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Research shows eye-reflections in photos could be used to identify criminals
Did you ever watch CSI's tech boffins zoom into a photo, grab the reflection in someone's eye, and through processing magic generate a full facial image of the wanted criminal? If, like us, you rolled your eyes at the program's "Hollywood" technology, then maybe you did so too soon (again). Researchers at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, have effectively done just that. Okay, so the team was using near perfect conditions: a 39-megapixel Hasselblad H2D camera, shooting a subject from one meter away, in perfect lighting, but the results proved the idea is well within the realms of science fact. When looking at a close up of a subject's eye, the team was able to grab an image between 27 to 36 pixels wide by 42 to 56 pixels high showing the face of one of the "bystanders" they had organised to be in the subject's view. The reflected images proved good enough that when volunteers were asked to match the small image with that of the actual bystander, or someone of similar appearance, results came in well above chance averaging between 70- and 84 percent. As well as assisting in criminal investigations, the researchers claim the technique could also yield 3D environments, when images can be taken from both eyes. Of course, real-world application would require similarly optimal conditions, but as technology advances, the researches claim this could be an ever increasing scenario.
Ask Engadget: best online photo album with public contributions?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Jeff, who wants to crowdsource his wedding photography without any mess. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "As part of my wedding plans, we're expecting plenty of our friends to take pictures of the big day on their smartphones and cameras. I'd like to create a public online photo album to let everyone upload the pictures to one place, and then I can download them later. I'd really rather not have anyone set up an account anywhere (so Flickr won't work) and, ideally, I'd like those who shoot in .RAW to be able to upload the full sized files. Any ideas and suggestions of places would be great, thanks!" Well, actually, your humble narrator has this same problem early last year. My solution, which won't work for you, was to sign up with a Flickr Pro account and set up a new group. As you can email in images to a specific group email address, we sent this address out on our invitations. That way, anyone who took pictures could just email them straight to the site. As you've said, that's not going to work with .RAW images, so let's turn this question over to the community and see what they can come up with.
Google will soon display your Google+ photo when you call an Android phone
Google's desire to integrate social features into its mobile OS will soon see it use Google+ profile photos to identify Android callers. The new feature comes as an update to the new caller ID service in Android 4.4 KitKat, allowing the company to automatically match phone numbers from incoming and outgoing calls with names and profile photos associated with a registered account. Google staffer Attila Bodis notes that the feature will be enabled in "early 2014" but can only display names and profile photos if the user has verified their phone number and has discovery switched on. While the idea is to bring a sense of familiarity to phone calls, not everyone will see the merit of sending a headshot to people they call -- so Google is offering a way to opt out. Simply head on over to this link, untick the checkbox and all of your Android-toting friends will no longer be able to see your beautiful face (unless, of course, they add it themselves).
Google to unveil Auto Awesome feature that creates stories from your videos
Putting aside the small matter of launching a new Nexus smartphone and Android OS, Google also plans to unveil new Google+ features and improvements. Sources aware of Google's plans tell us that today's media-focused event will include the introduction of Auto Awesome for videos, an expansion of its impressive photo improvement service, which allows users to record video and have Google+ integrate transitions, music and effects with little or no input. We're told that the new video feature is similar to HTC's Video Highlights in that it uses smart editing, cutting and sequencing techniques to splice a professional-like highlight reel using different types of media. While we don't know exactly how these new features operate, Google SVP Vic Gundotra teased today's announcement with the tagline "#momentsthatmatter," suggesting we won't have long to wait to see the new Auto Awesome feature in the flesh.
