# Animated Territorial Data Extractor (ATDE): A Computer-Vision Method for Extracting Territorial Data from Animated Historical Maps

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17920 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17920/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
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- First posted on arXiv 22 Nov 2025.

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present Animated Territorial Data Extractor (ATDE), a computer vision tool that extracts quantitative territorial data from animated historical map videos. ATDE employs HSV-based color segmentation, RGB channel filtering, and Direct-Neighbor Filtering to identify and count pixels representing territorial control. Combined with preprocessing for temporal alignment and cross-video scaling, the pipeline converts animated videos into structured time-series data. We demonstrate the tool on ten Chinese dynasties (200 BCE - 1912 CE), producing year-by-year pixel counts that align with expected historical patterns. While not a substitute for authoritative historical datasets, ATDE is well-suited for educational demonstrations, preliminary data exploration, and comparative analysis of territorial dynamics. The tool requires no pre-existing shapefiles and can be applied to any animated map video given seed colors and basic configuration. Code and examples are available on GitHub.