Andrew+Browne


 * Position** - Member of the Colour Recovery Working Group.


 * Employment** – Freelance C++ programmer.


 * Background** – I have been writing software professionally for about 20 years and the vast majority of that work has been in C++. I have no prior experience with image processing or signal processing. I have some mathematics background – I studied physics at first year undergraduate level – but that is at best pretty rusty.


 * Interest in the Group** - I regularly read the Doctor Who Technical Forum and saw James Insell’s postings proposing setting up the group. One of the skills he was looking for was C++. I enjoy writing C++ and have a lot of experience with it, plus I currently have a little free time available, so I put my name forward. Although I have no prior knowledge of image processing, I have made a start by taking a look at the [|Adobe Generic Image Library (GIL)]. With regard to PAL processing, I have been doing a bit of reading and think I am beginning to get a grasp of how the colour information is encoded as a subcarrier modulating the luminance signal and giving rise to the “chroma dot” pattern. My understanding is far from complete at this point though. Currently I am wondering whether the chroma dot spacing could be of any use in correcting the distortion to the signal introduced by the film recording process, but I don’t know whether this is a hopelessly naïve question. Apart from an interest in the technical challenges, I am also motivated by a desire to see the results of any colour recovery technique that might arise from this group’s work being applied to old Doctor Who episodes. I saw many of the episodes in question at the time of the original broadcast, but I have never seen them in colour.


 * Skills offered** - C++.