Posted on 10/13/2011 11:59:03 AM PDT by Red Badger
(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite all the advances in digital photography, most people are still plagued by the problem of blurry photos, a problem compounded by the use of cameras embedded in cell phones due to their small size. Problems of blurring generally can be divided into two types. The first is problems with focusing, which can usually be avoided if the camera operator will simply wait for the automatic focusing feature of their camera to do its job. The second type is much more difficult to solve as it involves camera movement while the image is being shot. It’s this second problem that Adobe has been working on as part of its Photoshop imaging software package. And based on a video shot by someone identified only as peterelst who posted it on Youtube, a recent demo of a new feature, or "sneak" as Adobe calls it, seems to indicate that they have made significant progress.
The technology behind the new feature (that may or may not actually wind up in Photoshop according to company reps) involves an algorithm based on the idea of blind deconvolution, which is where an iterative process is used to facilitate a point spread function. The idea is to calculate the speed at which the camera was moving when the picture was snapped so as to undo its effects. Or in other words, it attempts to reconstruct what the camera lens would have seen but for the movement. This is in stark contrast to current de-blurring functions in Photoshop and other image editing software which analyze an image looking for lines that form edges and bolsters them to make them appear sharper. The results with the new technique, at least in the demo, appear to be quite dramatic.
With the new feature, the photo is first loaded onto the computer and into the Photoshop type app, then some predefined parameters are loaded that more clearly define what sort of image is to be looked at. The image is then analyzed and a grayscale thumbnail (blur kernel) is displayed which shows how the image was blurred. Next a restore feature is activated and the blurred image is replaced with the newly sharpened image.
Despite this bit of theatrics by Adobe and lots of gushing by mainstream media seemingly intent on describing the new technology as the end of blurry photos, things are not quite as rosy as all that. This is because if the new feature is indeed added to Photoshop, it will still be out of most people’s grasp due to the high price of the product. Very few are likely to shell out hundreds of dollars to just to clear up a few images taken haphazardly on their cell phones or even their cameras. What really needs to happen is for this technology to be implemented in cameras so operators will never know they blurred their image by jiggling their camera in the first place.
AAAAGGGGHHHHH!
My EYES!!!
Next thing you know, somebody will post a photo of Frances Fox Piven.
LMAO...
HAHAHA! I thought those two photos were supposed to be supplied as a joke. There is absolutely NO way you could get the photo on the right from the one on the left. The detail is simply not there. Not even close.
I was shocked to see the same before and after at the link.
I need to go back to see if it is the Onion.
Actually what he did was apply a pinwheel distortion to his face and the cops had a programmer write a routine to remap the swirl, or unwind it as it were.
Whatever it was, good for them.
Well, if the yellow flowers WERE inside the focal point why were they out of focus?
Exactly. There's no deconvolution information to be gained from that blur image. Typical un-tech article/editing.
With cameras going the way of the smartphones and including accelerometers, sure, easy thing.
I wonder if they can use this technology on the Zapruder film?.........
I use photoshop every day. THAT is amazing, awesome and NOT a trick. Just good coding. Congrats guys. Well done.
Blind deconvolution software is already available. To download a freeware program that does it, see http://sites.google.com/site/ptadrous/
They look to be in focus to me. Are you talking about the original photo, or the Photoshopped one?
I don’t think so. It’s just undoing something, not “fixing” anything.
Original.
It would be good to have more evidence against the conspiracy theorists. Oswald did it.
I remember years ago watching, I think it was a 60 Minutes episode, a story about a camera lens that would take pictures and everything thin in the picture in the foreground and background would be in focus.
The one on the right,right?
Was it some fancy technical solution or just a pinhole camera which would give an enormous depth of field?
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