News
Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science

Croatia has a treasure trove of historically significant manuscripts, but after 800 years of fading ink and worms eating their parchment, much of the text has become impossible to read. Scientists from RIT are using multispectral imaging to make the writing legible once again and preserve the important information the manuscripts hold.

Elephant and rhino poachers in South Africa can run, but they can’t hide from drones. An imaging system created by a team led by Elizabeth Bondi ’16 automatically detects illegal hunters infiltrating national parks at night. Bondi’s deep learning system alerts the monitoring team who notifies park rangers or law enforcement of a potential threat to the animals under their protection.

A classic scenario plays out in action films ranging from Baby Driver to The Italian Job: criminals evade aerial pursuit from the authorities by seamlessly blending in with other vehicles and their surroundings. The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) has RIT researchers utilizing hyperspectral video imaging systems that make sure it does not happen in real life.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 8: Massive rocket ships aren’t the only way to explore space. Imaging science professor Grover A. Swartzlander Jr. and Amber Dubill, a mechanical engineering student, discuss the latest developments in space travel, including toaster-sized boats in the sky. Students are working solar sails, and developing RIT's first satellite.

While the technology has rapidly progressed, Christopher Kanan and his team are trying to make deep learning even more versatile.

Meet Steve Wear ’91 MS (imaging science), the College of Science 2018 Distinguished Alumnus.

Grover Swartzlander, professor in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, is taking solar sailing to the next level with advanced photonic materials. This new class of materials could be used to steer photons and enable near-Earth, interplanetary and interstellar space travel.

Researchers in RIT’s Center for Human-Aware Intelligence believe their work could lead to breakthroughs in everything from health care to energy management to cybersecurity.

RIT scientist Zoran Ninkov is developing and testing an astronomical imager inspired by an Oscar-award winning cinema projection system. The RIT astronomical imaging system is competing with other technologies for deployment on future NASA space missions for surveying star and galaxy clusters.