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Pixelization is a video- and image-editing technique where an image, or part of it, is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. It is primarily a censorship method. The pixelization effect is a standard graphics filter, available in all but the most basic bitmap graphics editors.
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A familiar example of pixelization can be found in television news and documentary productions, where vehicle license plates and faces of suspects at crime scenes are routinely obscured to maintain the presumption of innocence, as in the television series COPS. Bystanders and others who who do not sign release forms are also customarily pixelated. Footage of nudity (including the genitalia, buttocks, or breasts) is likewise obscured in some media: before the watershed in many countries, in newspapers or general magazines, or in places where the public cannot avoid seeing the image (such as on billboards). Drug references may also be censored in this manner. However in cinemas, on DVD and subscription television services, in pornography (except for the countries where the law requires it), and in men's magazines, pixelization is not usually used for this purpose. When obscene language is censored by an audible bleep, the mouth of the speaker may be pixellated to prevent lip reading. Sometimes obscured images are merely something the production doesn't want to show. For example, the producer or director may want to save something for a proper revelation, want to avoid unintentional product placement, or even hide contemporary political or pop culture references that would date the show. Censorship for such purposes is most common on reality shows. In early 2006, the website Ironic Sans observed, tongue in cheek, that reality TV shows pixelize logos on clothing so much, that reality TV producers' lives would be easier if there were a line of pre-pixelated clothes their stars could wear.[1] The idea was soon picked up by various media and parodied; such shirts have been featured on television and in fashion and entertainment publications worldwide, and are available for retail. Pixelization has also been used for artistic effects, notably in the art print The Wave of the Future, a reinterpretation of Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave at Kanagawa. In this updated print, the image of the large ocean wave shifts from the traditional style of the Japanese woodcut print through a pixelated image and finally to a wireframe model computer graphics image. Pixelization has also been parodied in webcomics such as Hello Cthulhu.[2]
Pixelization alternatives
For most censorship purposes, however, pixelization has been mostly supplanted by simply blurring the image, so as to appear one is looking at the image through fogged glass. For equivalent censorship, black rectangular or square boxes known as censor bars may be used to cover parts of images completely, for example a black box over the eyes can be used rather than pixelating the entire face.
International legal standards
Nudity is obscured on network television in the US. Japanese pornography laws require that genitals in movies be obscured. In Thailand, Malaysia, and some surrounding countries, restrictions are placed on TV broadcasting of cigarettes being smoked,[3] alcohol being drunk, or guns being pointed at people. Pixelation is the preferred method of dealing with this 'objectionable' content.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.ironicsans.com/2006/03/idea_prepixelated_clothes_for_1.html
- ^ http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/?date=2004-03-17
- ^ 2Bangkok.com: "Smoking on Thai TV" Retrieved February 15, 2007
