Automatic Smart Ken Burns Effect Using Face Recognition

[OilPainterBill]

There should be a one button way to generate quick Ken Burns effects for all of the slides you have selected.

Here's how I think it should work. Basically, when you press the button, the software would first identify faces in each selected photograph. Then it would pick a random (<25%) starting offset for every photo and set the starting slide location there. Then, it should automatically set pan and zoom settings for each selected photo to slowly move the view until it is centrally framing those detected face(s) by the end of the slide. If you wanted to get fancier, you could offer the option to frame the faces at the halfway point in the slide time line and continue moving across it in a straight line from the starting location.

This would be a killer feature which would blow away all other slide show programs out there and put you at the top of the event photographer's must-have tool list. Even Photodex ProShow Producer can't do this. Face recognition is the big thing now, and it would make intelligent automatic Ken Burns effects work so much better than all those programs which just randomly move the view. Manually adjusting pan and zoom for each slide is yesterday's technology. Make the computer do that cumbersome task so all we have to do is tweak the results a little.

If you had this feature (and perhaps a bit better audio handling?), I'd pay double your asking price for this program. It would save me countless hours of work.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Bill, and welcome to the PTE forums!

In regards to your comment below, PicturesToExe already does a "lot" of things Proshow Producer can't do. First, it gives you the ultimate image quality using GPU hardware rendering both in the executable slideshow as well as for rendering DVD's. PTE has sophisticated parent/child/grandchild nesting, it has real working off-center rotation, much more sophisticated and much better and easier than with Proshow Producer. It has optional mipmapping, incredibly smooth vectorized text at any zoom size, one click rasterize to PNG, allows complete manual control as well as autorun for slideshows, will seamlessly run foreign executable code and return automatically to your show. With parent/child/grandchild relationsips, PTE has the ability to manipulate horizontal rotation on the "Z" axis. The soon to be released version 5.7 will have 3D object transformation, adjustable internal masking, will create native MacIntosh executable code, output to dual monitors, etc., etc., and registered users can already use most of these new features in the 5.7 beta version.

Proshow Producer can not do any of the above, that's why PTE is the overwhelming choice for a reasonably priced presentation slideshow tool which is greatly revered among international AV competition participants. One rarely hears of Proshow Producer being used in serious AV competition.

Auto pan and zoom have been discussed a number of times but is not something which the majority of PTE users have expressed a desire for. The feeling is that each slide is a unique entity and to try to automate this simply does not make good professional sense. One size simply doesn't fit all, even with the latest face detection algorithms, etc. There are many other areas where the program can still be improved and software such as Proshow Gold and Producer already have auto pan and zoom and no one here is tremendously impressed with what they do with it.

Perhaps in the future when technology improves something like what you suggest might be feasible, but it's not a primary consideration at the present time as has been expressed by the developers.

Best regards,

Lin

snip....

Even Photodex ProShow Producer can't do this.

[thedom]

the software would first identify faces in each selected photograph. Then it would pick a random (<25%) starting offset for every photo and set the starting slide location there. Then, it should automatically set pan and zoom settings for each selected photo to slowly move the view until it is centrally framing those detected face(s) by the end of the slide.

Sony did it, the PS3 has this feature.

The Portrait slideshow mode includes face(s) detection and it pan and zoom in/out depending on where the face(s) is/are on the image.

It works quite well.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

By PS3 to you mean the Sony Play Station 3?

If so, it's quite an expensive piece of equipment. I think it would be even more expensive if Sony were not "dumping" - selling way under costs. They have put lots of work into this and probably will eventually make up the deficit, but here is an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia:

-----------------

The PlayStation 3's initial production cost is estimated to have been US$805.85 for the 20 GB model and US$840.35 for the 60 GB model.^[72] However, they were priced at US$499 and US$599 respectively,^[73] meaning that every unit was sold at an estimated loss of $250,^[72]fiscal year ending March 2007.^[74] In April 2007, soon after these results were published, Ken Kutaragi, President of Sony Computer Entertainment, announced plans to retire.

