Technical Specifications

The project set-up is designated into two operational areas:

1. Image Capture Station:

An image capturing station can either be mobile to perform on sight digitization or fixed at head offices for in house digitization. A basic image capture station setup consists of a digital camera mounted vertically on the photographic copy stand (indigenously built) (we use Piri for copies of Guru Granth Sahib with a canopy on top. Controlled lighting is provided selectively from two 1000-watt bulbs (daylight balance) or Digital Constant lights at 45O angle to copy surface, with appropriate diffusion filters between copy surface and light to soften shadows and reduce glare. The background is chosen to be slightly lighter than the document color in order to minimize shadows and optimize digital transfer.

2. Image Processing Station:

The image processing station has PCs powered by Pentium IV processor, 3.1GHz and 1 GB DDRAM. The workstation has the image processing softwares like ACDSee, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, Photoelf, Bimp, Batchit etc. There is an image transfer device connected to the USB port, which gathers images from the memory card of the digital camera.

Project Process

The project process consists of the following steps:

1. Document Assessment and set-up:

The condition of the document, sequence of pages, original page numbering order is noted at this stage. The lighting environment is checked for specific requirements of lighting using a light meter. Accordingly the lights are setup and used. The book/manuscript is placed on the Photographic Copy Stand bed opening it at an angle of 120 degree to avoid stress to it's binding.

2. Image Capture:

During this, the image is captured from the manuscript at the image capture station. Initially few shots are taken at different aperture, focal length and shutter speed. The captured images are transferred to the Image Processing Station for comparative study and standardization of the image capture specifications. Then the images are captured in color as uncompressed JPEG files at highest possible resolution.
The images are then transferred to the Image Processing Station.

3. Image Processing:

The image processing consists of following steps:

• Image Identification Tagging: The images, once transferred from the Image Capture Station are renamed as per the page sequence.
   
• Image Quality Check: The images are checked for any deviation in terms of clarity, legibility, color.
   
• Basic Editing: The images are checked for any tilt/skews and deviation from normal orientation, and are rectified to the acceptable level of 4-degree tilt. The images which contain some portion of the opposite page and background are processed though cropping and resizing.
   
• Final Editing: The graphic level of each image is checked with the original. Brighter images are toned down to match the actual. Unwanted stain marks, worm marks are removed. The color channels are checked to conform to specifications.
   
• Format Conversion: The base files are converted to three basic formats as per the requirements, namely PDF, TIFF and JPEG.
   
• E-Book Format Conversion: Individual images are tagged and a composite PDF file is prepared as per the original document pagination and sequence.
   
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR): All images of English language books are processed with (OCR) software. It recognizes the text in the image file and creates a complimentary text file, thus making the document searchable.
   
• Final product: A searchable digital file with original graphics.
   

Project Output

The images are obtained in two forms, namely PDF and JPEG. All the images of individual pages are obtained in uncompressed JPEG files, with the objective of archiving. A PDF file containing individual pages in the form of an E-book, with the objective of viewing and access. Image file of a page of the document in its various intermittent stages of processing is also obtained. The images are then stored in DVD-ROM and are made resident in the hard-disk of the central server.

Quality Control Procedures

The procedure involves taking pictures at highest resolution, keeping in view all the factors affecting the color, texture, other attributes of the source documents, lighting conditions and the equipment used, to ensure the closest image representation of the original. though.

Environment Description

Controlled lights or natural lights with the use of filter as and when required, to ensure good practice and save the originals from extremes, without the loss of original color and texture.