Photographic mosaic
Encyclopedia
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
, is a picture (usually a photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
) that has been divided into (usually equal sized) rectangular sections, each of which is replaced with another photograph that matches the target photo. When viewed at low magnifications, the individual pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s appear as the primary image, while close examination reveals that the image is in fact made up of many hundreds or thousands of smaller images. Most of the times they are a computer-created type of montage
Photomontage
Photomontage is the process and result of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does not...
.
There are two kinds of mosaic, depending on how the matching is done. In the simpler kind, each part of the target image is averaged down to a single color. Each of the library images is also reduced to a single color. Each part of the target image is then replaced with one from the library where these colors are as similar as possible. In effect, the target image is reduced in resolution (by downsampling
Downsampling
In signal processing, downsampling is the process of reducing the sampling rate of a signal. This is usually done to reduce the data rate or the size of the data....
), and then each of the resulting pixels is replaced with an image whose average color matches that pixel.
In the more advanced kind of photographic mosaic, the target image is not downsampled, and the matching is done by comparing each pixel in the rectangle to the corresponding pixel from each library image. The rectangle in the target is then replaced with the library image that minimizes the total difference. This require much more computation than the simple kind, but the results can be much better since the pixel-by-pixel matching can preserve the resolution of the target image.
Originally, the term photomosaic referred to compound photographs created by stitching together a series of adjacent pictures of a scene. Space scientists have been assembling mosaics of this kind since at least as early as the Soviet Union space satellite missions to the moon in the late 1950s. The name photomosaic and an implementation concept were trademarked by Robert Silvers' Runaway Technology, Inc.
History
- 1993 Joseph Francis, working for R/Greenberg Associates in Manhattan, is believed to be the inventor of the modern-day computer-generated colour image versions. His Live from Bell Labs poster created in 1993 used computer-themed tile photographs to create a mosaic of a face ( Ryszard Horowitz/ Photography and Art Direction, Robert Bowen/ Digital Artist). He went on to create a mosaic for Animation Magazine in 1993, which was repeated in Wired Magazine (November 1994, p. 106). Francis has said on his "History of Photo Mosaics" webpage that his interest in developing these techniques further was in part stimulated by the work of artist Chuck CloseChuck CloseCharles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...
.
- 1994 Dave McKeanDave McKeanDavid McKean is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician....
creates an image for DC Comics, a mosaic of a face made from photos of faces, although this is believed to be created manually using Photoshop.
- 1994 Adam Finkelstein and Sandy Farrier create a mosaic of John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
from parts of Marilyn Monroe pictures. The result was displayed in the Xerox PARC Algorithmic Art Show in 1994.
- 1994 Benetton: AIDS - Faces mosaic. Over one thousand young peoples' portraits from all over the word computer-processed spell out the word AIDS.
- 1995 The Gioconda Sapiens, a face with ten thousand faces, was presented to the public in April 1995 (Spain, Domus museum). This was the first large photographic mosaic, using photographs of 10,062 people from 110 countries to make the Mona LisaMona LisaMona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
.
- 1995 Adam Finkelstein (published mosaic in Mossy Bits) creates a mosaic of the oil painting American GothicAmerican GothicAmerican Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood's inspiration came from a cottage designed in the Gothic Revival style with a distinctive upper window and a decision to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that...
from images collected from the Web in early 1995.
- 1995 Robert Silvers creates an algorithm for generating Photomosaics programmatically and goes on to trademark the term Photomosaic and patent his process for creation of Photomosaics in 1997.
Artistic aspects
There is debate over whether Photomosaics are an art or mere technique. The making of a photomosaic is sometimes paralled and compared to forms of artistic appropriation, like literary assemblage.Trademark and intellectual property of the concept
Robert Silvers, a Master's student at MITMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, filed for a trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
on the term Photomosaic on September 3, 1996. This trademark was registered on August 12, 2003.
