Leveraging GenAI for Segmenting and Labeling Centuries-old Technical Documents

Image segmentation and image recognition are well established computational techniques in the broader discipline of image processing. Segmentation allows to locate areas in an image, while recognition identifies specific objects within an image. These techniques have shown remarkable accuracy with modern images, mainly because the amount of training data is vast. Achieving similar accuracy in digitized images of centuries-old documents is more challenging. This difficulty is due to two main reasons: first, the lack of sufficient training data, and second, because the degree of specialization in a given domain. Despite these limitations, the ability to segment and recognize objects in these collections is important for automating the curation, cataloging, and dissemination of knowledge, making the contents of priceless collections accessible to scholars and the general public. In this paper, we report on our ongoing work in segmenting and labeling images pertaining to shipbuilding treatises from the XVI and XVII centuries, a historical period known as the Age of Exploration. To this end, we leverage SAM2 for image segmentation; Florence2 and ChatGPT for labeling; and a specialized ontology ontoShip and glossary glosShip of nautical architecture for enhancing the labeling process. Preliminary results demonstrate the potential of marrying these technologies for improving curation and retrieval of priceless historical documents. We also discuss the challenges and limitations encountered in this approach and ideas on how to overcome them in the future.