Sorry, but the EOS list I'm currently on is outposting the OM list
for a rare change, so I thought I'd better troll (okay, so maybe
only "gremlin" rather than "troll" :-) ).
Anyway, without saying "Gee, ain't those SUV's an excellent
mode of transport", I thought y'all might be interested in
something that popped up in the "Patents" column of the
magazine "New Scientist" (BTW, excellent science mag' for those
so interested).
Apparently HP have patented a system that, in camera, "auto-crops"
the photos using "pre-programmed composition rules" to appropriately
frame a subject, like a human figure, or a face such that the
head is not cut-off at, let's say, at the forehead. New scientist
have placed the phrase "artistically positioned" within quotes,
so I'm wondering is that's within the patent.
Anyway, here it is:
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=WO02052835
(you don't need Adobe Acrobat Reader to see the basic info, but
you will as you delve further in)
To New Scientist's credit/defense, they *do* title their item "Happy
Snaps" :-)
Within the patent, there's some flowcharting phrasing
that sounds like very dry, technical description of what our
brains do to decide "Gee, that's a nice piccie!" (I hope they're
not patenting my thought processes <g>). For example:
"Identify features relevant to the composition of the electronics
image using a combination of one or more interest metrics"
It's quite interesting reading (though you *may* read it with
abhorrence <g>). There's even a "Rule of thirds" "rule". :-)
In my quick perusal, there *is* the option of "manually" choosing
the crop/s it picks, so they can still say that their camera
operates "manually" <g>
Happy reading.
Cheers
Marc
Sydney, Oz
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