Welcome!
Having recently completed my Masters here in Maynooth - entitled A Novel Approach for a General Mathematical Morphology Framework - I've returned to undertake a PhD.
I realised many years ago after a brief stint in the real world (programming security software for Siemens), that research and teaching were the things for me.
The (working) title of my thesis is Automatic Blotch Detection for Digitised Film Sequences, and my supervisors are Dr. Susan Bergin and Prof. Ronan Reilly.
Building on some of the image processing work from my Masters, the aim of this work is to investigate and implement a system for automatic blotch detection; if you've seen a film, you've
seen blotches, also known as dirt and sparkle. They're the little bright or dark single frame areas of degradation that occur over time due to the way that film is viewed. (More on that in the 'Research' section.) Previous work in this area has concentrated mostly on signal processing - our approach will employ image processing but also different
means.
Why worry?
“It is estimated that approx. 50% of all films produced prior to 1950 have been destroyed or rendered unwatchable.”Film & Cinema
“Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.”–STANLEY KUBRICK (1928-1999)