[wellylug] A fresh life for some aging images

[Jeremy Naylor]

Stuff


    A fresh life for some aging images


17 January 2005

By SUE ALLEN

*A routine pregnancy scan may be important for many reasons, but for 
Frenchman Edouard Chalaron it was the event that sparked a business idea.*

After seeing his yet-to-be-born daughter Louise on a monitor, the Lower 
Hutt man headed home to transfer the scanned image from the 
hospital-issued video to DVD. 

Months later, and after a fair amount of trial and error, that transfer 
led to a birth of a different kind - the home-grown technology behind Dr 
Chalaron's company, DViDeo, which can transfer video and 8 millimetre, 
Super 8 and 16mm film footage to DVD. 

Bringing together "a bit of computer technology, some optics, some 
electronics and a tiny bit of engineering", Dr Chalaron's digital 
telecine machine uses a digital camera to reshoot the old film frame by 
frame before sending the image to a computer. 

The images can then be retouched on screen, improving colour and 
definition, before the "revived" film is transferred to DVD. 

The process also knocks out flickering and loss of definition, which 
happens when film is transferred using the do-it-yourself method - by 
projecting and reshooting it. 

"That's the cheap and nasty option and it's not terribly good," he says. 

Though it takes five to seven hours to transfer a three-minute film, 
most of the process is automatic once Dr Chalaron has set it up, which 
keeps the cost down. 

Though a small film costs on average about $20 to transfer, the price 
varies according to length and how much post-processing work needs to be 
done. 

Having studied as a geologist, Dr Chalaron has spent most of his life 
working with computers and this left him with a desire to find answers 
to problems. 

His doctoral thesis was on erosion and tectonic movement in the 
foothills of the Himalayas. 

He also worked on similar projects in Canada for the National Institute 
of Scientific Research in Quebec, and while lecturing in Ottawa he met 
other geologists and New Zealander Karyne Rogers. That prompted his move 
here in 1997. 

Dr Chalaron spent time working for the National Institute of Water and 
Atmospheric Research and Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, 
before he got tired of "chasing after contracts" and decided to start 
his own business. 

Now he is kept busy bringing back to life images which have often been 
gathering dust in the attic.

More at: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3157857a13,00.html

Thanks,

-- 
Jeremy Naylor
p: +64 21 374 689
e: jeremy.naylor at r2.co.nz
w: http://www.r2.co.nz/~jeremy
w: http://e-living.wellington.net.nz


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