Charles Poynton is an independent contractor specializing in the physics, mathematics, and engineering of digital colour (color!) imaging systems, including digital still cameras, digital video, HDTV, digital cinema (D-cinema) and digital intermediate (DI) systems. He is involved in engineering wide colour gamut systems, including xvYCC. HeesÊdo technology forecasting, systems modelling, algorithm development, video signal processing architecture, colour characterization and calibration, and image quality assessment. 

While at Sun Microsystems in Mountain View, California, from 1988 to 1995, he initiated Sun's HDTV research project, and introduced color management technology to Sun. While at Sun, he launched the effort that established square sampling ("square pixels") as the standard for HDTV, and he established the number 1080 now found in HDTV standards. Prior to joining Sun, Mr. Poynton designed and built the digital video equipment used by NASA to convert video from the Space Shuttle into NTSC for recording and distribution.

Mr. Poynton is a Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), in 1994 was awarded SMPTE's prestigious David Sarnoff Gold Medal. He has organized and presented many popular courses and seminars. His book, "A Technical Introduction to Digital Video," was published in 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, and reached fifth printing. In February 2003, Poynton's second book "Digital Video and HDTV Algorithms and Interfaces" was the 3,339-th most popular item at Amazon.com. At present, he is a part-time Ph.D. student at Simon Fraser University. 

He lives in Toronto with his wife Barbara and their two daughters.