The document summarizes a project to create a corpus of digitized Chinese comic books from the 1950s-1970s. It discusses the history and achievements of the project, including digitizing over 1,250 comic books, creating metadata records, and providing online access. It also describes experiments with automatic object detection in the comics using computer vision techniques. Finally, it outlines the new system being developed including a IIIF image server, use of the Mirador annotation tool, and linking to external authorities and standards to improve interoperability.

1. A Corpus of Chinese Comic Books:
Database, Metadata, and Visual Object
Recognition
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Universität Heidelberg

2. Agenda
• Project history
• Approaching the material
• Achievements
• Automatic object detection
• New system and user annotation
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

3. “Leihbibliothek für Kinder an der Straße“, She Zeh Tschi, Der Holzschnitt im Neuen China, Katalog, Dresden 1951, p.101

4. 图为上世纪80年代初的孩子们留连在小人书摊的情景。http://www.dili360.com/ch/article/p5350c3d9d48d394.htm

5. Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

6. Project History
2009-11 Main digitisation project
Funding: Cluster of Excellence „Asia and Europe“ and Institute
of Chinese Studies
Scanning: MediaLab at Cluster
First database: eXist-db, metadata in MODS XML
Presentation at Cartoon Museum Basel „Visual Words - Comics
from China“ (2010/11)
Content expansion and separation of books and stories
Image analysis project with Computer Vision (radiances)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

7. Enduser interface (2010)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

13. Project History
2009-11 Main digitisation project
Funding: Cluster of Excellence „Asia and Europe“ and Institute
of Chinese Studies
Scanning: MediaLab at Cluster
First database: eXist-db, metadata in MODS XML
Presentation at Cartoon Museum Basel „Visual Words - Comics
from China“ (2010/11)
Content expansion and separation of books and stories
Image analysis project with Computer Vision (radiances)
2018: Data migration (ongoing):
Mongo DB, ingest in XML, image service (IIIF), browse - search
- filter, user annotation through Mirador viewer
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

14. Approaching the material
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

15. 趙百萬 Zhao Baiwan (1951)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

16. 红灯记 Hong deng ji (1970)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

17. 鲁迅和青年的故事 Lu Xun he qingnian de gushi (1976)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

18. 1. Spreadsheets
2. XML Database (MODS records) and frontend
3. Refined metadata schema (books & stories, agents), SQL
database
4. Mongo database, IIIF image service, user annotations in
Mirador
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

19. Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

21. Special cases
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

22. 生死緣 Sheng si yuan (1953)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

23. 高歌猛进 Gaoge mengjin (1952)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

24. Project Achievements
1. Scans from 5 collections (1250/1031 books)
2. Digitize material (greysacale .tif @600dpi, ca. 4 TB)
3. Record all metadata (as provided on books)
4. Provide online access to metadata
5. Provide online access to full books (read books)
6. Open data for research annotations (Mirador)
7. Explore automatic content analysis (computer vision)
8. *Link data to authorities (agents)
9. **Generate fulltext
10. **Explore generic content description (XML)
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

25. Automatic object detection
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

26. Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19
• Chinese comics from the
second half of the Cultural
Revolution
• Over 1200 books (~120,000
pages)
• Grayscale .tif images @600 dpi
~ 4,5 Tb data
• Focus: comic book production
of late 1960s and 1970s from
China.
• Shows the diversity of Chinese
comic production in general
• Special type of emphasis
(heroes, symbolic objects or
idols)

27. Specific type of emphasis: radiance

28. Monroy et. al. (2011)

29. Monroyet.al.(2011)

30. Monroyet.al.(2011)

31. Outcome of experiment
• Automatic detection of objects using radiances
• No training data, multiple categories, multiple scales,
intense clutter, high object variability
• However: no tool for re-use
• …for object detection, text-image separation, auto-fulltext
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

32. New system and user annotation
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

33. Website:
http://comics.freizo.org

34. Use of Mirador for (manual) annotation

35. Arnold/Decker - Annotationssysteme für Bild- und Videomedien, 2016-01-26 35

36. Standards - Interoperability
1. Image service:
IIIF Image API using standardized IIIF image call, http://iiif.io
2. Image annotation:
Web Annotation using Mirador IIIF viewer
http://w3c.github.io/web-annotation/
3. Bibliographic metadata: MODS XML for library catalogs
4. Agent‘s data: link to authorities (e.g. GND or VIAF)
5. Textual data (ideas):
Publish metadata on research data platform (HeiDATA)
Texts (stories, pre-/postface, paratext) in TEI XML
Structure in CBML?
6. Re-use and enhancements:
Include samples in Graphic Narrative or Vis. Lang Res. Corpus?
Find partners for automatical (Chinese) comics analysis

37. References
• Seifert, Andreas. Bildgeschichten für Chinas
Massen: Comic und Comicproduktion im 20.
Jahrhundert. Köln: Böhlau, 2008.
• Monroy, Antonio, Tobias Kröger, Matthias
Arnold, and Björn Ommer. “Parametric Object
Detection for Iconographic Analysis.” In
SCCH11, 1-8. Heidelberg, 2011.
• “Reddition : Reddition 63.” Edition Alfons, Dec.
2015. https://www.reddition.de/index.php/shop/reddition/reddition-63-
detail.
• Database:
http://comics.freizo.org
Matthias Arnold, HRA, Uni Heidelberg - Chinese Comics Database | Workshop Comics Annotation | Potsdam 2018-06-19

38. Contact
Matthias Arnold
Heidelberg Research Architecture
Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”
Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies | HCTS
Karl Jaspers Centre
Voßstr. 2 | Building 4400 | Room 005b
69115 Heidelberg, Germany
arnold@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de
http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de