Monterey, CA–At this year’s 6Sight conference in Monterey, CA, Dr. Ariel Shamir demonstrated seam carving, a new technology that he developed with Dr. Shai Avidan. Seam carving is a resizing algorithm that alters the dimensions of an image by reducing or expanding areas that do not show important elements of the image. By altering areas that fall in between subjects and areas showing details in a photograph, seam carving can change the dimensions of an image without making the alteration noticeable or introducing the visible distortions that other resizing methods create.

Seam carving technology allows a single image to be shown with minimal perceptible variation on multiple display devices that have different sizes, aspect ratios, and resolutions. The algorithm can be applied selectively to images in combination with technology such as face detection, in order to exclude certain types of image elements (faces, for example) from being altered.

Shamir also demonstrated uses for seam carving that reach beyond simple image resizing, such as the ability to remove objects from photographs by applying seam carving algorithms selectively with a brush tool. That application works by letting the user apply a positive value to the item to be removed and negative value to adjoining areas of the image, which fill in the area where the item was removed.

To see a video demonstration of the new technology, visit the Seam Carving Web site. or click on the YouTube video above. Windows users can try out seam carving by downloading Shamir and Avidan’s Liquid Rescale plug-in for GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). A free GIMP installer for Windows can be downloaded here.

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