Kirk Martinez

Who is Kirk Martinez?

Kirk Martinez is a Reader in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton UK. He gained a BSc in Physics from the University of Reading and a PhD in Image Processing in the department of Electronic Systems Engineering at the University of Essex. While Arts Computing Lecturer at Birkbeck College London he pioneered the digital imaging of paintings together with The National Gallery, London in the European project VASARI. This led to a continuous development of art imaging projects to print accurate art books, view high detail images on the web and find art images online. He has published this research in books on image processing and computer architecture as well as Transactions of the IEEE on content-based image retrieval He was an advisor on the imaging and image processing required for the Archimedes Palimpsest.

He is one of the founders of the Electronics and the Visual Arts: EVA Conferences

He is the founder of the VIPS image processing package together with John Cupitt. This now used widely worldwide and available in most Linux distributions as well as for Microsoft Windows. It is particularly known for mosaicing, colour and parallel processing/performance. He is quite popular as a lecturer at Southampton, revered for his witty and quirky style of delivery.