[IAPR-TC10] Newsletter 142 – June 2020

Posted on by Christophe Rigaud

Welcome to the June edition of the TC10 newsletter.

I hope this message finds you and your loved ones well. In this issue, you will find the first ICDAR2021 call for paper and other major events postponed or moved online: DAS2020 will finally be fully virtual to be held July 27-29, 2020. ICPR2020 have been postponed to January 10-15, 2021.

This pandemic still affects the review process of the GREC-IJDAR special issue, author’s answer should be sent by mid-July.

Please take care and keep safe from COVID-19.

Christophe Rigaud
IAPR-TC10 Communications Officer

Table of content:
1) Upcoming deadlines and events
2) IJDAR article alert
3) ICDAR 2021 conference
4) ICPR 2020 conference
5) ICDAR 2021 competition
6) Job offers (1 new)

Call for Contributions: please contribute to TC10 newsletters, by sending any relevant news, event, notice, open position, dataset or link to us on iapr.tc10[at]gmail.com

1) Upcoming deadlines and events

2020

  • Deadlines:
    • July 15, second round paper submission deadline for ICPR 2020
    • October 16 June 8, paper submission deadline for S+SSPR 2020
  • Events:
    • July 27-29, workshop DAS 2020, Wuhan, China (online)
    • August 23-28, conference ECCV 2020, Glasgow, UK (online)
    • September 7-10, conference ICFHR 2020, Dortmund, Germany (online)

2021 and later

  • January 10-15, 2021, conference ICPR 2020, Milan, Italy
  • January 19-22 September 8-11, 2021, workshop S+SSPR 2020, Padua, Italy (new dates)
  • February 8, 2021: paper submission deadline for ICDAR 2021
  • September 5-10, 2021 conference ICDAR 2021, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • December, 2022 conference ICFHR 2022, Hyderabad, India

2) IJDAR article alert

Volume 23, Issue 2, June 2020
https://link.springer.com/journal/10032/23/2

3) ICDAR 2021 Call for paper

ICDAR 2021

The 16th International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition
September 5-10, 2021 – Lausanne, Switzerland

Web page: https://icdar2021.org
Call for Papers (PDF): ICDAR2021-1st-CfP.pdf
Call for Competitions (PDF): ICDAR2021-1st-CfC.pdf
Contact: info@icdar2021.org

Conference

ICDAR is the premier international event for scientists and practitioners involved with document analysis and recognition, a field of growing importance in the current age of digital transition. In 2021, the 16th edition of this flagship conference will be held in Switzerland for the first time.

The organizers are committed to holding a safe and secure ICDAR 2021 in the face of the current worldwide health crisis arising from COVID-19. In the event it becomes necessary, ICDAR 2021 will be held with options for remote “virtual” participation. All accepted papers will be published in the ICDAR 2021 proceedings, whether or not the conference takes place physically.

Important Dates

Main Conference

08 Feb 2021: Paper submission deadline
26 Apr 2021: Notification of acceptance
17 May 2021: Camera-ready version submission deadline
05-07 Sep 2021: Workshops, tutorials, and doctoral consortium
08-10 Sep 2021: Main conference dates

Special Journal Track

02 Nov 2020: Article submission deadline
11 Jan 2021: Initial decision announced to authors
15 Mar 2021: Revised version submission deadline
31 May 2021: Final decision announced to authors

Competitions

12 Jun 2020: Long-term competition proposal due
01 Jul 2020: Long-term competition acceptance notification
04 Sep 2020: Short-term competition proposal due
30 Sep 2020: Short-term competition acceptance notification
31 May 2021: Camera-ready papers due

Topics of interest to the conference include, but are not limited to:

  • Document image processing
  • Physical and logical layout analysis
  • Text and symbol recognition
  • Handwriting recognition
  • Document analysis systems
  • Document classification
  • Indexing and retrieval of documents
  • Document synthesis
  • Extracting document semantics
  • NLP for document understanding
  • Document summarization and translation
  • Office automation
  • Human document interaction
  • Multimedia document analysis
  • Mobile text recognition
  • Pen‐based document analysis
  • Scene text detection and recognition
  • Graphics recognition
  • Recognition of tables and formulas
  • Historical document analysis
  • Signature verification
  • Document forensics and provenance analysis
  • Medical document analysis
  • Document analysis for social good
  • Document analysis for literature search
  • Gold-standard benchmarks and data sets

Submission and Review

ICDAR 2021 will follow a double blind review process. Authors should not include their names and affiliations anywhere in the manuscript. Authors should also ensure that their identity is not revealed indirectly by citing their previous work in the third person, and omit acknowledgements until the camera-ready version. Papers accepted for the conference will be allocated 6 pages in the proceedings, with the option of purchasing up to 2 extra pages.

Like in the previous ICDAR edition, we will have a special IJDAR journal track reporting the latest advances of document analysis and recognition on complex documents using advanced techniques. Papers submitted to the journal track should follow the format of IJDAR submissions and all of the standard guidelines.

