Invited Luncheon Speaker

 Dr. David Hathaway

Group Lead, Solar Physics Group
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Video Image Stabilization and Registration System

Marriott Ballroom, Salon A, B and C
Friday, October 31, 2003, 12:00 p.m.

Sun spots and weather patterns aren't usually associated with crime-fighting, but the invention followed an FBI request for NASA's help improving images from tourist videos taken on the night of the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta in 1996.  As a solar astronomer, Hathaway uses space-based telescopes to try and get clean images of the Sun.  Space telescopes have some jitter in them and Hathaway was familiar with the techniques for cleaning up images.  The FBI had a number of videos taken the night of the bombing, but the quality of many was poor - full of the jiggly frames, odd zooms and other staples of amateur video.  The Olympic Park bombing case is still open, but the video technique helped exonerate a would-be suspect, after it identified the backpack he carried the night of the bombing. The FBI thought the pack might have been used to cover the bomb, but the suspect still had the pack and was cleared.   After the work with the FBI, the Hathaway and Meyer have helped both state and federal authorities in a number of other cases.  Recently, the VISAR has been used to help isolate images from the launch of the space shuttle Columbia, focusing on potential damage to the orbiter.
 

Dr. David Hathaway, an astrophysicist who specializes in solar astronomy, together with Paul Meyer, a meteorologist and computer expert have been recognized for NASA's Commercial Invention of the Year.  They won for their work in developing a video image stabilization and registration system, dubbed VISAR.

Dr. Hathaway earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.  He earned master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Colorado in Boulder.  Hathaway has been a Marshall Center employee since 1984.