Restauration de documents cinématographiques par des méthodes numériques

Most of the techniques in use today are based on chemical and mechanical manipulations. Applying digital techniques to the field of film restoration allow us to expect results beyond today's limitations: automated processing, correction of photographed dust spots and scracthes (i.e. after film duplication), removing large defects... Our aim is the detection, as automatic as possible, of those defects, followed by the correction stage which is also automatic, using information around the detected deterioration, or in other images in the sequence if necessary. Our research institute is involved, in conjunction with the Laboratoires Neyrac Film Company, in the LIMELIGHT project. LIMELIGHT is an European project which aims at designing a complete digital processing chain suitable to restore old films (film scanner, processing workstation, imaging device). Our paper will shortly describe the state of the art in digital images processing, present our research and results, and also approach economical aspects, such as costs and processing speed.