'Dream Team' Assembles with Goal of Capturing, Displaying Gigapixel-Sized Images
Date: Friday, Dec 09 @ 10:41 PST
Topic: Archive
An eclectic group of artists and scientists that organizers have dubbed
the "dream team" of imaging and visualization are gathered at New York
University this week to begin to create a photographic system capable
of capturing and displaying a gigapixel - one billion pixels - of
visual information in a single image. The first Big Picture Summit,
Dec. 8 and 9, is organized by artist-photographer Clifford Ross and
co-hosted by Sandia National Laboratories and the Interactive
Telecommunications Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
A photo of Mount Sopris in Colorado,
taken by Clifford Ross with his homemade camera, captures so much
detail that scientists are interested in his technology.
The scientists have different but complementary goals. Computational
scientists at Sandia, a National Nuclear Security Administration lab,
believe a display system of the magnitude proposed by Ross will enhance
the ability of its scientists to visualize and gain insight from
massively complex data sets that can be understood only through human
intuition, ranging from supercomputer-generated physics simulations to
high-resolution satellite imagery.
"We're good at making big computers," said Carl Diegert, lead
computational and imaging scientist at Sandia. But, Mr. Diegert said,
when scientists look at pictures of the space shuttle, for example,
they may not see things as clearly as they might. "We're trying to find
how the human emotional part comes into play in finding a crack in the
space shuttle. Clifford has figured out how to catch all this
information at a moment in time."
Ross says his goal in bringing together top imaging experts from
leading scientific institutions is to bring closer to reality his
desire to create a "you are there" photographic experience for those
who have not personally witnessed the sublime beauty of natural scenes
such as Mt. Sopris in Colorado.
"In the early 15th century, the impulse to render flesh more
realistically drove the artist Jan van Eyck to invent oil paint," says
Ross. "The same sort of impulse is driving me, except that I'm trying
to capture a mountain. Pixels are simply 21st century oil paint."
"We have a lot in common with an artist like Clifford Ross and his
quest to make extremely detailed images that evoke a powerful emotional
response," says Carl Diegert, Sandia computational scientist. "We want
to understand from an intuitive standpoint what it is that enables
viewers to gain insight - for example, a visual metaphor that makes a
human viewer comfortable and thus better able to interact with an
image. Computer science alone is not likely to invent a means for
scientists to intuitively comprehend highly complex problems."
"My own goal is to fill the eye with so much information that it
overflows and reaches the human heart," adds Ross. "Art is emotional,
but the path is technical, and virtually all the scientists involved in
this effort know more about the technical aspects of imaging than I
do."
Ross' newly patented R1 camera system (www.cliffordross.com/),
which broke through the gigapixel barrier, has achieved some of the
highest resolution single-shot images ever created. (Efforts by other
photographers have digitally melded many smaller images taken over a
period of time into single sweeping, gigapixel-sized landscape images.)
The quality of the first landscape images created with the R1 - the
"Mountain" series - convinced many of the scientists involved in the
Summit to join in the effort, says Diegert.
The 15 professionals invited by Ross to participate in the Summit
include renowned artists, scientists and engineers from government
agencies, and digital imagery experts from the entertainment and film
industries. (See list of participants below.)
The project could have major implications for all industries that
rely on precise imaging, including environmental science, space
exploration, telecommunications, and homeland security, says Diegert.
The project has two parts. The first is to design and build a new
camera, expanding on concepts embodied in the R1, that can capture a
gigapixel of digital information at a speed of 1/15th of a second or
faster.
The second part is to create the display system, which Ross likens
to building an "electronic Sistine ceiling." It will have 16 times
greater data display capabilities than one currently in use at Sandia,
among the world's most advanced. The display would provide an overall
view of images at a very large scale while allowing viewers to perceive
extremely fine detail.
The Summit is expected to result in a concrete agenda and working
group, which would then be funded by interested individuals,
foundations, corporations, and government agencies with an interest in
the practical implications of Ross' quest.
"This extraordinary convergence of talent is a promising start,"
said renowned digital innovator Red Burns, creator and chair of the
Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.
"The group is skilled in virtually all the necessary elements of
hardware and software design for a high resolution imaging project of
great ambition. Individually, the participants are some of the keenest
minds in the field. Collectively, with an unyielding artist in our
midst and the right support, there is a chance to create a real
breakthrough."
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation,
a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National
Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque,
N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities
in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and
economic competitiveness.
The Summiteers:
* Richard Benson - Dean, Yale University School of Art / MacArthur Fellow / Photography Pioneer / New Haven, CT
* Red Burns - Creator & Chair, Interactive Telecommunications
Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University /New York, NY
* Carl Diegert - Lead Computational and Imaging Scientist, Digital
Paleontologist, Sandia National Laboratories / former Assistant
Professor, School of Engineering, Cornell University / Albuquerque, NM
* Bran Ferren - Co-chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Applied
Minds, Inc. / former President, Walt Disney Imagineering / Los Angeles,
CA
* Chuck Harrison - President, Far Field Associates, Inc. / Color
Scientist / Imaging and Data Security Engineer / Consultant for the
Digital Cinema System Standardization Project / Seattle, WA
* Michael Hawley - Director of Special Projects, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology / formerly of Bell Laboratories and Lucasfilm /
Cambridge, MA
* Clint Hope - Executive Director for Experiential Systems,
Applied Minds, Inc. / former Senior Scientist, Walt Disney Imagineering
/ Los Angeles, CA
* Zoltan Levay - Imaging Resource Lead, Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University / Baltimore, MD
* Tom McKnight - President, Sensorstar, Inc. / Lead Scientist for
Space-Based Telecommunications and Control Systems for Deep Space and
Earth Orbiting Spacecraft / Ellicott City, MD
* Michael Naimark - Adjunct Professor, Interactive
Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York
University / Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California /
Media Artist and Researcher / Los Angeles, CA
* Daniel O'Sullivan - Associate Professor, Interactive
Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York
University / Developer, Quicktime VR for Apple Computer / New York, NY
* David Rogers - Imaging and Visualization Scientist, Sandia
National Laboratories / former Lead Production Software Engineer,
DreamWorks Feature Animation / Albuquerque, NM
* Eric Rosenthal - President, Creative Technology, Llc. / Imaging
Consultant for National Security Agency and NASA / former Vice
President of Advanced Technology Research at Walt Disney Imagineering/
Morganville, NJ
* Clifford Ross - Artist-Photographer / Organizer, "The Big
Picture Summit" / Inventor of the R1 High-Resolution Camera System /
New York, NY
* Liron Unreich - Digital Imaging Director, Ross Studio /
Photoshop Specialist / former Israeli Army Intelligence Photographic
Interpreter / New York, NY
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