Microsoft Research AutoCollage 2008

Because digital photos cost nothing to take, we end up having hundreds of them and it can become impossible to pick a favourite snap. This software from Microsoft Research means you don’t have to limit your choice to just one picture. Instead, you can create simple montages from any number of photos, at the click of a button.

The software makes a good effort to automatically detect faces, though you can also point out any it misses by dragging around them while holding down the Ctrl key. Decide what size you want the results to be and the rest is done automatically, blurring and joining images at the edges.

You could, of course, do all this by hand using an image processor and, with a little care, you’d probably get more impressive results, but AutoCollage does a pretty good job for an automated system. The most disappointing element of AutoCollage is the price – just shy of £20 which, for a one-trick pony, seems a bit steep, unless you do this sort of thing a lot. There is a free version, but it’s limited to 30 days and pastes a watermark across the bottom.

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