Robert Ulichney

Biography

Since joining HP Labs in 2002, Robert Ulichney’s research activities include image enhancement, low bit depth rendering, projector luminance correction, display performance quantization, and automatic correction of photo red-eye.  He is currently leading the development of methods to embed information in steganographic halftones as a more attractive alternative to barcodes.  For 5 years he was the general chair of the HP Imaging and Color Symposium (hPICS), a technical conference for HP’s printing and imaging engineers, and currently leads a forum for HP Halftoning Developers (hPhD).

Bob received a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in electrical engineering and computer science.  Before joining HP he was with Digital Equipment Corp. for several years where he focused on image and video implementations for both hard copy and display products.  He introduced the widely used concept of Blue Noise halftoning to the printing industry. From 1998-2002 he was with Compaq Computer Corporation’s Cambridge Research Lab where he led a number of research efforts in video and image processing.  He has several issued patents and publications for contributions in a range of imaging areas, including a book with MIT Press.   Bob is a Distinguished Technologist with HP Lab’s Printing and Content Delivery Lab (PCDL).  

 

Research interests

Image and video processing; Image capture and display; Halftoning; Steganography.

Publications

S. Pollard, R. Ulichney, M. Gaubatz, S. Simske, “Forensic Authentication of Data Bearing Halftones”, VISAPP 2013 (8th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications), Barcelona, Spain, Feb 21-24, 2013. [pdf, 521 KB]

Y. Chen, R. Ulichney M. Gaubatz, S. Pollard, “Stegatone Performance Characterization”, Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2013, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Francisco Airport, CA, 8665-27, February 3-7, 2013. [pdf, 886 KB]

X. Zhang, A. Veis, R. Ulichney, J. Allebach, “Multilevel Halftone Screen Design: Keeping Texture or Keeping Smoothness?”, IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Orlando, FL, Sep 30-Oct 3, 2012. [pdf, 578 KB]

R. Ulichney, S. Pollard, M. Gaubatz, S. Simske, “Combined Covert Data Embedding and Forensic Markings for Graphic Objects”, IS&T NIP28 (28th Int. Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies), Quebec City, Canada, Sep 2012. [pdf, 503 KB]

M. Gaubatz, S. Pollard, R. Ulichney, S. Simske, “Mobile Capture of High-Resolution Data-Bearing Markings”, IS&T NIP28 (28th Int. Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies), Quebec City, Canada, Sep 2012. [pdf, 708 KB]

Y. Zhang, J. Recker, R. Ulichney, G. Beretta, I. Tastl, I. Lin, J. Owens, “Plane-dependent Error Diffusion on a GPU”, Parallel Algorithms, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Francisco Airport, CA, 8295B-59, January 22-26, 2012. [pdf, 778 KB]

Y. Ju, X. Zhang, D. Saxena, T. Kashti, D. Kella, D. Shaked, M. Fischer, R. Ulichney, J. Allebach, “Modeling large-area influence in digital halftoning for electrophotographic printers”, Color Imaging XVII: Displaying, Processing, Hardcopy, and Applications, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Francisco Airport, CA, 8292-35, January 22-26, 2012. [pdf, 384 KB]

X. Zhang, Y. Ju, T. Kashti, D. Kella, T. Frank, D. Shaked, R. Ulichney, M. Fischer, J. Allebach, “Measuring the modulation transfer function of image capture devices”, Image Quality and System Performance IX, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Francisco Airport, CA, 8293-06, January 22-26, 2012. [pdf, 930 KB]

R. Ulichney, M. Gaubatz, “Tracing the Source of Printed Documents with Edge-Refined Stegatones”, IS&T NIP27 (27th Int. Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies), Minneapolis, MN, Sep 2011. [pdf, 426 KB]

R. Ulichney, I. Tastl, E. Hoarau, “Analog Image Backup with Steganographic Halftones”, Color Imaging XVI: Displaying, Processing, Hardcopy, and Applications, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Francisco Airport, CA, 7866-53, January 23-27, 2011. [pdf, 1.26 MB]

