Speaker: Dr. James Larimer, President of ImageMetrics, LLC
Title: Image Artifacts in the Digital Era
Abstract: Over the past 40 years digital imaging technology has replaced analog technology for capturing, storing, transporting and reconstructing imagery. There has been a revolution and resulting technology paradigm shift in the imaging business. Today digital signal processing enables the creation of image content and has revolutionized the way artists use post-production technologies to alter the look of natural imagery or combine it with CGI. Liquid crystal light valves, micro-cavity light emitting plasmas, LEDs, OLEDs, and MEMS devices coupled with CCDs and CMOS sensors have invaded the imaging marketplace. One hundred years of experience with film and CRT based television produced an essential understanding of the unique distortion and artifacts produced by these technologies; these lessons must now be relearned as new technologies replace old ones. This lecture will outline the basic concepts to understand the interplay between the human visual system and the manner in which images today are processed by these new technologies. Image artifacts such as flicker, judder, jaggies, tone-scale distortion, color breakup, tone-scale banding, image smear, blurring, scaling and codex artifacts can be understood based upon the visual ergonomics or perceptual salience of artifactual signals produced by digital imaging technologies. Digital technologies have created a new array of image artifacts that compromise image quality and our ability to control it. Artifacts can be understood and managed if we understand how the eye codes and processes the image on the screen. Why these artifacts are particularly salient to the human visual system and how to control them is the subject of this talk.
Speaker Background: Dr. Larimer started his career as a university Professor and eventually Department Chairman, he directed the Sensory Physiology and Perception Program at the National Science Foundation before joining NASA as a Senior Scientist at the Ames Research Center. A 20-year career at NASA transformed his interests from human vision to the interaction of human vision with electronic imaging media.. He has held every office in the Bay Area Chapter of the Society for Information Display, and served as SID VP for the Americas and is an Associate Editor of JSID. He is now a consulting engineer in imaging technology.
Click here to access Jim Larimer’s slides in PDF format.