This award supports Professors Howard Kaufman and John W. Woods of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to collaborate in research in computer image processing with Professor Jan Biemond of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. The objective of their collaboration is to evaluate various image sequence restoration techniques in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency on different parallel computer architectures. In particular, Professor Biemond will use iterative based procedures and an AP500 array processor, while Professors Kaufman and Woods will use recursive based procedures and a Sequent Balance 8000 multiprocessor system. Identification of the spatial and temporal image dynamics will be considered by both investigators. Another important aspect of the cooperative research will be in algorithm design. It is important that a good cross-section of procedures be used to give all processors the chance to perform in their own domains. At the same time, the methods of implementation have to be closely analyzed to make sure that the measurements on the architecture's power are fair. The area of fast restoration of distorted image sequences is one of growing importance, for which effective techniques are needed. Real-time image enhancement is becoming increasingly more feasible due to recent hardware advances, such as DSP chips and parallel architectures. Image restoration is usually more computationally intensive and is more difficult to achieve at high speeds. The goals of this collaboration are ambitious, but the expected result of meaningful comparisons of different methodologies will be very worthwhile.
