I came across this video from Adobe (ADBE) that demonstrates what some of its new image processing tools will do and something you’re likely to see in Photoshop CS5. As a regular user (of a much older version), my jaw hit the floor. For every person who uses serious image editing — and that includes all the people who do so in video production — what this technology can achieve in a matter of seconds is nothing short of mindboggling, and bound to make a lot of money for Adobe:
Trying to clean up images — take out errant elements and edit imperfections — can be time consuming. The new technology lets users select shapes and, using a context-sensitive facility, cleanly delete them with no extra work. In the video demonstration, a Photoshop product manager even takes a desert landscape, selects a road that runs from foreground to horizon, and automatically replaces it with area that blends almost perfectly into the land bordering where the road was.
This is pure genius. Not only is the new capability so powerful that, in the words of science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, it is indistinguishable from magic, but it goes straight to the heart of what people do with the product and targets one of the most time-consuming tasks a user might do. It’s what happens when marketing and engineering work together and pay attention to the driving needs of customers.
I can’t think of a single serious Photoshop user I know that wouldn’t immediately upgrade to this product, even if there weren’t another new features in it — and I can’t think of a single Adobe competitor that is even in the ballpark of delivering something comparable. OK, where do I sign up for a copy?
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