Daily iPhone App: Magisto takes your best camera roll picks and turns them into an eye-catching video
If you want to quickly fire off a montage of your favorite photos and videos, then you should check out Magisto, the magical video editor. Magisto lets you choose photos and videos that you want to compile into a shareable clip. Instead of having to splice the video and add all the snazzy effects yourself, Magisto does it on your behalf. You mark off your photos and videos, select some background music, pick a theme and the app does the rest. It'll chop up your video, mix in some photos and glue them all together with a handful of fancy effects and filters. Each clip takes less than five minutes to process. While you wait, you can check your email or browse the web, and Magisto will alert when your clip is completed. The end result is a compilation that you can share publicly with the Magisto community or privately with family and friends. Quality-wise, the final clip is creative enough to be entertaining, but it won't win an Academy Award for its effects. I tested the app with a handful of my iPhone 5s photos and videos and overall was pleased with the output (view my sample clip), with a one caveat. I liked how the app chose to mix the video and photos with the just right balance of media types. Some of the transitions, though, are a bit too choppy for my taste and don't smoothly flow a video into a photo or vice versa. The beauty of Magisto, though, is that you can start over, choose a new theme and have another clip in just a few minutes. Magisto is available for free in the iOS App Store. The app allows you to create a clip with five photos and 10-minute/10 video clips for free. If you want additional photos or longer videos, then you must upgrade to the paid version. Subscription plans include a one-month subscription for US$4.99 or a year subscription for $17.99. The service also requires you to sign up for an account if you want to share your clip. If you just want to play around with the app, you can do so as a guest.
Instagram for Android update adds photo straightening, enhanced video control
iPhone users with Instagram version 4.1 have had the ability to straighten photos for a couple of months now, but Android smartphone owners are a bit behind the curve when it comes to sorting out crooked pics. Well, no more. The latest Android app update, which should hit Google Play sometime today, brings that much-needed functionality to previously overlooked shooters. Additionally, the refresh enables sound and data usage controls, for folks using the tool to capture video clips as well. The new version hasn't popped up on our devices just yet, but stay tuned to Play to get your hands on the latest variant later today.
US Instagram users will soon see ads in their feeds
Instagram is gearing up to monetize all of your colorful border-enhanced photos, and you may not like what that means for your feed. Beginning "in the next couple months," Instagram users in the United States will see "an occasional ad" sandwiched between their friends' photos and videos. The company is insisting that the advertisements will flow with regular content -- and if you don't like a particular ad, you can hide it from view and let the team know what you didn't like. As a final note, the firm clarified that the introduction of ads won't affect ownership rights of the pics and vids you upload -- so if a family member pops up in a sponsored post with a Coke in hand, you'll probably want to send some feedback.
Twitter focuses on photos in embedded tweets
Some say that a picture is worth 1,000 words, but regardless of how you do the math, it's fair to say that a good photo can say a lot more than 140 characters. With that in mind, Twitter is giving greater emphasis to photos within tweets by placing them front and center in the post, with the actual tweet serving as a simple caption below. Looking at it now, the decision seems an obvious one, but all photos were previously smaller and subservient to the short text. The visual redesign applies to both landscape and portrait photos, so regardless of how you frame your image, you can now let your shooting skills do the talking for you.
Google+ brings Snapseed-powered photo editing tools to desktop Chrome (video)
Google added Snapseed photo editing to its Google+ apps on Android and iOS back in March, and now it's bringing them to the desktop. The new tools include Auto Enhance, selective adjust editing, and filters, all powered by the Chrome browser's Native Client tech. Not familiar with how that works? Google brought Native Client to Chrome back in 2011, and it allows developers to port code written in languages like C and C++ so it runs in the browser. Vic Gundotra said on Google+ that this is the Snapseed app built for Chrome, so we'll see if more mobile apps and features follow it over. If you're not using Chrome you'll have to live with basic crop and rotate editing tools on Google+, but even those have been shifted around to make them easier to find. Once the new options are available on your account (as usual, they're rolling out slowly over the next few weeks) all you'll need to do is select one of your photos in Chrome and hit "edit" to see them. Until then, check out the video demo embedded after the break.
Getty Museum makes 4,600 high-res images free to download with Open Content Program
Journalists and news consumers alike may be familiar with the Getty name -- Mark Getty founded his namesake stock photography company in the 1990s, and Getty Images is responsible for distributing thousands of photographs every day. But many Southern Californians best know the family for its contributions to the J. Paul Getty Museum, which houses an enormous collection of art at two locations in Los Angeles. It's that latter institution that's making waves today, opening up its digital collection for anyone to view, download, modify and publish, free of charge. The Open Content Program enables access to 4,600 (and counting) high-res images, such as the photograph posted above. The organization's only requirement is that artwork be accompanied by an attribution line, such as the one published below. [Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.]
