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Pixelization
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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.
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.
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Encyclopedia
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.
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 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 to hide elements that would date the show. These include date and time stamps on home video submissions, political references or pop culture references. Censorship for such purposes is most common on reality shows.
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 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.
A drawback of pixelization is that any differences between the large pixels can be exploited in moving images to reconstruct the original, unpixelated image. Squinting at a pixelated, moving image can sometimes achieve a similar result. In both cases, integration of the large pixels over time allows smaller, more accurate pixels to be constructed in a still image result. Completely obscuring the censored area with pixels of a constant color, or pixels of random colors, escapes this drawback but can be less aesthetic.
International legal standards
Nudity is obscured on network television in the US. Japanese pornography laws require that genitals in movies (including animated) be obscured. In Thailand, Malaysia, and some surrounding countries, restrictions are placed on TV broadcasting of cigarettes being smoked, alcohol being drunk, or guns being pointed at people. Pixelation is the preferred method of dealing with this content.
See also
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