Page 229 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

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228 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.13, 2021

New modality of applied research on cultural heritage under the action of
IIIF and AI
CHEN Tao , LIU Wei, SUN Xun, ZHU Qinghua & ZHAO Yuxiang
〇a *
Culture Heritages are non-renewable and precious resources. “How to make the cultural relics
collected in museums, the heritage displayed on the vast land, and characters written in ancient
books all come alive” is a proposition that all mankind should think and study. The International
Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) has developed a series of standard API interfaces that aim
to ensure the interoperability and accessibility of global image resources storage.
Based on the open data five-star model, the paper first proposes a five-star model for open
images, “image online”, “high-quality images”, “annotated images”, “open standards”, and
“semantic connection”. Among them, the former three stars focus on the “readable” characteristics
of images, and the last two stars focus on “availability” feature. Subsequently, based on the
two major technologies of IIIF framework and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the paper proposes
a technical framework for the deep application of image resources in cultural heritage. In the
framework, the IIIF part is mainly responsible for the organization and presentation of image
resources through the four published API interface standards, while the AI technologies can be
used to realize the recognition and comprehension of image contents. Specifically, the IIIF Image
API specifies a web service that returns an image in response to a standard HTTP or HTTPS
request. The IIIF Presentation API is to provide the information necessary to allow a rich, online
viewing environment. The IIIF Search API lays out the interoperability mechanism for searching
annotation content within a single IIIF resource. And the IIIF Authentication API describes a set
of workflows for guiding the user through an existing access control system. In AI implementation
part, digitalization mainly realizes the reorganization of different image resources. Different
technologies need to be adopted according to the type of image, text image and non-text image, in
textualization. Conceptualization is to identify and extract entities from textual content. Through
semantic connection, the semantic annotation, knowledge association and content enhancement of
image resources can be realized. From the perspective of application, smart application explores
the realization of semantic services and in-depth application of images through knowledge graphs.
In the case part, the paper uses semantic technologies such as IIIF, linked data, graph database,
and ontology to build IIIF-IIP system, an immersion-style interactive platform, which includes the
process of publishing, annotation, linking and reuse of image resources. And this platform supports
the online interaction of ultra-high definition and super-giant image resources with billions of
pixels, and explores an ecological way that allows cultural heritage to “release, connect and live”.
At the end, the paper takes part of the flower-related collection resources of Vincent Van Gogh’s
works, published by different collection institutions, as an example to verify the feasibility of
the implementation plan and technical path of the paper, which will play a good guidance and
* Correspondence should be addressed to CHEN Tao, Email:tchen@libnet.sh.cn, ORCID: 0000-0002-6609-4914.