Photoswapper

Computer graphics researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed systems for editing or altering photographs using segments of the millions of images available on the Web.

Whether adding people or objects to a photo, or filling holes in an edited photo, the systems automatically find images that match the context of the original photo so they blend realistically. Unlike traditional photo editing, these results can be achieved rapidly by users with minimal skills.

‘We are able to leverage the huge amounts of visual information available on the Internet to find images that make the best fit,’ said Alexei A. Efros, assistant professor of computer science and robotics. ‘It's not applicable for all photo editing, such as when an image of a specific object or person is added to a photo. But it's good enough in many cases,’ he added. ‘Why Photoshop if you can “photoswap” instead?’

One system, called Photo Clip Art , was developed with graduate students Jean-François Lalonde and Derek Hoiem, and with Carsten Rother, John Winn and Antonio Criminisi of Microsoft Research Cambridge.