The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS), a research centre at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), has been awarded funding by JISC for an innovative project which brings together UCA and the University of Surrey in a new collaboration focusing on visual plagiarism.

The Spot the Difference project will pilot the use of visual search tools developed by the Centre for Vision, Speech, and Signal Processing (CVSSP) at the University of Surrey and test their application to learning and teaching in the arts and in particular to the complex and nebulous concept of ‘visual plagiarism’.

Whilst there has been extensive research and guidance in the area of text-based plagiarism, there has been relatively little research undertaken in the area of visual plagiarism. The Spot the Difference project seeks to address this gap, and in particular to explore the potential application and relevance that visual search technology may have to offer in this area.

The Centre for Vision, Speech, and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey is the largest UK academic research centre exploring topics in image and video analysis, with 110 researchers and ranked 2nd on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The Centre has pioneered visual search technologies utilising the ‘bag of visual words’ framework which will be used in the demonstrator for the Spot the Difference project.

The project is funded through a JISC Learning & Teaching Innovation Grant and will run for 12 months from June 2011 to May 2012.