Camera and Photo apps updated in iOS 7
We all know that the camera is one of the most popular features on the iPhone, and Apple has poured some new ideas into the camera app that should add to the joy of photography in iOS 7. At WWDC today, Apple announced that the camera app has had a completely revamped GUI. I didn't see a lot of new features, but different shooting modes can be selected by swiping. You can move from a standard photo, to video, to panorama mode, and to a square 4 x 3 aspect ratio. The are big changes are in the iOS 7 photo app, too. For the first time, Apple is letting you apply filters directly. Apple has also enhanced finding photos with a concept called moments, so photos you have taken will be intelligently grouped by time and location. Apple has also enhanced Photo Stream with an improved GUI and the ability for others to drop photos into your stream. Videos are now supported as well. Those are just the highlights, and we will learn more in the days to come. It's pretty clear that Apple has taken the best mobile photo system and improved it in several aspects.
Hipstamatic's photo filter app Oggl now open for everyone
Hipstamatic's subscription-based photo filter app is now publicly available on iTunes, a few weeks after its invite-only launch. Oggl is a free download, and you get five of its parent app's virtual lenses and films that you can mix and match to concoct your own filters from the get-go -- it also lets you edit a photo's effects after you've taken it. But if you find its small selection of lenses and films limiting and you'd prefer to have the whole enchilada (read: all Hipstamatic filters), you've got to part with $2.99 per quarter or $9.99 per year. No word yet on whether an Android version is in the works, but a preview of the app shown at the Nokia Lumia 925 launch event indicates that it's on its way to Windows Phone 8.
3D-printed photographs: a new twist on your holiday snaps
Got hordes of old photos you don't know what to do with? Well, if you've got access to a 3D printer, what about blessing them with a third dimension? That's what Instructables stalwart Amanda Ghassaei (of 3D printed records fame) has done using an Objet Connex500, some algorithmic wizardry and a bit of left-field thinking. The images, rather than full 3D renderings, are still meant to be viewed in 2D, but use different thicknesses of print to create a silhouette effect. Ghassaei converts images to black and white, and assigns different printing densities to each grayscale pixel value. The results are surprisingly intricate, and still manage to impart a sense of texture. Fortunately for those interested in doing their own, this is Instructables, so, all you need to do is follow along at the source.
'80s throwback photo of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (Updated)
You don't see too many photos of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together, and you definitely won't see many more like this. This photo was posted a few years ago by Minimal Mac and is a classic that I've never noticed before. I absolutely love that '80s Breakfast Club-inspired cut on Jobs and the always-present nerdiness of Gates. Other than a credit to Croatian designer Alexander Pieri, background details surrounding the photo are not known. Update: Thanks to All About Steve Jobs which pointed out that the photo is from the August 1991 edition of Fortune that celebrates 10 years of the PC. The article has a great conversation with the two personal computing giants.
