Aseem Agarwala

Technology Transfer

• Google Clips

  Google Clips is a small, automatic camera targeted at parents an pet-owners. It evaluates what it sees, and decides when to shoot microvideos that capture candid, personal memories. It particularly looks for people, pets smiles, and interesting human activities; all computations occur on the device, without communication with the cloud. I led the team of AI scientists and engineers who developed the computer vision and AI algorithms in the camera. I wrote a Google AI blog post going into more detail on how Google clips works. Clips received positive reviews in The New York Times, WIRED, Washington Post, CNET, Reuters, and many other venues.

• Photoshop CC

  We shipped Perspective Warp in Photoshop CC, which was based in part on our artistic perspective manipulation work published at SIGGRAPH 2010. This tool lets you adjust perspective in a photograph; examples include rotating buildings and matching perspectives of elements in a photo composite. Julieann Kost offers a nice overview of the feature; additional example videos can be found here and here. News of the release of the feature was covered in venues such as TechCrunch, DP Review, Mac Life, PC Magazine, and Imaging Resource.

• Photoshop CS6

  We shipped Adaptive Wide Angle in Photoshop CS6, which was based on our wide-angle work published at SIGGRAPH 2009. This feature allows you to interactively warp a wide-angle image or panorama to appear more natural. DPReview.com called it the best new feature of Photoshop CS6. Tutorial articles and videos can be found online. Russell Brown created several great videos on the feature: both an introduction and a more detailed look.

• After Effects CS5.5 and Premiere Pro CS6

  We shipped the Warp Stabilizer, a new approach to video stabilization, in Adobe After Effects CS5.5, and later Premiere Pro CS6. Warp Stabilizer is now widely used in film (such as Martin Scorsese's Hugo and David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), television, and online video (such as Tom Lowe's Timescapes).

  This feature was the culmination of several years of research with colleagues at Adobe and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that resulted in a SIGGRAPH 09 publication and and a TOG publication (presented at SIGGRAPH 11). The final Warp Stabilizer combines these techniques and some unpublished improvements.

  Information Week called Warp Stabilizer the best new feature across the Creative Suite 5.5. Some good reviews and discussions can be found in OutbackPhoto, the After Effects blog, ProVideo Coalition, and Tom Guilmette's blog. A large number of tests and comparisons can be found on Vimeo and Youtube, such as this example, and this cool stop-motion work.

  The Warp Stabilizer was recently used in the production of Martin Scorsese's recent film, Hugo. Watch an interview with VFX Supervisor Rob Legato here; the Warp Stabilizer is mentioned at about 1:50 in.

• Photoshop CS4

  Again inspired by Photomontage, I built a feature for creating extended depth-of-field composites in Photoshop called "Stack Images." Macro photographs have a very limited depth of field, so it is challenging to take an image with all regions in focus. Instead, we allow the photographer to take a series of photographs focused at different depths, and automatically compute a composite that is sharp everywhere.

  Here is a tutorial on using the feature from Layers Magazine. Stack Images was mentioned as one of the top new features in CS4 in reviews by CNET, PC World, and Photoshop News.

• Photoshop CS3

  I built a Photomontage-style layer blending feature in Photoshop CS3. The most common usage is panoramic stitching; simply leave the "Blend images together" checkbox checked when using Photomerge. The feature can also be used by selecting "Auto-blend layers" from the Edit menu.

  The blending algorithm uses my new, efficient approach to gradient-domain compositing that was published at SIGGRAPH 2007.

  A final version CS3 was recently released, and the feature is getting rave reviews. I've collected a few links.

  • John Nack blog
  • Hans Nyberg's comparison tests
  • Demo videos by Russell Brown (1 & 2), Sujay Thomas, Lynda.com
  • Panoramas on flickr.com tagged with CS3 & photomerge, or CS3 & auto-blend
  • A fun example of stitching group shots, which is a challenging case for typical stitchers
• Photoshop Elements 6

Three new features based on my Photomontage research shipped in Photoshop Elements 6.

• Photomerge Group Shot
• Photomerge Faces
• Photomerge Panorama


• Microsoft Groupshot, built by Alex Colburn and Michael Cohen, was based on our Photomontage research. People seem to like it, and the software was recently demo-ed at CES 2007.