Transcript Slide 1

Bringing Digital Technology
Back to Earth
Presented by
Ken Dozier
USC ETTC
Technology Transfer
NASA Mission: Transfer
technology developed in the
space program to the private
sector,
Across all 50 States
Special focus on SME
Technology in Space Industry should be a technological
windfall to the U.S. economy
Windfall - unexpected gain, blessing, unsolicited advantage,
serendipity, stroke of luck, pleasant surprise, godsend, boon,
bonanza
High Definition Imaging
NASA has used high definition cameras to record launches
and mission in space for many years
Space Shuttle “Discovery”
Footage was recorded using
1920 x 1080 HD VC
The data was compressed
using Microsoft’s Media
Player 9
The projector is being driven
Shuttle/Earth footage
by a PC not a HD video deck
Technology Transfer
1970’s : CAD/CAM (DoD /Aerospace)
Development Costs – Millions $$$
1970’s : Digital Sensors in Space (NASA)
 Development Costs - Millions $$$
1970’s : Digital Image Processing (DoD / NASA)
Development Costs - Millions $$$
Technology Transfer
1980’s: CCD Sensor Chips
Competitively Priced Professional Digital Cameras
Digital Video Tape Recorders
Broadcast Industry - Linear edit bay
- cost $2 million
1980’s – Graphic CAD/CAM Workstations
cost $75,000
Market Broadens
Entertainment Begins to Experiment
Technology Transfer
1990’s: High Definition Digital Video developed for
Broadcast industry
 Factor of 5 increase in data size
 High Definition Linear edit bay cost $2 million
(Controversy) Recorded on 35mm viewed side by side
Technology Transfer
1990’s:
Price Point Breakthrough !
Standard Definition
 Non Linear Editing - cost $100,000
 Computer Disks allow Random Access
 Flushing out of the Post Houses
Technology Transfer
2003:
HD camcorder developed for Consumers, - cost $4000
2003:
PC based HD Non Linear Editing systems
Free software bundled with PC or with camera
2003:
PC HD edit offline, process images - cost $2000
2003:
Million Dollar Space Sensors in the hands of Digital Cinema
Artists
Benefit of Digital Technology
to Cinema Artists
It is about the story, not about the production or
distribution costs
Niche Stories can compete with the 12 year old
Friday night market.
Digital Media Incubator studios become possible.
Formula for Success
Media Incubators provide facilities that will allow
new artists initial commercial exposure (Roger
Corman would be proud)
Provide access to Mentoring
Use of latest Professional Technologies
Networked Incubators Creates New Digital
Distribution Network and Access to markets
A New Paradigm Economical Technologies
Digital Camera for Acquisition
Immediate feedback for everyone
Immediate editing, color correction, immediate post
Computer(s) Storage
Server Farms
On line conform, color correction, effects, format conversion
Mastering
Digital Projection Screening Room
No tape or film
“A” List – Incubator Gear
(Cost $600,000+)
Camera: Thompson Viper Camera
1080p (1920 x 1080p)
Output: 4:4:4 10-bit log dpx format
Capture: Directors Friend
Post Production: Computer –
Thompson Spectra or
Discreet Inferno
Image courtesy of Thompson Grass Valley
Image courtesy of Discreet
Broadcast - Commercials
(Cost $200,000)
Price Point Breakthrough !
Camera: Sony (1920 x1080p)
24fps 4:2:2
Capture: Computer - Boxx
Editing: Computer – Boxx
Image courtesy of Sony Corporation
Image courtesy of Boxx Technologies
Next Sundance: Distribution
Quality (Cost $100,000)
Camera: Panasonic Variframe (1280 x 720p)
24fps 4:2:2
Capture: Apple Computer
Editing: Apple Computer
Image courtesy of Panasonic
Image courtesy of Apple Computers
Consumer Quality
(Cost $6,000)
Camera: JVC Pro (1280 x 720)
30i fps 4:1:1
Capture: DV Tape
Editing: Any PC Computer
Image courtesy of JVC
Image courtesy of Dell Computers
Used for Star Wars: Episode II animatics
Image courtesy of Fuji
Cinema Master Workflow
Source: “A Data-Centric Approach to Cinema Mastering” Thomas J. True, SGI
eFilm Configuration
Imagica Film
Scanners
Visual Effects
Optical House
Titling House
CXFS SAN
52 TB TP4900
Brocade Switches
ELab Real-time
Coloring Timing and
Dust-busting
SGI Onyx 3400
ELab Real-time
Film Stock Emulation
SGI Onyx 3400
DLP Projection
Screening Theater
Laser Film
Output
Multiversion
Rendering
SGI Origin 300
Edit Rendering
SGI Origin 300
Backup Server
SGI Origin 300
Source: “Digital Infrastructure Solution for Production” J. Farney, SGI
Incubator Digital Post
 Schematic Layout
HD
VTR
D-Beta
NTSC
D-Beta
PAL
Other
VTR
Other
VTR
External
Serial Digital Interface
DA-88
DA-88
DA-88
DAT
DAT
Audio
Digital Audio
Array
PC
I/O PC
RAID
RAID
Array
PC
RAID
Gigabit Network
Array
PC
RAID
Array
PC
RAID
PC Array
Incubation Opens the
Door to Opportunity
Eliminates the cost of answer prints for “First
Screenings”
Low cost technology lets SMEs get into the
business
Access to Technology Transfer provides Windfall
Opportunities for Local Economic Development
HDTV Title
“Pasadena”
Shot 1920 x 1080
Boom mounted Sony F900 camera
allowed close moves.
One day of shooting (4 hours of
material)
Cameraman used HD Monitor not
Eyepiece.
Tiny Projector 1024 x 768
HD projector 1280 x 1024
Pasadena-clip-1
Pasadena-clip-2
HDTV Title
“Pasadena”
Adobe Premiere using
proxy images
Down sampled to
480 x 240 images for
editing on ordinary PC
Time Code was not
used or needed
HDTV Title
“Pasadena”
Full 1920 x 1080
resolution HD conformed
on a PC
Finished HD playback
1280 x 720.
Pasadena-clip
NASA Technology
Millions $$ in Government funded R&D
Special programs for SMEs
Available for Licensing and
Commercial Development
Help in accessing information
is available through USC’s
Engineering Technology Transfer Center
See the web page at http://www.usc.edu/go/TTC
DVQ Digital Video Quality
 PROBLEM ADDRESSED Evaluation of visual quality of digital video (HDTV)
 TECHNICAL APPROACH A computationally efficient metric based on human visual processing: (1)
Comparison of one or more selected features (image frames, color channels, rows of blocks, columns of
blocks, horizontal spatial frequencies, or vertical spatial frequencies) of processed digital sequences of the
image under evaluation and a reference image: (2) Processing consisting of sampling, cropping, and color
transformations, blocking, acceleration of spatial filtering by taking discrete cosine transforms, temporal
filtering and normalization to visual thresholds
Reference Image Sequence
Test Image Sequence
Temporal
Filtering
Sampling, Cropping and
Color Transformations
Transformation
To Contrast
Sensitivity
Functions
Blocking
Discrete Cosine
Transform
Contrast
Masking
Pooling
Transformation to
Local Contrast
Conversion
To a Measure
of Visual Quality
 POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Any digital display, e.g. HDTV
 BENEFITS (1) Quantitative assessment of display quality that incorporates properties or human visual
processing, (i.e., dynamic adaptation to changing brightness, luminance, and chromatic channels, spatial
and temporal filtering, spatial frequency channels, dynamic contrast masking, and summation of
probabilities); (2) Requires only modest computational resources to compute metrics in real time
PERILOG
CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
 PROBLEM ADDRESSED Facilitation of information retrieval from large
databases
 TECHNICAL APPROACH A method and software for advanced information
retrieval, consisting of organizing and ranking data by contextual relationships
 POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Data mining (text, music, genetic
code, etc.), knowledge management
 BENEFITS (1) Increase in information
retrieval rates and probability of
successful retrieval
Spatial Standard Observer
 PROBLEM ADDRESSED Numerical measure of the perceptual intensity and
difference of an image
 POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Photometric instruments,
copiers, video codecs, displays, graphics software,
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems
 BENEFITS (1) Allows quantitative
assessment of the goodness
of a single image or
comparison of two images
Spatial Standard
Algorithm
Difference?
DCTune

