Markov source model for printed music decoding

A Markov source model is described for a simple subset of printed music notation that was developed as an extended example of the document image decoding (DID) approach to document image analysis. The model is based on the Adobe Sonata music symbol set and a finite-state language of textual music messages. The music message language is defined and several important aspects of message imaging are discussed. Aspects of music notation that appear problematic for a finite-state representation are identified. Finally, an example of music image decoding and resynthesis using the model is presented. Development of the model was greatly facilitated by the duality between image synthesis and image decoding that is fundamental to the DID paradigm. © 1996 SPIE and IS&T.