{{Short description, Technique used to automatically remove dust and scratches from scanned film stock Digital ICE or Digital Image Correction and Enhancement is a set of technologies related to producing an altered image in a variety of frequency spectra. The objective of these technologies is to render an image more usable by Fourier or other filtering techniques. These technologies were most actively advanced in the 1960s and early 1970s in the fields of

strategic reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers, ...

and medical electronics. The term ''Digital ICE'' initially applied specifically to a proprietary technology developed by Kodak's Austin Development Center, formerly Applied Science Fiction (ASF), that automatically removes surface defects, such as dust and scratches, from scanned images.

Technology

The ICE technology works from within the scanner, so unlike the software-only solutions it does not alter any underlying details of the image. Subsequent to the original ''Digital ICE'' technology (circa 1989), which used

infrared cleaning Infrared cleaning is a technique used by some film scanners and flatbed scanners to reduce or remove the effect of dust and scratches upon the finished scan. It works by collecting an additional infrared channel from the scan at the same positi ...

, additional image enhancement technologies were marketed by Applied Science Fiction and Kodak under similar and related names, often as part of a suite of compatible technologies. The ICE technology uses a scanner with a pair of light sources, a normal RGB lamp and an infrared (IR) lamp, and scans twice, once with each lamp. The IR lamp detects the dust locations with its unique detection method, and then inpainting is applied based on this data afterwards. The general concept is locate scratches and dust on the RGB image and mask them.

Limitations of Digital ICE

''Digital ICE'' is used to detect scratches and dust during transparent film scan and is not applicable for opaque document scanning. For some positive films with white-colored fine structures in a dark background, their opaque areas may be removed or given a fuzzy edge. The figure on the right gives a demonstration of such subtle differences. While chromogenic black-and-white films are supported by ''Digital ICE'', other black-and-white films containing metallic silver, which form from

silver halide A silver halide (or silver salt) is one of the chemical compounds that can form between the element silver (Ag) and one of the halogens. In particular, bromine (Br), chlorine (Cl), iodine (I) and fluorine (F) may each combine with silver to prod ...

s during the development process of the film, are not. This is because the long wave infrared light passes through the slide but not through dust particles. The silver particles reflect the infrared light in a similar manner to dust particles, thus respond equally in visible light and infrared. A similar phenomenon also prevents Kodak Kodachrome slides from being scanned with ''Digital ICE''. Kodachrome's

cyan Cyan () is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK color ...

layer absorbs infrared.

Further development

Kodak's own scanner, the "pro-lab"

Kodak HR500 Plus The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpo ...

was equipped with ''Digital ICE'' that could scan Kodachrome slides effectively; however, this scanner was discontinued in 2005. Nikon produced the

Nikon Super Coolscan LS-9000 ED (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and Photography, imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cam ...

scanner with a new version of ICE (Digital ICE Professional) from 2004 until it was discontinued in 2010. This was capable of scanning Kodachrome slides reliably, dust- and scratch-free, without additional software.

LaserSoft Imaging LaserSoft Imaging AG is a software developer designing software such as SilverFast for scanners and large format printers. The company's headquarters are located in Kiel, Germany, north of Hamburg, and another office in Sarasota, Florida, United ...

released an infrared dust and scratch removal tool ( iSRD - Infrared Smart Removal of Defects) in 2008, that allows Nikon's film scanners for Mac OS X and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, as well as many scanners from other manufacturers to make high quality scans of Kodachrome slides. Fujifilms system for dust and scratch removal, called "Image Intelligence", works on a similar principle as ''Digital ICE'' and will also work on Kodachrome film.

External links

Kodak official ''Digital ICE'' site

Dr. Gabriel Fielding, Eastman Kodak Company (also https://www.kodak.com/motion/hub/itp/dice/default.htm)

* J. L. C. Sanz, F. Merkle, and K. Y. Wong,
Automated digital visual inspection with dark-field microscopy
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 2, 1857-1862 (1985) * Michael J. Steinle, K. Douglas Gennette
Designing a Scanner with Color Vision (pdf)
Hewlett-Packard Journal Aug. 1993 pg 52-58 Photographic processes Image scanning Kodak

Technology

Limitations of Digital ICE

Further development

See also

External links