Y. Zhang, J. Recker, R. Ulichney, G. Beretta, I. Tastl, I. Lin, J. Owens, “A Parallel Error Diffusion Implementation on a GPU”, Parallel Processing for Imaging Applications, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Francisco Airport, CA, 7872-20, January 23-27, 2011. [pdf, 571 KB]

R. Ulichney, M. Gaubatz, and S. Simske, “Encoding Information in Clustered-Dot Halftones”, IS&T NIP26 (26th Int. Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies), Austin, TX, 602-605, Sep 2010. [pdf, 654 KB]

R. Ulichney, A. Ghajarnia, and N. Chang, “Subpixel Measurement of Superimposed Displays”, Society for Information Display (SID) Digest of Technical Papers, P.170, May 2010. [pdf, 807 KB]

R. Ulichney and M. Gaubatz, “Pointing into Remote 3D Environments”, Multimedia on Mobile Devices Conference, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Jose, CA, 7542-17, January 17-21, 2010. [pdf, 6.10 MB]

R. Ulichney, A. Ghajarnia, and N. Damera-Venkata, “Quantifying the performance of overlapped displays”, Image Quality and System Performance Conference, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, San Jose, CA, 7529-27, January 17-21, 2010. [pdf, 2.26 MB]

M. Gaubatz, R. Ulichney, and D. Rouse, “A Low-Complexity Reduced-Reference Print Identification Algorithm”, ICIP (IEEE International Conference on Image Processing), Cairo, Egypt, 1289-1292, Nov 2009. [pdf, 136 KB]

R. Ulichney, M. Gaubatz, and D. Rouse, D., “High Speed Page Matching”, IS&T NIP25 (25th Int. Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies), Louisville, KY, 577-580, Sep. 2009. [pdf, 500 KB]

D. Lau, R. Ulichney, “Blue-Noise Halftoning for Hexagonal Grids”, IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 1270-1284, May, 2006. [pdf, 7.37 MB]

R. Ulichney, M. Gaubatz, “Perceptual-Based Correction Of Photo Red-Eye”, Proc. of the 7^th IASTED International Conf. on Signal and Image Processing, Honolulu, HI, Aug 2005. [pdf, 214 KB]

W. Allen, R. Ulichney, “Wobulation: Doubling the Addressed Resolution of Projection Displays”, Society for Information Display (SID) Digest of Technical Papers, vol. 36, pp. 1514-1517, May 2005.
[pdf, 1.65 MB]

R. Ulichney, R. Sukthankar, “Correcting Luminance for Obliquely-Projected Displays”, Digest of Technical Papers, Int. Conf. on Consumer Electronics (ICCE), pp. 367-368, Jan. 2005. [pdf, 58 KB]

R. Ulichney, M. Gaubatz, JM Van Thong, “RedBot - a web service for correcting photo red-eye”, Eleventh Color Imaging Conf., (The Society for Imaging Science and Technology), Scottsdale, AZ, Nov 2003. [pdf, 120 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Method for Increasing Apparent Amplitude Resolution, and Correcting Luminance Nonuniformity in Projected Displays”, IEEE International Workshop on Projector-Camera Systems, Nice, France, Oct 2003. [pdf, 80 KB]

D. Lau, R. Ulichney, G. Arce, “Fundamental Characteristics of Halftone Textures: Blue-Noise and Green-Noise”, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (Invited Paper), vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 28-38, Jul 2003. [pdf, 2407 KB]

M. Gaubatz and R. Ulichney, “Automatic Red-Eye Detection and Correction”, IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), pp. 804-807, Rochester, NY, Sep 2002. [pdf, 307 KB]

R. Ulichney, “A Review of Halftoning Techniques”, Color Imaging: Device-Independent Color, Color Hardcopy, and Graphic Arts V, Proc. SPIE vol. 3963, Jan., 2000. [pdf, 244 KB]

S. Cheung and R. Ulichney, “Low-Memory Low-Complexity Inverse Dithering”, Color Imaging: Device-Independent Color, Color Hardcopy, and Graphic Arts IV, Proc. SPIE vol. 3648, pp. 529-540, Jan 1999. [pdf, 863 KB]

S. Cheung and R. Ulichney, “Window-Extent Tradeoffs in Inverse Dithering”, Sixth Color Imaging Conf., IS&T (The Society for Imaging Science and Technology, Springfield, VA), pp. 245-248, Nov 1998. [pdf, 637 KB]

