Extracting Names Using Layout Clues
in Genealogical Books
Aaron Stewart
David W. Embley
March 20, 2010
Problem
Process
Finding Names
• Name recognition in genealogical texts
• Focus: Lists, Directories
Finding Names
It’s easy for us to spot names… But how does a computer do it?
Which side was easier?
Finding Names
Stanford Named Entity Recognizer
Apache UIMA Framework
CRF MEMM
Natural Language Processing
?
BYU OntoES Ontology Extraction System
• Dictionary
• Regular Expressions
Part 1: Preprocessing
Ancestry.com Data
• Word text
• Word bounding boxes
• Genres:– Genealogical Books– City Directories– Yearbooks– Newspapers
Page Separator
Line Segment Identifier
RANSAC Margin Finder
Margin Finder – Future Work
LeftCenter
Right
Key
Margin Finder – Future Work
• ABBYY FineReader handles –– Paragraphs– Newspaper columns
• But has trouble with –– Hanging indents– Outline indentation (possibly)
Part 2: Pattern Finding
Pattern Finding
1. Apply baseline name extractor (OntoES)
2. Apply margin finder and insert markers
3. Find left and right context for each name
4. Apply common contexts to extract more names
Pattern Finding
1. Apply baseline name extractor (OntoES)
Pattern Finding
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 2
2. Apply margin finder and insert markers
Pattern Finding
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 2
3. Find left and right context for each name
Pattern Finding
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 2
4. Apply common context patterns to extract more names
Pattern Finding – Sample Results
Baseline Results• Precision: 40%• Recall: 31.25%• F1: 35.09%
Results of Most Salient Pattern• Precision: 51.52%• Recall: 53.12%• F1: 52.31% Not all results are this good!
Challenges
• Evaluation– More aligned data– Annotation tool
• Other books– Centered and right-aligned text– Knowing when to apply patterns
