Content aware resizing (using the seam carving algorithm) is also available as a plugin for GIMP:<p><a href="http://liquidrescale.wikidot.com/" rel="nofollow">http://liquidrescale.wikidot.com/</a><p>Here's the presentation (SIGGRAPH 2007) from the authors of the library used in the plugin:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFCV2spKtg&feature=player_embedded#t=241" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFCV2spKtg&feature=playe...</a>
I wonder if techniques similar to this will be included somehow in CS5:<p><a href="http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/pro/papers/videoEnhancement/videoEnhancement.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/pro/papers/videoEnhanceme...</a>
We implemented a seam carving algo in our computer vision course. We found "perfect" (minimum cost) seams, so the algo was very slow. It's great that more research has gone into faster (although perhaps not as theoretically "perfect") algorithms.<p>If we're allowed to destroy our pictures by non-ratio-holding resizes, then we should be able to destroy our pictures with cool seam carving techniques. Think of the possibilities!
Links to the researchers if you are interested:<p><a href="http://www.danbgoldman.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.danbgoldman.com/</a><p><a href="http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~elishe/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~elishe/</a><p><a href="http://www.connellybarnes.com/work/" rel="nofollow">http://www.connellybarnes.com/work/</a><p><a href="http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~af/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~af/</a><p>Great work guys.
I haven't even learned one tenth of the features in CS3 yet. And yet, surprise, surprise, I seem to do just fine. More feature bloat as far as I'm concerned.