Andreas Fischer, Rolf Ingold, and Marcus Liwicki – ICDAR 2021 General Chairs
(info@icdar2021.org)

See more…

4) ICPR 2020 conference (second round)

25th International Conference on Pattern Recognition
10-15 January 2021 – Milan, Italy

For the first time ever, ICPR is providing a two-round paper submission and review process. The second round is now open.
In this second round, you can either submit a new paper or resubmit a revised and improved version of a paper that was not accepted in the first round.

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to submit your latest work to ICPR2020.

The ICPR2020 General Chairs

Clarifications on the reviewing system and more information will appear on the ICPR2020 website soon.

We are considering offering a mixed virtual and in-person conference solution, so as to allow multiple participation options for people with different circumstances. We will share updates as soon as we have taken decisions on this.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

Paper submission (first round): April 15th, 2020 (extended)
Paper submission (second round): July 15th, 2020
Tutorials proposal: April 1st, 2020
Demos and exhibits proposal: June 15th, 2020

General Chairs
Rita Cucchiara, Alberto del Bimbo, Stan Sclaroff

See more…

5) ICDAR2021 competition

The ICDAR2021 Organizing Committee invites proposals for Competitions that aim at evaluating the performance of algorithms and methods related to areas of document analysis and recognition.

Note that we distinguish between long and short-term competitions, they share the same rules but a different calendar. The long-term competitions should be open for a longer time period and address challenges where teams can work for a year on them. Short-term competitions will be announced later and can address very recent challenges. Furthermore, long competitions will be specially featured through special awards and prominent communication with oral sessions in the main conference.

Important Dates

June 12, 2020: Long-Term Competition Proposal Due
July 1, 2020: Long-Term Competition Acceptance Notification
September 4, 2020: Short-Term Competition Proposal Due
September 30, 2020: Short-Term Competition Acceptance Notification

March 31, 2021: Suggested deadline for competition participants
May 03, 2021: Initial Submission of Competition Reports Deadline
(papers must be sent directly to the Competition Chairs)
May 31, 2021: Camera-Ready Papers Due

Proposal

You are cordially invited to submit a proposal, that should contain the following information:

  • A brief description of the competition (not more than 1 page), including what the particular task under evaluation is and why this competition is of interest to the ICDAR community.
  • A draft of the outline of the competition describing competition schedule, the expected number of participants and its rationale, which data is planned to be used, how will the submitted methods be evaluated and which performance measures will be used.
  • The names, contact information, and brief CVs of the competition organizers, outlining previous experience in performance evaluation and/or organizing competitions.

The following rules shall apply to the accepted competition:

  • The name of the competition must be standardized by starting with “ICDAR 2021” e.g. “ICDAR 2021 Competition on …” or “ICDAR 2021 … Competition.”
  • Datasets used in the competitions must be made available after the end of the competitions. If the competition has already occured, the previous dataset should already be available. In principle, the organizers should submit the dataset to http://tc11.cvc.uab.es/
  • Evaluation methodologies and metrics used must be described in detail so that results can be replicated later. Especially for the long-term competitions, it is preferable that the evaluation methodologies are open source and can be easily accessible from the participants but also from the research community.
  • Participants should not have access to the ground-truthed dataset until the end of the competition, the evaluation should be done by the organizers.
  • The basic length of reports of the competitions is the same as for the regular paper (i.e., 6 pages). If there are circumstances to be considered, upon request, Competition Chairs may allow additional pages for the competitions reports, if necessary.
  • The results of competitions will be announced during a dedicated session of the ICDAR 2021 conference.
  • Each competition has to be presented with a poster at a prominent place at the conference venue. All accepted long-term competitions will be presented orally in a dedicated session as mentioned above.

Based on the analysis of the received proposals, the competitions chairs will first synchronize with the competitions organizers and then submit a proposal to the program committee, in order to finalize the organization of the competitions.

Submission Guidelines & Inquiries

All proposals should be submitted by electronic mail to the Competition Chairs via: competition-chairs@icdar2021.org

Note that we opt at accepting a significantly lower number of competitions than in the past. We encourage that competitions are open for a longer time (long-term). For any inquiries you may have regarding the competitions, please contact us via above email.

Harold Mouchère and Foteini Simistira Liwicki
Competitions Chairs of ICDAR 2021
Email: competition-chairs@icdar2021.org

For more information, please download PDF call or visit: https://icdar2021.org/calls/call-for-competitions/

6) Job offers (1 new)

— Post-doc position – L3i – La Rochelle France (new) —

Automatic classification of business documents

The LabCom IDEAS calls for applications for a post-doctoral position in computer science, in the field of machine learning, for the classification of business documents.

