The question to be answered by this research is how would a fine artist working in South Africa, identify and use the correct digital printing techniques to accurately print their work?

M.Phil. (Optometry) / Significant vision impairment caused by uncorrected distance or near vision (at a level defined by The World Health Organization as a disability) affects over 600 million people globally (9% of the world’s population). Over 3.5 billion people (52% of the world’s population) need some form of vision correction to see clearly. By 2020, this number is projected to reach 6.1 billion, 66% of the world’s population. Vision impairment is an important issue affecting the everyday lives of these 3.5 billion people worldwide. Two thirds of those affected live in the less developed world where the majority do not have easy access to eye care, eye examinations and affordable spectacles. Purpose If an ametrope or presbyope pricks a small hole into a leaf, piece of paper or cardboard and looks through it, he or she will usually experience improved acuity providing there is no central cataract or any ocular pathology. Rural communities, who have no access to eye-care or vision specialists, with vision problems, may benefit from looking through a pinhole while looking far and near. Many who are longsighted or presbyopic, may have problems reading their Bibles for example. They may only have candles as a source of light at night. They could improve their vision by looking through a small hole while reading. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of such a simple and almost cost free device contributing to solving this need. Method Uncompensated (without the pinhole) near or proximal visual acuities (VAs) were measured and recorded on one eye of 45 presbyopic subjects over the age of 50 years in photopic (250 lux) and then scotopic (20 lux) conditions. There were 36 male and 9 female subjects. Their ages ranged between 50 and 74 years with an average of 59 (SD = ±7.52) years. The ambient room illumination for photopic conditions was measured using a Sekonic Lumi Model 246 light-meter. No visual or pathological conditions or requirements were set for the subjects. The subjects were asked to read the smallest letters on the near chart by moving their head closer ...

Multi-view Video Coding (MVC) is vital for low bitrate applications that have constraints in bandwidth, battery capacity and memory size. Symmetric and mixed spatial-resolution coding approaches are addressed in this thesis, where Prediction Architecture (PA) is investigated using block matching statistics. Impact of camera separation is studied for symmetric coding to define a criterion for the best usage of MVC. Visual enhancement is studied for mixed spatial-resolution coding to improve visual quality for the interpolated frames by utilising the information derived from disparity compensation. In the context of symmetric coding investigations, camera separation cannot be used as a sufficient criterion to select suitable coding solution for a given video. Prediction architectures are proposed, where MVC that uses these architectures have higher coding performance than the corresponding codec that deploys a set of other prediction architectures, where the coding gain is up to 2.3 dB. An Adaptive Reference Frame Ordering (ARFO) algorithm is proposed that saves up to 6.2% in bits compared to static reference frame ordering when coding sequence that contains hard scene changes. In the case of mixed spatial-resolution coding investigations, a new PA is proposed that is able to save bitrate by 13.1 Kbps compared to the corresponding codec that uses the extended architecture based on 3D-digital multimedia. The codec that uses hierarchical B-picture PA has higher coding efficiency than the corresponding codec that employs the proposed PA, where the bitrate saving is 24.9 Kbps. The ARFO algorithm has been integrated with the proposed PA where it saves bitrates by up to 35.4 Kbps compared to corresponding codec that uses other prediction architectures. Visual enhancement algorithm is proposed and integrated within the presented PA. It provides highest quality improvement for the interpolated frames where coding gain is up to 0.9 dB compared to the corresponding frames that are coded by other prediction architectures.

An analysis of the social research done to date using photographs shows that photography, although used both in anthropology and sociology for data collection, as visual evidence and illustration, in photoelicitation or in time-studies, has not been fully exploited as an aid to see further and deeper in the social arena. Most social researchers still perceive photography as being simultaneously too complicated as a research aid and too creative and therefore unscientific to use as a research method. This project is exploratory and argumentative and not directed towards the formulation of a model. I propose that the camera is the proper tool to obtain more precise, detailed, and complete date, to uncover and clarify meaning, to investigate and clarify the research question, and to help in the presentation of the results of social investigation. Therefore the camera should become more accepted as a tool for the modern social researcher notwithstanding its creative component and even because of it. Indeed, as any individual in a culture oversaturated with images, although trained to observe precisely and record objectively, the social scientist has learned to see only a few v things while editing and blocking out the rest. The camera, because of its ability to record the world with richness of detail, is the proper tool to obtain a more precise and more complete visual documentation, which is essential for an accurate reconstruction of meaning. Lastly, I propose that the sociologist-anthropologist who accepts the challenge of integrating photography in his work should become also a skilled photographer, cultivating with practice the ability to intuitively perceive potential opportunities that may escape direct observation and developing a visual and emotional acuity that bridges the gap between intuition and the physical limitations of human perception. This new skill seems to be the result of an inner propensity to visual investigation combined with photographic practice and systematic studying of the history of photography and represents a jump of sophistication in the use of photography in more creative ways in social research, both conceptually and technically. In looking at the body of work produced in visual social research as well as in photographic social analysis, it seems that the most successful and compelling outcomes have been produced by authors who explored the unique opportunities of in depth analysis offered by the synergy of images and text to conduct a social, autoethnographic or psychological discourse. This appears to me a most promising area of development for the immediate future of visual social research.

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6 pp. / Originally published: 1998 / This article provides an introduction to repeat color photography and explains how it can be used as an important part of a comprehensive rangeland monitoring program. Reviewed 12/2014. Originally published 05/1998.

Research suggests children with autism gravitate towards visual rather than social communication, and do so with a leveled understanding. For example, studies show, children with ASD receive a black and white cartoon drawing differently than a color photograph. Based on this notion, this study explores a form of art making with photographs as a foundation to facilitate artistic expression and communication. Children and their immediate families were photographed against a white background. These photographs were printed out and given to the child to “finish” the picture with whatever material they find comfortable. A total of two participants were included in this study. One participant produced three drawings on photographs and the other produced four paintings on photographs. The final products suggest that this method of combining the photographic level of understanding with a free-form method of communication—art—may be of significant use to facilitating an alternative form of communication for children with autism.

This dissertation examines how tourists used photography during a period when economic prosperity and guaranteed vacation time meant increasing numbers of Americans gained the ability to travel for vacation; cameras and film became less expensive and travel photography more ubiquitous; and photographs produced by tourists helped shape the visual imaginary of the West. Tourists used the activity of photographing to be engaged in their vacations and their photographs represent authentic interactions among traveling companions. Typically, cultural critics view tourists as passive consumers who unthinkingly follow guidebooks' prescriptions and whose photographic practices prevent them from having authentic vacation experiences. While photographs in guidebooks, travel magazines, and other advice literature showed potential tourists what they should capture on film, tourists did not strictly follow that advice. Instead, tourists creatively engaged with photography to enhance their vacation experiences. My examination of tourist photographs reveals that tourists made choices about their photographic subjects, even as they also photographed iconic western scenes. Vacationers shot a variety of subjects, many of which are unexpected. As they traveled through the West, tourists used their cameras to connect with their companions, to amuse and entertain themselves and to create vacation stories to share with family and friends. My argument restores agency to tourist subjects by engaging concretely with their photographs. Because I emphasize tourist photographs, reading them as aesthetic constructions that enact the processes of creating meaning and identity, my project intervenes to quarrel with scholars and cultural critics who have often viewed tourists and the activity, aesthetics, and meaning of their photographs as inauthentic, vacuous and overly mediated.

archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Jordan Mintz