Dr Huw Owens

Huw Owens graduated in Mathematics and Computing from Staffordshire University in 1995, obtained his MSc in Machine Perception and Neurocomputing, from Keele University in 1997 and obtained his PhD, at the Colour and Imaging Institute at the University of Derby in 2001. He spent three years at the Colour and Imaging Institute working as a postdoctoral research fellow on projects for Agfa Gaevaert (Belgium) and Akzo Nobel (Netherlands). During this time he conducted psychophysical experiments investigating human-visual performance and produced image-difference metrics. In 2004 he joined UMIST, Department of Textiles, as a Lecturer. His main interests include colour measurement, colour and spatial vision, spectral imaging, image-device characterisation, texture processing and image-difference metrics. Research projects encompass psychophysical experiments and modelling of human-visual performance, colour-measurement methodologies image-device characterisation and the derivation of image-difference metrics. Research collaborations involve both UK and European Institutes and companies.

• Colour difference. Investigation into the use of colour difference as a metric to categorise dye uptake in Lyocell fibre.
• Colour difference. Using colour differences to measure dye migration due to water spotting.
• Human visual performance. The detection of sine-wave gratings on coloured backgrounds (determining the chromatic contrast-sensitivity function).
• Image-difference metrics. Calculating changes in tooth colour. Colour-image processing of dental images.

• Blur tolerance for luminance and chromatic stimuli. J. Optical Society of America A, 2001, 18, 6, 1231-1239. Wuerger SM, Owens HC and Westland S.
• The spatiochromatic sensitivity of the human visual system. New Journal of Physics: Physiological Measurements, 2000, 21, 11, 505-513. Wuerger SM, Morgan MJ, Westland S and Owens HC.
• Contrast sensitivity for lime-purple and cyan-orange gratings, Proceedings of the 10th Color Imaging Conference, Scottsdale (USA), 2002, 145-148. Owens HC, Westland S, Van de Velde K., Delabastita P & Jung J.
• Representation of Natural Reflectance Spectra by Auto-Associative Neural Network. Colour Imaging Science 2000, Conference Proceedings, University of Derby, Colour & Imaging Institute, 2000, 304-311. Owens HC, Westland S and Doherty LM.
• Blur Tolerance in different colour directions. International conference on color in graphics and image processing CGIP 2000, Saint-Etienne (France), 2000, 305-310. Wuerger SM, Owens HC and Westland S.

http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/huw.owens/