New technology developed under Phase I of this project makes possible an inexpensive image preparation system which would allow a researcher who is not an experienced video editor to produce a wide variety of images to be used as stimuli in many areas of psychobiology. The system would allow researchers to compose images by combining stored images of the real world with elements created by computer graphics. A sophisticated video mixer would allow the user to determine on a pixel by pixel basis which image fractions should overlay the background or to specifiy that overlaid and background pixels should be mixed to achieve complex transparency and blending effects. The proposed system would allow a researcher to build a library of images from many sources such as live camera scenes, photographs, and computer graphics, and compose stimuli by excising parts of images, moving them around in real time, and overlaying of blending them with a background as necessary. The end result of this project will be a video editing and composition system ready for production and sale to researchers at universities, hospitals, and biomedical companies.
