Charles Poynton -
Independent contractor

(PDF résumé and other background documents are available.)

I am an independent contractor - call me a consultant if you must - specializing in the physics, mathematics, and engineering of digital color imaging systems, including digital video, HDTV, and digital cinema (D-cinema). [In Canada, we spell it colour.] I do technology forecasting, systems modelling, algorithm development (including digital filter design), video signal processing architecture, color characterization and calibration, and image quality assessment. I live and work in Toronto.

For about a decade, I have been using Mathematica to do analysis, design, modelling, and simulation of signal, color, and video processing systems. I have recently added MATLAB to my toolkit, including Simulink, the DSP Blockset, the Image Processing Toolbox, the Optimization Toolbox, and the Signal Processing Toolbox.

I pay a great deal of attention to communicating my work, both to my clients (by writing technical reports, proposals, analysis documents, and the like), and to the wider community (by teaching courses and seminars and by writing books). I execute my own illustrations (using Adobe Illustrator), and typeset my own work (using Adobe FrameMaker).

I have been working primarily in these areas:

• Analyzing color specification, calibration, capture, processing, storage, and display for digital cinema, computer animation, computer generated imagery (CGI), and broadcast, industrial, and consumer video.

  For two different manufacturers of emerging displays for digital cinema, I consulted on color science, helped establish image coding standards, and assisted in the development, testing, and evaluation of signal processing algorithms.

  I have consulted to several film studios on the establishment of image coding standards, and helped to introduce color characterization, color calibration, and color management into their production pipelines.

  I have an extensive implementation, in Mathematica, of code for color image encoding, decoding, matrixing, and processing. You can obtain more information.

• Developing, characterizing, modeling, and analyzing algorithms for motion image processing at quality levels from digital cinema, through studio broadcast, down to PCs, with implementation technologies from high-level software, through microcode, to commercially-available VLSI. Generally I perform high-level architectural work, and deliver algorithms as some combination of textual description, equations, and/or Mathematica code. Sometimes I provide bit-accurate C-code as well. My clients typically implement these algorithms themselves in VHDL or Verilog. (I read these languages, but don't [yet] write them.)

  For a startup company developing a revolutionary new film scanning technology, I assisted in color characterization of their highly unusual device, and in the development of unique image signal processing algorithms.

  For a manufacturer of graphics accelerator chips, I designed filtering algorithms associated with NTSC decoding and encoding, deinterlacing, reinterlacing, resizing, and frame rate conversion.

  For a startup company manufacturing very large scale full-color LED display systems, I designed the color signal processing architecture including uniformity correction and color matrixing; great attention was paid to motion artifacts associated with the interaction between eye tracking and pulse-width modulation (PWM).

• Technology assessment and forecasting. I assess the value of intellectual property, to assist companies to exercise due diligence with respect to licensing or acquisition. I assess how technological developments in digital video, compression, HDTV, and accurate color technology are likely to affect companies. Sometimes, this verges into product planning.

For a company that designs and manufactures standard (commercial) integrated circuits, I consulted on the technological aspects of a business strategy to enter the domain of consumer electronics.

For a large manufacturer of studio video equipment, I assisted in the evaluation of the technology of a company that was a candidate for acquisition.

• Expert witness in patent litigation. I assess and evaluate patents and patent portfolios, and several times I have acted as an expert witness in patent litigation.

For a company that designs and manufactures video equipment, I examined the claims of an inventor that claimed that his patent had been infringed. I gave a deposition in which I cast doubt on the validity of the claims; an out-of-court settlement ensued.

I served as an expert witness in an arbitration at the International Court of Arbitration in London. The developer of an advanced video codec had licensed its technology to a foreign entity. That entity claimed that the developer's code could not be effectively ported to a DSP architecture. My client prevailed.

• Writing. I have written several white papers - some attributed, some published anonymously - on various topics within my expertise.

  For Discreet Logic (later acquired by Autodesk), a developer of large-scale application software for the creation of digital media, I wrote a white paper concerning conversion between R'G'B' (4:4:4) and Y'C_BC_R (4:2:2) video coding systems. A competitor was making suspect claims about their own video coding, and implied that Discreet's R'G'B' system was inferior. Discreet needed an authoritative voice to politely refute these claims in public.

• Teaching courses and seminars. In addition to the many public tutorials, courses, and seminars that I have presented over the last decade, I have organized and presented many in-house events for large semiconductor manufacturers, film studios, manufacturers of camera and display systems, and system and application software companies. Most of my teaching gigs provide for "open" consulting time for individual contributors and design teams.

Many of the companies that I work for prefer that fact not to be made public. So I cannot tell you here - or perhaps even at all - who they are.

Sometimes, I charge a per diem rate; sometimes I take fixed-price contracts. Sometimes I perform contracts without leaving my office in Toronto; sometimes I travel to my clients' facilities. Sometimes I consult over the telephone, for an hourly rate. If you're interested in having me consult for your organization, telephone me and we'll discuss your needs, my references, and my rates.

If you're considering hiring me, perhaps you're interested in my medium and long-term goals.

Charles
2014-09-01 01:53 EDT