Photo-D, an award-winning new set of lighting tools, automatically corrects image flaws through a built-in intelligence system.KlearVision is making it its mission to automatically rid the photo world of those pesky red-eyed images, one image at a time. The company unveiled its Photo-D family of automatic image correction products at the 2005 PMA (Photo Marketing Association) in Orlando, Fla., being held this week. At the debut, KlearVision also received the 2005 DIMA Innovative Digital Product award for its Photo-D image auto-correction product.
Via phone from the conference, David Zwang, KlearVision Digital Ltd.'s director of business development for the United States, said the key to Photo-D is that it can analyze, and then auto-correct if needed, digital image files in order to make them ready to print or view much more quickly.
"What our product does is automatic corrections based on its analysis of the image, and it will only make the appropriate correction. Oftentimes it can catch things that an individual looking at a single image might not even catch," Zwang said.
Sample snapshots on the company's Web site show Photo-D correcting red-eye or uneven lighting in a photo. The automatic photo correction software works by using a rule-driven system that relies, according to the company, on "proprietary 'fuzzy logic'" and "artificial intelligence via algorithms," to discern and then correct flaws in images.
Zwang says the product's impact is far ranging. "We've had tremendous interest from a wide range of consumers, photo enthusiasts, professional photographers, manufacturers and photo labs. One of the biggest issues this software addresses is time. For instance magazines, newspapers, photo desk editors might get hundreds of photos in a day. This significantly benefits the production environment because it does much of the analyzing and corrective work for you," he said.
"A different example is someone taking their images to a Ritz photo store. A tech person there is going to sit and look at each image before they're processed and he or she might make some corrections. But if you take your images to a Wal-Mart, there's not going to be an individual who sits and views each image and corrects it prior to processing. What our software enables is for anyone to do it automatically prior to printing it, no matter whether it be a Ritz photo shop or a Wal-Mart or an at-home enthusiast. And it's all about it being automatic," Zwang said.
The company detailed its Photo-D family in its release:
Photo-D Pro I targets professional photographers who use digital cameras at public events, such as weddings, and need up to 1,000 high-quality optimized image files per day with short delivery terms. Pro I allows users to customize the expert systems and to process large numbers of photos according to professional-level requirements. This product is also ideal for smaller minilab operations, noted the company.
Photo-D Pro II was developed for photofinishers and photo labs of all sizes that need to automatically process very large numbers of photos, and need that process to be incorporated in their workflow. Pro II offers features such as a built-in "hot folder" workflow and fully automatic red-eye correction. This version of Photo-D processes up to 5,000 image files per hour.
Photo-D O.E.M. is designed for digital imaging vendors and solution providers interested in having the simplified image optimization and enhanced functionality that Photo-D provides included in their own product offerings, and also at digital camera and cellular vendors in need of embedded solutions.
According to the release, all four Photo-D products feature an improved user interface updated from the versions shown at Photokina 2004. The home product Photo-D Charmer comes in both a Mac OS and Windows version.
In December of 2004, the company signed a licensing agreement with Singapore-based JinCheng Technology to integrate Photo-D technology in all of the company's LCOS digital mini-labs. JinCheng has units operating throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
"For all the benefits of digital photography, its greatest drawback has been its complexity in creating a print that accurately reflects what was seen in the viewfinder," said Moshe Keydar, KlearVision's chairman of the board, in a statement.
Keydar continued, "Most of us involved in digital photography, but especially consumers, remember the experience we had with film—simplicity, predictability and a reliable, quality image at the end of the day. Now with Photo-D you can take a picture, 'process' it, often with just one mouse click, and produce an accurate image file that will give you the picture you expected. Photo-D is the most 'automatic' system that can be devised."
