Bringing Digital Technology Back to Earth

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Bringing Digital Technology Back to Earth

• Presented by
• Ken Dozier
• USC ETTC

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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

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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 compressedusing Microsofts Media
  Player 9
• The projector is being driven by a PC not a HD
  video deck

Shuttle/Earth footage
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Technology Transfer

• 1970s CAD/CAM (DoD /Aerospace)
• Development Costs Millions
• 1970s Digital Sensors in Space (NASA)
• Development Costs - Millions
• 1970s Digital Image Processing (DoD / NASA)
• Development Costs - Millions

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Technology Transfer

• 1980s CCD Sensor Chips
• Competitively Priced Professional Digital Cameras
• Digital Video Tape Recorders
• Broadcast Industry - Linear edit bay - cost 2
  million
• 1980s Graphic CAD/CAM Workstations
• cost 75,000
• Market Broadens
• Entertainment Begins to Experiment

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Technology Transfer

• 1990s 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

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Technology Transfer

• 1990s Standard Definition
• Non Linear Editing - cost 100,000
• Computer Disks allow Random Access
• Flushing out of the Post Houses

Price Point Breakthrough !
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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

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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.

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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

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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

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A List Incubator Gear (Cost 600,000)

• Camera Thompson Viper Camera 1080p (1920 x
  1080p)
• Output 444 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
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Broadcast - Commercials (Cost 200,000)
Price Point Breakthrough !

• Camera Sony (1920 x1080p) 24fps 422
• Capture Computer - Boxx
• Editing Computer Boxx

Image courtesy of Sony Corporation
Image courtesy of Boxx Technologies
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Next Sundance Distribution Quality (Cost
100,000)

• Camera Panasonic Variframe (1280 x 720p) 24fps
  422
• Capture Apple Computer
• Editing Apple Computer

Image courtesy of Panasonic
Image courtesy of Apple Computers
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Consumer Quality (Cost 6,000)

• Camera JVC Pro (1280 x 720) 30i fps 411
• Capture DV Tape
• Editing Any PC Computer

Image courtesy of JVC
Image courtesy of Fuji
Image courtesy of Dell Computers
Used for Star Wars Episode II animatics
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Cinema Master Workflow
Source A Data-Centric Approach to Cinema
Mastering Thomas J. True, SGI
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eFilm Configuration
Imagica Film Scanners
CXFS SAN 52 TB TP4900 Brocade Switches
Laser Film Output
ELab Real-time Coloring Timing and Dust-busting SG
I Onyx 3400
Visual Effects Optical House Titling House
Multiversion Rendering SGI Origin 300
Edit Rendering SGI Origin 300
ELab Real-time Film Stock Emulation SGI Onyx 3400
Backup Server SGI Origin 300
DLP Projection Screening Theater
Source Digital Infrastructure Solution for
Production J. Farney, SGI
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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
I/O PC
Array PC
Array PC
Array PC
Array PC
PC Array
RAID
RAID
RAID
RAID
RAID
Gigabit Network
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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

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HDTV TitlePasadena

• 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 768HD projector 1280 x
  1024

Pasadena-clip-1
Pasadena-clip-2
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HDTV TitlePasadena

• Adobe Premiere using proxy images
• Down sampled to 480 x 240 images for editing on
  ordinary PC
• Time Code was not used or needed

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HDTV TitlePasadena

• Full 1920 x 1080 resolution HD conformed on a PC
• Finished HD playback 1280 x 720.

Pasadena-clip
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NASA Technology

• Millions in Government funded RD
• Special programs for SMEs
• Available for Licensing and Commercial
  Development
• Help in accessing information is available
  through USCs Engineering Technology Transfer
  Center
• See the web page at http//www.usc.edu/go/TTC

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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
• 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

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PERILOGCONTEXTUAL 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

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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?
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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
• 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
• 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

Original
Optimized
Images courtesy of NASA Ames Vision group
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VISARVideo 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
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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
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Brought to you by
The NASA Far West Regional Technology Transfer
Center
http//www.usc.edu/go/TTC
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In affiliation with
http//www.wrjgroup.com
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• Special Thanks to
• Jim Steele
• Digital Cinema Solutions