Work to develop new methods of digitally restoring archive film footage is being funded by a Swindon research council.

The three-year initiative, being carried out at the University of Surrey with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, in North Star Avenue, could breathe new life into old recordings and improve on the quality of the originals.

The new approach aims to make the whole process cheaper, faster and more effective than current methods.

The work could also dramatically improve public access to previously unavailable historic, artistic and cultural material.

Many historic events are captured on celluloid but its fragile nature means vital aspects of our heritage are gradually being lost.

The project team is being led by Dr Theodore Vlachos, of the university's School of Electronics and Physical Sciences.

He said: "The techniques we are exploring may vastly increase access to films of major historical, cultural and artistic value.

"Ultimately, our work could benefit public service and commercial film archives, which are experiencing growing demand from new multimedia and broadcasting outlets."

Video copies are just as vulnerable over time and they also degrade the quality of the original recording, particularly with multiple copying.

Traditional approaches to restoring celluloid film mainly rely on complex techniques carried out by skilled operators.

They are labour-intensive, time-consuming and very expensive.

The new project aims to tackle these problems by developing advanced image analysis and processing techniques suitable for automation by a computer or dedicated hardware.

These techniques work at the level of the pixels, the minute areas of illumination which make up images.

They include motion estimation, statistical processing and application of principles of photographic image registration.

The work will target the key impairments of film flicker and unsteadiness, both of which interfere substantially with viewing.

Jane Reck, of EPSRC, said: "It is exciting that EPSRC is able to fund this initiative which could open up a wealth of historic film material to the public."

Alex Emery