DIGITAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE RESTORATION OF MOVIE-FILMS

The subject of the project is to design and implement a system and a work-station for restoring motion pictures, suitable for total, high resolution digital restoration. The system will be able to restore the images and volume of sound on the existing safe films, especially on the distorted nitro-celluloid films, preserving them this way for archives. Our elaboration is based on a complex, intelligent, self-learning-based mechanism, combined analogue-digital, perception-calculation-estimation-correction process.

Basic research: elaboration of new, predictive methods for evaluating the images on frames succeeding each other; elaboration of appropriate statistical means; and an adaptive method for remaking their missing frames or parts.

Applied research: elimination of noise and scratches; correction of non-linear and linear deformations; correction of the continuity of contours; continuous evaluation of the contrast and colour parameters of a series of frames; emphasizing individual filtering of colours; correction of colours, setting their brightness.

Expected result: development of an intelligent and highly powerful work-station with dedicated periphery, capable to restore archive films in real time, damaged both in their physical condition and informational content, and to save them on film material. Mathematical methods, image processing algorithms that can be useful in other, e.g., medical, biological, chemical, military, etc. fields, will also be considered as significant results.

Members of the consortium: MTA SZTAKI, Hungarian National Film Archive, University of Veszprém, Cortex Technical R&D Ltd. The project co-ordinator is Prof. György Kovács (MTA SZTAKI).