'Thirty Six' app makes you a thoughtful photographer again
Last summer I ran into the first photography teacher I had in the States. He was visiting London and we sat down over a pint. We spoke about the state of the photography industry, the Instagramification of consumer photography and the future of digital photography. And while we agreed that digital photography has been a good thing for both the industry and photographers, one negative effect it brought was the technology's tendency to turn people into lazy photographers. In the mid-'90s when I was a teenager I first learned to shoot on film. Rolls of 36 exposures were my norm and I chose each shot judiciously as film was expensive to buy and develop. And while I welcomed digital photography -- as it lowered the cost of being a photographer -- I (and my former teacher) began to notice that it also seemed to make young, budding photographers lazy. After all, why take the time to frame the shot and "edit in camera" when you can just shoot off a hundred snaps and then choose the best of them? Digital photography, we both agreed, had taken the discipline and patience out of the art of photography. As fate would have it, months later I met Gary Cohen, photographer and Senior Computer Scientist at Adobe (who, since joining the company in 1999, has worked on PhotoDeluxe, Photoshop and the Creative Cloud), and he told me he had observed the same thing in photography -- younger photographers that lack the discipline to be selective with their shots and edit in the camera. But he was working on a solution: an app called Thirty Six. %Gallery-178042% Thirty Six, which is Cohen's creation and not affiliated with Adobe in any way, is a deceptively simple app from first appearances. It allows the user to take black-and-white pics on their iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. However, the brilliance behind the app is that it works like a film camera. The app operates on a system of film rolls of 36 exposures each. The user cannot view any of their photographs until they've shot their photos and "developed" the film roll in the app. Once the photos are developed users can view them on a contact sheet and, via taps, select the photos they like or absolutely love. What I really like about the contact sheet option and the selection process is that Thirty Six does not automatically save any of your photos to your iPhone's camera roll until you tell it to. For each developed film roll you can also tell the app to save just your selected "liked" and "loved" photos, or the entire roll. You can also choose to email your selected photos or the entire roll, and of course share them on Facebook and Twitter. Everything about Thirty Six is something old-school, classically trained photographers are going to love. The app is also something that every budding, young photographer should have on their iPhone. The ability to take a virtually unlimited number of photos on a digital device is nice, but nothing contributes more to becoming a good photographer than being forced to really think about what you shoot, having the discipline to make a finite amount of choices, and judiciously planning each shot before you take it. Thirty Six accomplishes all of that. Thirty Six is available now on the App Store for US$1.99. It's also a universal app, so it works on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
Polaroid plans experimental Fotobar stores that will let you print your photos
Polaroid hasn't been shy to try various tactics as it attempts to compete in the age of digital photography, but it always seems to come back to the idea it's best known for. It's latest effort is a bit more of a roundabout way to get some tangible photos in your hands, though: a series of "experimental" Photobar stores where you can go and have your digital photos professionally printed. The first of those will open in Delray Beach, Florida in February, with a total of at least ten stores promised for 2013, including locations in New York, Las Vegas and Boston -- each staffed with so-called Photenders to help you get the best results, and equipped with a "patent-pending proprietary technology" that'll let you wirelessly transfer photos from your phone to a workstation. What's more, the stores won't just be producing glossy photos, but what Polaroid describes as handcrafted pieces using canvas, metal, acrylic, wood or bamboo -- those will be shipped to the customer within 72 hours, and are apparently of the same variety that can currently be ordered on Polaroid's Photobar website. You'll still need to get your Polaroid film elsewhere, though.
Google's 'gallery for everyone' lets you take over Times Square, say thank you for...
What would be a neat trick to round off a perfect holiday with friends, family, and -- if you're lucky -- some bargain-priced tech? How about getting your smug, contented face up on the screens in Times Square? Not got the big corporate budget? No worries, as Google's here to pick up the tab as part of a Chromebook promotion, and possibly make it happen for you. Submit a picture at the source link, along with a snappy "For... " caption, and you could find yourself, your mom, your cat, or football team up there for all to see. We were going to submit one of our own, but, well y'know, we're still wearing the t-shirt.
