Animated Territorial Data Extractor (ATDE): A Computer-Vision Method for Extracting Territorial Data from Animated Historical Maps

TL;DR

ATDE is a computer vision tool that extracts territorial control data from animated historical maps, enabling analysis of territorial changes over time without needing pre-existing shapefiles.

Contribution

The paper introduces ATDE, a novel computer vision pipeline that automatically extracts structured territorial data from animated map videos, applicable across various historical contexts.

Findings

Successfully applied to Chinese dynasties from 200 BCE to 1912 CE

Produces year-by-year pixel counts aligning with historical patterns

Requires no pre-existing shapefiles, only seed colors and configuration

Abstract

We present Animated Territorial Data Extractor (ATDE), a computer vision tool that extracts quantitative territorial data from animated historical map videos. ATDE employs HSV-based color segmentation, RGB channel filtering, and Direct-Neighbor Filtering to identify and count pixels representing territorial control. Combined with preprocessing for temporal alignment and cross-video scaling, the pipeline converts animated videos into structured time-series data. We demonstrate the tool on ten Chinese dynasties (200 BCE - 1912 CE), producing year-by-year pixel counts that align with expected historical patterns. While not a substitute for authoritative historical datasets, ATDE is well-suited for educational demonstrations, preliminary data exploration, and comparative analysis of territorial dynamics. The tool requires no pre-existing shapefiles and can be applied to any animated map video given seed colors and basic configuration. Code and examples are available on GitHub.