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History of Pixcavator

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Scientifically, the story is this. I attended another IMA short course in 2004. The course was called Computational topology. After the course I became convinced that algebraic topology would have serious industrial applications. It took me another year to find my personal interest - digital image analysis.

In the class I was teaching in the spring of '05, we were using CHomP and, in all the projects, it was quickly discovered that the quality of binary images obtained from pictures was too poor for any meaningful analysis. The following summer I decided to try to develop these methods but for gray scale images. That's how this project got started...

This is not the best way to start a commercial project, but that’s how it happened:

  • Developed an algorithm and a test program for digital image analysis, as a summer project.
  • Realized that no one is doing it the (mathematically) right way.
  • Filed for patent.
  • Started developing a prototype software.
  • Looked at competing software (market analysis?) - can’t be used without computing background.
  • Created website.
  • Started free downloading.
  • Created a wiki.
  • Started selling.

A lot about applied topology can be found at this site: IMA New Directions Short Course Applied Algebraic Topology. It is run in the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications located on campus of the University of Minnesota. I attended it in June 2009.


See also: