Improving HDR imaging with Qtpfsgui

Project 7

Update: HDR imaging with Qtpfsgui was posted on March 31 as an alternative for the Pidgin student project which was called back. We are sorry for the inconvenience and encourage you to apply for this or one of the alternative projects!

Qtpfsgui is an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for High dynamic range (HDR) imaging. HDR is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

The Project: Usability improvement of Qtpfsgui

There are three interesting tasks you can choose from.

Tone mapping usability improvement

Tone mapping is a key feature in Qtpfsgui. It enables the user to transform an HDR image to a LDR image that can be for example printed or visualized on a computer monitor. The current dialog for tone mapping does not lend itself easily to this kind of workflow.

The task is therefore:

• Getting acquainted with the current tone mapping tool.
• Devise a workflow which can provide both speed of execution and a comfortable and predictable user interaction.

HDR-wizard improvement

Qtpfsgui users create a new HDR image by invoking the New HDR wizard. Merging several images to create a new HDR is a complicated process involving several choices. Qtpfsgui tries to hide these choices from the user by providing safe defaults, but some steps of the procedure are very unintuitive (crowded widgets) and need a deep remodeling.

The task is therefore:

• Getting acquainted with the current new HDR wizard, understanding all the nuances (only from a usability point of view).
• Perform a usability evaluation in order to figure out new steps in the wizard procedure or a completely new workflow.
• Suggest improvement/alternative solutions
• Design prototypes of selected alternatives and discuss how the new planned features will be integrated.

HDR-editing workflow improvement

Qtpfsgui has been integrating pfstools/pfstmo/pfscalibration features in a common gui. So far all the HDR-editing (and visualization) features have been gathered rather sparsely in the main window. The gathering of the menu items has happened mostly by chance so it's possible that some features are not easily reachable by the end user.

The task is therefore:

• Perform a usability review in order to figure out if the current layout of the menu and the overall workflow are coherent and usable.
• Create design solutions for an alternative layout/worflow, for example by providing a set of icons (toolbar) for the menu items (or wherever it is appropriate).
• Evaluate the improvement in terms of usability

The Mentors:

Your usability mentor will be Roman Bednarik from United Users, Finland. Your technical mentor will be Giuseppe Rota and Alexandre Prokoudine from Qtpfsgui.

Your Qualification:

Depending on the task you'll choose, the project requires basic skills in system evaluation, user research or interaction design. This is meant to be a learning experience, so don't worry as long as you are eager to continue building on them and learning more.

Student Intern

From May till August 2008, Vladimir Smida, student of Computer Graphics, will support Qtpfsgui usability-wise.