Old crumpled, folded, and otherwise damaged photographs may have gotten a new lease on life. HP’s research wing has devised a technique to remove creases from photographs using standard scanners, according to reports published Aug. 12.

Once flaws are detected, an automated process takes over to repair photographs using techniques including infilling and texture synthesis. A more detailed description of how the technology works is available at the HP Labs Web site.

This is a neat development, and HP is once again being an innovator in consumer technology. It is a leader in software development and testing, but its commercial products do not always stand out from the crowd.

I did a quick Web search and found another HP research project that it says will lead to better color accuracy in scanning.

When I was younger, only the biggest techies owned scanners, and it was a pretty big deal to own one. Scanners have since become a commodity technology, and it has been a long time since I have taken notice of them. It might be time to begin paying attention again.

 
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