ke every year, the world is excitedly awaiting the Oscar Awards this year.

But
before the Academy Awards are announced on February 28, the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present 10 scientific and technical
achievements during its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation
on February 13.
These awards will specially interest Indian audiences this year because one of
the awardees is of Indian origin. Rahul Thakkar will be presented with
the Technical Achievement Award for his contribution to cinema
through "groundbreaking design", as announced on the official Oscar
Awards website.
Below is the list of Technical Achievement awards winners:- Michael John Keesling for the design and development of Image Shaker, an
optical system that convincingly creates the illusion of the camera shaking in a
variable and repeatable manner.
The Image Shaker was unique and superior to alternatives in use when it was
invented two decades ago, and it continues to be used today.
- David McIntosh, Steve Marshall Smith, Mike Branham and Mike Kirilenko for
the engineering and development of the Aircover Inflatables Airwall.
This system of modular inflatable panels can be erected on location, at
lengths reaching hundreds of feet, with exceptional speed and safety. When
used to support blue or green screens, the Airwall permits composite shots of
unprecedented scale.
- Trevor Davies, Thomas Wan, Jon Scott Miller, Jared Smith and Matthew
Robinson for the development of the Dolby Laboratories PRM Series
Reference Color Monitors.
The PRM's pioneering and innovative design allows the stable, accurate
representation of images with the entire luminance range and color gamut
used in contemporary theatrical feature presentation.

- Ronald Mallet and Christoph Bregler for the design and engineering of the
Industrial Light & Magic Geometry Tracker, a novel, general-purpose tracker
and solver.
Geometry Tracker facilitates convincing interaction of digital and live-action
elements within a scene. Its precise results and tight integration with other ILM
animation technologies solve a wider range of match-animation challenges
than was previously possible.
- Jim Hourihan, Alan Trombla and Seth Rosenthal for the design and
development of the Tweak Software RV system, a highly extensible media
player system.
RV's multi-platform toolset for review and playback, with comprehensive APIs,
has allowed studios of all sizes to take advantage of a state-of-the-art
workflow and has achieved widespread adoption in the motion picture
industry.
- Richard Chuang and Rahul Thakkar for the groundbreaking design, and to
Andrew Pilgrim, Stewart Birnam and Mark Kirk for the review workflows and
advanced playback features, of the DreamWorks Animation Media Review
System.
Over its nearly two decades of development, this pioneering system enabled
desktop and digital theater review. It continues to provide artist-driven,
integrated, consistent and highly scalable studio-wide playback and interactive
reviews.
- Keith Goldfarb, Steve Linn, Brian Green and Raymond Chih for the
development of the Rhythm & Hues Global DDR System.
This consistent, integrated, production database-backed review system
enables a recordable workflow and an efficient, collaborative content review
process across multiple sites and time zones.

- J Robert Ray, Cottalango Leon and Sam Richards for the design,
engineering and continuous development of Sony Pictures Imageworks Itview.