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This App Uses AI to ‘Paint’ New Things Into Your Photos

There's amazing work being done in the area of using neural networks to edit or create photos. If you'd like to experience some cutting-edge technology for yourself, check out GANPaint Studio. It's a free online demo that shows how photo editing tools of the future could work.

This Algorithm Can Tell How Memorable a Photo Is

Some photographs have the power to burn themselves into our memories for a long time, while others are easily forgettable after they're seen. Scientists are MIT have been researching the science behind memorable images, and now they've created a web app called LaMem that can analyze any photo and assign it a memorability score.

Wow: This Algorithm Can Separate Reflections from Photographs

Researchers at Google and MIT have figured out a way to automatically remove reflections and obstructions from photographs, and their latest demo of the technology is amazing.

Check out the 6.5-minute video above for an explanation of the algorithm and some examples of what it can do.

New Algorithm Can Automatically Remove Window Reflections from Photos

Photographers often use products such as the Lens Skirt when shooting through windows in order to reduce or remove reflections. Thanks to advances in computer algorithms, those physical tricks may soon find themselves alongside suitable software solutions.

Scientists at MIT have created an algorithm that can automatically remove reflections from photos that were taken through windows.

MIT Researchers Develop a Drone that Can Automatically Light Your Subjects for You

A group of researchers from MIT want your next lighting rig to be autonomous and airborne. Set to be on display this August at the Symposium on Computational Aesthetics in Graphics, Visualization and Imaging, they've actually developed a drone that automatically and dynamically lights a subject (living or otherwise) for a photographer while he or she focuses on getting the shot.

MIT Project Mimics Iconic Portrait Photogs, Takes Your Selfies to the Next Level

Are you not impressed with your average Instagram selfie? Is the lighting too bland and out of place for your liking? If so, a team made up of a researcher from MIT and a few individuals from Adobe and the University of Virginia might just have a solution to your problem.

They’ve created an algorithm capable of accurately stylizing an average, otherwise insignificant selfie to look like the works of some of the best-known and well-respected portrait photographers of all time.

MIT Algorithm Tries to Predict How Many Likes Your Photo Will Get Per Day

A photographer's primary concern when taking a photo might not be "I wonder how many likes this will get," but being able to gauge popularity could still come in handy when you're trying to decide which photos to upload to your favorite sharing site.

Enter MIT PhD candidate Aditya Khosla and his new algorithm that does just that: tells you how popular your photos will be before you even upload them.

Imaging Chip from MIT Takes Smartphone Photos to the Next Level in Milliseconds

The majority of in-camera editing and enhancing, especially on the mobile front, is done via software. Software that, according to MIT's Rahul Rithe, "consume[s] substantial power, take[s] a considerable amount of time to run, and require[s] a fair amount of knowledge on the part of the user."

In order to bypass this problem, Rithe and his team of researchers at MIT have developed a new imaging chip that can act as a photographic "jack of all trades" when it comes to taking your smartphone photos to the next level.

Magical App Uses Your Phone’s Camera to Accurately Measure Your Pulse

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That's the quote by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke that you'll find on Cardiio's homepage. It's a quote that is quite appropriate, given what the app can do.

The app is a touch-free heart rate monitor that can accurately tell you your pulse by simply looking at your face through your phone's camera.

Camera Obscura Images Can be Collected From Any Windowed Room

The camera obscura has been around for a long time (Middle Ages long) and typically consisted of a box or room with a hole in one side through which an image of its surroundings could be formed. As you can see from the example above, any room -- in this case a bathroom -- can be turned into a camera obscura given a small enough "aperture." Unfortunately, most rooms have big, blaring windows that let in too much light, and the only image formed on the opposite wall is a shadowy blob.

In the name of forensics, however, Antonio Torralba and William Freeman from MIT have discovered a technique by which they can turn any windowed room into a camera obscura, using a couple of stills of the room to magically gather an image of the outside world.

EyeRing is a “Point and Shoot” Camera for the Visually Impaired

MIT's Media Lab is no stranger to innovation; from super-high-speed cameras to cameras that can see around walls, they always seem to be on the cutting edge of imaging innovation. Their newest project, the EyeRing, is yet another innovative idea that could some day revolutionize the way we take pictures and experience our world.

Long Exposure Light Painting, MIT-style

Here's a long exposure light painting tutorial by a couple MIT Media Lab students. In addition to teaching the basics of the technique, they also show off a robot arm that they programmed to do extremely precise light painting photos and animations.

MIT Camera Uses Echos of Light to See Around Corners

The "femtosecond transient imaging system" is a camera being developed by researchers at MIT that uses high intensity light from a femtosecond laser to capture images from around corners. Once the laser beam bounces around the scene and returns to the sensor, algorithms are used to turn the time and distance information into a representation of the scene.