Pattern Analysis Software ToolsNew Software for Ancient Written Artefacts

11 January 2022

Photo: H. Mohammed/M.T. Larsen

The efficient use of research data is playing an increasingly important role in the humanities. In order to benefit from the advances in the fields of pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, scholars need accessible software. On our website, various tools are available for them to download.

Researchers who study written artefacts produce a wealth of data, both visual and tabular. Efficiently processing this data is key to gaining new insights in their respective fields of study. However, the manual analysis of research data is not only time consuming but also prone to human error. This is why recent advancements in the fields of pattern analysis and artificial intelligence can be so fruitful for researchers in the humanities. To benefit from these advancements, researchers need software tools that are easily accessible and tailored to their specific research questions.

In cooperation with researchers in the humanities, Hussein Mohammed has been developing a number of software tools to support and facilitate the study of written artefacts. The latest addition to this portfolio is the Artefact-Features Analysis Tool (AFAT), which has been developed in close collaboration with Wiebke Beyer. AFAT allows researchers to analyse features of artefacts in order to extract statistical information such as the mean, standard deviation, and outliers. Like all other Pattern Analysis Software Tools, AFAT can be downloaded for free from the CSMC website.

Other than AFAT, available software tools include

• A Handwriting Analysis Tool to analyse different handwriting styles and calculate similarity scores
• A Visual-Pattern Detector to recognise and allocate visual patterns (such as words, drawings, and seals) in digitised manuscripts automatically
• A Line Detection Tool to analyse images of writing supports in order to detect lines (such as printers marks or papyri fibres) and estimate their density.
• An X-Ray Fluorescence Data Analysis Tool to analyse tabular data generated by X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometers

All software tools are licensed under the Creative Commons Attibution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International.