MAGMA (Metadata Automated Generation and Moderation Application) Project

The aim of the MAGMA project is to develop a proof-of-concept technical system that automatically generates and assigns relevant meta-data to a collection of photographic images, illustrations and scripted documents.
In order to achieve its goal, the MAGMA project will investigate possible technologies that may be used to generate meta-data, as well as developing an understanding of the market potential for such tools and services.
The technology partner will conduct research into the following technical activities:
Automated meta-data creation
- OCR (optical character recognition)
- Image and object recognition
User-centric meta-data creation
- Crowd sourced tagging through a web browser interface
Automated moderation
- Dictionaries
- Common databases
Simultaneously, the marketing partner will undertake market research into the viability of products and services in support of those being developed in the proof of concept. Additionally, the marketing partner will undertake audience engagement activities; conduct competitor analysis and investigate the business potential for partnership arrangements an d licensing models.
The technical development of the prototype system will be split into 3 stages;
Stage 1
- Experiment with the automated tools to determine what can be achieved
- Build a solution using a selection of the best of these tools that allows the processing and automated generation of meta-data for a collection of digital images and documents.
Stage 2
- Build a public facing interface that offers images and documents to the users and to collect meta-data from the users in the form of keyword tags.
- The interface may take the form of a simple game in order to help engagement with the public.
- The interface may also strengthen the meta-data generated from the automated tools in stage 1.
Stage 3
- To examine the meta-data results achieved by stages 1 and 2
- To consider the success and value of previous stages in terms of a unified automated system for generating meta-data.