Image restoration of arbitrarily warped documents

Abstract

We present a framework for acquiring and restoring images of warped documents. The purpose of our restoration is to create a planar representation of a once planar document that has undergone an arbitrary and unknown rigid deformation. To accomplish this restoration, our framework acquires and flattens the 3D shape of a warped document to determine a nonlinear image transform that can correct for image distortion caused by the document's shape. Our framework is designed for use in library and museum digitization efforts where very old and badly damaged manuscripts are imaged.