Our favorite iPhone photo apps for capturing and sharing the holiday spirit
Here in the US it's a holiday weekend, and we'll be visiting friends and family as we celebrate Thanksgiving. Of course a holiday gathering means pictures are going to be taken, and I have put together a list of some of my favorite apps for the iPhone that will help you take great photos and share them. Most of the apps I am talking about also run fine on the iPod touch or the iPad, but I expect the great majority of iOS photos are taken with iPhones. The iPhone camera has really improved over the years. More and more people are leaving their pocket camera at home and letting the iPhone become their camera of choice. Even better, very few conventional pocket cameras let you edit and send your photos to others (the Android-powered Nikon Coolpix aside), so the iPhone handily wins that race. OK then, let's dig in. First, you will want to capture those scenes at the dinner table. Newer iPhones running iOS 6 (5 and 4S models) have the built-in panorama mode. It's perfect where you need a wide angle to capture the moment. Just remind people to stay relatively still so everything blends well. If you don't have an iPhone 4S or 5, you can still get those wide shots with apps like AutoStitch ($1.99), 360 Panorama ($0.99) or Panoramatic 360 ($0.99). The free Photosynth will also take some nice extreme wide shots. Family portraits are easy as well. The iPhone camera with flash will work fine, but the iPhone, especially newer models, will do nicely in lower light, so you can forego the harsh light of the flash. Again, the built-in camera app works fine, but if you want a bit more control, or timers, and more adjustments, I suggest Camera+(on sale for $0.99), Fotor ($2.99) or Camera Genius ($2.99). If you want to tweak your photos after the fact, there are a lot of options. Apple's iPhoto ($4.99) for iOS has a wide range of features, but I prefer Photogene2 ($0.99), FX Photo Studio ($0.99), Snapseed ($4.99) and Alt Photo ($0.99). All these apps let you share your finished photos via email or the major social networks. If you want to fix a portrait by improving skin tones, or smoothing wrinkles on grandma, Perfect365 ($0.99) does that. It packs a lot of power in an iOS app. Of course, sending photos out one at a time can be a bit of a hassle, so there are a few apps that will create collages or nice web presentations all on your iPhone. For collages, I like Diptic ($1.99), Photopath (free) and TurboCollage ($1.99). For getting your photos to the web easily, Apple has Photostream, but I really prefer Photoset, which is free and creates instant web pages you can share with others. We also recently took a look at Beamr (free), which builds mini-magazines for the web and devices using your iPhone photos. Then there's the whole concept of taking thousands of still photos one after the other, and showing them to people at the frantic pace of 30 or so per second. Yes, you can bet the iPhone will be busy taking videos at many holiday parties. Apple's built-in video camera works just fine, but if you want more features take a look at FiLMIC Pro ($3.99). It has every feature a videographer could want. To do some quick and easy edits, Mike Rose suggests you check out One Second Epic ($1.99), which is a cool way to quickly string together short clips and then email them or share with Facebook. Have a happy holiday, and be sure to check that your phone has enough space on it for all those photos and videos. If you've synced your phone to iPhoto or Aperture but you still have "zombie" photos in your camera roll, you can easily delete the unwanted images with Apple's Image Capture utility on your Mac. Got more iPhone photo tips for the family gatherings? Please leave us some of your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.
Turn your iPhone photos into wall art with Art.com's Photos To Art app
The fine folks at Art.com have been "helping people find the art they love, so they can love their space more" since 1998 -- that's almost a century in Internet time. The service has long offered quality art reproductions of classic and modern works, but it was only about 18 months ago that it began printing user-contributed images on demand via the Photos to Art service. Since some 30 percent of all home decoration is personal photography, it's caught on quickly. The natural next step for Photos to Art is, no surprise, an iPhone app. Given the rapid advances in phone camera quality, it's now eminently practical to skip the whole download your photo/upload to website stage and simply use the app to spec and order your framed artwork. The app is cleanly designed and has some nifty features to make the ordering process go smoothly. Once you pick your photo (from Instagram, your camera roll or live from the iPhone's camera) the app calculates how large a print you can safely get with the available image data. A canvas print is more forgiving of low-res images, while other substrates may need finer-grained files. You can pick from several mounting and framing choices, then you get a "wall mount" view which shows your selected design in one of several typical room looks, with a scale view of a sample person holding the frame for size reference. You can even snap a picture of the real wall you're adorning, then see the product in position where it will actually end up. Check the price, and click through to have your new work of art shipped to you. The Photos To Art app joins Art.com's two existing iOS apps, the artMatch iPhone catalog browser and the artCircles iPad discovery engine, on the App Store. All three are free.
Instagram rolling out web profiles, sepia toning the world's browsers one account at a time
Instagram is getting ready to open up its collection of filtered images to the web. The photosharing service announced via blog post that it's going to be rolling out web profiles over the next few days, bringing profile photos, bios and shared images to easily navigable URLs at instagram.com/[username]. If you have photos set to private, you'll still get a profile, but those images won't be shared with the web at large. The site also notes that web uploading isn't currently enabled, seeing as how it's always been focused on mobile devices. If you don't have a page yet, you should be good to go within the week. In the meantime, you can check out other profiles in Instagram at the source link below.