[Apologies for cross-posting]

British Computer Society - Electronic Publishing Specialist Group
One-day London seminar: 20 March 2002

"PIXEL POWER:   the capture, archiving and output
                of scanned images and digital photos"

                      http://www/epsg.org.uk/meetings/pixelpower/

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PIXEL IMAGES, more technically known as raster images,
constitute the vast bulk of pictures used in print publishing and on
the Web. Almost all of them are scanned from photographs or art,
or captured with digital cameras.

Although the use of raster images is well established, they
continue to bring challenges and headaches to publishers and
other computer users. Typical problems include quality of image
capture, digital artefacts in images, storage and compression
issues, and the fidelity of printed or displayed output to the
original subject. For large-scale holders of image resources such as
picture libraries, museums and galleries, there are also problems of
categorisation, indexing, searching and asset tracking.

This seminar organised by the Electronic Publishing Specialist
Group will survey the issues that surround the use of pixel
images in publishing workflows, and the ongoing efforts of
research and technical development that is trying to address
them. We shall also look at some novel uses of pixel images in
the creation of virtual environments and 3-D objects. We aim to
deliver some fundamental knowledge about the world of pixel-based
imaging that should be practically useful for every publisher or
designer, as well as examining cutting edge developments.

We believe that the "second tier" of people involved in design,
photography, reprographics and picture librarianship -- many of
whom work inside companies, universities, government
departments, museums and publishing houses -- can learn a lot
from hearing about the arcane-seeming issues and expensive
hardware employed by imaging professionals.  That's because
today's fancy technology trickles down to become the affordable
toolkit of tomorrow; and photographers and repro technicians with
their high standards and demanding clients can make us aware of
concerns and techniques with much wider applicability.

Use this opportunity to learn about:
    image resolution issues  **  pixel data depths
    RGB, CMYK, Lab etc...  **  image enhancement methods
    colour separation for print  **  colour management
    digital halftoning  **  resampling & interpolation
    and more...

Find out what's new and coming up in:
    digital studio photography  **  repro-quality CCD scanners
    image databases, indexing & metadata  **  new file formats
    3-D worlds made from 'stitched' digital photographs...

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Speakers (Subject to final confirmation)

** Conrad Taylor,
   independent teacher and writer on information design and
   electronic publishing, and current Secretary of EPSG, will
   open the day by talking about "The birth, life-cycle and
   reproduction of pixels" -- dealing with some fundamental
   misconceptions and confusions of pixel images, and examining
   the hardware "frontiers" where advances are being made in
   image acquisition, manipulation and output.

** We are currently waiting to confirm a speaker who can
   talk to us about digital photography at the high end, the
   world of the commercial studio photographer where digital
   camera backs are rapidly supplanting film for catalogue
   and fashion photography.

** Phil Green,
   of the London College of Printing, the author of
   "Understanding Digital Colour", will talk about the vital
   topic of colour management -- the methods and technologies
   which printers and publishers are trying to implement to
   ensure that photographs are printed with consistent quality
   and predictability.

** George Mallen
   of System Simulation Ltd., which has implemented large
   digital asset management systems for commercial picture
   libraries, museums and art galleries (including the
   Compass project at the British Museum), will give a broad
   overview of what's involved in setting up such systems,
   from image acquisition to database management, indexing,
   metadata and collection searching.

** David Clarke
   of the specialist multimedia company Rotography will talk
   about an unusual but exciting application of pixel images
   -- in creating virtual objects on screen that can be spun
   round and inspected from all sides, or environments that
   can be explored on a Web site.

** Prof Lindsay MacDonald
   of the Colour and Imaging Institute at the University
   of Derby will give us a "tomorrow's world" tour of a
   selection of research projects into digital imaging
   currently being conducted by the Institute.

The day will be chaired by Bill Davy, a former EPSG Committee
member with years of industrial experience of designing systems
for fully integrated imagesetting and litho platemaking.

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The conference is to be held in the state of the art Flett Lecture
Theatre of the Museum of Natural History in South Kensington,
London., from 10:00 am to about 4:30 pm, with an hour's break for
lunch and two refreshment breaks.

For further details including fees, a downloadable booking form
and a colourful noticeboard poster, please see the Web pages for
the event by following this URL:

   http://www.epsg.org.uk/meetings/pixelpower/




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Mrs. Ann Apps. Senior Analyst - Research & Development, MIMAS,
     University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6039    Fax: +44 (0) 0161 275 6040
Email: [log in to unmask]  WWW: http://epub.mimas.ac.uk/ann.html
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