------------

I haven't seen the PS3 in operation, but I suspect Sony may have firmware links to the software features which allow face detection, etc. I would be good to know for sure..

Best regards,

Lin

Sony did it, the PS3 has this feature.

The Portrait slideshow mode includes face(s) detection and it pan and zoom in/out depending on where the face(s) is/are on the image.

It works quite well.

[thedom]

Hi Lin,

Yes, the Sony PlayStation 3.

About costs, here is an other part of the article in Wikipedia :

Since the system's launch, production costs have been reduced significantly as a result of phasing out the Emotion Engine chip and falling hardware costs.[81][82] The cost of manufacturing Cell microprocessors has fallen dramatically as a result of moving to the 65 nm production process,[82][83] and Blu-ray diodes have become cheaper to manufacture.[81][84] As of January 2008, each unit cost around $400 to manufacture;[85][86] by August 2009, Sony had reduced costs by a total of 70%, yielding about $250 per unit.[87]

I bought the PS3 at the beginning of year 2008 for 600 euros.

It was not to play but to watch Bluray.

I took risks at this time because of the war between BR and HD-DVD. But I thought that I could easily sell it for a good price if the HD-DVD was the winner because you can play with it. I wonder what people made with their HD-DVD players...

And with the PS3, I can watch the images (in slideshow modes), videos (whatever the codec used) and listen to the music stored on the different PC in the house. Thanks to PS3 Media Server (http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/).

I do not have to reencode the videos, it can read everything, even .mkv format (720p and even 1080p).

I can surf on the internet too... and my kids can play Games.

I am really glad with my purchase since the beginning.

And Sony release new firmware very often for new features.

With those upgrade, I think the PS3 was the first Player to have the Blu-ray Profile 2.0.

PS : I do not work for Sony.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

No doubt that the PS3 has been tremendously successful. I'm glad to hear that component and manufacturing costs have now dropped to the point where Sony can recover early losses.

Bluray player prices continue to drop in the U.S. so that now they are becoming very popular, but since the PS3 offers Bluray playing as well as so many other features, it seems logical that it would be the better value.

It seems that Bluray has won the battles of HD output, at least here in the U.S. we rarely see HD DVD's available at video stores for rent. The Bluray section of one of our larger video stores in my area carry perhaps 1,000 movie titles in BluRay. Actually, a few weeks ago I rented five movies for $1 each and accidentally picked up three Bluray's which I had to return and exchange for standard DVD's (I don't have either a Bluray player or HD TV). It would be great to have a PS3 but prices are still pretty high here. It seems that the PS3 with larger hard disk drives are "much" more expensive here than ones with smaller HDD's. The price seems to be way out of proportion to the actual added costs of the HDD itself. Perhaps that's where Sony is making up for earlier losses.

It's good to know that the PS3 has so many features other than just to allow game playing. Though I knew that you could play Bluray discs on them, I didn't realize that you could use them for slideshows, etc., as well. It seems they are quite versatile!

It would be nice to know if the face recognition feature is strictly software in the PS3 or tied to the firmware/hardware. This feature has been available in several digital cameras now and was developed, I believe, by Hewlett-Packard, but is now featured by Sony, Fuji, Casio, Pentax, Samsung, et.

Best regards,

Lin

[thedom]

It would be nice to know if the face recognition feature is strictly software in the PS3 or tied to the firmware/hardware.

Hi Lin, I will try to find informations about it and will post it here if I find anything.

[thedom]

Hi Lin, I will try to find informations about it and will post it here if I find anything.

I find a short article and a video of this effect in action but nothing about how it works.

http://www.qj.net/Face-detection-in-the-PS...pg/49/aid/77298

But according to this other link ( http://www.develop-online.net/news/32417/S...ition-software) about the PSEye (camera for the PS3), it seems it is software...

Anyway, it sounds interesting if they develop interesting games to use this feature :

The facial tech can see the position and direction of a player's head and can work out the

gender and age of the face, and detects different parts of the face including nose, mouth, eyes,

eyebrows, shape of the mouth - and even glasses.