Duration: 12 months (with possibilities of renewal)
Desired hiring date: September 1 st , 2020 (may be modified according to the sanitary situation)
Take-home salary: 2100 € / month (French public healthcare coverage included)
Workplace: LabCom IDEAS, on the premises of the L3i laboratory in La Rochelle, France
Specialties: Computer Science / Machine Learning / Classification / Image Analysis / Automatic Language Processing

Description of the LabCom:

The post-doc fellow will be based in the LabCom, located in the premises of the Laboratory L3i, in La Rochelle, France.

Yooz, Labcom’s industrial partner, is a provider of a Cloud service for automating purchasing and payment processes. Yooz integrates Artificial Intelligence technologies to automate the processes and document processing involved in these processes. The yooz service is used daily by nearly 3000 users.
The research and development carried out within the LabCom focuses on 3 main areas:

  • Document classification
  • Document search
  • Document fraud detection

Job description:

The work of the post-doc fellow will fall within the framework of the area “Document Classification”. The aim is to design innovative approaches for classifying documents (according to their nature: invoice, quotation, bank account details, …) in multi-channel incoming document flows and to create, from these approaches, a prototype.

Candidate Profile:

The candidate, who holds a Ph.D. in the fields of computer science, computer engineering, signal processing, or applied mathematics, must have a significant research experience in at least two of the following areas:

  • Machine learning / classification
  • Image analysis
  • Pattern recognition

Moreover, knowledge or experience of Automatic Language Processing would be appreciated.

The candidate’s skills will include:

  • Mastering one or more programming languages (Java, Python, C/C++…)
  • Very good teamwork skills, having knowledge or experience of Agile methods would be a plus (a the work will be carried out both in conjunction with researchers from the L3i laboratory and the R&D department of the Yooz company).
  • Good scientific writing skills, and fluency in writing and speaking English.

To apply:

Candidates for this position should send a CV and a cover letter (names and reference details would be appreciated) to:

muriel.visani [at] univ-lr.fr
nicolas.sidere [at] univ-lr.fr
Vincent.PoulaindAndecy [at] getyooz.com
Aurelie.Joseph [at] getyooz.com

Applications will be considered as they arise, so there is no strict deadline for applying, even though we would prefer to have selected the best applicant by mid-July.

See full description: https://iapr-tc10.univ-lr.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ENversion_20-_20PostDoc2020_20-_20Document_20Classification_20-_20La_20Rochelle_20-_20FRANCE.pdf

— Post-doc position – L3i – La Rochelle France (repost) —

Title: Detection and verification of visual security devices in documents

The L3i laboratory has an open post-doc position in computer science, in the specific field of document image analysis and pattern recognition

Duration: 12 months
Position available from: April 1st, 2019
Salary: approximately 2100 € / month (net)
Place: L3i lab, La Rochelle University, France
Specialty: Computer Science/ Image Processing/ Document Analysis/ Pattern Recognition

Contact: petra.gomez[at]univ-lr.fr, sylvain.marchand[at]univ-lr.fr, jcburie[at]univ-lr.fr

Position Description

The L3i is a research lab of the University of La Rochelle. La Rochelle is a city in the south west of France on the Atlantic coast and is one of the most attractive and dynamic cities in France. The L3i works since several years on document analysis and has developed a well-known expertise in fraud detection.

The work done by the post-doc will take part of a project with a private company. The objective is to develop detection and verification methods of the security visual devices in order to check the authenticity of the documents. For example, some security visual devices consist in adding a hologram. However, many other security devices exist. The particularity will be to use the video stream of a mobile phone as the source of information. Some security devices will be studied to determine the ones that are able to ensure the authenticity of the documents. A specific acquisition protocol may be proposed to improve the robustness of the algorithms. Real-time implementation of the proposed methods will be necessary.

Qualifications

Candidates must have a completed PhD and a research experience in image processing and analysis, video analysis and pattern recognition. Some knowledge and experience in colour image/video processing are also recommended.

General Qualifications

• Good programming skills mastering at least one programming language like Java, Python, C/C++
• Good teamwork skills
• Good writing skills and proficiency in written and spoken English or French

Applications

A motivation letter and CV along-with list of publications should be addressed to: petra.gomez[at]univ-lr.fr, sylvain.marchand[at]univ-lr.fr, jcburie[at]univ-lr.fr
Copies of a few of the most relevant publications are welcome.

See the following file: https://iapr-tc10.univ-lr.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Post-Doc_IDECYS_final_GB-1.pdf

— Post-doc position – L3i – La Rochelle France (repost) —

Title : Recognition of text with variable styles in comics books

Duration: 12 months
Position available from: May 1st, 2019
Salary: approximately 2100 € / month (net)
Place: L3i lab, University of La Rochelle, France
Specialty: Computer Science/ Image Processing/ Document Analysis/ Pattern Recognition
Contact: Jean-Christophe BURIE (jcburie [at] univ-lr.fr)

Position description

See the following file: https://iapr-tc10.univ-lr.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/post-doc-L3i_BD.pdf