Remove software for smartphone can zap photo items (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Swedish company focused on mobile-device imaging technology, Scalado, plans to show object-removal software for the smartphone at this month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The software lets you remove anything in a photo that you’re taking, with just a screen tap. The only requirements are that the object has to be moving -- unwanted pedestrians as you try to capture something on the city streets, for example -- for the application to capture and delete. Also, the camera needs to stay still and focused on the subject while you touch each moving item chosen for removal.

Remove goes to work by capturing several images in a row, analyzing them to identify which objects are moving and their position in each frame. The user gets to delete what is not wanted and to keep what is wanted for a “clean” final shot.

Removal is in prototype but according to reports a fuller version will be showcased at the 2012 Mobile World Conference in Barcelona later this month.

The strategy won’t be to make Remove something you can download off an Internet-based app store. Rather, the company plans to go the route of licensing the technology to OEMs. Smartphone makers such as Samsung or HTC, for example, could make Remove a feature for their devices.

Scalado, an imaging technology company, is taking advantage of a booming user trend of depending on a single smart device for communication and picture taking functions; “mobile imaging” is an industry slice of the mobile device pie. Scalado last year laid claim to control of a third of the total market for mobile imaging. The company’s various imaging technologies are embedded in millions of mobile devices, according to the company.

Last year, Scalado released Rewind, where a “perfect” group shot can be achieved, perfect in the sense that it satisfies the user. Out of a photo burst, the picture-taker can choose which faces or items they like best and merge them into one optimal image. The application, which is processor intensive, was showcased and at the time GigaOM explained how it works: After the picture is taken, the software uses facial recognition to zero in on each member; tapping a face in the picture creates a circular control around the person’s image. A turn of the circle scrolls through images of the face; the best one can be selected and chosen and “stitched” into the final image.

Company co-founder Fadi Abbas has said that the company is set to redefine the way memories are edited, searched, and shared at any time on any screen. According to the press release, Remove is the first of other innovations planned for this year.