Bringing Digital Technology Back to Earth Presented by

Bringing Digital Technology Back to Earth Presented by Ken Dozier USC ETTC

Technology Transfer ØNASA Mission: Transfer technology developed in the space program to the private sector, ØAcross all 50 States ØSpecial focus on SME ØTechnology in Space Industry should be a technological windfall to the U. S. economy ØWindfall - unexpected gain, blessing, unsolicited advantage, serendipity, stroke of luck, pleasant surprise, godsend, boon, bonanza

High Definition Imaging ØNASA has used high definition cameras to record launches and mission in space for many years ØSpace Shuttle “Discovery” ØFootage was recorded using 1920 x 1080 HD VC ØThe data was compressed using Microsoft’s Media Player 9 ØThe projector is being driven Shuttle/Earth footage by a PC not a HD video deck

Technology Transfer Ø 1970’s : CAD/CAM (Do. D /Aerospace) ØDevelopment Costs – Millions $$$ Ø 1970’s : Digital Sensors in Space (NASA) Ø Development Costs - Millions $$$ Ø 1970’s : Digital Image Processing (Do. D / NASA) ØDevelopment Costs - Millions $$$

Technology Transfer Ø 1980’s: CCD Sensor Chips ØCompetitively Priced Professional Digital Cameras ØDigital Video Tape Recorders ØBroadcast Industry - Linear edit bay - cost $2 million Ø 1980’s – Graphic CAD/CAM Workstations Øcost $75, 000 ØMarket Broadens ØEntertainment Begins to Experiment

Technology Transfer Ø 1990’s: High Definition Digital Video developed for Broadcast industry Ø Factor of 5 increase in data size Ø High Definition Linear edit bay cost $2 million Ø(Controversy) Recorded on 35 mm viewed side by side

Technology Transfer Ø 1990’s: Price Point Breakthrough ! Standard Definition Ø Non Linear Editing - cost $100, 000 Ø Computer Disks allow Random Access Ø Flushing out of the Post Houses

Technology Transfer Ø 2003: HD camcorder developed for Consumers, - cost $4000 Ø 2003: PC based HD Non Linear Editing systems Free software bundled with PC or with camera Ø 2003: PC HD edit offline, process images - cost $2000 Ø 2003: Million Dollar Space Sensors in the hands of Digital Cinema Artists

Benefit of Digital Technology to Cinema Artists ØIt is about the story, not about the production or distribution costs ØNiche Stories can compete with the 12 year old Friday night market. ØDigital Media Incubator studios become possible.

Formula for Success ØMedia Incubators provide facilities that will allow new artists initial commercial exposure (Roger Corman would be proud) ØProvide access to Mentoring ØUse of latest Professional Technologies ØNetworked Incubators Creates New Digital Distribution Network and Access to markets

A New Paradigm Economical Technologies ØDigital Camera for Acquisition ØImmediate feedback for everyone ØImmediate editing, color correction, immediate post ØComputer(s) Storage ØServer Farms ØOn line conform, color correction, effects, format conversion ØMastering ØDigital Projection Screening Room ØNo tape or film

“A” List – Incubator Gear (Cost $600, 000+) ØCamera: Thompson Viper Camera 1080 p (1920 x 1080 p) ØOutput: 4: 4: 4 10 -bit log dpx format ØCapture: Directors Friend ØPost 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 ! ØCamera: Sony (1920 x 1080 p) 24 fps 4: 2: 2 ØCapture: Computer - Boxx ØEditing: Computer – Boxx Image courtesy of Sony Corporation Image courtesy of Boxx Technologies

Next Sundance: Distribution Quality (Cost $100, 000) ØCamera: Panasonic Variframe (1280 x 720 p) 24 fps 4: 2: 2 ØCapture: Apple Computer ØEditing: Apple Computer Image courtesy of Panasonic Image courtesy of Apple Computers

Consumer Quality (Cost $6, 000) ØCamera: JVC Pro (1280 x 720) 30 i fps 4: 1: 1 ØCapture: DV Tape ØEditing: 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

e. Film Configuration Imagica Film Scanners Visual Effects Optical House Titling House CXFS SAN 52 TB TP 4900 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 Ø Schematic Layout HD VTR D-Beta NTSC D-Beta PAL Other VTR External Serial Digital Interface DA-88 DAT Audio Digital Audio Array PC I/O PC RAID Array PC RAID Gigabit Network Array PC RAID PC Array

Incubation Opens the Door to Opportunity ØEliminates the cost of answer prints for “First Screenings” ØLow cost technology lets SMEs get into the business ØAccess to Technology Transfer provides Windfall Opportunities for Local Economic Development

HDTV Title “Pasadena” ØShot 1920 x 1080 ØBoom mounted Sony F 900 camera allowed close moves. ØOne day of shooting (4 hours of material) ØCameraman used HD Monitor not Eyepiece. ØTiny Projector 1024 x 768 HD projector 1280 x 1024 Pasadena-clip-1 Pasadena-clip-2

HDTV Title “Pasadena” ØAdobe Premiere using proxy images ØDown sampled to 480 x 240 images for editing on ordinary PC ØTime Code was not used or needed

HDTV Title “Pasadena” ØFull 1920 x 1080 resolution HD conformed on a PC ØFinished HD playback 1280 x 720. Pasadena-clip

NASA Technology ØMillions $$ in Government funded R&D ØSpecial programs for SMEs ØAvailable for Licensing and Commercial Development ØHelp in accessing information is available through USC’s Engineering Technology Transfer Center ØSee the web page at http: //www. usc. edu/go/TTC

DVQ Digital Video Quality Ø PROBLEM ADDRESSED Evaluation of visual quality of digital video (HDTV) Ø 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 Ø POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Any digital display, e. g. HDTV Ø 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 Ø PROBLEM ADDRESSED Facilitation of information retrieval from large databases Ø TECHNICAL APPROACH A method and software for advanced information retrieval, consisting of organizing and ranking data by contextual relationships Ø POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Data mining (text, music, genetic code, etc. ), knowledge management Ø BENEFITS (1) Increase in information retrieval rates and probability of successful retrieval

Spatial Standard Observer Ø PROBLEM ADDRESSED Numerical measure of the perceptual intensity and difference of an image Ø POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Photometric instruments, copiers, video codecs, displays, graphics software, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems Ø BENEFITS (1) Allows quantitative assessment of the goodness of a single image or comparison of two images Spatial Standard Algorithm Difference?

DCTune Ø PROBLEM ADDRESSED: Improvement of digital image compression Ø 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 Ø 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 Ø 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 Ø PROBLEM ADDRESSED: VISAR is a computer algorithm that corrects for zoom, tilt, and jitter Ø 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. Ø 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 Ø 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, 35 mm, 16 mm, Digital Video Will be screened at Tommy Bahama Celestial Cinema on June 12 th -- 8 pm. 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