The original SHD system was only capable of displaying Photo-CD images. This meant we could only view a portion of our collection on the high resolution monitor. The new version of the software supports an image format called JPEG. As a result, we can now display all our images since we use JPEG as our standard display format.
ACT Provides Images for NTT Demos
Earlier this year ACT provided NTT with 27 high-resolution images of artworks drawn from the World Heritage Exchange. NTT will use the images to showcase its new Super High Definition image display system, which can be used for remote medical diagnosis, electronic cataloguing and producing super-precise satellite images.
The 27 images are the property of either the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) or UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. Both have signed the agreement with ACT to allow NTT to use their ACT-resident images for a year. They include six Carr paintings and three Bill Reid pieces.
The other 18 images in the project include one famous painting by Group of Seven member J.E.H. MacDonald (Lake O’Hara), several Dutch paintings of the last century, a few contemporary Italian and Canadian paintings, and images of Haida and Northwest First Nations cultural artifacts.
Three of the Carr paintings come from what writer Doris Shadbolt called her “new liberation” period of the early Thirties. Two are the luminous, sky-stretching Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky (1935) and Above the Gravel Pit (1937), and the well-known Red Cedar (1931-33) with its luminous feeling for undergrowth and foliage: paintings which gave the world the wild impression of Canada’s West Coast. Of this period Shadbolt wrote in The Art of Emily Carr that Carr “came close to an expression of ecstasy, a pure state of joyous identification with nature.”
These are some of the pictures the world will now be able to see in their dazzling originality, thanks to ACT’s digitized high-resolution software and NTT’s super-high definition image system.
Likewise, Bill Reid’s colourful Haida Mask and two sculptures (Raven and the First Men, and Bear), will be showcased on the NTT system in perfect colour and detail, and all images will bear at the bottom the artist’s name, copyright holder, and the words ‘Provided by ACT Cinemage Group, Vancouver, Canada.'
Content Protection through Content ID
NTT is very interested in the protection of digital content. This is, of course, also an issue for ACT and indeed for anyone selling digital content on the Internet. NTT is part of a group called the Content ID Forum, which is developing what they hope will be a standard for the protection of digital content. The concept is that of a digital code called a Content ID, which would be embedded in each digital file using watermarking or other similar techniques. Because the ID is embedded in the file, it is possible to track the use of the file and prevent unauthorized use.
ACT currently uses several methods to protect our images. These include embedding a visible watermark into images, attaching a copyright notice to the bottom of images, and delivering the images on the web in such a way that they cannot easily be copied.