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Redefining Image Resizing – “Content Aware”

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When I first saw Microsoft’s Sea Dragon technology, I was blown away. A demo of the application of that technology can be seen here. I am similarly amazed at how the videos below demonstrate a whole new world of resizing, whereby “priority” is given to certain items, either automatically, or via optional user interaction. Called “seam carving”, or “content-aware image resizing”, these techniques are sure to make it into Photoshop CS4, and are the new phrases to describe the techniques.

One concern I have, is how the resizing can alter perspective, and there are a few examples, where perspective changes are altered in the video.

Alternatively, the ability to also delete content by marking it as a first to delete, is very interesting indeed. This gives rise to the whole Getty $49 issue as it relates to the resizeability of those smaller files.


(Videos & Comments after the Jump)



Below is another example of content aware resizing (no audio on this one), using several images. For the image of the White House, you can see how the algorythms are “thinking”, in keeping the White House itself the same, and diminishing the green lawn in the foreground, for example.


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Originally published on Photo Business News & Forum on September 26, 2007. Comments are closed; this post is part of the archive.

4 thoughts on “Redefining Image Resizing – “Content Aware””

  1. It’s a very interesting tool, the problem I can see is that it screws up all the proportions and will result in an image that doesn’t represent the reality.

    The lake/mountain and the white house are good examples of the problem. The mountain at the end is bigger than what it is in reality and it’s not anymore a real photography. In the same way, at the end of the example with the whitehouse, the front seems Huge compared to the trees in front of it, it’s not anymore a realistic representation of the white house architecture.

    Is this still photography or is it computer graphics?
  2. Amazing and so useful. As far as the question about whether or not it is a realistic photograph, is it so different than a photographer using a wide angle lens or telephoto? Both those alter the “real” image as well. As far as I see it, it is another great tool to add to the box.
  3. The tool is great, the technology is great too…..thanks to people creating this, photography is taken to other limits. I recently found a tool that provides these high results with less effort in understanding the interface, because it is very easy to use. You can test it at http://reshade.com. I loved it and I am convinced you will love it too.

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