A new iPhone App promises to help optimize your iPhone and iPod Touch photos. It runs $2.99 in the iTunes App Store and uses the same technology that you see in commercial photo kiosks.
More details in the press release below.
CALGARY, Alberta, Canada (10 August, 2009) — Athentech Imaging Inc., the world’s leading independent developer of image correction solutions, today announced that high-tech leader Apple Inc. has approved an application of the company’s remarkable Perfectly Clear® image correction technology for its popular iPhone and iPod Touch devices. As a final step to picture taking, if desired, users can fine tune the look of their photos by quickly and easily adjusting a few powerful sliders and presets.
Athentech Imaging’s “one click” Perfectly Clear® iPhone application assures that the millions of photos being taken by iPhone and iPod users can be simply optimized for exposure, color accuracy, sharpness and depth with a single touch, the company said. Perfectly Clear® iPhone is available as an online download – http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=324321778&mt=8 – via the Apple iTunes App Store for $2.99.
Perfectly Clear® is currently correcting images in more than 50,000 retail photo kiosks, several thousand minilabs, multiple online photo sites and labs, and millions of copies of imaging software in nearly 40 countries. With this new iPhone / iPod application, Athentech President Brad Malcolm said, Perfectly Clear® is quickly becoming the dominant image correction technology worldwide, and de facto industry standard for the imaging industry.
The potential impact of Perfectly Clear® iPhone is enormous. Currently, Apple’s iPhone is the second-most popular source of images (after a Canon camera) uploaded to Flickr, according to statistics maintained by that leading online photo sharing site – and it is by far the most used mobile device. “What has occurred in a relatively short period of time is that a very large number of people all over the world who take, print, share or receive photos are now looking at fully optimized images corrected by Perfectly Clear®,” Malcolm said. “Now with the availability of Perfectly Clear® iPhone, that number is poised to grow further.”
“We’re very pleased to be able to offer our elegant image correction technology in a ‘one click’ app for some of the most advanced, exciting new technologies that have been developed by Apple,” Malcolm added. “iPhone and iPod users now have easy access to the most advanced, exciting picture enhancement solution available anywhere.”
Athentech Imaging’s New Web Site
The growth of Athentech Imaging and its expansion into new markets also has prompted the company to initiate an overhaul of its web site, which will be launched in phases beginning later this month. According to the company, the goal is to provide more information to a broader range of audiences – from the imaging technology developer to the picture taker, and from the industry analyst to the photo retailer.
“Visitors to our new web site will find thorough, easy-to-understand presentations on the unique science behind Perfectly Clear®, as well up-to-date information on all of our products, services and initiatives,” Malcolm said. “We’ll share the experiences of some of our customers – telling their stories and providing links to their online operations. And of course, we’re giving the site a clean new look with highly intuitive functionality. Athentech Imaging’s new web site is designed to be a valuable resource for anyone wanting clear and accurate information about image correction.”
How Perfectly Clear® Works
The inherent problem with cameras of all types is that they optimize image capture for only one object or element in a photograph – meaning that other objects or elements may be improperly exposed. The human eye sees everything as it actually appears, and Perfectly Clear® “sees” every object in an image similar to the human eye. Athentech’s ground-breaking image correction algorithms treat each pixel in a digital photograph as if it was captured by its own camera. So every pixel in an image is separately optimized for exposure, color accuracy, color vibrancy, tint, sharpness, depth, noise – even “red eye.”
“Perfectly Clear® was invented for the digital world,” Malcolm said. “It’s modeled on the physics principles of light. Traditional analogue-based approaches actually damage true color, create artifacts, and cause clipping. But Perfectly Clear® essentially operates like the human eye, optimizing and correcting the light in every pixel to perfectly preserve the photographer’s memory. From the experiences of our customers, we’ve learned that an accurately reproduced image will re-trigger memories far better than an inaccurate correction – which is why we’re unique in our ability to recreate what we call ‘Real Color’ and therefore help drive greater sharing and printing of images.”
About Athentech® Imaging Inc.
Athentech® Imaging Inc. is an entrepreneurial, privately held company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The company is involved in three industries and markets: digital imaging, signal processing (for medical applications), and earth sciences. For more information, please visit: http://www.athentech.com.
Stefan Tell says
I just bought this app after reading your post, and without any scientific approach I think it might be worth 3 dollar. You can see a quick test with some before/after images on my blog. Might be more realistic than their official example images. And it works quite ok, but complains a bit about low memory (I have the old iPhone, not the 3Gs-model).
Thanks for the tip.
Brad Malcolm says
Stefan, thanks for your comments. We submitted to Apple a week ago a fix to the low memory bug (unfortunately this is a common problem on the iPhone due to their limited memory constraints). we’re just waiting now for Apple to approve, and then you can download the update.
Brad
karen says
Wow, very impressive auto-color/exposure correction. I just tried your app and posted a few sample photos on flickr. I’ve used other photo correction apps on my iPhone but this is different due to its split screen view and the accuracy of the autocorrection software.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karen_2020/3845773260/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karen_2020/3844949707/
(no connection to the app developer, just an avid iPhone photographer :-)
Danny Choo says
Just purchased – awesome. Did crash once though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannychoo/3846043227/