PROBLEM ADDRESSED: Improvement of digital image
compression

TECHNICAL APPROACH: Discrete cosine transform (DCT)
compression of image; customized quantization matrix to image,
using:
(1) Luminance masking
(2) Contrast masking
(3) Error pooling
(4) Entropy coding

Original
Optimized
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Internet multimedia, cable TV, HDTV,
motion picture transmission & archival, still or motion picture editing,
digital copiers & scanners, digital facsimile machines, digital still-and
video-cameras
Images courtesy of NASA Ames Vision group

BENEFITS Minimum perceptual error for any bit rate, or minimum bit rate for
a given perceptual error can be used as add-on SW module to existing imaging workstations
VISAR
Video Image Stabilization and Registration
 PROBLEM ADDRESSED: VISAR is a computer algorithm that corrects for zoom, tilt, and jitter
 TECHNICAL APPROACH: By combining several video images together, noise can be
averaged out among the frames and the video frames can be centered on the screen.
 BENEFITS:
(1) Stabilize, sharpen, and brighten image sequences
and stills
(2) Steadying and reducing the noise in the images,
brings out a wealth of information, revealing new,
previously obscured details
 POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS: Surveillance,
crime scene footage, sting operations, and
dash-mounted video cameras, Security, video feed
from aircraft, target identification and confirmation,
training, and event reconstruction
Images courtesy of NASA Ames Vision group
Step Into Liquid
88 Minute Feature Shot using: HD, 35mm,
16mm, Digital Video
Will be screened at
Tommy Bahama
Celestial Cinema on
June 12th -- 8pm.
Trailer courtesy of Tim
Harader, Microsoft Corp.
Step clip
Brought to you by
The NASA Far West Regional Technology Transfer Center
http://www.usc.edu/go/TTC
In affiliation with:
http://www.wrjgroup.com
Special Thanks to:
Jim Steele
Digital Cinema Solutions