Many photographers know what happens when they treat a digital photo like a rubber band: its subjects become terribly distorted. But a pair of researchers-Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir-have cooked up an algorithm that allows you to stretch images in radical ways-like turning a vertical shot into a horizontal-with a minimum of malformation. The technique called seam carving is explained in the video below.



Kate Greene has written an engaging article about the process in today's online editon of Technology Review. In it, she mentions a Web site, Rsizr, where anyone with a browser can experiment on their photos for free with the technology.

Since the site isn't the most intuitive one that I've ever seen, I recommend checking out the help section before diving into the application. Another tip: when saving files in Windows, you may have to add ".jpg" or ".png" to them, otherwise they'll appear in Windows Explorer without a file association and a double-click won't open them.