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To: Thure Meyer who wrote (8381)	5/13/1999 7:30:00 AM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 17679

thure....network tv has c-span; tvontheweb has e-span. <g>

To: Thure Meyer who wrote (8381)	5/13/1999 7:52:00 AM
From: Sleeper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

What are the chances executive branch TV will be interactive? Sleeper

To: Thure Meyer who wrote (8381)	5/13/1999 8:19:00 AM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 17679

Taking the Shake Out of Video by Joseph Rose 3:00 a.m. 13.May.99.PDT Imaging technology developed by NASA may soon be available for anyone who wants to take the shake out of home movies. Scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, plan to patent the image-stabilizing software this summer and license it to companies that make video-editing packages for personal computers. Digital video cameras are also expected to carry the technology in the near future. VISAR (Video Image Stabilization and Registration) technology uses an imaging algorithm to eliminate shaking, adjust for inadvertent zoom, and brighten dark areas. With a little tweaking, camcorder shots of a kid's soccer game at dusk could look like they were produced by ESPN. VISAR also lets amateurs and hobbyists add special effects. Irvine Sensors of Costa Mesa is also working on an imaging algorithm that competes with the NASA technology. The unnamed software was born from a military application Irvine developed to help the Air Force analyze infrared images. "It's more than stabilization; it's total resolution enhancement that's simple and fast," said project manager Randy Carlson. "At one frame per second, we can magnify and sharpen an image four times its original size." Arsev H. Eraslan, the chief scientist at the Office of Law Enforcement Technology and Commercialization, located in Wheeling, West Virginia, has seen both the Irvine Sensor and NASA systems. "The NASA-developed technology even works in extremely blurred images," Eraslan said. His institution plans to use VISAR in a new face-recognition system for identifying suspects at crime scenes. He said the Marshall-developed video-stabilization system produces a sharper image than the Irvine Sensor and makes dark, nighttime scenes appear as if shot in daylight. "Certainly everybody gets jitters in their video," said Matt Douglas, product manager for Adobe's high-end editing package, Premiere. "This would definitely fit a customer need." More than two years ago, the FBI's Southeast Bomb Task Force contacted Marshall looking for someone to improve video from the bombing of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Video from the scene of the bombing was of particularly poor quality. The camcorder images of the nighttime explosion and the hysteria that followed were so bouncy that several FBI agents actually got nauseous from watching it. Taking the Shake Out of Video Page 2 3:00 a.m. 13.May.99.PDT continued Hathaway and fellow scientist Paul Meyer began working on what became VISAR. The scientists had more than 400 frames of video, more than 13 seconds to work with. After weeks of trial and error with the bombing video, they were able to develop an algorithm that stabilized, sharpened, and brightened the images, revealing important details that had been obscured. Hathaway and Meyer's work helped them devise the imaging filters. Meyer, a meteorologist and computer scientist working in Global Hydrology, processes weather satellite images. Hathaway, a solar physicist, uses video-stabilization techniques to enhance pictures of the sun. "Telescopes are always shaky," Hathaway said. "Jitter affects measurements of the sun's position or features on the solar surface." By highlighting an object in the image, the software can line up the pixels from several video frames together. The result is a steadier, sharper video. If home-video editors can determine precisely where someone is in a frame, they can add a layer of special effects correlated to that position. Meyer and Hathaway decided to pursue a patent after experts told them that VISAR surpassed existing image-correction technology. They also realized that the product could benefit the public with an array of applications from the highly technical to those almost anybody can use. "Boy, there's a lot of interest in this," said Sammy Nabors, who markets NASA inventions to American companies through the space agency's Technology Transfer Office. Crime fighters, for example, have said that they want to use the technology to steady chase shots taken from inside a moving police car. This would enable investigators to focus on a license plate number or a driver's face reflected in the rear-view mirror. Once digital video cameras become more affordable, it would be practical to use the system inside the recorders to stabilize and enhance images as they are recorded, Meyer said. The scientists have posted QuickTime movies that have been cleaned up with their video-enhancing technology.

To: Thure Meyer who wrote (8381)	5/13/1999 8:23:00 AM
From: flickerful	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17679

Scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, plan to patent the image-stabilizing software this summer and license it to companies that make video-editing packages for personal computers. Digital video cameras are also expected to carry the technology in the near future. VISAR (Video Image Stabilization and Registration) technology uses an imaging algorithm to eliminate shaking, adjust for inadvertent zoom, and brighten dark areas. Irvine Sensors of Costa Mesa is also working on an imaging algorithm that competes with the NASA technology. The unnamed software was born from a military application Irvine developed to help the Air Force analyze infrared images........ v e r y i n t e r e s t i n g.........