R. Ulichney, “One-Dimensional Dithering”, Electronic Imaging: Processing, Printing, and Publishing in Color, SPIE Vol. 3409, pp. 204-214, May 1998. [pdf, 134 KB]

R. Ulichney and S. Cheung, “Pixel Bit-Depth Increase by Bit Replication”, Color Imaging: Device-Independent Color, Color Hardcopy, and Graphic Arts III, Proc. SPIE vol. 3300, pp. 232-241, Jan 1998. [pdf, 84 KB]

L. Seiler and R. Ulichney, “Integrating Video Rendering into Graphics Accelerator Chips”, Digital Technical Journal, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 76-88, 1996. [pdf, 314 KB]

V. Bahl, P. Gauthier, and R. Ulichney, “Software-only Compression, Rendering, and Playback of Digital Video”, Digital Technical Journal, vol. 7, no. 4, 52-75, 1996. [pdf, 486 KB]

K. Correll and R. Ulichney, “The J300 Family of Video and Audio Adapters: Architecture and Hardware Design”, Digital Technical Journal, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 20-33, 1996. [pdf, 277 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Forward - Audio and Video Technologies”, Digital Technical Journal, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 3-4, 1996. [pdf, 64 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Spatial Extent of Void and Cluster Finding Filters”, IS&T's Eleventh International Congress on Advances in Non-impact Printing Technologies, (The Society for Imaging Science and Technology, Springfield, VA), Oct 29-Nov 3, pp. 430-433, 1995. [pdf, 43 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Halftone Characterization in the Frequency Domain”, Proc. IS&T 47th Annual Conf., Rochester, NY, (The Society for Imaging Science and Technology, Springfield, VA), May 15-20, pp. 464-467, 1994. [pdf, 394 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Filter Design for Void-and-Cluster Arrays”, Soc. for Information Display International Symposium Digest of Tech. Papers, vol. 25, San Jose, CA, June 14-16, pp. 809-812, 1994. [pdf, 65 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Video Rendering” [Cover feature], Digital Technical Journal, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 9-18, 1993. [pdf, 728 KB]

R. Ulichney, “The Void-and-Cluster Method for Generating Dither Arrays”, Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display IV, J. Allebach and B. Rogowitz, eds., Proc. SPIE 1913, pp. 332-343, 1993. [pdf, 802 KB]

B. Neidecker-Lutz and R. Ulichney, “Software Motion Pictures”, Digital Technical Journal, vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 19-27, 1993. [pdf, 1786 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Bresenham-Style Scaling”, Proc. IS&T 46th Annual Conf., Cambridge, MA, May 9-14, pp. 101-103, 1993. [pdf, 168 KB]

T. Mitsa, R. Ulichney, and K. Parker, “The Construction and Evaluation of Halftone Patterns with Manipulated Power Spectra”, RIDT, The 2nd Intn. Workshop on Raster Imaging and Digital Typography, Boston, MA, Oct. 15-16, pp. 90-97, 1991. [pdf, 469 KB]

K. Parker, T. Mitsa, and R. Ulichney, “A New Algorithm for Manipulating the Power Spectrum of Halftone Patterns”, SPSE's 7th Int. Congress on Non-Impact Printing, Portland, OR, Oct. 10, pp. 471-475, 1991. [pdf, 473 KB]

K. Parker, T. Mitsa, and R. Ulichney, “Digital Halftone Techniques in Medical Imaging”, SPSE's 6th Int. Congress on Non-Impact Printing, Orlando, FL, Oct. 25, pp. 853-858, 1990. [pdf, 819 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Frequency Analysis of Ordered Dither”, Hard Copy Output, L. Beiser, Ed., Proc. SPIE, vol. 1079, pp. 361-373, 1989. [pdf, 1159 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Challenges in Device-Independent Image Rendering”, Topical Meeting on Applied Vision, 1989 Technical Digest Series, vol. 16, (Optical Society of America, Washington, D.C. 1989), pp. 144-147, 1989. [pdf, 243 KB]

R. Ulichney, “Dithering with Blue Noise” [Cover feature], Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 56-79, 1988. [pdf, 2781 KB]

