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10/02/2007, 11:35am, EDT

Tuesday, October 2nd

Apple patents image blemish removal

Among more mundane patents for a power fixture and an iPod dock adapter, Apple has been granted a new image-editing patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Connected to iPhoto, the technology is intended to "better realize the great potential of amateur digital photography" through a new blemish removal technique. Users select the tool, place their cursor over the blemish, and click; the program then removes the blemish using a Dirichlet theorem. The particular set of equations creates a smooth surface within a circle, relying on the values of points on the outside. To prevent smoothed-out blemishes from looking unnatural, some pixelization is deliberately introduced. A diagram below shows a simplified version of the graphical interface used; the patent is credited solely to Russell Reid of Palo Alto.


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Healing Brush
0
10/02, 12:13pm, EDT
Uhh ... isn't this the Healing Brush from Photoshop? Wouldn't that then fall under prior art?
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jul 2007
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Or...
0
10/02, 1:32pm, EDT
Perhaps it slowly removes Microsoft from the face of the planet. Blemish gone!
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Dec 1999
User is offline
Unlike Adobe...
0
10/02, 1:49pm, EDT
This is like the Healing Brush but this uses a whole new method of doing it and that is the difference. Adobe has no competition and thus has taken the attitude of "no reason to update the consumer will pay us anyway, whom else are they going to use." Thank gosh Apple is putting some pressure on Adobe, someone needs to.

Now if we can only get Apple to create a "Final Cut Pro" version of iWeb for serious website design being that Adobe now owns Golive and Dreamweaver.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined May 2005
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