Going to NYC from Boston

Saturday - Going to NYC

On part en bus avec l'ami Jean-Baptiste. Breakfast bagel œuf bacon accompagné de boulettes de donuts (le trou dans les donuts) et un sandwich vraiment dégueux pour le voyage en bus.

Parti vers 12h on arrive 4h plus tard au niveau de la gare des bus de NYC. Boston est définitivement un village à côté. Direction Penn station, ligne 2 ou 3 en express et arrêt à 96st. That was easy.

Notre hôte Sarah nous accueille, les connections gjovikoises voyagent. On est pas venu uniquement pour dormir non plus, petite pause et on ressort direction Brooklyn de l'autre côté du pont - côté Brooklyn - pour un festival de lumière le truc à la mode dans toutes les villes du monde.

Sur place il y a foule, grosse foule, si un événement est gratuit le new-yorkais se déplace en masse et fait la queue. Il aime attendre. Nous non.

On retourne à Manhattan, la première option restaurant demande un temps d'attente conséquent. On se rabat sur une seconde adresse avec une charmante petite arrière court couverte et chauffée. C'est joli dans l'assiette mais ça pourrait être plus parfumé.

C'est pas fini, la déambulation continue et nous descendons dans un bar en sous-sol. Bière belge sur le carte et rapidement dans nos verres. Dans les toilettes un mannenken-pis derrière un grillage. AU Final un petit bar sympathique situé en face d'un théâtre de stand-up lui aussi en sous-sol. Je sors un eu avant les autres, dehors seul dans la rue regardant la foule nocturne déambulant vers son prochain verre.

Nous rentrons en express, métro toute la nuit. La fatigue se fait sentir et peu de temps perdu aujourd'hui. Vivement demain.

CIC 22 in Boston

For its 22th edition the Color Imaging Conference or CIC for the connsoisseurs took place in Boston. Comparing to last year in Albuquerque (NM) the color LUT did change a bit: yellow and blue for the desert and the sky to red and about 50 shades of autumn for the buildings and trees.

If as the previous editions the crowd of attendees remains similar - la crème de la crème of the color scientists - you can detect a slight dominance according to the conference location or with whom is organized the event. This year the keynote sessions where for both color scientists (CIC) and medical imaging scientists (IADP), then sessions were ran in parallel.

The joint keynotes brought interesting discussions. They were highlighting another practices of imaging system - like microscope - in the medical world. That is not a surprise that the imaging system described can provide very different visual results, from one microscope to the other the data do not appear identical to human observers but the extraction of information should. In one word there is no reference images or colors when the practicians is looking at samples, but they know that each patient is different and can base their diagnostic on their experience. In comparison to the CARS event, the IADP was much less about computer assisted radiography and more about image analysis (at least for what I have seen).

The day before the real opening of the conference is the short course day. Professionals, experts in academia or industry are giving lectures on color science topics. After chairing this session last year in Albuquerque NM I could follow two courses in Boston: one on color display given by Gabriel Marcu from Apple and a second on Color Rendering Index and Lighting given by Wendy Davis from University of Sydney. It is always refreshing to take part into these courses, to re-learn about display technology, display calibration, lighting technology and equally important how our comprehension of color science has evolves over the years and how new technologies force to change our approaches.

One thing I remind in particular is the new range of LEDs available - for some years already - and the changes that go with them. It is possible to design the properties of your lights - its spectral power distribution SPD - at very narrower wavelength bands. What does it mean? It means that you can really shape the gamut of your display or light installation, this in term of triangle shape in the color space of your choice. But being able to define a larger, wider color gamut on a sketch is not or should not be the only goal. We also have to think of the internal color space distribution, after all the light source we are most of the time in contact - the sun - has a very different SPD. The good side of it is the door open for us color scientists to continue exploring these new spaces.

It was good to see how my field of studies during my PhD - multi-spectral color reproduction, multi-colorant printing - has evolved. How multi-ink printing systems that were semi-experimental some years ago are now the basis of further experimentation. Further more it always a pleasure to hear someone telling you "I have read your thesis" when they see your name and your face for the first time.

Boston 13 years later

Second time in Boston, about 13 years after my first and only time in 2001 when I was an exchange student in Montréal. For the first trip a car full of Frenchies and Belgies was going South, leaving Québec behind us for the a long weekend. As far as I remember it was a really good weekend, not legendary but still very ok.

But back to our actual trip. I'm arriving from Berlin via Amsterdam. Luckily the Delta Airlines plane is pretty empty - I have two seats for me alone - and equipped with fairly new personal screen, I can actually see something - ce qui n'est pas toujours du luxe. I can say I was efficient in term of watching videos.

Landing was smooth, so was the custom and retrieving my luggage. In the plane I met a fellow going to attend the same conference as me. The reason I'm travelling to Boston is to attend the Color Imaging Conference (CIC22 to be precised). For once we left the South states of New Mexico, Texas or California, no excursion to the desert this time.

But back to Boston as I'm diverging again. The city isn't too big and the public transport is actually existing. I jumped in the subway and reached shortly after landing my AirBnB apartment in South End, somehow the South. Neat. Especially neat if you have seen the average price for an hotel room this week.

Thanks to the conference organisation I'm able to attend the event another time. In a smaller city all attendees are usually staying in the same hotel. This time not. Meaning I will have to wait tomorrow to meet the color scientist fellows, except one coming from France with whom I'm sharing the flat. According to plan and his plane he should arrive soon.