Interactive Digital Photomontage

[Michael Thaler]

Hi,

this seems extremely interesting:

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/photomontage/

From the website:

Abstract
 We describe an interactive, computer-assisted framework for combining parts 
of a set of photographs into a single composite picture, a process we 
call "digital photomontage." Our framework makes use of two techniques 
primarily: graph-cut optimization, to choose good seams within the 
constituent images so that they can be combined as seamlessly as possible; 
and gradient-domain fusion, a process based on Poisson equations, to further 
reduce any remaining visible artifacts in the composite. Also central to the 
framework is a suite of interactive tools that allow the user to specify a 
variety of high-level image objectives, either globally across the image, or 
locally through a painting-style interface. Image objectives are applied 
independently at each pixel location and generally involve a function of the 
pixel values (such as "maximum contrast") drawn from that same location in 
the set of source images. Typically, a user applies a series of image 
objectives iteratively in order to create a finished composite. The power of 
this framework lies in its generality; we show how it can be used for a wide 
variety of applications, including "selective composites" (for instance, 
group photos in which everyone looks their best), relighting, extended depth 
of field, panoramic stitching, clean-plate production, stroboscopic 
visualization of movement, and time-lapse mosaics. 
 
It is a research project from University of Washington and Microsoft. The code 
is released under GPL. You can find it here:

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/photomontage/release/

(Unfortunately I didn't have time to look at it so far).

Greetings,
Michael