Logical structure analysis of document images based on emergent computation

A new method for logical structure analysis of document images is proposed in this paper as the basis for a document reader which can extract logical information from various printed documents. The proposed system consists of five basic modules: typography analysis, object recognition, object segmentation, object grouping and object modification. Emergent computation, which is a key concept of artificial life, is adopted for the cooperative interaction among the modules in the system in order to achieve an effective and flexible behavior of the whole system. It has two principal advantages over other methods: adaptive system configuration for various and complex logical structures, and robust document analysis that is tolerant of erroneous feature detection.