Aug 23

Content-Aware Image Resizing

Content-Aware Image Sizing: This is a crazy four-minute video about a technique of image resizing whereby the program “knows” what to remove from the image and what to leave alone. The effect is eerie — images are cut in half…but not. They look just as natural as they did when they were full-size.

The video is apparently in support of an academic paper, and the author (who is narrating) explains how they did it, and he makes it pretty clear. They look for “seams” in the picture — areas from one border to the other where there’s the least going on. These “seams” can be cut, so the “least important” areas of the image go away.

While this is very cool, it’s just another way that pictures aren’t real anymore. There’s a recent comment on the page that expresses a sentiment that I think a lot of people will feel as they watch the video:

why anyone would like to see an image that does not say the [truth]??

He has a point. Nothing is sacred anymore.

by Deane   August 23, 2007 9:04 AM   |

Comments

by John,   August 23, 2007 10:20 AM  

Photographs haven't shown "the truth" in like, forever -- they have always been manipulated, even before computers.

This looks like a fantastic designer's tool.

by Mark Poling,   August 24, 2007 4:37 AM  

This is amazing. I'm guessing this work will have more impact on the field of psychology than computer science.

by Dean in Des Moines,   August 28, 2007 8:33 AM  

This is both cool and disturbing. It's one of those moments I want to shout, "Okay, whose universe is this, and what did you do with my old one?"

by Irmgard,   September 24, 2007 7:22 PM  

Hi, If you are looking for a software to try out seam carving, take a look at http://www.thegedanken.com/retarget

The program that you can download there (for Windows and Linux, and free) is already highly optimized concerning speed, and apart from enlarging or decreasing image size you can also use masks to protect or delete certain parts of your image.

Have fun, Irmgard

by Will,   September 29, 2007 12:11 AM  

Check out rsizr.com for a free Flash-based implementation of seam carving that lets you resize your own images, both in height and width simultaneously, in real time. (You can rescale and crop images too!)

http://rsizr.com/about/gallery/ for example images

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