Use your voice for photo editing with PixelTone

The Adobe Research team, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, managed to create a prototype of an application that will make photo editing easier, with the use of voice commands.

PixelTone allows users to edit their photos by using vocal commands

It seems that we are getting closer and closer to making science fiction films become reality. While we are not teleporting or communicating via holograms (we’ve got a Jetsons fan over here), it seems that we will soon be able to make our creative life easier with the help of an innovative program that will change the way in which photo editing will be done.

PixelTone is a name that will probably be on the lips of every photography lover. This, along with “increase contrast” or “sharpen edges”, or…any other basic editing command. Adobe Research and the University of Michigan created a prototype that will allow users to edit photos by using their own voice, together with manual commands.

 “Your (spoken) wish is my command”…

…PixelTone will seem to be saying, as it will perform editing tasks, as your voice will guide it. The application recognizes a total of 21 different image editing operations, from objective options, such as “darken midtones”, to more personal, subjective commands, like “make it retro”, or “make it more heavenly”. If PixelTone’s idea of “heavenly” will coincide with yours, then you two will probably witness the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

What is great about the application is that, even though it sticks to not so complicated editing commands, it tries to keep the processing operation as handsfree as possible. Sure, you will have to manually increase or decrease the intensity of the command, but it will keep you more independent from the sometimes annoying menu navigation found in Photoshop, for example.

 “Meet my friend, Hannah”

What is even more awesome is that PixelTone also has the capacity of learning new things, like the names of the people in the photo, the articles of clothing that they are wearing, or the objects surrounding them. This will make it easy for you to tell the program exactly what changes you want it to perform and on whom. So if you tell it to “change the color of Hannah’s hair”, PixelTone will go “sure, why not!”, and will open a panel from which you will choose the desired color.

PixelTone is still at a prototype stage, so we do not know whether it will be available on touch-screen tablets or computers, or both, nor do we know if and when it will be ready for retail. But we can only hope that the application will be ready for us as soon as possible.