Silvers also applied for a U.S. patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
on the production of Photomosaics on January 2, 1997, which was granted as in October 2000 and has been assigned to Runaway Technology, Inc. Patent applications in other countries were also filed, and patents granted include , , , and . He is quoted as saying: "By being granted this patent in the United States and other countries, we can protect our proprietary innovations and continue to make unique artwork." In September 2008, the Public Patent Foundation
Public Patent Foundation
Public Patent Foundation, or PUBPAT, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to limit perceived abuse of the United States patent system. It was founded in 2003 by Dan Ravicher. , there was growing concern by many technology professionals over the number of patents granted that are either too...
filed a formal request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to review certain claims in the on photomosaics. The request was granted and a reexamination proceeding ensued. On August 31, 2010, the USPTO issued a Reexamination Certificate confirming the patentability of all claims in the patent which were amended to refer to shape matching (a feature that contributes to the high resolution of photomosaics).
There are a number of other commercial companies that create mosaics with photos. Since there has been no litigation of these patents, these companies must therefore either use processes that do not infringe on the particular claimed process, have licenses under the patents, or are infringing those patents but Runaway Technology has chosen not to bring infringement proceedings.
Silvers' patent may be regarded as a software patent
Software patent
Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program".In 2005, the European Patent Office...
, a subject over which there is a great deal of debate
Software patent debate
The software patent debate is the argument dealing with the extent to which it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions as a matter of public policy. Policy debate on software patents has been active for years. The opponents to software patents have gained more...
. For example, states that "programs for computers as such" are not regarded as patentable inventions
Patentable subject matter
Patentable, statutory or patent-eligible subject matter is subject matter which is susceptible of patent protection. The laws or patent practices of many countries suggest that certain subject matter is or is not something for which a patent should be granted.Together with novelty, inventive step...
. Nevertheless, current practice relating to computer-implemented inventions under the EPC
Software patents under the European Patent Convention
The patentability of software, computer programs and computer-implemented inventions under the European Patent Convention is the extent to which subject matter in these fields is patentable under the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of October 5, 1973...
means that a process that provides a technical effect may be patented even if it is implemented by a computer.
The UK patent deriving from became the subject of revocation proceedings in July 2006. In September 2009, the UK Intellectual Property Office
United Kingdom Patent Office
The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom is, since 2 April 2007, the operating name of The Patent Office. It is the official government body responsible for intellectual property rights in the UK and is an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
(UK-IPO) decided that the patent should not be revoked and terminated the proceeding. This decision was made by the UKIPO and not the European Patent Office
European Patent Organisation
The European Patent Organisation is a public international organisation created in 1977 by its contracting states to grant patents in Europe under the European Patent Convention of 1973...
(EPO) which originally granted the patent since no opposition to the European patent was filed within the nine-month post-grant period.
Video mosaic
Photographic mosaics are typically formed from a collection of still images. A more recent phenomenon, however, has been video mosaics which assemble video clips rather than still images to create a larger image. The closing credits of the 2005 PlayStation 2PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
game God of War
God of War (video game)
God of War is an action adventure video game for the PlayStation 2 first released by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division in March 2005...
, for example, incorporates a still image of the main character, Kratos
Kratos
Kratos may refer to:*The Greek word κράτος krátos, 'power', which is the second root in words like aristocrat and democracy. Its mythological personification was the god Kratos, a son of Styx.*Kratos MS 50, a tool for Electron ionization...
, formed from a number of in-game videos.
The term "video mosaic" also describes a large still image made from adjacent frames of video, such as those from video shots of geographic features like roads or cities. A mosaic of the video's relevant frames replaces the full video, saving time and bandwidth, since the stills are much smaller.
See also
- ASCII artASCII artASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
- Impressionist mosaicsImpressionist mosaicsUnlike traditional mosaics which rely on differently colored material arranged in arbitrary configurations to make an image, impressionist mosaics are created by arranging square, homogenously colored tiles in a grid-like, non-overlapped fashion, using the natural flaws and marbling in the tiles to...
- MicrographyMicrographyMicrography , also called microcalligraphy, is a Jewish form of calligrams developed in the 9th century, with parallels in Christianity and Islam, utilizing minute Hebrew letters to form representational, geometric and abstract designs...
- Wikimedia logo mosaic