Digital Color Management: Getting the Colors Right

Everybody takes digital color images these days. They display them on the computer and often print them at a photo store or on a desktop printer. We create color graphics for display on the internet, for PowerPoint presentations and for printed documents. We expect the color of the reproduction to match the original. However, obtaining accurate color on a wide variety of devices is a complex task that requires understanding of the human visual system, image recording/reproduction device limitations and capabilities, estimation and optimization techniques, image and color standards, efficient programming methods and efficient ASIC designs. This seminar will introduce the design and engineering of color management systems for devices and software that record, manipulate and reproduce color images. The focus will be on real world problems the speaker has encountered and solved as well as open problems that still exist.

Dr. Michael J. Vrhel

Color Scientist, Artifex Software Inc. on November 19, 2010 at 8:00 AM in Engineering Building III, Room 2213

Michael Vrhel received his Ph.D. from NC State in 1993. During his Ph.D. studies, Michael was an Eastman Kodak Fellow. From 1993 to 1996, Michael was a National Research Council, Research Associate at the National Institutes of Health. From 1997 to 2002, he was the Senior Scientist at Color Savvy Systems where he developed color device characterization software and low-cost color measuring instrumentation. From 2002 to 2005, he was a Distinguished Engineer at Conexant Systems, where he developed algorithms for halftoning, color correction, image compression, and resolution conversion within an embedded environment. From 2005 to 2006, he was an Imaging Scientist at TAK Imaging, where he continued work on embedded algorithms for high-quality output on inkjet and dye sublimation printers. In 2006, he was a founding member of Pagemark Technology, which is a provider of digital document technology. Currently, he is the Color Scientist at Artifex Software developing improved rendering methods for ghostscriptT. Dr. Vrhel is a coauthor with H. J. Trussell on Fundamentals of Digital Imaging, published by Cambridge University Press in 2008 and has over 40 publications in image and signal processing journals and conferences as well as several patents awarded or under review.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering hosts a regularly scheduled seminar series with preeminent and leading reseachers in the US and the world, to help promote North Carolina as a center of innovation and knowledge and to ensure safeguarding its place of leading research.