Amazing Technology

(Originally posted at American Yank in England on 19 December 2007)

Sorry folks, I'm going to go super-geeky on you today. The wizards over at Stanford University have come up with an amazing little program that converts raster-based images into vector-based images. What the heck does that mean and why should I care? Um, actually I'm not really sure why the majority of you should care. Unless you're an artist or designer or the like, it probably won't change the way you go about your daily business. But if you ARE one of those folks, it is very cool. Raster images like photographs and some drawings are based on the position and relationship of individual pixels. They tend to get ugly when you transform them (especially upwards) and can be difficult to print because of fine gradations in tone. Vector images, on the other hand, are based on geometric relationships (lines, curves, etc.) and can be up/down-sized at will without degrading the image quality and for certain printing processes such as fabric/screen prints the process is much easier. Just for fun, I tested the program out on a small section of an image I made of a USAF F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet as it moved on the taxiway for takeoff. Lots of heat behind made for interesting detail that I was sure would give the software a challenge. And the results?

Nice. Very nice. When things slow down after the holidays I expect to play more and create more.

Want to play yourself? VectorMagic