Why do they need volonteers to manually do it? Open AI models like Microsoft's TrOCR are very effective for handwritten English
Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
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Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#22I don’t think I believe that OCR can’t do it but random humans can OCR is VERY good
> I don’t think I believe that OCR can’t do it but random humans can
Considering the people involved are experts in their field, are certainly aware of OCR capabilities, and have publicized a need thusly:
... the National Archives is looking for volunteers who can
help transcribe and organize its many handwritten records ...
> OCR is VERY good
Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#23Isn't this like a bread-and-butter AI task? “The following is the declaration of James Lambert, a soldier of the Revolutionary War in North America.” “The said James Lambert, on this day personally appeared in the Probate Court of the County of Dearborn in the State of Indiana, at the November Term of said Court [1841], it being a court of record created by the laws of Indiana, and made oath that on the 25th day of M…
> The agency uses artificial intelligence and a technology known as optical character recognition to extract text from historical documents. But these methods don’t always work, and they aren’t always accurate.
Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#24It says "The following is the dedication of James Lambert a soldier of the Revolutionary wars with the Americas." blah blah blah
I'm not too sure about that reading, I got "The following is the declaration of James Lambert a soldier of the Revolutionary War in South America." rather different
oh, it is "declaration", yes, but not South America. this guy is even on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/James-Lambert-1758-1847-Elaboration-R...
Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#25This is all very cool so I’m not trying to be dismissive. In a lot of ways, giving a hobby out as a way to participate in the national archives is an end in itself. But…computers can definitely do this way better, right?
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Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#26It might be nice for people to be able to actually read the documents in the National Archives rather than relying on a transcription or a mobile app. I wonder if they've considered making a simple tutorial on how to read cursive? It's not that hard if you can already read printed English. And of course you can practice on documents in the National Archives. It's exciting and fun to learn to read an unfamiliar script…
> I wonder if they've considered making a simple tutorial on how to read cursive?
In generations past, this was called "elementary school."
Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
i dont think the problem is the lack of resources to learn how to read and write cursive
Except that it does say that in the article, that’s it's a lack of education in reading cursive.
no, it says the opposite, that there is growing interest in bringing it back into curriculums in various states. but that's aside from the point that the smithsonian making a tutorial on reading cursive would just represent an additional resource, of which we are not lacking, to learn. whether or not we teach it is different, but finding a resource to learn is not hard.
Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#28Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#29I don’t think I believe that OCR can’t do it but random humans can OCR is VERY good
> I don’t think I believe that OCR can’t do it but random humans can Considering the people involved are experts in their field, are certainly aware of OCR capabilities, and have publicized a need thusly: ... the National Archives is looking for volunteers who can help transcribe and organize its many handwritten records ... Perhaps "random humans" can perform tasks which could reshape your belief: > OCR is VERY good
There are conceivable reasons why they may be telling a half truth here. Just engaging the public is a worthy goal here.
Re: Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help
#30Before commenting asking about why they don't just use LLMs, please note that the article specifically calls out that they do, but it's not always a viable solution:
> The agency uses artificial intelligence and a technology known as optical character recognition to extract text from historical documents. But these methods don’t always work, and they aren’t always accurate.
The document at the top is likely an especially easy document to read precisely because it's meant to be the hook to get people to sign up and get started. It isn't going to be representative of the full breadth of documents that the National Archives want people to go through.