Academy begins Scientific and Technical Awards investigation
August 22, 2016

Academy begins Scientific and Technical Awards investigation

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 12 scientific and technical investigations have been launched for the 2016 Oscars. These investigations are made public so individuals and companies with devices or claims of innovation within these areas will have the opportunity to submit achievements for review.

The deadline to submit additional entries is Tuesday, August 30th, at 5pm PT. The Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards Committee has started investigations into the following areas:

- High-resolution digital motion picture cameras with sensors sized Super 35 or larger
- Recent advancements in motion control software
- Recent advancements in wireless microphone technology
- Computer-printed, seamless scenic backdrops
- Camera flange depth measurement devices
- Shading programming languages for production rendering
- Ray-tracing production renderers supporting physically-based shading and light transport
- Real-time, vector-based drawing tools for sketching and markup in film production
- Fast-reset bullet hit kits for live-action production
- On-set, real-time, principal camera tracking technology
- Electrodeless plasma arc lamps for motion picture lighting
- Reconfigurable, rideable, life-size animatronic horses

The committee also will continue its investigation of rig-based solvers for tracking and animating deforming objects from image sequences, which it tabled in 2015.

Claims of prior art or similar technology must be submitted online at www.oscars.org/awards/scitech/apply.html. After thorough investigations are conducted in each of the technology categories, the committee will meet in early December to vote on recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors, which will make the final awards decisions.

The 2016 Scientific and Technical Awards will be held on Saturday, February 11th, 2017.