K. Parker, T. Mitsa, and R. Ulichney, “Digital Halftone Rendering of Medical Ultrasound Images using Blue Noise”, Thirteenth International Symposium on Ultrasonic Imaging and Tissue Characterization, Arlington, VA, June 7, 1988. [abstract]

R. Ulichney and D. Troxel, “Scaling Binary Images with the Telescoping Template”, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. PAMI-4, no. 4, pp. 331-335, 1982. [pdf, 371 KB]
also in: J. Stoffel, Graphical and Binary Image Processing and Applications, Dedham, MA: Artech House, pp. 495-505, 1982. [pdf, 403 KB]

Books and Book Contributions:

R. Ulichney, "Halftoning", in Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 8, pp. 588-600, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999. [pdf, 2256 KB]

R. Rubinstein, Digital Typography, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, pp. 43-47, 1988.  

R. Ulichney, Digital Halftoning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987. (see also amazon.com)

Patents

36

Professional activities

General Chair, HP Imaging and Color Symposium (hPICS), Boise, ID, June, 2011.

Program Committee, Parallel Processing for Imaging Applications, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, San Francisco, CA, Jan. 2011.

General Chair, HP Imaging and Color Symposium (hPICS), Webcast, Sep, 2009 & Sep, 2010.

General Chair, HP Imaging and Color Symposium (hPICS), UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, June, 2008.

Co-chair, HP Tech Con, Boston, MA, May, 2008.

General Chair, HP Imaging and Color Symposium (hPICS), MIT, Cambridge, MA, June, 2007.

Program Committee, Multimedia Systems and Applications VIII, SPIE Optics East, Boston, MA, Oct. 2005.

Chair, Reconstruction, Restoration, and Enhancement Session, 7^th IASTED International Conf. on Signal and Image Processing, Honolulu, HI, Aug, 2005.

Program Chair, HP Imaging and Color Symposium (hPICS), Cupertino, CA, Nov. 2004.

Program Committee, Internet Imaging III, SPIE Electronic Imaging 2002, San Jose, CA, Jan. 2002.

Program Committee, Internet Imaging II, SPIE Electronic Imaging 2001, San Jose, CA, Jan. 2001.

Technical Sponsor, House of the Future, MIT, 1999-2000.

Doctoral Thesis Committee, MIT Media Lab, 1997-1999.

Chair, Digital Halftoning Session, IS&T’s PICS99,  (Image Processing, Image Quality, Image Capture Systems Conference), Savannah, GA, April 1999.

Chair, Low Bit-Depth Imaging Session, Soc. for Information Display International Symposium, San Diego, CA, May 1996.

Sponsoring Editor, Special Issue on Multimedia, Digital Technical Journal, vol. 7, no. 4, 1995.

Chair, Image Processing Session, IS&T’s Eleventh International Congress on Advances in Non-impact Printing Technologies, Hilton Head, SC, Oct. 1995.

Chair, Low Bit-Depth Imaging Session, Soc. for Information Display International Symposium, Orlando, FL, May 1995.

Seminar Instructor, Digital Halftoning, Soc. for Information Display International Symposium, San Jose, CA, June 1994.

Chair, Digital Halftoning Session, Soc. for Information Display International Symposium, San Jose, CA, June 1994.

Program Committee, RIDT, The 3rd Intn. Workshop on Raster Imaging and Digital Typography, Darmstadt, Germany, April 1994.

Chair, Image Processing Session, SPSE’s 7th Int. Congress on Non-Impact Printing, Portland, OR, Oct. 1991.

Program Committee, RIDT, The 2nd Intn. Workshop on Raster Imaging and Digital Typography, Boston, MA, Oct. 1991.

Chair, Image Processing Session, SPSE’s 6th Int. Congress on Non-Impact Printing, Orlando, FL, Oct. 1990.

Technical Sponsor, Image Processing and Display of Astronomical Pictures, Harvard University, 1989-1991.

Technical Sponsor, Digital Halftoning of Medical Ultrasound Images, University of Rochester, 1986-1990.

Technical Sponsor, High Quality Digital Image Compression And Processing, University of California at Davis, 1986-1987.