Press Release: EU research partnership receives Academy Award

Dr Bill Collis, Simon Robinson and Ben Kent from The Foundry, a leading British visual effects company, together with Dr Anil Kokaram from Trinity College Dublin, whose Sigmedia group is expert in video processing, were honoured by a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the development and design of the Furnace software tool for enhancing visual effects in motion picture sequences. The collaboration between the two teams was supported by the EU's Research Framework Programme through its programme of Marie Curie Fellowships, in order to exchange know-how and develop new image and video tools that would ultimately improve the Furnace software. The digital revolution in film and cinema presents new challenges to research and technology for the analysis, organisation and manipulation of images.