Face Tracker Identifies and Locks on Faces for Optimal Focus & Exposure in New PENTAX Optio S7 & Optio A20 Digital Cameras

Sept. 5, 2006, Galway, Ireland -- FotoNation, (www.fotonation.com), one of the world's leading award-winning imaging and connectivity solutions companies for the digital photography industry, announced today that its innovative "Face Tracker"™ technology is now available in PENTAX Corporation's latest addition to its Optio line, the 7 Megapixels Optio S7 & the 10Megapixels Optio A20 digital camera. FotoNation Face Tracker, available as the "Face Recognition AF & AE" function on the PENTAX Optio S7 & Optio A20, automatically detects the position of a subject's face and adjusts focus and exposure accordingly.

Especially important for shooting under poor lighting conditions and at night, FotoNation Face Tracker uses a radically new approach to identify and lock onto human faces in a camera's preview image. Face Tracker follows one or multiple faces as they move around within the frame and automatically adjusts focus and exposure before the image is captured, ensuring that faces are optimally taken and that skin tones are reproduced with exceptional accuracy.

PENTAX Optio S7 & Optio A20 new technologies, including FotoNation's Face Tracker technology, the high-quality smc PENTAX lens, high-performance ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), and 7 and 10 Megapixels chip, produce prints with crisp detail, even when the photo is greatly enlarged.

"FotoNation Face Tracker enables PENTAX to maintain its superior standard of image quality by enabling even the novice photographer to take high quality portrait pictures effortlessly, even in difficult lighting conditions. Until now, this has been the specialist domain of professional photographers using expensive high-end cameras," said Mr.Morisawa, General Manager, Imaging System Business Headquarters, PENTAX Corporation.

Additionally, the PENTAX Optio S7 & Optio A20 also come with FotoNation's Red-Eye Correction Function, which fixes red-eye problems (a side effect of flash photography), in-camera so software retouching is not necessary. The Red-Eye Function also lets you manually select the area to correct, to allow for more precise red-eye correction.

"We are excited to increase our technology and IP licensing with PENTAX, offering innovative FotoNation technology to PENTAX high-quality digital camera customers," said Sumat Mehra, VP, Business Development, FotoNation. "The collaboration between FotoNation and PENTAX provides winning solutions for consumers worldwide."

The PENTAX Optio S7 with FotoNation Face Tracker and FotoNation Red-Eye technology will be available in late August. The PENTAX Optio A20 will be available in late September. For more information, see www.fotonation.com or http://www.pentax.co.jp/english/

FotoNation Face Tracker Features:

• In-camera real-time face detection and tracking
• Support of multiple embedded environments, in particular those used for digital camera and cellphone
• Efficient implementation based on multi resolution analysis
• Scene-dependent parameters are collected and used to improve accuracy
• Tracks faces in a wide range of facial poses
• The technology predicts and anticipates possible face movement
• Once face is "locked," temporary pose changes (even if extreme) do not effect tracking.
• Carefully designed and optimized to co-exist with other simultaneous processing in the camera.
• Automatic Image Orientation based on face detection
• Very simple API for easy integration into the camera.
• Numerous pending patents