April Presentation

Do you think you are “up to date” on what is coming digital photography . On Wednesday 5 April. to the VPS meeting at 7:30pm in the Thoreau Middle school Lecture hall to hear an international expert speak on Imaging And Human Vision In The Age Of Electronics" Our speaker is Dr. Charles Fenimore whose work has contributed to new measurements and standards for image processing and presentation for both commercial ( Motion Picture Experts Group, MPEG) and government users.

Charles Fenimore is a manager in the Convergent Information Systems Division of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg. He has a BS from Union College and a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley.

Several years ago, his interests were directed toward digital image compression. This problem is not simple. The goal is to preserve an image from a digital camera in as close to its original state as possible, while decreasing radically the amount of room it uses in the memory of a camera or computer. While at first this seems like a problem in pure science, it decidedly is not. Objective means for deciding the meaning of the word “quality” need to be established, not only in the context of how much compression is possible and at what loss of information, but also in the more subjective context of what a person perceives as “quality”.

Thus the little understood system of the human eye and the human mind must be considered in addition to science. Charles is an internationally known expert in the question of the relationship between an image and a human perception of that image. As such, he has given lectures to audiences of photographers and scientists in many countries. In addition, his lectures designed to appeal to the general listener with an interest in images are widely attended.

This is an unusual chance for VPS members to bypass the sales talks by manufacturers, who occasionally give a glimpse of what the next increment in digital imaging will be, and instead to understand what digital imaging will look like years from now.