"Tikkoun Sofrim" - the integration of the wisdom of the masses in the process of automatic reading of Hebrew manuscripts

Correcting Writers is a joint Israeli-French project, developed by Eliyahu Laboratory and the Department of Information Systems at the University of Haifa and EPHE PARIS.
The project is supported by the Maimonides Foundation, a joint venture between the Israeli Ministry of Science and the French Ministries of Higher Education and Foreign Affairs.

The project is based on a combination of artificial intelligence that enables automatic reading of manuscripts (HTR) and public participation in the reading of medieval Hebrew manuscripts.

In the first phase of the project, an automatic computerized reading of manuscripts was performed using a tool we developed called Kraken.

Kraken reads not bad. He manages to read at least 90 percent of the letters, and sometimes even over 97 percent of them!

But that’s not enough.

To improve Kraken’s reading ability, and to put up good editions of the texts we still need the human eye.

This Writers’ Correction site is designed for this purpose. Site visitors can check the auto-read and correct it.

In the next step, the amendments will be used both to improve Kraken’s capabilities and to place digital editions and scripts in libraries that will allow a literal search of the manuscripts.

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Watch the tutorial here
The Web
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Publications

Tikkoun Sofrim – Combining HTR and Crowdsourcing for Automated Transcription of Hebrew Medieval Manuscripts

Our Team

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Prof. Tsvi Kuflik - Project manager
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Dr. Vered Raziel- Krezmer - Researcher
Holds a doctorate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with the morning prayers of the Land of Israel in the excerpts from the Cairo Genizah. Post-doctoral student at Eliyahu Lab, winner of the Yuval Ne'eman Scholarship, post-doctoral science scholarship in digital humanities. Main research project: Characterization and development of tools for identifying and classifying automatic transcripts of Hebrew manuscripts. Coordinates the Cairo Genizah Writers Project and is a partner in the Writers' Correction project.
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Dr. Shimon Fogel - Researcher
Holds a doctorate from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Main areas of research: The study culture of sages, the cultural aspects of midrashic literature and the study of prayer from antiquity to the present day.