Digitization of microfiche

1 . A method for automatic recovery of metadata and structure from a microfiche presentation of documents on microfiche cards, for digitization of said documents, the method comprising:

scanning a plurality of microfiche cards and for each card forming a general view thereof using a relatively low resolution camera, said general view being a relatively low resolution view;

identifying a region of metadata-bearing text within said microfiche representation from said relatively low resolution view;

performing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on said region of metadata-bearing text to obtain said metadata; and

recording said meta-data.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a document is spread over a plurality of microfiche cards from a larger group of cards, the method further comprising using said metadata in a comparison of different ones of said microfiche cards in said group to identify said plurality of microfiche cards, thereby to reconstruct said document digitally.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising using said metadata to retrieve related metadata from an external database.

4 . A method according to claim 3 , further comprising using said related metadata to correct and enhance said metadata.

5 . A method according to claim 2 , further comprising using said metadata in a comparison of two subsequent microfiche cards so as to verify that said two subsequent are representations of parts of the same document.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising recording said metadata in a searchable digital format.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein said searchable digital format is a mark-up language.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein said mark-up language is XML.

9 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying start-frames and end-frames in said microfiche presentation.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising using said start-frames and said end-frames to verify where said document starts and where said document ends.

11 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying unoccupied trailing portions and unoccupied leading portions on said microfiche cards.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising using said unoccupied trailing portions and said unoccupied leading portions to verify where said document starts and where said document ends.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said OCR comprises the production of a binary black and white color scale, using a variable transition threshold for transition between black and white for different areas of said region of metadata-bearing text.

14 . The method of claim 1 , comprising programming said OCR with an expected metadata structure, thereby to enable said OCR to use said expected structure to support character recognition.

15 . A method for locating frame regions on a microfiche card, the method comprising:

scanning said microfiche card using a relatively low resolution camera to produce a general view of said microfiche card;

determining frame locations on said microfiche card from said general view;

correcting frame locations, using pattern recognition on said general view; and

scanning of said corrected frame locations using a high resolution scanner to produce digital images of said frames.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising cropping of said digital images, and correcting said cropping using said general view.

17 . Apparatus for converting microfiche cards into a digital format, comprising:

a relatively low resolution camera for producing a general view of each of said cards;

a relatively high resolution scanner for producing a high resolution view of each frame on said cards; and

a control device, configured to control said relatively high resolution scanner and said relatively low resolution camera.

18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein said control device is further configured to identify a region of metadata-bearing text on a microfiche card, using said general view.

19 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein said control device is further configured to identify start-frames and end-frames on a microfiche card, using said general view.

20 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein said control device is further configured to identify an unoccupied trailing portion and an unoccupied leading portion on a microfiche card, using said general view.

21 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein said control device is further configured to correct said general view, utilizing pattern recognition.