr, CNRS-Observatoire de Paris