Athentech Imaging to Unveil New Inventions, Upgraded Iterations Of Perfectly Clear® Image Correction Solutions for Consumers & Labs

Sharper, More Accurate Images for Consumers, Correction of .pdf-Embedded Images for Labs

CALGARY, Alberta, Canada (27 August, 2008) – Athentech Imaging Inc., creator of industry-leading Perfectly Clear® automatic turnkey image-correction technology, will exhibit powerful new Perfectly Clear® inventions now available for license – as well as improved solutions for any organization wishing to automatically correct large batches of photos via lab software – during photokina ’08, the world’s largest international photo conference and trade show, scheduled for 23-28 September in Cologne, Germany. These upgraded solutions will enhance image quality and extend Perfectly Clear® into a greater range of profitable imaging applications, the company said today.

In addition, Athentech President Brad Malcolm said his company will give photokina attendees a “peek” at its much-anticipated Perfectly Clear® Pro image-correction software for professional photographers, which is currently under development. Athentech will display its Perfectly Clear® solutions in Hall 4.1, Aisle B, Booth 11, where interested parties can find out more about what is quickly becoming the de facto industry standard for automatic image correction. Information also is available online at: www.athentech.com.

“Over the past year, we’ve enjoyed tremendous growth and acceptance as the very best solution for imaging enterprises whose interest in offering an image-correction capability has led them to search for a reliable developer to team up with,” Malcom said. “With the new inventions and products we’ll be showing at photokina, we expect our appeal to increase further. We’re looking forward to demonstrating to a wide range of imaging providers how Perfectly Clear® can be integrated into their applications for ‘real color’ reproduction, which has been shown to increase consumers’ print orders – which is everyone’s objective. And very soon this same capability will be available to professional photographers and photo enthusiasts.”

Perfectly Clear®
The ability of Perfectly Clear® image-correction technology to recreate the image seen by the photographer but not captured by the camera, and to do it virtually in the blink of an eye, is now even more robust thanks to the following recent improvements:

• Face detection – The incorporation of face detection technology from Tessera Technologies (formerly FotoNation) results in an even more robust solution to ensure exact exposure and color reproduction for what is the most viewed part of a photograph: the face.
• Beautiful skin tones – Refinements now enable corrections that show more detail in the face with a more natural skin hue and color.
• Greater shadow detail / Better highlights – A core strength – brightening each individual pixel while maintaining real color with zero artifacts – is even stronger now to draw out more details in the shadows and maintain detail in highlight areas.
• Sharper images – A series of powerful, unique algorithms have been enhanced to deliver a crisp- looking photo that is still artifact-free.

These improvements complement a list of core capabilities that include:

• Optimal exposure – Exposure is gauged and corrected on a pixel-by-pixel basis, as if each pixel was exposed by a separate aperture.
• Color vibrancy – If an automatic check determines that the camera sensor failed to capture the full vibrancy of colors in the picture, an algorithm engages to restore the full color vibrancy.
• Contrast / Depth – Using unique algorithms from the medical imaging field retrofitted for photo applications, pictures are corrected to provide full contrast and depth.
• Abnormal tint removal – Where the sensors of a camera pick up and reflect an excess of color from lights, body heat or some other source, patent-pending algorithms remove these tints.

In addition, Athentech has partnered with some of the leading imaging developers to enable Perfectly Clear® to perform auto-red eye detection and removal, auto-image rotation, auto-face cropping, and orb and purple fringe removal (Tessera Technologies); noise reduction (Imagenomic); and reproduction of a full color spectrum (Tribeca Labs).

Perfectly Clear® Lab v3.0
Perfectly Clear® Lab v3.0 – a “hot folder” software application that enables remarkably fast, dramatically robust image correction – is now able to offer the unique ability to automatically correct images embedded in .pdf files. This capability means that Perfectly Clear® Lab v3.0 is able to meet the exacting demands of today’s photo labs, pre-press houses, commercial display fabricators and other commercial imagers who need to respond to the dramatic growth in digital image-based photo products.

Perfectly Clear® Lab v3.0 delivers several other highly sought-after capabilities, including:

• added support for TIFF files
• batch resizing of photos – either pre-process or post-process
• automatic logging and tracking of images
• simpler user configuration that locates all folders in a single folder on the desktop
• full operability with Microsoft’s new Vista OS

“We’ve made our multi-patented Perfectly Clear® solution for the lab more versatile and more valuable, with the ability to process more images in more types of formats for improved workflow and much greater efficiency,” Malcolm said. “Perfectly Clear® Lab v3.0 is an exceptionally useful tool for producing all the new consumer photo keepsakes, such as photo books and calendars, to help increase customer satisfaction and reduce operational challenges.”

Perfectly Clear® Pro
Perfectly Clear® Pro is designed to be the most advanced, fully automatic, 16-bit image-correction software available on the market, Malcolm said. Powered by Perfectly Clear® and partner technology, and protected more than 10 approved and pending patents, Athentech’s professional solution “will be a huge timesaver for phorographers while delivering excellent image quality,” he said.

Perfectly Clear® image-correction technology is available to license via a <100 KB .dll library. Perfectly Clear® Lab v3.0 is a fully automatic, standalone software application designed for high-volume environments, currently in beta testing. Perfectly Clear® Pro, standalone software geared toward studio and even home use, is expected to be available before the end of the year, according to Athentech.