Package: mapreader
MapReaderA computer vision pipeline for exploring and analyzing images at scaleWhat is MapReader?MapReader is an end-to-end computer vision (CV) pipeline for exploring and analyzing images at scale.MapReader was developed in theLiving with Machinesproject to analyze large collections of historical maps but is ageneralizablecomputer vision pipeline which can be applied toany imagesin a wide variety of domains.OverviewMapReader is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary tool that emerged from a specific set of geospatial historical research questions. It was inspired by methods in biomedical imaging and geographic information science, which were adapted for use by historians, for example in ourJournal of Victorian CultureandGeospatial Humanities 2022 SIGSPATIAL workshoppapers. The success of the tool subsequently generated interest from plant phenotype researchers working with large image datasets, and so MapReader is an example of cross-pollination between the humanities and the sciences made possible by reproducible data science.MapReader pipelineThe MapReader pipeline consists of a linear sequence of tasks which, together, can be used to train a computer vision (CV) classifier to recognize visual features within maps and identify patches containing these features across entire map collections.See ourAbout MapReaderpage to learn more.DocumentationThe MapReader documentation can be found athttps://mapreader.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html.New usersshould refer to theInstallation instructionsandInput guidancefor help with the initial set up of MapReader.All usersshould refer to ourUser Guidefor guidance on how to use MapReader. This contains end-to-end instructions on how to use the MapReader pipeline, plus a number of worked examples illustrating use cases such as:Geospatial images (i.e. maps)Non-geospatial imagesDevelopers and contributorsmay also want to refer to theAPI documentationandContribution guidefor guidance on how to contribute to the MapReader package.Join our Slack workspace!Please fill outthis formto receive an invitation to the Slack workspace.What is included in this repo?The MapReader package provides a set of tools to:Downloadimages/maps and metadata stored on web-servers (e.g. tileservers which can be used to retrieve maps from OpenStreetMap (OSM), the National Library of Scotland (NLS), or elsewhere).Loadimages/maps and metadata stored locally.Pre-processimages/maps:patchify (create patches from a parent image),resample (use image transformations to alter pixel-dimensions/resolution/orientation/etc.),remove borders outside the neatline,reproject between coordinate reference systems (CRS).Annotateimages/maps (or their patches) using an interactive annotation tool.Train or fine-tuneComputer Vision (CV) models and use these topredictlabels (i.e. model inference) on large sets of images/maps.Variousplotting and analysisfunctionalities are also included (based on packages such asmatplotlib,cartopy,Google Earth, andkepler.gl).How to cite MapReaderIf you use MapReader in your work, please cite both the MapReader repo andour SIGSPATIAL paper:Kasra Hosseini, Daniel C. S. Wilson, Kaspar Beelen, and Katherine McDonough. 2022. MapReader: a computer vision pipeline for the semantic exploration of maps at scale. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Humanities (GeoHumanities '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 8–19.https://doi.org/10.1145/3557919.3565812Kasra Hosseini, Rosie Wood, Andy Smith, Katie McDonough, Daniel C.S. Wilson, Christina Last, Kalle Westerling, and Evangeline Mae Corcoran. “Living-with-machines/mapreader: End of Lwm”. Zenodo, July 27, 2023.https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8189653.AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by Living with Machines (AHRC grant AH/S01179X/1) and The Alan Turing Institute (EPSRC grant EP/N510129/1).Living with Machines, funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Strategic Priority Fund, is a multidisciplinary collaboration delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), with The Alan Turing Institute, the British Library and the Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Exeter, and Queen Mary University of London.Maps above reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotlandhttps://maps.nls.uk/index.htmlContributorsKatie McDonough🔬🤔📖📋📆👀📢✅Daniel C.S. Wilson🔬🤔📢📖📋Kasra Hosseini💻🤔🔬👀📢Rosie Wood💻📖🤔📢✅👀🚧🔬Kalle Westerling💻📖🚧👀📢Chris Fleet🔣Kaspar Beelen🤔👀🔬Andy Smith💻📖🧑‍🏫👀