Frame-based knowledge representation for multi-domain document layout analysis

A frame-based knowledge representation scheme is proposed to describe documents from different domains. The scheme is specifically designed to capture characteristics shared by documents and it allows a document image processing system to be designed without prior knowledge of the problem domain. A document is described by a model, which is a hierarchy of document layout objects. Layout objects with the same parent are related by their spatial and contextual constraints. Layout objects at the lowest level of the hierarchy are retrieved from document imagery. The robustness of this representation scheme is demonstrated by its application to three different document domains