PHOTOKINA 2002, COLOGNE, GERMANY, September 25, 2002 - Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. announces an important development in digital imaging that may well become the cornerstone in the future application and utilization of all forms of image information, in consumer as well as professional fields.

"Image Intelligence", as the development is called, is an integration of all the image analysis, evaluation and processing know-how Fujifilm has amassed over many years of research. The working of "Image Intelligence" will be shown in Fujifilm's PHOTOKINA booth, and its advantages will be made clear to the visiting public with a number of products on view that incorporate this technology.

Fujifilm's photo-imaging research goes back nearly 70 years, with activity covering such broad fields as consumer photography, graphic arts, and medical imaging. This long experience has given the company a well-developed sense of the exact imaging needs in each of these different fields. For example -
What kind of an image does the radiologist need if he was to have the best chance of correct diagnosis? What does a portrait photographer want to express in a given image? In advertising production, how does the client want his product to appear in print? At the same time that Fujifilm has acquired expertise to provide the exact kinds of images required for these different applications, the company has also mastered techniques of media matching: how to design images that would appear best on a particular type of output media.

All of this research activity, starting in the long past and continuing to this day, has not only generated knowledge but a huge image database-and both of these are being used in present-day research to develop products that provide images of the highest possible quality. Among others, the scores of image processing software technologies that have been developed in the course of past research are being utilized to excellent advantage across different product fields.

These image processing technologies are a pride of the company, and Fujifilm has decided to organize them into an integrated whole under the name of "Image Intelligence" and promote them actively in the marketplace.

With increased standardization of the digital age, it is no longer a matter of great difficulty to develop hardware or software as commercially viable products. However, what sets Fujifilm apart from the others is that the company possesses an accumulated know-how on creating just the kind of images required by individual customers. This know-how provides the basis of the integrated set of image processing software technologies that are now collectively called "Image Intelligence".

One product that makes maximum use of these "Image Intelligence" technologies is the digital minilab Frontier. Frontier was designed with the concept of "providing prints desired by the customer through optimum image processing." It has already set a new standard of excellence in photo processing and is bringing satisfaction to customers worldwide.

Take, for instance, a picture of the bride at a wedding. Frontier can enhance the image sharpness without roughening the skin tone. This is a technology originally developed for Fujifilm's Digital X-Ray Image Reader FCR. To permit accurate diagnosis, an X-ray photograph needs to be clearly visible throughout the image area; thus, a technology was created to adjust contrast and sharpness without losing detail definition.

Here, briefly, is how "Image Intelligence" accomplishes these delicate tasks -
While the term "Image Intelligence" is used to describe all the image processing technologies that have been developed in various product fields, they have been reorganized as a system of technologies broadly consisting of two categories. One group goes by the name Scene Analysis Algorithm, and the other group is known as Image Expression Algorithm.

The Scene Analysis Algorithm is a technology that automatically analyzes such shooting conditions as the light source, lighting direction (front or backlight) and exposure volume, as well as the subject itself, and infers from these the photographer's intention. And further, based on the detection of facial areas, the algorithm determines which methods to use for the best depiction of both the scene and skin areas.

The Image Expression Algorithm uses the Scene Analysis results to introduce optimal adjustments, especially to the face and skin areas. While thus optimizing the hues and brightness of the skin areas, the algorithm applies a separate set of adjustments to the background, so that not only the subject but the background is defined clearly in the final image.

In sum, "Image Intelligence" is a know-how that has the mechanism to infer the photographer's intention and express the emotion of the moment in the final print. It is also a technology that, by using built-in professional techniques, allows anyone, anywhere to output optimal images. Finally, it is a technology that could not have been accomplished overnight but only through wide-ranging research going back nearly 70 years.

"Images of highest clarity" has always been the overriding market need, demanded by consumers and professionals alike, as well as by image specialists in diverse industrial fields. "Image Intelligence" perfectly answers these needs and opens a new era of imaging that brings maximum benefits to all image users.

* "Image Intelligence" is a trademark of Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.