[EM] IRV proponents figure out how to make IRV precinct-summable

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

Raph Frank wrote:
> I uploaded the example ballot .pdf file that the code uses to
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/temp_ballot.pdf
> 
> Also, some intermediate files from processing the image0001.pnp file.
> 
> This is after determining the alignment points:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/regen_plus.bmp
> 
> These are the images of each extracted box (after rescaling etc):
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_0.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_1.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_2.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_3.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_4.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_5.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_6.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/small_7.bmp
> 
> These are the same boxes after processing
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_0.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_1.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_2.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_3.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_4.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_5.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_6.bmp
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/files/Ballot%20image/short_7.bmp
> 
> It gets 7 of the 8 correct.  The only error is the blank box (5).
> 
> The main thing, atm, that causes errors is the boxes themselves, as
> the processing interprets them as part of the handwriting.  I think
> that shouldn't be to hard to fix, but would require that the extracted
> boxes are processed to find out exactly where their boundary lines
> are.  Currently, it is open loop, it is assumed that the alignment
> points are determined exactly.
> 
> With that, it could end up with 85%+ (at least with my handwriting :) ).
> 

One would probably use a neural net type algorithm to determine the 
digit in question. As for the boxes, perhaps one could use a Hough 
transform (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hough_transform) to find 
lines, then align the pictures according to those lines?

Also, I am not a member of RangeVoting, so I can't see those pictures.