This projects started in 1987 with the development of what is known as Lumpy Backgrounds, a statistical model of background non-uniformity. This model was developed for quantitative image quality assessment in medical imaging and hardware optimization.

A few years after the development of the lumpy backgrounds, the project was extended in 1996 to successfully synthesize other textures such as mammogram-like backgrounds.


Additional References
Jannick Rolland, Factors Influencing Lesion Detection in Medical Imaging, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Arizona (1990)

A new paradigm and methods for special effects in images were proposed by artist and movie producer Steven Hylen. Based on these methods, images resembling paintings were shown to be formed using optical phase plates. This project studied the role of the mathematical and optical properties of the phase plates in the development of these new art forms. As a results of this work, a software developed in the ODALab was commercialized by SmartLens Corporation, a new 50mm lens for special effects was optically designed, built, and tested, and compact imaging systems based on microlenslet arrays were created and developed. This project overlaps with the texture synthesis project.

Additional References
J.P. Rolland, and S. L. Hylen, "Painting cameras," Optics and Photonics News - Special Issue on Art and Science, 10(7), 33-35, (1999).

Vesselin Shaoulov, Design and Assessment of Compact Optical Systems Towards Special Effects Imaging, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Central Florida (2004)